Maxfield Adventures - Living life to the Max: San Sebastián

San Sebastián Aquarium * Stewart * Beach soccer

We tried to busy ourselves this morning so the time would pass faster as we waited for Stewart and Eric to return from Madrid. It rained hard and I was disappointed we had left the umbrellas in the car (parked in a garage that I didn't want to walk to). Good thing we all have nice rain jackets that we brought for England but have worn more than I would have guessed in Italy and France already.

We spent the morning at the aquarium instead of the beach as we had hoped. It was decent and the kids especially liked walking through the tunnel and watching the Sharks, sting rays, eels, and other big fish swim around and on top of us. The kids also liked the colorful reef tanks with all the fish from Finding Nemo. When we left, it was raining even harder so we stopped by a cafe for a hot chocolate - one of those really thick, really rich, really yummy Spanish hot chocolates and we took our sweet time drinking it and playing cards - Rook and Gin Rummy (I try to have card games in my back pack at all times - just in case, my kids are quite the card sharks)

Eric and I were in texting communication and he kept teasing me with partial pictures of Stewart (i.e. his name tag, the side of his face, etc). When we learned they were near we headed to the Plaza where the bus would drop them off. However, we were caught off guard when we saw them walking across the plaza as the bus had dropped them off a block away. We all screamed and ran towards them and got a few stares from passerbys. His siblings swallowed him in a huge group hug and then I got my chance. It was touching and sweet and we both cried just a bit.

We sauntered back to our apartment with a couple stops for food. It doesn't take long for everything to feel comfortable again; as if Stewart never left. We hung around the apartment and rested, played some scrabble and Bang and waited until Stewart could call President Glen from the Stake Presidency to be released. We decided this was the best plan since we're going to be gone for another 5 weeks. It was sad for Stewart and he spent several minutes in his room gathering himself together after talking with President Glen.

At that point the sun returned and we decided to go play a family soccer game on the beach. It was perfect! The beach wasn't crowded and we found a flat area and played soccer until we were hot and sweaty and the little kids jumped into the waves - the rest of us just enjoyed sitting on the sand and watching the surfers.

For dinner we wanted to try the local Basque food scene so we headed to the old town and went tapa/bar hopping, but found that was tricky with 7 people as the bars were very crowded (bars in Spain are not like bars in the USA, kids are welcome - so are missionaries). The bars set out many different tapas (small appetizers) and you take what you want, eat them standing at the bar, and pay at the end. Rather than go to the bars suggested by my guide book, we had to settle for the smaller, less crowded ones so we could all fit. They were good (I'm sure not as good at the others), and it was a fun, local thing to do.

Stewart wanted to watch Star Wars 7 tonight so we stayed up way to late doing that - I'm sure we'll pay for that in the morning. It was a great day!