After much deliberation, prayer and discussion Ray has taken the opportunity to go and work in Orange County, CA doing sales for the summer. He'll be gone May until about September. It's going to be a crazy hard work schedule and even more ridiculously hard being apart from each other for so long. But we feel safe and confident that this job will bring us closer to some goals we have set for ourselves and the future we want to obtain. I will get to go out to California and visit halfway through my summer, so we will have the thought of our week together to keep us motivated. Plus: Disneyland when I come to visit! Other things on the list of what I'm excited for back in America this summer:
Seeing Ray
Disneyland
Seeing Ray
In 'N Out
...seeing Ray
The Beach
MEXICAN FOOD
with Ray.
I think that about sums it up.
So what started out as just a desperate need for some sunshine, turned into the perfect "Last Hoorah Before Summer" trip. We booked a cruise that took us from Barcelona to Casablanca, Morocco, down to the Canary Islands (Tenerife & Lanzarote), back up to Malaga, Spain and finally ending back in Barcelona. To say that this cruise was awesome is the understatement of the century. It was all the best of traveling and traveling dreams crammed into one. Barcelona was absolutely gorgeous and it was immediately re-added to our list of "Must Travel To." There is so much to see and we just barely skimmed the surface. We didn't even get to make it inside the Sagrada Familia! Ray did however get to eat some Spanish ham, so he was pretty happy about that.
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| Fresh off the plane and the bus ride into the city! |
The boat ride south honestly was a little rocky, and the ship seriously lacked chocolate dessert selections in my opinion, but we made it unscathed (alright one bout of seasickness) to Casablanca where we got to scratch off another continent! 4/7! Woohoo! We just need to get ourselves to the Southern Hemisphere now...
Casablanca was fascinating in that it really is not a tourist destination- yet. They are working hard to make it become one though. The gigantic Hassan II Mosque is one of the few mosques in the world where non-Muslims are allowed to enter. It was built with the distinct purpose of being a tourist attraction, religious services just kind of happen there when tourists aren't bustling through. Our tour took us through a small city market, the mosque, the "shanty-town" area, the "Beverly-hills" area, Rick's Cafe, the kings palace, and finally dumping us into a souvenir shop. We couldn't go onto the palace grounds because the guards told our tour guide that it was "too crowded" for us to go in. Our guide said if you could read between the lines, that meant the King was in that day, so we weren't going to be allowed anywhere near. After the tour, Ray and I (oh! and my mom! Her and Cal came on this cruise also to surprise me since the first day was my birthday!) went back out into the market district to find some fun souvenirs. I got a pillowcase with intricate Moroccan designs that I fell in love with, and we got a pretty, little colored glass lamp for our neighbor.
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| No shoes in the mosque! |
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| The fountains beneath the mosque where religious washings are done. |
Our first stop in the Canary Islands was Tenerife where we took another excursion to the top of Mount Teide. The mountain is the highest point anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean. As we drove up, clouds engulfed our bus which was far from just a little nerve wracking as we weaved our way through small roads surrounded by volcanic rock formations and steep cliffs. The scenery when the clouds cleared though was breathtaking.
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| Mount Teide |
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| God's Finger - Rock Formation |
The next day our ship docked at neighboring island: Lanzarote, where we spent the day perusing the city of Arrecife. It was again absolutely gorgeous. The colors there reminded me a lot of Greece actually. We spent the entire day walking around with our friends (oh yeah! Who also came on the cruise with us because it was a smokin' deal, and because they are awesome. Thanks Bonnie & Chris!). The highlight may have been eating a goat cheese sandwich. Little Known Fact: The Canary Islands have won the "Best Goat Cheese in the World" award for the past two years. The award was well deserved.
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| The columns in this church were made of volcanic rock. |
We had one more rough day at sea before making it Malaga, Spain. This was probably my favorite port day because the weather and scenery were both just absolutely perfect. It was 70 degrees with a light breeze all day, which led to the perfect amount of sun for a flawless farmers tan. Aw, yes. We made it to a local neighborhood market to sample some olives, dried figs, nuts, and more Spanish ham. We then trekked on to a stunning cathedral set right into the heart of a thriving neighborhood. We were fascinated by the mixture of architecture types found all so closely together: Moorish, French, Roman, Venitian. It made for a visually stunning turn every second. My favorite visit was to Alcazaba, which used to be a palace. I read that it is frequently compared to the Alhambra, which was nice to hear since I didn't want to take the 2 hour bus ride out of Malaga to see the actual Alhambra. Right next to Alcazaba was the Castle Gibralfaro, which really is just an old fortress. It lies at the very top of a hill which you must hike to on an incredibly steep, slippery stone path. We were the most grateful for the breeze during that hike. The views the hike and fortress provided were breathtaking.
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| Ridiculously steep hill we had to climb! |
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| The bull ring from atop the Gibralfaro Castle |
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| Inside Alcazaba |
I told Ray that Spain was pretty much the best and we should probably retire there. The climate was our absolute favorite. We laughed when we got off the plane because the second we hit the tarmac in Barcelona, Ray was squealing with delight that he could "feel the ocean in the air." Coming from a landlocked state I had no idea what he was referring to. But the mountains and dry and heat were totally up my alley. Yes, Spain. Someday we will live there.
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| Consulting my map in Barcelona |
