Puerto Sherry

Beach selfie!

Walking to Puerto Sherry

When we moved here two years ago we took the plunge and decided to live off base, it wasn't really a plunge, there were no 3 bedroom houses on base available so we didn't have a choice. It was the best decision we didn't make ever! We love living off base. We live in El Puerto de Santa Maria, the town right next to Rota. The base even has a "Puerto" gate so we don't have to drive though Rota when going and coming from base. We live in section of Puerto called Puerto Sherry. It is right near the beach, shops and restaurants.

At the marina

Yesterday we went to the beach at Puerto Sherry for the morning and early afternoon, came home and napped (yay!) and then went back down for dinner. One of our favorite restaurants to go to is Crefondue. They have salads, crepes and fondue! The girls love fondue and you get yummy salads and savory crepes so it's win for everyone. There is also a great view of the sunset during dinner. The only downside is they don't open for dinner until 8:00 p.m. but since we all napped for 3 hours in the afternoon we were all ready for a late dinner. We love living within a 5 minute walk from Puerto Sherry. This will be one of the things we miss most when we leave Spain.

View from the restaurant

Eventually I will take pictures of our spanish house and post them! Adios!

Cadiz Market

Ceramics

Wishing Well

Cadiz is a city located about a 30 minute drive from our house. It's the oldest continuously-inhabited city in Spain and one of the oldest in southwestern Europe. It is rumored that the giant trees in the squares of Cadiz were brought to Spain from the New World by Christopher Columbus. This past weekend they had a market that comes once a year. The market is usually held around the Spanish holiday, Assumption Day, which was this past Friday, August 15th. Assumption Day celebrates the day that God assumed the Virgin Mary into Heaven following her death. It's a National Holiday and most stores and business' are closed. You can get to Cadiz from our house by driving or taking a ferry. We wanted to be able to leave when we wanted so we drove in. It ended up being a great day, even though I didn't buy anything at the market. I couldn't decide on something I needed or wanted. There were lots of people and vendors, as well as some music. The market area gave off a great vibe and it was just fun to be there. After walking around the market for a little bit we decided to take a break with frozen yogurt (for the girls) and beer and tapas (for me and Eric). Although there was a breeze it was really hot and after a few hours we were all ready to go home and jump in the pool for the afternoon!

Beer and Tapas!

On a side note, yesterday was my last birthday in Spain! It was a great, low key day. I look forward to, hopefully, being closer to home next year and able to spend the day with my family! 

Taco's and Swimming!

The view of our walk

Hola! This past weekend we didn't do anything exciting enough to scream, "We live in Spain!" It's so hot in southern Spain in August and the traffic is terrible…especially in the town we live in. We keep saying we can't wait for the tourists to leave, which sounds funny to me because I'm only here temporarily and am kind of a tourist myself.

Nachos!

Yesterday we had to get out of the house! But, what could we do that didn't involve driving (traffic/no parking), beach (too crowded), shopping (it's Sunday…everything is closed). We decided to go for a walk to a new taco place that we'd heard about from other Americans that is located in our town. It was a couple mile walk and hot but no complaints from the girls because they fell asleep in the stroller on the way. We made it and enjoyed some yummy tacos and nachos in a nice air conditioned restaurant…this was a treat considering most restaurants here don't have a/c. Not as good as tacos and nachos in the states but definitely yummy.

We began the hot and steamy walk back home. On the way we stopped at Eric's favorite bakery and picked up a few treats to enjoy at home. It didn't take long for all of us to jump in the pool the moment we got home too cool off!

Hasta luego!

Update

Okay…I know I'm really, really bad at keeping up with this blog. I've decided I'm going to make a real effort to blog at least once a week from now on about life in Spain. I've realized we have less than a year left here…yikes! I started this blog with the idea that I would write about cool things to do around here, restaurants to visit, trips to go on, etc. but I think for this last year in Spain I'm just going to write about day to day stuff with our family. Basically, what it's like for my family to live in southern Spain and the exciting things we get to do here and also the not so exciting things…because although we are living in Europe sometimes we stay home all weekend and do nothing! If I can keep up with this, like I say I'm going to do, then it will be a really nice reminder of our last year in Spain and hopefully something the girls can read later on and appreciate!

Her haircut wasn't nearly
as traumatic for me.

I was going to end there for today but here's a brief story that happened today and why being in Spain can sometimes be frustrating. I took the girls to get their haircut at the base salon today…however all Spanish locals work there. Therefore, English is their second language and Spanish is not even my second language because I can basically order food at a restaurant and check out at the local grocery store. I told the hairdresser I wanted a few inches cut off of Lily's hair. I cannot describe what happened next accurately. She grabbed all of her hair, as if she was going to put it in a low ponytail, and cut all the way across her neck. I completely freaked out and had to go to the bathroom so I wouldn't meltdown right there. At this point there wasn't anything to do about it anyway and I didn't want the girls to see their mom crying like a lunatic. Eight hours later and I'm feeling okay about it. She loves it and it does look really cute…and it will grow back!

Before

After

Hasta luego!