A Passport is a Girl's Best Friend

Happy Thanksgiving! This year we were all over the Bay area celebrating with friends and family. For my family, we went up to Bodega Bay to the beach house for an abalone feed, shrimping on the boat, wine tasting, games and general merriment. Can't beat California coast sunsets Learning how to hunt for muscles in the dark We made a fox friend And with some deer our sweet ride The deck hands....not freezing cold at all The people who actually knew what they were doing I helped out a lot Look at all of those fresh shrimp! We also met some fat cuddly pygmy goats

We arrived in Madrid Tuesday night from our road trip. We originally couldn't find where we needed to return the car in Madrid, so we had a brilliant idea and thought we would drive to our apartment, park, check in and bring our bags to our new place. One thing we didn't think of, that meant driving in old town. Stressful to say the least. Finally, after figuring it all out and dropping off the car, we stumbled upon, wait for it, a gluten free tapas bar, Taberna la Concha !!! WITH bread AND beer! That made up for the past few hours. Another awesome note, our apartment is right down the street from the famous Plaza Mayor and about a 10 - 15 min walk to most things in the city. The view from our terrace After we walked back to the apartment and D started making me some tea, which somehow tripped the power breaker (#6,937 thing to go wrong today) so the owner told me the circuit breaker was on the 2nd floor. I went down to find it, only to find that everything is labeled ...

Today's roadmap After another amazing breakfast at our hotel, we packed up and left to move on to Phase VI of our trip, Madrid. Since we are driving that direction, I decided to make a stop at the historic fortified city, Cuenca, located in Castile–La Mancha in central Spain. The UNESCO site sits in between the gorges of the Júcar and Huécar rivers stands this town in Castile-La Mancha, home to an exceptional architectural heritage. Cathedral of Our Lady of Grace and Saint Julian Plaza Mayor The Castle Finally, we have arrived in Madrid! Things we learned The Spanish love their road signs... A lot. Any time they might have an excuse to use them, they do even when it makes the situation much more confusing. They give you plastic gloves to fill up your gas tank... And you don't pay in advance? Honor system? Company address' or any company signage, totally optional or is 100% OK to be completely wrong, and acknowledge i...

Our little mountain B&B Getting here was a little... funny to say the least. Everything was going fine, normal highways, rotaries to the 11th power, learning Spanish driving road signs and markings, some questionable Google directions (seriously Google?), but that is all to be expected in a road trip. The last 5 mins is where I pulled a classic Sarah (Chrissy, you'll appreciate this); when we had to exit the highway, go around one last round-a-bout, and then got directed onto a one lane dirt road, in the pitch black darkness of the mountains and had to drive for 3 or 4 miles with no way of turning around, all while praying that Google didn't just fuck us over. Well, we found my rural little B&B, and they weren't kidding when they said rural. Our initial impression was limited due to our arrival at night; however, in the morning, we could see how simply beautiful our surrounding were. Casa Rural Sharíqua is really an exquisite bed and breakfast is hidden in th...