Don't look now, but we're the only Americans here!

Even though the Eurocamp campground in Salou was kinda hard to find because apparently no one ever travels there by train, our week there was a great vacation.  This trip has absolutly not been a vacation!  We have been working hard!  So, the seven days we got to spend in  a itty bitty trailer were acutually really relaxing!

We stayed in a trailer that was so small that when I sat on the bed in our bedroom and extended my arms, I touched both walls!  But the the important part of that previous sentence was not the size of the room it was the word "our" as in Shelley's and mine.  As in Ryan had his own tiny room at the other end of our tiny trailer!  After 7 weeks of sharing a room with a three year old, this was ther greatest luxury we could have hoped for!

Our son is gifted; this kid can win people's hearts!

The next greatest benefit of the campground was our kitchen!  We had our own kitchen where we could cook our own food!  After sharing communial kitchens with hundreds of people, this too was amazing.  We made pilaf, scrambled eggs, french toast, salt and pepper chicken, and pots and pots of coffee!  Boy I enjoyed my coffee.  Cappucinnos and Americanos are great, but there is something special about filtering your own liquid gold and enjoying several cups!

Number three on the list of great things about Eurocamp were the activities.  They had two pools, and even though it was only sunny about half of our days there, we still spent significant time there.  Ryan particularly loved the "elephnat pool."  This pool had 5 life size elephants that squirted water.  It also had a huge slide shaped like a dragon.  Bubba literally went down it 100 times one day.  He took a good nap (in his own room, mind you) that afternoon.

But, eventhough the campground was great, we felt the need to venture out and explore the area.  So one day we went to the beach and another we jumped on a train and headed back to Barcelona.  Our day at the beach was amazing.  It was a perfect day, clear and sunny but not too hot.  The Med. Sea is so wierd for someone used to the Paific Ocean.  There are no waves!  It felt like a really big lake.  Ryan, Shelley, and I took turns burrying eachother in the sand and making baby piles (similar to a dogpile, but there is usually a baby on the bottom).  We took some great pictures and, after much coaxing, actually got Ryan to go our a little way with me for a swim.

Our day trip to Barcelona also turned out to be great.  Because Shelley was teaching and I was with Ryan while in Barcelona last week, we missed several sights we wanted to see.  One was the Pedrera, a building by Gaudi.  It was phenominal!  His creativity is astounding.  I can't even begin to describe this building.  It was originally designed to be private apartments, but now holds a museum and som offices.  But, as part of the museum, one of the apartments has been restored.  You also get to visit the roof and the attic, both of which are fascinating.  Even Ryan had a good time.  We got the audio tours which operate by keying in the number of the recording you want to hear, then pressing play.  So, Bubba figured out that if he pushed numbers and then the green button, someone with a niceBritish accent spoke to him.  He was entertained for an hour!

But, you will not fully understand our week in Salou unless I tell you about two more things: the hurricane and Fidel.  The day before we were scheduled to leave was overcast but warm.  We spent the morning at the pool because it was our last chance to swim in who knows how long.  I stood knee deep in the water and shivered, Ryan repeatedly went down the dragon slide, and Shelley huddled under a towel on a lounge chair and swatted flies while reading.  That afternoon while Ryan slept, Shelley headed into town to go to the internet cafe to finalize our travel plans for the weekend.  But, about an hour after she left, a rain storm that would have made Noah nervous began.  Within minutes the street in front of our camper was a river.  Water was swiftly running all the way up to the curb!  Needless to say, Shelley was stuck a mile away for four hours while Ryan and I ran from shelter to  shelter around the campground trying to entertain ourselves!  I have never seen a storn come on so suddenly or so strongly.  Finally, there was a break in the storm and Shelley got home fairly dry.  We spent the evening indoors singing songs and doing our famous "family dance" routein.  If you haven't seen the Youds do the family dance, ask next time you see us and you'll be in for a treat.

Finally, in the six minutes before my hour at the internet cafe runs out, let me tell you about Fidel.  Our son is gifted; this kid can win people's hearts!  Whether it is teenage girls melting over him on the train or 80 year old ladies stopping their wheel chairs in the supermarket to speak to him in languages he doesn't understand, people like this kid.  One of his latest victims was Fidel, the Dominican guy who worked the mini golf kiosk at the campground.  Each morning as we headed out for our daily round of putt putt, Bubba would round the corner and take off yelling, "Fidel! Hi, Fidel!"  Pretty soon, these two were fast friends! I guess we were supposed to pay for mini golf, but Fidel always gave it to us for free.  He fell hard under the spell that is Ryan!

We had a great time in Salou.  We learned that we were only the second group of Americans who had been at the campground all summer.  That was kind of wierd, but we loved it.