Medina Sidonia

During Christmas break we went on a few little day trips to explore the neighboring towns.  The first one we went to was Medina Sidonia.  We had a lovely drive through agricultural pastures and rolling hills.  The city itself sits on top of a large hill, so the views are awesome.  I was mostly excited to go here because according to the guide book, "it is considered the cake and pastry capital of the province of Cadiz."  Well it was old, founded in 1852, but I was disappointed in the pastries.  Trent really liked them, I think I'm just not a nutty shortbready kind of girl....maybe I need to go back to France for dessert! 

One thing on the cons list for things about Spain is their lack of originality in the dessert department.  There are ventas, shops & pastelerias on every corner, literally all selling the exact same sweets.  I'd like to find the factory that is dishing them up because someone is making a fortune.  Granted, some of the shops are more authentic and the treats homemade, which is obvious to the taste buds, but for the most part...you'll find the same items at all the shops.  It's a strange concept coming from America where each shop tries to outwit and be different from the next, thereby securing its place in the world.  That concept doesn't apply here.

Anyway, let me jump off my soapbox.  The town itself is quite small.  It has roots from way back to the Phoenicians!  We parked, crossed our fingers that our car wouldn't get broken into, paid a pretty sketchy looking parking entrepreneur and went on our way.  The old town consists of the main plaza, a church, the town hall and a few eateries.  Further uphill we hiked to the old church where you can climb the bell tower.  It was very cool, but freezing cold because it started to rain on us.  We couldn't see much from the tower because of all the cloud cover, but I would imagine the views would be wonderful.

this is the tower we hiked up

here we are on top of the tower

M4H Project 52. 4/52. Imperfection

"Nothing we see or hear is perfect.  But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality." 
                                                                                                                       --Shunryu Suzuki

I stumbled upon this quote online and it is perfect for this photo...imperfection is part of everyday life. Sometimes when embraced, it can even be beautiful.

M4H Project 52. 3/52. Inspiration

Inspiration is a noun...something tangible, something seen, a moment in time.  The dictionary defines it as: stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc, to special or unusual activity or creativity.

I chose to use this photo to represent my inspiration this week.  I took it last winter on the spur of the moment.  I was driving down the river road near my hometown and spied these strange and beautiful winter weeds down in the ditch.  I happened to have my camera with me so I pulled over and took a few shots.  I loved the results and this photo has become one of my very favorites.

I find the colors, shapes, simplicity and the mood that it portrays all very alluring to my senses.  I want to create photos that speak to other people the way this one speaks to me....so it's my inspiration.

Found on my Iphone

Who's kid is this???  Ha Ha Ha...oh ya, mine!

Luke is constantly on my Iphone horsing around.  I found this gem in my photo library when I was updating it!  He is a funny guy, always cracking me up!

Luke got a set of paints and he tried to fool Emry into believing that he really got bitten by a vampire.  She's pretty gullible and he almost had her snowed....until she spied the paint brush.  What I didn't know was that he was also taking pictures of his "bites" with my phone...hilarious!

M4H Project 52. 2/52. Life

I live near the ocean and have a soft spot in my heart for marine life... so it was natural for me to be drawn there when I found out the word for this week's M4H Project 52 was Life. 

During low tide I found this hermit crab especially curious and became infatuated with him.  In the end I wasn't able to coax him out of hiding any further than this, but I still had fun!

Puerto Sherry Tide Pools

I spent the am at the beach exploring after I dropped the kids off at school.  The tide was way down and I found some really interesting life forms...sounds alien, I know.  A few of them looked like aliens too!  I can't wait to do this again with the kids during spring break and over the summer...lots of fun!

i wanted to feel this little thing, but it was fast as lightening and hid inside it's home when i touched the surface of the water.

sea cucumber and sea star.  this cucumber was hilarious.  i caught it trying to get somewhere and it was spitting water out its rear end...strange creature.

a little friend.  he didn't want to come out and play today, he was too shy.

M4H Project 52. 1/52. Resolution.

This year I am trying something new.  My sister in law, Jenni posted about this 52 week photography project from M4H photography on facebook and I've decided to join in.  The commitment is 1 year, a new photo representing an assigned topic each week, and I hope, at the end of 52 weeks...growth.  If you're curious and want to learn more click here!

Cadiz

Are we sick of pictures yet???  I'm not, but my kids are.  They're starting to refuse to be caught within the frame of my camera....it's getting annoying!

We spent a lovely day down in Cadiz, the capital of Andalusia.  Maggie took me here when I visited her during high school and I've been so excited to share my memories with my own family.  It's only 30 minutes away from our house, so Trent and I have been a few times, but we had yet to take the kids.  We walked all over the old town and when I say walked all over...I mean we literally were on our feet the entire day and the kids were awesome!! 

Our first stop was at the Museum of Cadiz.  We saw statuary, artwork, pottery, antique puppets and 2 mummies.

We ate breakfast at this small plaza that has a particularly yummy pasteleria.

We walked and ran and snacked and twirled our way through a park with very fun trees.

We oogled at the boats in the harbor.

We gazed down, down, down into the mote....but to Luke's dismay was not filled with water.

We ate tapas for lunch!  We had patatas alinadas, fried squid, pimientos and another kind of fish that tasted sort of like a hush puppy.  The kids were less than thrilled, but they did try things and ended up liking most of them too!

We explored the fortress that used to protect the city.

We watched the fishermen reel in their catches.

We practiced our Spanish & played in the sand.

We strolled along one of the oldest boardwalks in Europe!

The day wouldn't have been complete without a little helado!!

We even spent a bit of time shopping.

We walked through the Cathedral that is made out of coral rock from the ocean.  We all thought that was pretty impressive!

Inside the Cathedral, we went down into the crypt.  It wasn't as creepy as Luke was hoping it would be, but the acoustics were amazing.  The room was circular shaped in the center and then had about 6 short corridors that went out from it and each ended with small chapels, relics and such.  If you stood in the middle of the circle, you could whisper and be heard throughout the entire crypt...so cool!

Here are the giant books that the monks used.

We stopped into another small church because it had original paintings in it by ( i can't remember).  Carley was curious about the little alter deals and we told her that is where people kneel down to pray...so she did.

At the end of our day we came across a huge fiesta in the plaza where our car was parked.  The kids played on inflatable toys and ate cotton candy.  We didn't ride the carousel...if you can call it that.  It was more like a carousel on steroids.  It was so fast Trent and I were surprised the kids could hold on.

Goodnight Cadiz!