to the coast!

the nice thing about not making any reservations in advance is- you have nowhere you need to be, which is exactly where cade and i loved being: nowhere. after our girona detour, we looked at a map and decided to put off barcelona just a wee bit longer and head out to the coast. oh...and we were so glad we did.
we took a bus out to costa brava, a section of the spanish coast which is mostly rocky cliffs but also has amazing little beaches that open up between the cliffs. we pulled into the small town and headed straight to the tourist office. cade had been looking for ways to impress me for quite a while now, but once we got into spain- the gloves were off. it was spanish time! we walk into the tourist office and the next thing i know the lady at the counter is cade's best friend. she starts loading up a bag of all sorts of free notebooks, travel maps, pens... you name it. she pointed out a nice hotel not too far away and we were off and i was impressed.
our little hotel, hotel cliper, was small but really fun. we had our own little balcony that looked over main street that we would sit out on at night and people watch while sipping on some aquarius.... it was the life. the beach was really close to where we were staying, but our little amiga back at the tourist office told us the best beaches are along a coastal road which takes you up a mountain and then down to the beach...and up another mountain and down to another little beach. it sounded great to us, so the next day we were off on a little scooter we rented...

we loved it. the first hour or so on the scooter, i think i said 'cade! be careful!' around 314 times and he had a white line around his stomach where i had applied my death grip. but after realizing that life was ok and the scooter would not kill us- i loosened up and we were out and about.
the guy at the scooter shop told us in his thpanish a really old route to take to the coastal openings. we would head towards the coast but would cut in and out of old, medieval cities. how adventurous!

this is one of the only pictures we had someone take of us- now you know why every picture posted up until now has been taken by cade's long arm rather than a stranger...yes, that's the stranger's finger.

don't worry- despite the heat or awkwardness, cade never parted from his dear helmet.


i always have wanted to post a video on the blog before... but i just haven't ever done it. as i was looking through our pictures, we have a ton of video from this day, so i thought it only appropriate to enter in a little video. there are a few items to notice in this video: cade's undying obsession with the english accent (thank you jim dale... and while we're at it, let's thank chumbawamba for all they are/were), my worried ranting, and our hotel.


so as you can see, we were having a blast on our little ride. here are a few more shots.
beautiful coastline...

beaches aside, another part of spain i already miss is all the naked ladies. seriously... some skin just doesn't need to see the sun. don't worry- this is the only picture of a beach where everyone's nubbins are covered. you're welcome.

it was perfect. we were on the scooter all day long and at the end of the day i got that feeling you get when you've been on roller skates too long and you feel like you are still gliding- but it was all worth it. we headed back to town, stopped at our favorite crepe place and fell asleep to another chapter of harry potter.