Outings

July and the beginning of August have been full of home-improvement projects.  We really haven't had much time at all to enjoy the summer.  Until just last week we hadn't even been to the beach!  But now we seem to have reached an appropriate resting point on all our various projects.  We continue to peck away at things--our closet isn't completely finished yet and we still have to organize the upstairs bedroom and do a bit more mop-up cleaning--but it seems that the most urgent parts of everything have been finished and so we can carry on normal life in between spurts of organization and cleaning.

Being back to "normal" has freed us up to do more fun things.  Angelines especially is prone to diving head-first into projects and not coming up for air until they are 100% completed.  Of course "100%" completed is an unattainable goal when you're a home-owner.  There is ALWAYS something more to do!  So her get-it-done attitude in this case is more harmful than admirable.  We've been working to break-up the work and enjoy the small, daily progression of things as opposed to holding off to celebrate the elusive End to work around the house.

In the past two weeks we've taken several evening trips out.  We had a picnic dinner at El Chorro and also visited two different fairs in towns nearby.  Our most recent trip to the fair in Puente Genil on Sunday resulted in a delicious and oh so unhealthy dinner of churros con chocolate!  Angelines loves potato churros and they're hard to come by except at fairs so we ordered to go and brought them home for a greasy, sweet dinner. ;)  Puente Genil is the town that we always visit at Christmas time because it's famous for the great lights.  The lights at the fair were equally exceptional.  I think a summer pilgrimage to see the fair lights might become a tradition. 

Tuesday went to the beach to take advantage of the fact that I had no afternoon classes.  It was fabulous.  When we headed out in the morning it was cool and overcast in La Roda and I was worried that we'd chosen a bad day for the beach, but as we came down from the costal mountains to Málaga the temperature had gone up to 30ºC and it was a clear, sunny, windless day!  Perfect!  The beach was full, but not packed and the water was the perfect temperature--just cool enough to be refreshing.  As the afternoon wore on the wind picked up and we got to have some fun playing in the waves. :)  Around 5 we decided to pack up and head home.  Although we were only on the beach for about 4 hours, it felt like a mini-vacation. :)

At the fair in Herrera we decided to get shwarma for dinner--Mmmmm!

Posing in front of the waves in Rincon de la Victoria, Malaga.

The churro stand at the fair in Puente Genil.  Aren't the lights great?!

Silhouette at dusk looking out over the reservoir at El Chorro.

Picnic time!