Bonny's Visit July 2016, Spain

June 27 to July 10, 2016

Bonny was able to come visit us out in Rota again over the 4th of July holiday weekend and Owen's birthday.  Damon had leave for the weekend so her and I were able to go on a grand tour of southern Spain with Damon and Owen holding down the home fort back in Rota.  First we drove up to Madrid, then Granada and lastly Cordoba.  In Madrid we went to the Madrid Temple for an endowment session and were able to do the ordinances for some of our own family names.  We also visited the Prado museum and had the pleasure of being present while there was an enormous gay pride parade going on.  We also made it to see the Royal Palace of Madrid which I had not been able to visit before. Next was Granada for our Alhambra tour.  The tour company we purchased our tickets from months in advance decided to move our tour forward an entire hour with only giving notice via email (which I did not see due to poor wifi).  They called me that morning with only 5 minutes to spare.  Thankfully we were staying at the hotel next door so ran over to make the tour just in time to begin.  Driving through the countryside between the major cities was an adventure in itself seeing all the stunning olive groves and farm fields speckled with small towns. Our last stop was Cordoba to visit the main mosque.  Even though I had been to all of these places before, it was so much fun to be able to take my mom to visit them again. Our time in Rota was spent going down to the beach and in general walking around the town.  We also did a day trip to Gibraltar, Portugal, and a few of the small towns nearby. Owen was in heaven having another person to play and read to him. We were sad to see her go, but it would only be a small parting with the upcoming big move back to Bethesda.

Guadalupe, Spain

June 12-13, 2016

Guadalupe is a municipality located in Las Villuercas comarca, province of Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain with currently just over 2,000 inhabitants. We stayed in the Parador hotel right in the middle of the city.  The hotel is a combination of a 16th century school and 15th century San Juan Bautista Hospital. The courtyards are very inviting and there is even a nice little pool that Owen enjoyed swimming around. The main attraction is without a doubt the monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe. The monastery was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993. The foundation dates back to 1337, but construction continued on the site resulting in quite the hybrid of architectural styles.  The church and cloister is with the Mudéjar style from the 14th and 15th century.  The sacristy was built between 1638 and 1647.  The chapel has 17th century tombs. The Monastery symbolises two significant events in world history that occurred in the same year, 1492, namely the final expulsion of the Muslim power from the Iberian Peninsula and the discovery of the American continent by Christopher Columbus. Its influence on the evangelization of the Americas was substantial; the statue of Santa María de Guadalupe became a powerful symbol of the Christianization of much of the New World. The Monastery was, and remains, a center of pilgrimage for the Western world and Latin America.

 

 

Month 23

This month we got to go to the feria in Jerez and Owen liked going on the horse carriage. The last week of the month was our big cruise up to the fjords of Norway.  The biggest accomplishments of the month are his words.  I got a video of them.  As is no surprise Owen doesn't go through his words on command.  My favorite is still 'banana'.