Your passenger isn't all that thrilled.

I have more photos which I will post later but for now I just want to post my candidate for movie of the year. Your first “Free Fall”.

As you rode up it was clear to me that you didn’t quite grasp, while watching from the ground, what you had signed up for…on the initial drop I could see signs of the whole thing going very wrong very quickly but you quickly found your feet, so to speak, and had a blast…so much so that on the way out it wouldn’t do but you had to ride it one more time (luckily for me, we made it on line just before they shut it down!).


(The whole thing is great but my favorite bits are the little wave before you got going and your “bravery” at the very end).

This Sunday marks our second outing into the Sierra de Guadarrama range which separates Madrid from Segovia. This time we went to the Parque Natural de Peñalara for a relatively easy hike to the Peñalara Laguna Grande. Which is a rather small glacial lake located ~2K meters above sea level. Other than the first 15 minutes, which were pretty steep, the hike was quite easy (as noted by the number of grandmothers we passed) unfortunately being a nature preserve there was no swimming allowed, in fact a cable barrier kept you from getting any closer than a 100m to the lake (rather pond) itself.

Your second focus on the day was pointing out the cow poop along the trail, of which there was no shortage as the park is apparently home to herds of free roaming cattle. Thankfully your mom was able to find us a suitable picnic spot amongst the rocks and cow poop while you and I took our sweet time (thanks to the rock climbing) covering the last 300 meters or so.

This setting also, finally, provided you with a chance to get in some good “echos”, of which you have been entranced with ever since the first reading of “Little Beaver and the Echo“. And despite the large number of other people enjoying the day by the lake we couldn’t help but allow you to get in some good “ECHO!!”s, though we did manage to get you to only do 2 or 3 at a time and put some time in between each set.

After a couple of hours we made our way back down the mountain, slowed only by your unsurprising desire to go bouldering. At one point you just sat down and randomly started making faces, starting off with both forefingers stretching the corners of your mouth, then a few “blow-fish” looks, then just as quickly on your way again. Your mom wasn’t quick enough to get the former but she got a good one of the latter.

Towards the bottom of the trail we found a mountain spring where you happily washed your face and hand with the cold water and helped mommy to refill our water bottle.


Mountain Climber
[See post to watch Flash video]

The hike up

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Picnic

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Heading home

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You had quite the extended birthday this year.
It started with a visit from your Nana, who left with LESS luggage than she arrived with, in mid-June. Next up was a visit from Mam and Poppy in early July who brought gifts from the whole family. Your Maw-Maw, Scott and Aunt Elaine were able to join in the festivities thanks to a video feed streamed live over the internet.

The week before your birthday a package arrived from your Granddaddy, and it wouldn’t do for you to wait so we had to open that right away. Needless to say by the time your birthday finally arrived on the 18th of July 2009, you were inundated with sticker books, new clothes, art supplies and plenty of cards.

Unfortunately late July is a bad time to have a birthday in Europe, as all your Spanish friends were out of town or busy over your birthday weekend. So instead of a party your Mom and I took you to the Madrid Safari which you enjoyed quite a bit (the original plan was to go to the water park but the weather proved to be a bit to cool for that).

When you wandered into our bedroom that morning you said to your Mom, “I saw the presents and I heard a voice in my heart telling me not to open them and I listened to it”. Luckily you didn’t have to wait long as we opened presents first thing and followed that up with some of Mom’s CHOCOLATE CHIP pancakes.

We arrived at the park just as the bird show was getting started. This performance featured birds of prey circling high above us before screaming down to pounce on a “rabbit”. There was also a fox and two wolves.

From there we took a walk over to the petting zoo to see and feed the goats. As usual you were less than thrilled to have the goats eat out of your hands so I had to brave the throng of goats, pigs and deer with a bag of carrots. Nothing makes you more friends in a petting zoo than a bag of carrots.


After the worlds worst hamburgers (again if you are going to any “park/zoo” in Spain it is best to bring your own lunch) you went for a much anticipated ride on a pony. From there we visited the aviary to see the tropical birds. Our last “walking” stop was the mini-zoo where we saw a really big tiger, some raccoons (funny to see raccoons in every zoo), a close up visit with the birds of prey and, of course, the monkeys.

Finally we made it to the drive through safari where the animals were free roaming (except the lions and elephants) and very happy to slobber on the window in hopes of a carrot. You were very nervous about the animals getting into the car and insisted that the windows stayed up anytime an animal approached, especially the Emu towards the end. There were two elephants, when we first drove up one had his trunk in the other one’s ear, you mommy said “he is tickling his ear”. Shortly thereafter the elephant moved his trunk to the bottom of the other elephant at which time you commented that he is “tickling his bottom”.

That evening you Mom and I went out to see Lucinda Williams at the Joy Eslava theatre for our first evening out since coming to Madrid while you slept peacefully with MariaJose watching over you.

Your birthday, however, didn’t end there. Your friend Alaia had a little party for you as well later the next week, sure looks like you girls had a good time.

Today, Lilah, we made our way out to Parque Regional Cuenca Alta del Manzanares. Which is about a 30 minute drive just north east of Madrid, where you participated on your official first hike. The weather was perfect, a nice breeze and enough clouds to keep the temperature bearable.

The park was free to enter and a lovely drive up to the trail head. You probably walked a good 40% of the time all on your own, mostly the flat and downhill portions, the rest of the time you were either on my back (the way up) or your Mom’s back (the way down) talking about any and everything that popped into your little head. As is your habit of late, you were most concerned with what any and everything was saying (what’s that Rock saying daddy? What’s the ground saying mommy?) as well as hunting down your echo, luckily we eventually found her towards the end of the trail, not so sure the rest of the park was equally pleased with your discovery, and certainly not with the hunt.

You found and commandeered a hiking stick about 5 minutes after being let out of the backpack which stayed with you through the end of the day (actually it might still be in the Premacy) along with the requisite bird feather. Around the halfway point we stopped for some oranges, apples, and sesame seed treats. A wrong turn kept us from making it to the summit, but that should provide enough of an excuse for us to go back (along with the swimming hole).

As we neared the end of the hike you pointed out that you had dropped your hat….about 500 yards UP the trail, I guess it could have been worse…. One guess who had the pleasure to back and retrieve it….

And of course no hike is complete without a stop by a cold mountain stream to cool off and relax, and today was no exception. You were not to keen on the whole idea at first but eventually you warmed up to the idea as you can see in the pictures below.

On our way out of the park we stopped by the village below for a bite to eat and a look at the local castle as well, needless to say your were OUT like a light by the time we got home (well after your first roadside poop).

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