Spain

We spent most of our month of May traveling again to see the grandkids in Spain and it was one of our best trips yet.  I can't even say which part was the best because we did so many fun activities.  We like to visit other places on our way to and from Spain so this time we went to Venice, Italy; Nice, France; and then our favorite of all - Paris. All stops were truly wonderful.  But I would have to say that spending time with family is always the best and Nick & Sachiyo do a great job hosting us.  One of the highlights of this visit was attending the Féria  (festival) in the town of Jerez where the beautiful Andalusian horses reside.  Nick and Sachiyo live in El Puerto (they are having their Féria this weekend) which is right next to Jerez so it was an easy drive.  When we arrived, we immediately got on one of the many horse and carriages to take a tour of the grounds of the Féria which is the size of a typical state fair in the States. 

The horses were everywhere at this Féria which make it extra special.  Each town has their own Féria but only Jerez features the horses.  I've been to the Andalusian horse show twice since visiting and never get tired of seeing them. 

At the Féria, they just strutted around the grounds showing off their stuff in all their beauty and glory.

This is also the sherry capitol of the world, known as the Sherry Triangle, so it is common to see a rider holding his glass of sherry while riding his Andalusian horse.

 

The women wear their finest Féria attire which consists of flamenco dresses and shawls so I was prepared and wore mine, too.  Here are some photos of the women and their beautiful dresses:

                         

The Féria is such a big deal around here that school will be out for three days so everyone can attend.  That was prefect timing for us to visit with the kids out of school, although they took the whole week off for us.  This allowed us more time to do fun things like spend a day at their local beach which was only five minutes away.  

The beaches there are so perfect with beautiful sand, gentle waves, decent temperatures; it's easy to spend the whole day there. 

This part of Spain even has restaurants right on the beach so it's easy to take a break and go get a bite to eat or grab a cool beverage and we did.  Our favorite Tinto de Verano is always so refreshing. 

On another day, we went to lunch on the beach to eat paella, my favorite Spanish dish and it was perfect. I'm not sure how life could be get much better than this. 

We also traveled to the town of Zahara for a tuna festival which was about an hour away.   This is one of the many small "white villages" in the area that was inhabited by the Moors long ago and now is known for their abundance of tuna that they harvest so every year they have a tuna festival. 

For a small town, they have an unusually large number of restaurants so for the tuna festival, restaurants  will offer one tuna dish to sample and then everyone votes for their favorite.  It was really fun walking around sampling tuna dishes. 

We sampled at least half a dozen dishes from various restaurants and some were very creative.  The grandkids especially enjoyed the ones that looked like a birthday cake but the frosting were dollops of cream cheese with the tuna underneath. 

Or the one where the tuna was formed to look like a piece of cheese and it was served on a mousetrap. 

My favorite was the one where the tuna was served at a Moroccan restaurant tangine-style on couscous. 

I also like the one served with guacamole underneath the tuna, although it didn't have the plate appeal as some but it tasted really good. 

This was also a good one that we ate along with our Tinto de Verano.

This one looked like a red sucker but was actually a tuna cake inside. 

As you can see, this was a very fun day for the whole family. We were very fortunate that our visit corresponded with the tuna festival and the Féria. It was also fortunate for Nick and Sachiyo who took a couple days off to go to Granada while we babysat the kids. They had always wanted to tour the Alhambra which is a palace and fortress complex there that is famous for being one of the best-preserved palaces of the Islamic world when the Moors ruled here.

So, it was nice for them to have a little get-away on their own.  Might as well take advantage of Grandma and Grandpa in town!  In between all our family activities, we had a lot of good pool time at their house. 

And even though I was not at home much during the month of May, I still did a lot of cooking. I received many requests in the kitchen for various favorites like roast chicken and gravy,  lasagna, Apple Hand Pies that the grandkids love

and my new recipe for Yeast-Raised Waffles. They passed the taste test with Nick's family, too, and when I told my cousin I made her recipe in Spain, she was thrilled that her Waffle Party idea had gone global! 

There is no shortage of good food when we all get together since eating is one of my family's favorite pastimes.  Another favorite pastime - golf.  Bruce and Nick had their opportunity to hit up the course together

and the grandkids had riding lessons while we were there since horse riding is a favorite pastime in this part of Spain.

We had a wonderful immersion into the Spanish culture once again which is our favorite part about traveling. It makes you realize how people are not that much different even though they may speak a different language or have different customs. We can mold right into their lifestyle and it's sort of fun to pretend you are a native of that country for just a few moments of your life. It's like stepping out into a different world of food, of dress, of communication...just everything and experiencing something you could never experience at home.  And that's just what we did and we can't wait to do it again.