Aug 16-24 South of France
Aug 24-29 Porto, Lisbon, Faro
Aug 29- Sept 7. Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily
Sept 7-14 Croatia
Sept 14-17 Slovenia
Sept 17-21 Budapest
Sept 22- Oct 6 Greece or Turkey
Oct 6-20 Greece or Turkey

By November we hope to be out of Europe and onto Egypt, Dubai, and other countries in Africa.

We’ve only been on the road for 4 weeks, but we’ve had our second visitor. On her way to a yoga retreat in Italy, Tracy decided to stop in on us to check out the scene in Nerja, and dance her way through the town! First, there was the all-night dancing at Tutti Fruitti square, then the next night Tracy went on stage and danced Flemenco!

It’s 90 degrees by mid-morning, but we have to go fishing when its low-tide. Today that means 11:43am. My family and I haven’t been fishing in many years together, and I was looking forward to it. Last night my dad set a crab trap on the pier behind their place, and by 11pm we couldn’t wait any longer to check on our catch… nothing. By the time morning rolled around, the bait was gone and the crab trap was empty.

This morning we drove out to a bridge close to St Pete Beach, and got our fishing nets ready. We were going crabbing! My parents got right into the water and started hunting crabs. You see, it’s better to go when it’s low tide so the water is more shallow and there is better visibility. Basically, you walk very slowly through nasty, murky water until you see something. Using the fishing net (think butterfly catcher) you scoop from the bottom up into the crab, and voile! the crab falls right into the net.

It took all of 5 minutes before I got into the nasty water, thankfully I got new sandals that have very thick soles, so I didn’t have to really touch anything on the bottom. The crabs blend into the grassy, cloudy-bottom water, but when I spotted one, I was thrilled! But in a way, the crab looked like it had been watching me all along. When the grass moved with the tide, and the crab became visible, I felt like it had its eyes on me. Turns out it was mating with another crab, and who knows what was really on its mind… We each caught a few crabs, and my parents got a bunch of sea urchins and conch. Mike was wondering why the sea urchins were moving. Have you ever seen one? They are prickly-looking balls, but the prickly things are the tentacles. Crazy what types of creatures live in the sea. These are all things we eat…well, maybe just some of us eat them…

{photo above is a 8 foot grouper we saw at the Georgia Aquarium earlier this week}

… on I95, driving to St. Petersburg FL. We’re dropping christine’s car off at her parent’s condo and figured we’d catch a few games of shuffleboard and see how we blend in with our fellow retirees while we’re at it. -posted from the road on my non-iphone.

Its mind numbing work and by the third hour of chopping, a word kept coming into my mind, “chamara”. I don’t even know if this is the right way to say it, but in my mind it’s right. My entire life my mom would always say to me in Korean, “chamara” which essentially means to calm down, relax and get your wits together. It’s an odd word that doesn’t really translate so well in English, but often I think about it when I am doing something that I don’t want to, or when I start to feel impatient or frustrated. When I was young I hated this word, but now the word is comforting in an odd sort of way.

I guess I’m pretty good at prepping the food, though since Michael, one of the chefs half-heartedly offered me a job as a prep cook. I’ll have to pass up the offer. As it is if I never see another wheel of manchego or quince paste again, I wouldn’t be disappointed. I love to dine out and so for all of the line cooks and prep cooks out there, this one goes out to you…thank you so much for preparing and making my food!

Bar Ferdinand is a Spanish tapas restaurant Mike and I frequent, spending many late nights there, probably drinking more than eating. But either way, the dishes are great which keeps us coming back for more. I’m not really working, but really just volunteering my time a few hours in the mornings; chopping, peeling and making empanadas. Since my working knowledge of a professional kitchen is nil, I try to squeeze as much out of the executive chef, Blake as he is willing to pass on(hopefully he won’t mind I put his url link in). Today, I actually got to do something more creative– to help work on a sauce for the lamb empanada special. I came back in the evening to try it, and thought the empanada was tasty, and the sauce that accompanied it was pretty good, too!

The last few years, I’ve spent my Sundays evenings getting a jump start on the week by reviewing the velocity and sales reports. I can’t say I miss this Sunday ritual. I now get to stay up late and sleep in on Mondays. These days, the only thing I wonder about is when will I ever start packing?? and how will I get a years’ worth of clothes into one little backpack??