Summer in California, Part I

Our first week in California carried with it a little bit of stress as we ran around Salinas taking care of fingerprints and doctor letters for our third attempt at getting a visa for Spain. We felt pretty good about everything this time, especially because our appointment wasn't on the day that we were flying out of the SF airport back to Spain. We planned to spend the day in SF so that after the appointment we could either celebrate a successful trip or just to make the drive worthwhile and enjoy the city.

After getting bad news from the consulate once again.....grrrr......we treated ourselves to a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory on top of the Macys in Union Square. We weren't going to let visas ruin our day.

The next day we headed to Hanford to say hello to family and spend one night our big @$$ bed. Before we moved to Spain we managed to get our whole bedroom set in my old bedroom at my mom's. We REALLY miss the bed.

Then we headed down to Big Bear to spend the weekend with our friend's The Edens. They recently bought a sweet cabin by the lake and invited us to enjoy the weekend with them. It was great to be able to relax after the intense week before. We enjoyed "just sitting on the porch and watching the lake go by."

We ate lots of amazing food. Blake did the BBQ'n

They had kayaks that were once used for the show "Biggest Loser"

The weather was amazing.

On our way back north we stopped at our friends The Wiesmans. Sarah used to babysit for them when she went to school at Azusa and the boys Jason and Andrew were the candle lighters in our wedding. We ended up having so much fun swimming and making smores that we spent the night. Jason made us pancakes in the morning.

Back in Hanford we cooked up some amazing Tri-Tip. a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

I missed my mom and dog.

We wanted to make sure our old patio set was getting some use.
After a year in Spain it just feels right to eat dinner outside.

Then we head up near Dinkey Creek for some camping with my dad and step-mom. We were excited to bring out our old tent and air matress.

It was nice to have my dad's big trailer around for the kitchen and bathroom.
My sister Ashley and brother-in-law Scott brought their two dogs along for some extra entertainment.

Charlie really enjoyed the water.

We passed the days relaxing and exploring.
Sarah and I went on a couple adventurous bike rides.

Dinkey Creek

Parts of the river were way too crowded for us.

Rummikub!

For cousin Grace's birthday we went out to La Fiesta.

Man did I miss Mexican food. A beef taco, enchilada, and a tamale with rice and beans.
Heaven on a hot plate.

We have really enjoyed catching up with all of our old friends in Hanford.
Adam and Tiffany's kids are getting so big!

Adam made some amazing BBQ chicken for us.

Moira taught me how to take better pictures.

Grandma Duyst's project for the summer is to re-do her bedroom

It took forever to get all the wallpaper off!

Almost there! New furniture coming soon. Check out the wood floor.

We invited Alex (aka The German) over to swim and my dad's house.
We had to try out our new floater that we were going to use later on the river.

Then some of Sarah's friends came over for a Spanish craft. Alex joined in and we all painted some Spanish fans to battle the summer heat.

That night we headed to the Hanford Civic Auditorium to see the second part of Murder at Four Deuces. Lots of people from our church were part of the production so it was fun to see them in action. All of the proceeds went to help The Wish Project International bring water wells and health clinics to Uganda. Our friend Tim Harrison and his wife Kim started the organization after we returned home from a powerful trip to Uganda last year. The show was a lot of fun!

After church on Sunday we did a nice relaxing float down the Kings River.
Our floater that we had bought was called the Tropical Turtle Island.
It was perfect for the two of us.

Friends Jason and Lyndsie joined us. Lyndsie is somehow related to me.
Both are a lot of fun.

The German also had a great time.

Jason let us try out his scooter that he was getting ready to sell. Sarah and I would really like to buy one in Spain but we don't reeeaaaaallllyy need it. They are a lot of fun. Maybe in a year when we move back to Hanford.

That's about it for now. Look out for Summer in California, Part II!

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One more week of Spain

So we have been in California for almost two weeks now and things are finally starting to calm down. Before we show you what we have been up to, we want to share about our last week in Spain before coming home. Two very important events happened. Spain won the world cup and Sarah and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary.

Everyone had high hopes for the Spanish team at the beginning of the cup but after seeing them embarrass themselves a little on the field is was not looking so promising. But sure enough, they learned how to play together and score some goals and made it all the way to the end. We loved to watch the games at our apartment with the windows open and hear the whole neighborhood erupt when a goal was scored.

When the final match came, of course we could not watch the game alone. Since it was on a Sunday our church planned to watch the game on the projector screen right after the service. When Spain scored the goal no one could believe it. We made sure to get the reactions on tape.

After the game we had to head to Puerta Jerez to join everyone in the celebration. Here's a video of the excitement along the way.


Puerta Jerez is right by the Semester In Spain school.
There is supposed to be a fountain where the mountain of people is.

We only could handle the excitement for a few minutes until we headed back home. We only had one person accuse us of being Dutch while were walking around. We left the all night partying to the Spaniards. It was the first time ever that Spain has won the World Cup.

The next morning, for our two year anniversary we decided to check out a new camping spot on the beach of Mazagon. We did not want to deal with renting a car so we found a way to hop on a couple buses and make it to the campsite. The bus dropped us off right at the gate of Camping Doñana.

We felt like REAL campers walking in with all of our gear on our backs.

We are pretty sure we were the only ones without a car or trailer.

After we set up camp we headed down to the beach.

This beach, like many others along the Spanish coast, have the remnants of some sort of defensive tower on the waters edge.

Later that day we tried out our new butane camping stove that we bought before the trip. It is a little guy but I was impressed at how fast it heated things up. Our neighbors enjoyed watching us cook things while they sat outside their camper trailers.

Frito boats!
(for the record..the only fritos we could find were ham flavored)

The highlight of the trip was the horse ride at sunset. The place is right next door to the campsite. I am pretty sure Sarah is a horse whisperer.

It was very cool to be able to walk through the water with the horses. Sarah's horse was a little moody and always wanted to be in the back. I was able to slow mine down enough to get closer.

We were on the beach during the whole sunset. It was pretty unreal.

I was a little bummed that they don't have horses my size in Spain.

The next day we spent the whole day relaxing on the beach. On our last morning we attempted to make pancakes. When we put enough chocolate spread on them they tasted just fine.

We were sad to leave the beautiful weather and the beach but we knew we had to head back and get ready to leave for the U.S. We really hope to be able to camp there again.

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Beach, Bikes, Birthdays, Baths, and BBQ's

Well the summer heat finally arrived here in Sevilla and it looks like it is here to stay for awhile. We have a week and a half more with the students and then soon after we will be headed to the U.S. ourselves. It has been really great so far and we have been having lots of adventures.

Beginning on a sad note, we had to say goodbye once again to our good friends Gui and Leah. They (hopefully) are thinking about coming back to Sevilla one more time while we are here next year. We also hope to visit them in Brazil as well. Some adventures just aren't as fun without them. We rented a car and headed to one of southern Spain's top beaches, Zahara de los Atunes.
After the great day at the beach we invited them over to our apartment where our Turkish couchsurfer, who is a food and travel writer and also an amazing cook, made us some amazing Turkish food. We had a great time eating together on our rooftop.

An organization was making a gigantic pan of paella down the street to raise money for an orphanage in Haiti. Sarah and I found it after following the scent from our apartment.

We were going to share a plate but they gave us two anyways. It was delicious and we had a bunch left over to bring home.

We have also been enjoying some of the new bike paths along the river. We are getting a little attached to our bikes and now we want to fly them home with us. They have been really useful in exploring the city.

Tough guy bike pose

There was a free circus in the Alameda so we checked it out with our pastor and his family. The basis was two policewomen trying to secure the area for some politician to come and speak. There were some awkward parts but otherwise it was pretty entertaining.

Picture of the city from our rooftop.

We were invited by friends to a choir concert at a conservatory nearby. The choir was celebrating their 25th anniversary and this was the last night where all of the past members were invited to sing along with the present members. They sang in a beautiful patio in the middle of the conservatory.

After the concert everyone was surprised when a catering service started to bring out trays of food from the back. When people realized what was going on they got a little excited and the waiters wouldn't make it 5 feet before being mobbed and cleaned out. One waiter, especially tired of being attacked by one woman, surrendered an entire tray of appetizers to her just so she would get out of his way. Regardless of the mob we were able to have our fill of drinks, yummy hors d'oeuvres and gazpacho till we couldn't take any more.

We the pleasure of hosting some friends from Costa Rica, German and Lilliana, for a week. Sarah met them when she was studying in Costa Rica in 2003. Lilliana is the sister of Martín, who is the worship leader at Sunrise Community Church in Tulare and was part of our wedding. They treated us to lots of amazing food during their stay. In this picture we are eating some tapas in the famous Barrio Santa Cruz.

German, who is an amazing cook, also managed to make some great meals in our tiny kitchen.

The took us out to dinner on our last night together for Sarah's birthday. Our first stop was another restaurant in Barrio Santa Cruz where we enjoyed a pitcher of yummy Sangria.

Then we showed them one of our favorite restaurants in the Alameda called La Madraza. They gave Sarah a funny singing birthday card. We had a lot of fun with them and hope to see them in Costa Rica soon!

The staff at Acento threw a little birthday party for Sarah. They bought her a nice shirt for summer and also pitched in for our visit to the Arab baths.

For Sarah's birthday I had made reservations at the Baños Arabes (arab baths) for a hour and a half spent in the baths and a 30 minute massage. We also got to drink some really good tea.

You can check out the baths online here. Obviously we weren't worried about taking pictures while we were there. But needless to say it was amazing. Thanks to all who pitched in!

Later that day we had everyone over for a birthday BBQ. We are beginning to be famous for our "American style" BBQ's. We blew a few Spanish minds when we put pineapple on their burgers.

In this picture you can see Sarah in her pretty new birthday dress.

We had a lot of fun decorating the roof with lanterns. Otherwise it gets pretty dark at night. Thanks Ikea!

We were also celebrating our friend Kike's (Kee-kay) birthday.

For the last picture I will leave you with none other than one of Tom Cruise. He and Cameron Diaz were in town promoting their new movie Knight and Day, which was partly filmed in Sevilla. We went with the students to the cathedral where they were re-enacting some of the action scenes for the press. We are excited to watch the movie to see where we can recognize the city.

19 days until we are back in California!

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