We met Griffin at the airport with the rest of the exchange students, both from SPA and Colegio Malvar.
Griffin is in great spirits and is far more confident in his Spanish. He had a great time on the trip, and seemed excited to keep exploring for another two weeks.
He chose a great Philippine restaurant for dinner.
Sarah’s phone reports 105, but mine is more conservative. Temps will continue rising for the next few hours, potentially hitting 107 by 5:00 PM.
Being in direct sun is pretty rough, but shade with a breeze isn’t so bad. Just moving slowly.
We embarked on a mega-walk today through many lovely Madrid neighborhoods. We stopped for amazing chocolate dipped churros, lots of people watching, and pauses in the shade. (Have I mentioned the blazing summer heat?)
Eventually, we made our way to the Royal Palace where we had 4:30 tickets. After running into one of my students in the plaza, we wended our way through the security line only to learn that our tickets were for tomorrow. They wouldn’t budge. Fortunately, we are on vacation, so who cares? We’ll try again tomorrow.
It was a great adventure, but after more than 20,000 steps, we were worn out by the time we got home.
Left home early Wednesday. Arrived in Madrid early Thursday. Managed to successfully use public buses to get to the Arganzuela neighborhood. Too early to check into our Airbnb, we trundled our luggage along the sidewalks until we found a little cafe/bakery where we picked up some pastries. We perched on a sidewalk bench, in a jet lagged fugue.
A highlight involved an elderly woman marching up and asking us to make room for her. Apparently she likes to sit on this bench in the morning. She proceeded to happily regale us with stories, despite our extremely limited understanding of Spanish. Apparently she’s 80 years old. Her family has lived in the apartment above the cafe for the past seven decades. She was casually racist when she learned that Maggie speaks Chinese, saying that she didn’t like Chinese people. Despite this sour note, I think we all felt lucky to get this unexpectedly intimate introduction to an unvarnished local.
We proceeded to our Airbnb. Small but well-decorated. We took a siesta for a few hours and then headed out on our first adventure to the Museo Reina Sofia, a wonderful art museum where we got to see Picasso’s Guernica.
Dined at a street cafe at 9:30 PM. As we had been told, nights run very late in Madrid!
Griffin, of course, is still with his host family. We’ll rendezvous with him on Saturday morning.
The second half of Griffin’s Spanish exchange has begun. He flew off to Madrid on Monday, June 8, and we’ve gotten a few pictures from his first two days. He is staying with Irene, the student who lived with us for two weeks in September. In one of Griffin’s first texts, he wrote, “I already feel my confidence in Spanish improving over the course of an hour. Irene’s little brother is asking me so many questions lol!” Thank goodness for inquisitive kids!
Here are some of the first pictures we’ve received.
Skies like this make the hours on the road worth it!
After a fantastic morning hiking the north rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (that post will have to wait for better bandwidth), we headed back to our cabin via the longer route along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. We encountered multiple natural obstacles along the way.
First, a bison crossed the road near Canyon Village. This brings traffic to a stop not just because people don’t want to injure the bison, but because everybody wants pictures. Including me.
Shortly thereafter, we stopped again for an elk with an impressive rack of antlers moseying across. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a picture. It’s the closest view I’ve ever had of an elk.
Then we were hit with a sudden thunderstorm. The temperature dropped more than 20 degrees in ten minutes and the wind picked up dramatically. The waters of Yellowstone Lake were whipped into whitecaps.
Shortly after Maggie took that picture, we were stopped because a large pine fell across the road about five cars ahead of us. It fully stopped traffic in both directions. A group of road heroes managed to tow it to the side with a large pickup. This only cleared one lane, but it was enough for people to squeeze by.
When we finally returned to our cabins, Old Faithful welcome us home by erupting as we pulled in. Pretty amazing.
We hiked up past Grand Prismatic Spring and Fairy Falls to Imperial Geyser. Although it was a relatively easy route, the sun is intense at this altitude, so we were flagging a bit by the time we got back to the trailhead.
We drove down to Saint Louis to attend Clay and Meghan’s lovely wedding. Everyone found new fancy outfits for the occasion. Oliver’s was the talk of the town.
We decided to take the risk of traveling this Christmas after two years of staying put. We flew to Bethesda to visit Andrew’s parents (known to the kids as “Grummy and Grandpa Stape”). Andrew’s brother, David, also visited with his family (Nancy, Raven, and Max). We were nervous about COVID the whole time, but multiple self-tests have come out negative, so we think we made it.
We avoided indoor activities beyond the family, but had a great time skating and exploring the National Mall. Pictures below capture a bit of the spirit (click on them for larger versions).
And, a video of Raven and Nancy doing a spin on the ice:
