Europe Part 2.
Well, Hadley was a trooper on about 4 hours of sleep. She took her brothers luggage and rolled it along to help out. We took a very early morning flight to Tenerife, Spain.
Canary Islands here we come!
We arrived early to our hotel. This time the Ritz Carlton. We would stay here for the remainder of our trip. The resort was HUGE, and beautiful. We cashed in some of Brian's travel points in order to stay here. Our room had a view of the ocean and the courtyard where we would later listen to live music in the evenings. Surrounding the grounds were banana plantations everywhere, or volcanic rubble.
Since we arrived early, our room wasn't ready, so we enjoyed some lounging time on the grounds. We didn't plan well enough to have our bathing suits with us, so we just enjoyed some time having lunch and enjoying our surroundings.
After finally settling into our room mid afternoon, we took a drive to town to get some food for the room, do some laundry at the local laundry place and have an easy pizza dinner. That night we went for an evening swim and called it a day.
The next morning we spent a few hours planning our week. We booked a cable car for that evening as there was only limited availability but we of course wanted to go up the highest mountain in Spain at Tiede National Park.
Easton was completely unaffected by the altitude of the mountain, and had energy to spare. The rest of us took in the view, one step at a time.
That night at a local hotel near the mountain we tried salted potatoes for the first time, which were tasty (and later we learned this would be served with most meals), we were blessed with a beautiful sunset, and a starry night that was pretty amazing since there was no light pollution. Brian was happy to get a pretty good shot on our camera of the milky way as well as spending a few hours playing with settings to photograph the North Star.
The next day we spent the morning at the hotel. The kids wanted to just relax in the morning, so that is what we did.
For lunch we went into town and had lunch at a local restaurant. The drive up the road was interesting, and after we parked, we used the railing to walk up the street. :)
Hadley noticed that Tenerife had a pearl store and was very interested. So, we took her shopping for her first ever pearl bracelet. She was beyond happy! I think she felt so grown up with this experience.
We took a few minutes after that to look into the banana plantations, and then we headed back to our resort to get ready for a resort walk to their private beach.
This was beautiful.
I was surprised that the kids didn't say anything about some of the women and young girls being topless, but I think the waves had their attention. European beaches, quite the experience, but once you let yourself decide that this is normal, it really isn't that distracting, just at first because it is different than what we are used to.
The next day we spent the day at Siam Park. Tripadvisor says this is the #1 water park in the world. I was impressed but I am not sure what makes it #1.
We had a great day in the water. The lazy river, the water slides and just enjoying some quality family time.
The next morning we went to the marina and saw the morning catch being carved up for the local restaurants and then boarded our catamaran for our three hour tour.
We had a great time whale and dolphin watching, Brian and Hadley enjoyed some ocean swim time off the boat, and our family avoided seasickness, however; some on the boat were not so lucky. At the end of the boat ride I was gifted a bottle of champagne to take with me.
For lunch after the boat ride we ate at the marina. Easton gave Brian's fish a kiss.
It was the day before my birthday but we were flying out on my birthday so we celebrated with a beautiful steak dinner at the hotel. Hadley wore her pearl bracelet and the hotel brought out drinks and dessert to celebrate. Then we went for an evening swim.
A great day.
On my birthday after only a few hour flight we arrived in Brussels, Belgium, we went to Atomium, and enjoyed more Belgian Fries, and the Laeken Fireworks fun night.
Fireworks on your birthday on the last day of your European vacation is pretty perfect.
Then we ventured home on the long flight that was delayed by about an hour but the kids were great on the plane so it was all good.
I love holidays.