KyotoAlioto

Gina and Tyler met Emilia and Eduard in their prenatal class and their daughter Martina was born the month after Marina. They live up the coast about a half hour by train from Barcelona in a little town called Vilasar de Mar, which, conveniently, is right across from a beautiful beach. Gina has made a number of trips up there to visit, usually while I've been at work. One day I was able to get away and spend the afternoon on the beach with them. There was practically no one else there (compared to Sitges) and the sea was gorgeous and refreshing!

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 11:28 PM | Permalink

So.... she's still a little wary of the water. But to be fair, it was a little on the cool side. Still, she enjoyed her baby tent which kept the sun off her. Mommy and Daddy, though, were a little annoyed by the crowded conditions and found it a little hard to relax, but what do you expect for the first beach trip with baby in-tow?

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 11:15 PM | Permalink

Sorry, no photos of the pancakes. When they're this good you don't waste time taking pictures! We're going to really miss Maaike and her pancakes, Ale's risotto, and of course Luna, their cat. Incidentally this was Marina's first encounter with a cat -- I'm just glad it was with Luna 'cus she's just so soft and cuddly.

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 11:04 PM | Permalink

We were able to squeeze ourselves into Rowan and Nuria's busy summer schedule before Rowan's return to New York for the beginning of the academic season. Rowan and Nuria amused themselves with trying to teach Marina the Barça hymn. Bijou was highly entertained by Marina. Who knows what Marina was thinking :). Then a week later we all went and ate yummy Korean food at San Kil, where the owner paraded Marina around to the other tables in the restaurant.

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 02:52 PM | Permalink

We've started going to Buenas Migas (a cafe/focacceria) in the Barceloneta for breakfast on the weekends. Being right at the sea, it is perhaps one of the most pleasant places to have a café con leche (with real leche del día) and enjoy scones with jam or a flapjack with yogurt. Marina likes it a lot, too!

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 05:53 PM | Permalink

Yukari (former Mont Bell co-worker and friend) and Tomoko (a current Mont Bell employee) spent part of their European vacation to come see us and do some sightseeing around Barcelona. The weather was beautiful for strolling so we also did a bit of sightseeing ourselves.

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 12:40 PM | Permalink

One advantage of having friends from all over the world is getting to eat a wide variety of home-cooked meals. Ogo and Greta had us all (Maiike, Ale, Gina, Marina and I) over to their new place in Sants for a fabulous Turkish breakfast.

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 05:31 PM | Permalink

We owe a huge thank you to Tyler's office mates, who gave us the tropical island themed floor gym! Marina loves it.

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 12:13 AM | Permalink

How patriotic! Yes, she is American!

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 12:09 AM | Permalink

Tyler managed to extricate himself from diaper duty to travel down to Málaga for an overnight business trip. Tyler taught a class on gene prediction as part of a bioinformatics workshop held at a new node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network at the University of Málaga. The supercomputer ("Picasso") which they now have up and running is actually composed of some of the original nodes of the MareNostrum supercomputer (operated by the BSC, where Gina works) before it was upgraded to double it's number of CPUs. The workshop was a success and Tyler spent the evening sight-seeing and eating, among other things, "bocarones".

Posted by Gina and Tyler at 11:51 PM | Permalink