Portugal and Spain

Now that school has ended, we can all go back to thinking about our summer plans.  I have been "talking" (Facebook) to our friends in Spain about that part of the girls' trip.  As the whole Preposterous Plan gets closer, I try to keep the anxiety pushed down inside where sunlight can't touch it.  The girls are going, we're going, everyone is going.  Our family has seats booked on 11 flights this summer.  It makes me hyperventilate, but it's good.  My Aunt Marla asked when I was going to post the rest of the itinerary, so, blaming it on Marla, here is the Spain/Portugal part of Golda and Ruby's trip (So first New York, France and Italy, and then):

 Hola Circe. En este apartamento nos alojaremos en Sintra: Casa da Pendoa, apartamento 2. Estaremos en Sintra 3 días de julio. Entonces en Badajoz, en Mérida y con Cristina en la playa en Isla Antilla (Huelva).

So Golda and Ruby will be picked up at the airport in Lisbon by my friend Gema's brother-in-law Juan who is married to Gema's sister Sonia, who is lovely.  Got that?  They will stay HERE in Sintra, near Lisbon, for a few days.  It's a beautiful, touristy place.  I haven't been there, I don't think.  When I was in Lisbon the first time, I was with friends and I didn't really know where we were.  I just knew it was so beautiful that I wanted to go back.  Lisbon is where Scott and I began our two-month European vacation in 1996.

After Sintra, they will go to Badajoz, on the Spain-Portugal border, where Juan and Sonia live and own this adorable bed and breakfast.  Then on to Merida, a town in Spain that has Roman ruins, including an aqueduct and a coliseum, as well as a big museum.  Then Cristina, Gema's other sister, will take them, along with her two children, to the beach at Huelva on the Mediterrranean, (this beach is very close to where they're going, which is called Isla Antilla) before they fly home out of Lisbon.  Actually, they'll just fly to D.C., where I will be anxiously awaiting their return.  Scott will still be in Utah, but he'll arrive the next day.  That will be fun to have everyone together again, but I don't want to wish any of the time away.  Even though I am going to miss my girls terribly, they will have a life-changing summer.  I can hardly believe it's actually going to happen.  Golda and Ruby had saved up close to two thousand dollars for their flights when we booked them back in February.  Since then, they have been teaching, doing camps for kids and babysitting, and they both have quite a bit saved for expenses.  I'm proud of them, and happy that they get to have these experiences.  I do wish I could go with, but...I had my turn(s).  Now it's theirs.

But if you want to see some funny pictures, here are some from my youthful European adventures...

 Scott and me and our Portuguese boat driver...Algarve, Portugal, 1996.  We thought the man looked like my dad.  When Tizzy saw the picture, she said, "Bill!"

 My mom and me outside Amsterdam after spending a quarter in Paris in 9th grade, 1986

 This picture is so funny and so tragic:  I think it's after Thanksgiving when I had to go back to Indiana and I wouldn't see Scott until after his mission two years later.  Just admire the hair for a minute!

 Me in Jerez de los Caballeros, Spain, 1990 or 1991

 This is Gema Correa Cruz when we lived together at 414 South Ballantine in Bloomington.  She is the friend who invited the girls to stay, but it is her sisters, Sonia and Cristina, who will really be hosting.

I have lots more pictures.  I might have to put some more on the blog.  I have a whole, hilarious scrapbook of the Humanities trip 1987.  Lots of big '80's hair blocking view of the Parthenon, the Coliseum, Neuschwanstein...

But this summer is about Golda and Ruby, right? :)