overview trip's start jet-lagged London Covent Gardens South Kensington to Gran Canaria Yumbo y Cita Faro de Maspalomas Isaac's 6th b'day Playa del Inglés more Isaac's b'day Las Dunas anniversario La Cabaña Park San Fernando Los Guanches Norteños vomit comet Christmas Day A Day of Chores The Kids' Wish Wind on the Dunes Playa Amadores New Years Eve Maspalomas New Years Towards San Augustin Both Kids Trampoline Puerto de Mogán Puerto Rico El Dia de los Tres Reyes LPA - MAD - LHR LHR - SFO home again T S U N A M I !!!
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2004-12 Gran Canaria: New Years Eve
Friday 31 December 2004
We awake on the last day of 2004 to an overcast sky. As the kids are playing on the porch I see Branko looking over from his apartment. He seems satisfied with his windows-cleaning job.
An early-morning bunch of parachutists makes an appearance to the delight of the kids.
Back at the table, Isaac is doing his homework while Lila is attending to her coloring book.
I take a few minutes off to visit two restaurant supply stores at the end of the Avenida España in hopes of finding a cast-iron skillet for Omi Marga. I pass a pub where news of the tsunami's damage is on television. Surreal.
Isaac's homework done, and another page of his travel journal filled with pictures and text, it's time to head down to the pool. We take the inflatable raft given to us by Charlie and head on down.
Lila, the one usually immune to cold water - and the one who prefers the rather cool bath - eschewed the pool in favor of looking for nice shells and rocks. I have no idea how shells got a mile away from the beach...
But after a while, the combination of being tired, being cold, and being hungry for a snack takes its toll. I bundle her up and head through the Atlantis I foyer.
Everyone gets a burst of energy in the elevator. One nice thing about being in a land in which another language is spoken is that the kids learn. Two weeks into our trip the kids refer to the floor numbers in a random combination of English, Spanish, or German. And they don't even notice the melange.
It's a long time until our late evening meal, so we head over to C. C. Yumbo to a Spanish grill. It's not bad, I have to say.
The kids are a little jazzed up; they can tell there's some excitement and expectation in the air. They can't even wait for their food to arrive, both need to head across the way to another arcade.
Isaac finally gets a chance to sit upon one of these bar bulls. I push and shove the heavy thing around, trying to throw him off. I keep changing tactics, he keeps hitting the mat and jumping up to try again.
Lila, on the other hand, is climbing all over the carousel in all sorts of terrifying ways. Rose can't look.
Sometimes the kids like to race horses.
They burn off their excitement - and the late lunch - by climbing at the playground.
I have video footage of our dinner at Gisela & Rainer's Deutsche Gasthaus Atlantis and the fireworks from the roof. I'll try to rip some stills and video for this site.
At 23.45 I tried to wake the kids, as we'd promised. Lila just refused, turning over and burrowing into the Mama. Isaac woke, but didn't like the sounds of the fireworks, and refused to leave the apartment.
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