Water Toys, Tent setup & Family Wine Tasting

Second day on the island turned out to be hot and sunny and the Spanish were eager to try all of the water toys- kayaks and wave runners. While they were playing in the water I was watching the rentals for the reception arrive and the tent set up. It all went very well, all the rentals arrived and the tent looked good.

Kayaking

Wave Runner- Pepo

Natalia

Mari Carmen

For dinner we headed to the cabin my mom and her side of the family rented in Freeland, on the island. The weekend of the reception is usually my dad's side family reunion and my mom's is usually the week before. So when planning the reception I wanted to make it for the same dates as the reunions so all the family could come and wouldn't have to make an extra trip. So not only did we have wedding activities, we had family reunion activities as well. 

This year we participated in a blind wine tasting. My grandma's favorite wine is a low-cost wine (never say cheap) and she believes it is the best wine and we are stupid for paying more since all wines taste the same. So my mom and aunt decided to have a blind tasting with all the family to see how it ranks. We all had 7 wines to taste and had a grand old time but we were split down the middle on the understanding of how to rate the wines. Half rated it one way and the other half another so we ended up being very confused and it didn't really work but we had fun anyway!

After we enjoyed a very southern American meal of ribs, corn on the cob, mac & cheese and salad. I miss America!

Pepo gettin the party started and opening the wine

Our 7 Wines

All the testers

Spanish think we are weird but they'll drink anything

Chef Clarice cooking up some ribs

Cangrejo!

We left for Whidbey on Wednesday so I could prepare and organize for the reception and so the Spanish could catch crab! We were lucky to have nice weather and we needed to enjoy that as much as possible since it would soon be ending. We all enjoyed the sunny ferry ride to the island and once we arrived to the cabin we headed straight for the boat to go out and check the crab pots.

Ferry ride to Whidbey Island

Arriving in Clinton

This was the first time Pepo, Mari Carmen and Natalia had been in the boat and caught crab. So Pablo and my dad helped teach Pepo how to pull up the crab pots, take out the crabs, (which he had no problem with and it was a little scary how fearless he was), rebait the pots and then drop them back in. I think we got around 7 crab first time out.

Ready to catch cangrejo!

After we gathered our catch and dropped the pots, we took a tour around the bay and headed over to baby island to check out the seals. The tide was high so most of the seals were up on the beach tanning themselves. I don't think I have ever seen that many at one time before so it was pretty cool. Dad drove the boat really close and we got some great pictures.

The Americans

Seals on Baby Island

Back at the cabin, the Spanish got the customary lesson on how to clean and cook the crab. They were all very good students and Mari Carmen just jumped right in and was a cleaning pro.

Cleaning the crab

Cooked crab

Relaxing in Mill Creek

Our first day in American we spent in Mill Creek at my mom's house. We relaxed in the backyard, took a walk in the nature preserve and had a BBQ with the family. It was so nice to be home where everything is familiar and comforting! It is also fun to share my American culture and life with my spanish family. Their reactions, questions and opinions are pretty entertaining. 

walk in the nature preserve

Lilly meeting the Spanish

Backyard BBQ

Steak

Teaching the Spanish how to throw the football

Whirlwind Trip to Seattle

We had a great but busy trip to Seattle and I can't believe we are already back in Madrid and it is all over. We are busy trying to organize our lives, our photos and wedding presents so I'll slowly be posting all our adventures very soon!

Here is adventure number one:

Our trip to Seattle was quite an adventure because we ended up being delayed 3 hours, on the plane, in Philadelphia. Our day started out fine as we all made it to the airport, checked in, made it through security and to our gate and left on time. Pablo and his family were concerned about customs in Philly because they had problems the last time they flew through there and almost missed their connection. I passed customs no problem and went to find our bags. After about 10 minutes the spanish passed through and made it into the USA. 

We collected all of our bags and proceeded to the next flight. We bought Philly cheese-steak sandwiches for the flight (they don't serve food) and boarded the plane. When we were all boarded they told us had a broken light in the cockpit and someone had to come fix it, they finally did and we left for the runway, waited an hour in line to take off (rush hour), we were then told, after an hour, the light went out again and went back to the gate, fixed the light again, waited forever for the fuel truck to arrive to refuel, headed back out to the runway, waited in line again, finally took off, made it to Seattle 3 hours late. It was hellish but we were in Seattle!

Half our luggage!

Leaving on a jet plane

Made it to Philadelphia