Since this is my vacation, I am doing a lot of hanging out. So today I hung out with DD. For dinner, DD and I went with my friend Dave. I met Dave in university when I was an undergrad and I have known him for 16 years. We went to a sushi restaurant. Very good sushi. Especially the special rolls like the Philadelphia roll (their version had salmon on it), and the Hawaiian roll. Their salmon sushi was quite good. It was great hanging out with Dave.
DD and I went to Pancake House for Breakfast-Lunch. We then went to Nana and Bonnie's. I gave Nana a present from Spain. It is an owl (she likes owls), a couple inches tall in mosaic (in the style of Gaudi, an early 20th century architect. When she open the box, her eyes poped open and she had a big smile. She really liked it. I gave Bonnie 2 very nice 81/2 x 11 pictures that I took in Spain.
They then looked through my large amount of Spain pictures. They enjoyed looking at them. We then had take out Chinese and then talked for the rest of the evening.
Today was bad from the beginning. DD and I was going to transfer are old super 8 film onto my new DVD video camera. The old film are movies of my childhood. Well before we even started recording we tested it out. Well some how it did not go to the intake real. It instead got stuck in inside the projector. We did not have the correct socket to open it so we were going to take it in to a place DD had had it fixed before. When we got there, they had a sign that they closed early. Arg.
Being hungry, we went to subway. Since we were close to Mom's house, I decided we should visit her and eat our sandwich. It was kind of warm in the house so we brought out chairs and ate in the garage. It was nice eating outside. I would not even think of doing this in Houston with that fracken humidity. Staying inside is always much cooler there.
DD went to Lowe's to find the correct socket. I stayed and hung out with mom and had a good conversation about life and stuff. Then to Mom and I went to DD's and then had dinner at Polly's.
Sucky day in the beginning turned out ok in the end.
Today Mom came over and gave her the chocolate I got from Spain. She really liked it. Said that the chocolate is very good. I then showed Mom and DD my resent pictures and the pictures from my trip to Spain. DD really liked the pictures of the massive cathedral in Granada. It was fun being the only child for a few days. AD and JK comes in on Tuesday.
This morning started out great. I woke up this morning next to my beautiful girlfriend, gave her a good morning kiss and had cereal. Left the apartment, no traffic to the airport and got an Arby's sandwich on the way. We sat and ate our sandwich together. Got a kiss goodbye. She went to her side of the terminal and l went to my US Airways terminal. Now I sit and wait. 2:30p came and I found out that the plane had not left San Antonio because of the Houston weather. Then at 3:30p, they said it was canceled and we had to go out of security to the ticket counter where lots of people were also there for 2 other flights that were canceled. IT WAS 7:30P WHEN I FINALLY GOT TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. THAT IS 4 HOURS! I was tired, hungry and can not believe being in the computer age it took that long. I was lucky. I have 2 other airports near Long Beach. So they switched me to Continental to fly non-stop to LAX.
Took the train to the Continental terminal and grabbed a slice of pizza. There were 2 flights going to LAX. One was at 8p delayed to 9 something and my flight with was supposed to leave at 9p and delayed to 10:30p. The 8p flight had a gate number on the departure screen and it match the gate. My flight did not have a gate number and on my ticket it was gate 43a but at that gate said it was going to Columbus, OH.
So I walked to the 8p flight gate to ask if they knew what gate my flight is located. He looked at me and said, "We have one seat left. You want to go on this flight?" I of course enthusiastically said ya. We ripped off the boarding pass and said, "Go find the empty seat." Walked onto the plane and asked the flight attendant were the last seat is. He took me to the 1st row of the 2nd section of the plane. The cool part was it was an exit row so I had lots of leg room. I sat next to Joe. A cool guy who has been flying for 30 years because of his job. He would say the funniest comments. When we were taxiing for 7 minutes he said, "Are were driving to LA.?" I laughed so hard. I thought my day was bad. He had been flying since 7a. He also said another great comment. It was a comment about the say we were having. He said, "It has been a richly rewarding emotional experience." I again laughed so hard I almost fell out of my seat.
It is a pretty good airline. Besides the free beverage, we got food. Not pretzels like on other airlines, but real food. We got a small beef and cheese burger shaped sandwich, a small salad with Caesar dressing on the side and a small Hershey bar.
I finally landed in LAX at 11:30p and DD picked me up and drove me to his house. The day is finally over. Flying sucks.
A new composition for violin, viola and cello, Resting in the Sunlight.
The piece was finished today at 10:28a.
The instrumentation is: Violin, Viola and Cello
Duration: 5 Minutes
Number of measures: 72
Number of pages (Score): 3
We got up at 7:30p and had breakfast at the hotel. We then went on the metro to sant station.
Then a train to the airport.
Then through security and showing the passport a billion times. (Did not have to go through this going to Spain. Only the US is crappen paranoid and overdoing it.)
Then the 8 hour flight.
Back to Houston to Jennifer's place and crashed asleep.
Ate breakfast at hotel. Walked around La Rambla a little.
Lunch at an Indian restaurant. It was the menu of the day. It was pretty good. Lots of variety.
We then walked to Barceloneta and the beach. Very crowded like Huntington Beach.
Then back to the hotel around 5p for siesta.
Ate at a tapas bar that Jennifer wanted to go to. She wanted to try the bread topped with tomato. We also had mushrooms, cured ham and haves braves (potatoes). Also had a mug of summer wine as they call it in Barcelona. In Granada it is wine with lemon.
We went back to the hotel to pack.
I wanted a small thing to eat so we went out around 11p (Yup. restaurants and other non bar places stay open until midnight in Spain). We got some Gelato. Then to bed.
We ate free breakfast in the hotel. Jennifer wanted to go to the open market. It was amazing. Lots of fresh food of all kinds from fish, fruit, meats and candy. Jennifer has a fruit drink which she really liked. We then walked La Rambla, Gothic Quarter and La Ribera.
We say the Arc de Triomf. A very large arch with a nice walkway towards it.
We went to a cafe and each had a great sandwich. Inside the cafe, it had musical instruments on the wall.
We did more walking around.
For dinner we ate at a really bad restaurant. Jennifer's penne seemed to have no taste to is. Blah.
Then back to the hotel for sleep.
We got up early at 6:30a to catch a flight back to Barcelona and checked into the Hotel California (Yup. You read it right.) It is located in the Gothic Quarter.
We walked away from the touristy area of La Rambla and found an Indian Restaurant. We had the menu of the day. It was ok Indian. Then back to hotel for a siesta.
We had dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had spaghetti with was great. Thicker noodles and great sauce. She had a ham pizza which she said was also good.
Them walked back to the hotel and slept.
Ate falafel in a pita for lunch at the same place we went yesterday. The guy behind the counter knew us from yesterday and said "Dos falafel y samosas ?" We said just the falafel. Still very good.
Adventure to find the post office.
Then to a tapas bar. We got vino con lemon and had a free tapa. It was some kind of deep fried. Jennifer called it deep fried terror fish. It was good though.
Another vino con lemon and got a free fried shrimp tapa.
Since there was open table to sit at, a Spanish couple invited us to sit with them. They new no English and I new only a little Spanish. We did communicate a little. I got their names, Miguel and Margarita. I told them I am a music professor in Texas and Jennifer is a science student. I got that they were visiting Granada and her sister lives in Barcelona.
Ran into a massive cathedral on the way back to the hotel.
Had a 1/2 hour siesta and then went to the same place we had falafel and each got a huge samosa.
When to a different Arabian tea house. I had chi tea and Jennifer had green tea. These tea houses are elaborately decorated and quite peaceful.
Then to a different tapas bar. We both had a wine with lemon. Tapa was medium sandwich and fries. Pretty good.
We the went to another Arabian tea house called the Kasbah. We shared an Indian Chi tea and crapes.
Then back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow we go back to Barcelona.
For lunch we went to a hole in the wall place called Schawarma Pakiatani and had a falafel in a pita custom made in front of us. We also got a samosa. It was huge so we saved it for later. The pita was really good. We walked to the Alhambra Castle. It is huge. Lots of rooms with wall beautifully decorated. Large pretty gardens and a great view of Ganada.
For dinner we went to 3 tapas bars. The 1st we had a Sangria which sucked but the free tapa was good. It was a falafel. The 2nd tapas bar I had a Sangria which was better and she had a Spanish beer on tap. We got a pretty good tapa. The 3rd tapas bar she had a Spanish beer on tap and I had vino con limon (wine with lemon) which was quite good. The tapa was ok.
Today we got up very early to catch a plane to Granada. Not a bad flight since it was only an hour. Got to Granada and since our hotel was not ready, we walked up an area that looks like it came right out of a movie. (I think of James bond movies.) Narrow streets between tall buildings. When we walked to the top of a hill we saw a fantastic view of Granada and the castle La Alhambra (which we are going to see tomorrow). We got into our hotel a noon. Went to a local cafe for lunch. Then back to our hotel for a siesta (sleep).
Then out to Elvira street (just a block from our hotel) with more cobbled like streets and lots of shops with Arabian stuff. We when to an Arabian tea house. Jennifer had a peppermint tea and I had a black tea with orange and vanilla. The atmosphere was really nice and so was the tea. We then went to Sultan, Arabian restaurant. I had a Moroccan pie with chicken which was quite good. Jennifer had lamb which she said was also good. Then went for tapas at La Belle y La Bestia. Went to a tapas bar and I ordered in Spanish a sangria and Jennifer a Spanish beer. My sangria was quite good. In Granada, when you order a drink you get a free tapa. Not a little tapa but a big one. The free ones are not aways as elaborate as the paid ones but hey, free food. Our free tapa included 2 mini sandwiches, a pasta salad and fries. It was pretty cool.
Breakfast at the cafe, Rico de Manso. We had hot chocolate and churro. The hot chocolate was really thick and you dip the churro into the hot chocolate. Then went food shopping so for lunch we could make a sandwich. We then went up a Funicular to the Sky Way to go up hill and visit a castle. It is Castell de Montjuic. What a nice castle and what an amazing view. For dinner we went to a really good Chinese place.
Went to see the park Guell which has a lot of Gaudi's architecture. The park has a lot of columns that look like trees and buildings that are mosaic covered. One of the buildings looked like a gingerbread house. The park was so cool. Since it is on a mountain I saw a panoramic view of Barcelona. I was on top of the world. For lunch we had some Paella. The traditional Catalan dish with rice and seafood. It was quite good. We walked around and saw more of Guidi's cool and curvy architecture. For dinner we has some tapas at Rico de Manso, a place near our hotel and a sangria (wine and fruit). They were all good.