November 2018

Man, am I behind! As it turns out, keeping up with a blog while traveling is challenging. Add in the joys of growing a human and you will find that it makes for a lengthy absence :). I found myself thinking about you a lot. I took many pictures in the last few months, some of which I took specifically to share with you.

So… I am going to work backwards to catch us up.

Last week, we decided out of the blue, to take one final trip, just the five of us, before Baby Girl arrives in January. We loaded our pups into a rental and drove to the east coast of Spain… Alicante!

Alicante is located about an hour and a half south of Valencia and about five hours from Barcelona. Both of which are on our list for future exploration :). But we were seeking a quiet and relaxed getaway this time and Alicante provided just that!

We stayed in a tiny hunting lodge, surrounded by the mountains. The accommodations were, to be polite, rustic.

Our heat was a wood-burning stove, the 20 square foot kitchen had countertops 30″ off the ground and we had a very interesting shower situation with no hot water (Check out the rock!) The lodge is located at the top of a fruit grove and surrounded by the almost constant sounds of donkeys, roosters, and virile cats. As with most places in Spain, there were no restaurants open late to cater to our hunger and the city of Alicante went dark around 6pm, right along with the sunset.

We spent our first two days reading and walking the pups, who seemed to enjoy the getaway as much as we did. We even caught Ruby watching the sunrise on our first morning.

On the third day, we went into town and visited a bodega. Our tour guide, the owner, spoke beautifully broken English and was so proud of his wine, he may have tasted more than Dan. :). After, we found a restaurant that was open until 4pm to have paella. While the food was fine, our scenic views were what our lunch conversation centered around. Not surprising, Valencia orange trees ripe with beautiful fruit were all around us and we felt safely hugged by the mountains. If you are looking for quiet and slow living, this is the place where you find it.