From Bruce (from a few days ago): Hit a bit of a wall today. Planning and managing this shindig wears me out. A nap and a strong cafe con leche did the trick. Spent a couple of hours yesterday figuring out how to get to Morocco with a rental car (just play dumb), buying ferry tickets, and laying out maps to the little town we're visiting in Morocco - it's spelled Chefchaouene, and is a "sister-city" to Issaquah, WA. Folks I worked with at Microsoft recommended it - since they're from Morocco, I took their advice... But I picked a good time to crash. We're now in Conil de la Frontera, a quiet beach town, and one of the "pueblos blancos" (white villages) of southern Spain. Beautiful beach, little winding streets, and a much needed break from the car after our Granada/Cordoba/Sevilla blitz. I haven't driven for 48 hours, and not having to navigate through streets designed hundreds of years before the invention of the internal combustion engine relieves a lot of the stress. Although of course someone scraped our front fender while the car's been parked... Oh the irony. The three city rampage was worth it, but I'm glad we're not repeating that sort of schedule. We were all a bit on edge by the end, and these last two days of breakfast, school work, lunch, beach, shower, dinner, and ice cream already feel like a well-established rhythm. Granada, Cordoba and Sevilla were all spectacular though - and I'd love to go back someday for a month or year or two. Boys seem to be good. Jonathan came into my bedroom the other day, grinned, and said "I LIKE this - it's CRAZY! They have embraced the experience, and are particularly invested in where we eat dinner - they search out the perfect "ambiente," or atmosphere, wanting our sidewalk table to be situated where we can people watch and enjoy the energy. None of us like the food all that much, but the Scene is unbeatable... I am sure that one of the aspects of "re-entry culture shock" to Seattle will be the fact that there are so few walking streets with outdoor dining. It's been great to be at the beach. The two younger boys are getting out a lot of pent up "museum energy." They really enjoyed the catedrales and alcazares of the three big cities, but I think it was all starting to run together by the the time we made it to Sevilla. Thankfully the Catedral in Sevilla was simply spectacular - the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. The builders wanted all future visitors to "think they were mad!" Mission accomplished. For me the Mezquita in Cordoba was magical - I could have spent hours just sitting and marveling at the endless striped arches... And Carlos V's cathedral built right in the center creates a fantastic juxtaposition of architecture and belief. I continually pinch myself - yep, I'm awake...