Day 7: Tossa de Mar

And on the seventh day, Jason rested.

Just kidding. On the seventh day, Jason needed a good chunk of time to work without interruption. So the kids and I played instead. Here's breakfast in our bungalow--yum! Making my tummy growl. 

We did some much needed laundry and swam for a bit in the pool. There was a large school group there and I could tell Annika wanted to play, but the language barrier made it hard so we didn't stay long.

Instead, we walked across the main road to the beach.

Perfect choice! There are pools everywhere, but for us landlocked citizens, it can be hard to get to an ocean.

Brrrr! The Mediterranean was chilly. But hey, we got in and swam anyway--even me.

Playing in the sand. I have such fun memories of Brooklyn and Talia being buried in the sand here years ago.

Dang it, these kids all grew up too fast.

Camping del Mar, who knows? Maybe in another twenty years we'll be back again.

Later in the day we decided to take a day trip to nearby Tossa de Mar. But first, we had to pick up lunch at Brooklyn's very favorite supermarket, Mercadona. It. was awesome! You'd be hard-pressed to find this much Jamón ibérico in the states.

I'm not gonna lie--parking was a bit of a struggle. While there was plenty of paid parking available, we couldn't get the parking app to work, probably because we were in a rental car. We found free street parking a little farther away, but it was kind of tight and on a steep hill. I was actually doing a pretty good job parallel parking until the very last bit when the car shifted into neutral instead of drive. I slammed on the brake and managed to stop with literally less than an inch to spare (see photo evidence.) Gotta say, this didn't do a lot to boost my confidence driving a rental! I had all the kids get out and shove the car forward as I pulled into drive so that it wouldn't roll back any as I scooted it farther up the hill. In the end it worked out, but definitely gave me some gray hair!

In the end, the Gran Platja was stunning and the stress was worth it. Plus, I gotta admit, the winding drive along the shore to get to Tossa was pretty fabulous as well.

Annika's keloid scarring is pretty prominent, but I find the scars to be beautiful. Strength and courage and love etched forever.

After a while, we took turns exploring the castle on the hill. (Annika wanted to stay and continue her search for underwater sea creatures.) I liked it so much that I hiked up to the old town twice.

Thanks to Talia for these photos, as my phone ran out of battery.

Yeah, I could live here.

As evening fell, we made our way back to Malgrat to reunite with Jason and take showers. And hey, after a day swimming in the ocean, our mermaids discovered that a dinglehopper really is great for hair! Travel is full of beautiful surprises.