Planning Our Trips

So we have moved into intense planning mode with our upcoming trip. Since we are leaving in 10 days, we are really cranking up the planning and looking at our maps.

So far we have decided we want to go everywhere. Of course that would be too much to do in 21 days, so we are going to have to start removing cities. Most likely we won't go to the cities in the North. Maybe we will go there at some other point in the year.

We found a recommended trip plan on Rick Steves' site, which is for a 22 day trip (which is about exactly how much time we have). After adjusting it to compensate for the fact that we aren't going to rent a car, here is the trip plan:

Rick Steves' Spain & Portugal Trip: found here

Day 0 - Sept 5: Arrive in Barcelona (figure out how we will go to Madrid– by plane I think).
Day 1 - Sept 6: Arrive in Madrid and check into your hotel (2 nights).
Day 2 - Sept 7: All day to explore and sight-see Madrid.
Day 3 - Sept 8: Go to Segovia (1 night)– try to see El Escorial, maybe fly to Granada, but the train could be scenic.
Day 4 - Sept 9: Take the early, direct train from Madrid to Granada (leaving around 8:25 a.m.)(2 nights)
Day 5 - Sept 10: All day to enjoy Granada and visit the Alhambra
Day 6 - Sept 11: Bus along the Costa del Sol to Nerja (1 night).
Day 7 - Sept 12: Spend beach time at Nerja, then move on to Tarifa (2 nights)
Day 8 - Sept 13: Use Tarifa as a home base for a day trip into Morocco.
Day 9 - Sept 14: Bus North to Jerez (sherry bodegas and horse shows), then on to Arcos de La Frontera (1 night) maybe not able to bus to Jerez…
Day 10 - Sept 15: Find Andaluci­an’s Route of White Villages
Day 11 - Sept 16: Bus to the Alrgarve and sleep in Salema (2 nights)
Day 12 - Sept 17: Enjoy a free day for the beach, and consider a side-trip to Sagres.
Day 13 - Sept 18: Using Lisbon as your home base, side-trip to Belem and Sintra. (3 nights)
Day 14 - Sept 19: All day to explore Lisbon.
Day 15 - Sept 20: Using Lisbon as your home base, side-trip to Belem and Sintra.
Day 16 - Sept 21: Take the train from Lisbon to Coimbra (2 nights)
Day 17 - Sept 22: All day for Coimbra.
Day 18 - Sept 23: Take an early train? from Coimbra to Salamanca (2 nights)
Day 19 - Sept 24: All day for Salamanca
Day 20 - Sept 25: Take train or fly from Salmanca to Barcelona get apartment
Day 21 - Sept 26: Move into Apartment and Sightsee
Day 22 - Sept 27: Sightsee Neighborhood, wash clothes, Prepare for first day of school!!!

Luckily today we found some insanely cheap airlines in Spain. Both Vueling.com and SpanAir.com have incredible flights. I found flights from Barcelona to Seville on the other side of the country for only 20 Euros each way (about $25). That is pretty cheap!

Hopefully by mixing in some cheap flights and not staying at expensive hotels we can keep this trip somewhat reasonably priced. THen again this could too many stops for us to make in one trip.

So that is what we are looking at right now. Hopefully we can do it all. You may notice we left both Toledo and Seville out of our plans, but that is because we will be going to both of those towns later. We are going to Toledo for the weekend of the 8th of October with our friends Truman & Lauren. Seen here...



And then we will be going to Seville the next weekend with my sister and her good friend Debbie. I dont have any pictures of Debbie unfortunately, and you have already seen my sister just a couple of days ago, so no new pics here.

Thanks for listening. Let us know if you have any tips about any of the cities we are looking at!

Back from Seattle

Hello everyone, we are back from Seattle!

Hope you had a great weekend, because we did. Our trip to Seattle was a perfect success with excellent weather and a chance to see the family.

Our trip started on Friday afternoon with an uneventful plane trip from Burbank. I am happy to say that we saw absolutely no slowdown due to the new security measures in the airport. And besides the inconvenience of not being able to take drinks aboard it actually was a bit faster since we didn't have to wait for people to try and cram 300 pound carry-ons into the overhead compartment.

Friday evening we arrived at my parents house, had a nice dinner and were soon joined by my sister, her husband, and their three kids (Molly, Mason, & Marshall). It was a great night of catching up and preparation for arrival of more family members the next day. On Saturday my Aunt & Uncle, Grandparents, my cousin John & his wife Danielle, as well as my Mother's cousin Tim came by. It was a nice sunny day and we got to eat fresh Salmon my dad caught fishing in Alaska as well as some fresh Blackberry pie made the same day brought by my Aunt & Uncle. And I can't forget the incredible pixie popcorn that Danielle brought. In fact I should post the recipe for you all on the blog because it is pretty wild.

To my family it was great seeing you all. Laura and I had a great time catching up with all of you.

Sunday was a lot of fun. We woke up and strapped on our helmets to do a 20 mile bike ride (what we thought was going to be a 10 mile bike ride, but who's keeping track?) =^) Here are some pictures from that day. We rode on the Burke-Gilman Trail to the Redhook brewery where we ate a great lunch and took a tour that was very generous with its beer!

Here we are, gearing up for the ride. In front is Marshall, who was lucky enough to have both the smallest legs and the heaviest bike. =^) Oh well, he is young so he needs the workout. =^))

Molly and Mason had it easy riding behind Kevin.

It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny, but not too hot.


Here we are at the brewery. This is Laura , Robin and Molly getting ready to eat.


Marshall was very hungry after his workout.


My parents look nice and refreshed, having somehow dodged the ride. It was probably good that they didn't go though, so that we had someone to call when we got lost. =^) Like I said before, the ride turned out to be a bit longer than we expected. Instead of 5 miles each way, it turned out to be about 10. Of course the extra miles we rode when we missed the turn didn't help either. Woops!

Kevin was the least affected by the ride, being the most season biker in the group.

A picture of some of the beer we had. With lunch we tried a season brew called SunRye Ale, which was very good.



Here we are starting the tour. Little did we know that for only $1 we were going to get five 5.5 ounce glasses of freshly brewed beer. A great deal, but not always the best to do before a 10 mile bike ride.

Here are Robin and Molly looking cute before we started our journey back.


Before we left we met a woman in the parking lot with a friendly bird who quickly took a liking to Laura.


Robin was the first victim to the 27 ounces of beer they gave us on the tour, although this could just as easily be blamed on those pesky toe clips. =^)


The rest of the trip went smoothly, although a bit hotter on the way back.


Here are Kevin and Laura taking a breather mid-way back

Of course I couldn't leave out a shot of the happy couple, or give you a glance at me in my sexy helmet. I guess helmets are now the law in Seattle. Go figure.

Well that is good for now. Anyone reading this far is a trooper. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Stay tuned, I will send more soon!