The next day was Rob's birthday, and we felt like we could use a break from the beach, and some time to let our sunburns heal. So we drove up Mt. Teide, the highest mountain in Spain, and the world's third largest active volcano.
The drive was beautiful and the roads were in better shape than we
thought they would be- it was far less scary than driving in Ireland for
example. At the end of the road there is a visitor's center and cable
car you can ride to get closer to the peak, but we decided it wasn't
worth the cost and time to us and that we'd rather explore on foot.
Volcano family selfie.
We drove back down a little ways to this area with cool rock formations to hike around and explore. It gave us lots of views to take cool photos of each other.
Hiking and posing for photos makes kids hungry, so we stopped in a nearby park services place for lunch and ice cream. I mean, it isn't everyday we get to eat ice cream on a volcano, right?
After lunch we drove the rest of the way back down to the beach (about an hour) and stopped just briefly to admire this natural arch called the Queen's Slipper.
Jacob loved the volcano so much!
It really is impressive! This was even further down the mountain, and we were still well above the clouds. Nature is awesome.
Back down to sea level, we decided to spend just a brief time at a "white sand" beach with lots of restaurants and shops nearby. Our brief visit turned into 3 hours, it was a very calm swimming area with life guards and lots of fun people watching.
Plus, Rob bought this giant pink flamingo and blew it up for the kids to play with. We said it was his birthday present, but obviously he got it for the kids. They named her Rosa, and she is coming with us when we move.
Finally we finished out the day with some Indian food at a nearby restaurant. I think it was a successful happy birthday for Rob. His birthday seems to coincide with Spring Break a lot these last few years and we are often traveling on his special day, but we love him so very much.
The next day was overcast and a bit cooler, so we decided to really, truly take a break from the beach and go do some shopping and walking. We walked to the Siam Mall which was a pretty impressive shopping mall with a lot of Thai theming and open air courtyards.
In one area they had some old video games and pool tables, so we spent a few euros playing pool with the kiddos. Rob beat us all. We also poked in some shops, window shopping, ate a big lunch at Tony Roma's, and did a little grocery shopping. It was a very laid back day.
We still had plenty of daylight after an early and light dinner of Iberian melon with jamon at our apartment, so we decided to go play a round of mini-golf at Treasure Island. The course was well maintained and fun. Toby was the only one of us that got a hole-in-one, but in the end, Rob beat us all at this too!
It was a fun day just hanging out together as a family, and a good mid-week break from having everything covered in sand!
No comments:
Post a Comment