June 25th - Playa de la Barrosa

Life on the beach. What can I say other than we’re mostly relaxing, soaking up the sun and surf, and eating and drinking. Not really a lot of adventures or excursions up to this point, just enjoying staying put and traveling up and down the little street that connects our house with the playa.

Last night was a great meal of octupus, shrimp and some other awesome things. And today we ordered ahead for a big meal of paella at Bar Pepin, one of our favorite little bars just a block away. We’ll be eating the paella for the traditional afternoon meal around 2:00.

The beach is fantastic – lots of endless sand and waves. We’ve bought some toys – boogie boards, balls, paddles, etc… and have been parking ourselves in the sand for hours at a time. Most mornings start with a café con leche and some toast at the Che Bar with our friend, bartender Antonio. We go there so often he wouldn’t even let me pay for our cafes this morning. The wifi’s good there, too, so between the beach and the house and meals other places, we often park ourselves at Che and just chill for a bit.

This morning after Che, we decided to experience churros casero down the boardwalk a bit from our beach. This was a place where they make the churros fresh at the restaurant. I think we all plowed through four plates-full, dipping them in the delicious, thick hot chocolate they are served with. Tricia enjoyed the meal, too, because it was her first time getting fried eggs for breakfast. While in Spain it can be easy to miss traditional American breakfasts. Spaniards don’t eat a lot for breakfast, and what they do eat is small – just some coffee and toast typically. Not sure how they do it because then they wait until around 2:00 to have their lunch. It’s certainly a different eating culture here with lunch a couple hours later than we’re used to back home and dinner about 3-4 hours later than we’re used to.

Oh, I forgot to mention that this morning before breakfast, Tricia, Sammie and me explored some rocky coastline just to the west of our beach. We walked around looking in the tide pools, finding a few hermit crabs along the way.

Today is paella and more beach time. Tonight will probably just be some snacking and maybe some soccer viewing. Then tomorrow Sammie and I have an appointment at a raquet club to play tennis on clay courts. Playing on clay is something I’ve never experienced, so I’m really looking forward to it.