July 23: Water Fun and Date Night in Peniscola

Set the alarm so Beth and I could watch the sunrise, coming up from out of the ocean. Turns out our balcony faces due east, so we had a front row seat! We’ve been accustomed to sunsets in Bayfield Ontario most summers, but this might have been our first experience of a sunrise on water.

Reminded me of the morning prayers the Jewish characters say in “The Chosen” TV series:

• “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings sleep to my eyes, slumber to my eyelids. May it be Your will, Lord my God and God of my ancestors, that I lie down in peace and that I arise in peace.”

• “"I gratefully thank you, O living and eternal King, for You have returned my soul within me with compassion - abundant is Your faithfulness!"

Turns out our hotel doesn’t seem as overpriced today, in part because of the sunrise. But we also had breakfast included in the hotel restaurant, and it was a generous buffet that included unlimited fresh-squeezed orange juice! In addition, being hotel guests gave us access to a nearby waterpark; not as elaborate as the one in Paris, but still fun.

I hit a wall of low energy toward the end of our pool time, it hung on while Beth and Faith stopped to look at summer dresses again and we picked up some baguette for snack, and my wall didn’t lift until I had a 1.5 hour siesta. Meanwhile, Beth had some solo time at the beach, the kids found the Tintin movie on hotel TV (in English even).

After waking, I had to take some time to work through admin tasks related to our upcoming accommodation in Barcelona. Apparently it’s the law in Spain that hotels (and similar establishments) need to have all ID info on guests. So I’ve had to figure out how to send in photos of all our passports through digital portals, praying all the info is handled securely.

Beach time followed. More wavy water today; fun frisbee playing. Faith and Beth and I made a sand crab.

Decided tonight would be date night, hopefully to meet the aspiration of having paella by the ocean with my bride. Plans thwarted by heavy traffic on Sat night in central Peniscola; couldn’t find parking. Went back to the same parking lot by our hotel, and our spot was still vacant! Many people on the beach boardwalk at 10 pm, including families with young kids. There was even a puppet show busker entertaining them! Unfortunately, By the time we chose a restaurant back closer to our hotel, the cook was off for the night and couldn’t make paella. Settled for wine and dessert instead.

Beth and I had some good conversation reflecting on how we have come to collaborate as a team, whether it comes to parenting, projects like HtH, or travel. She tends to be a ‘big picture’ visionary and designer, and loves to do research on options, collecting ideas. But she also tends to want to include others in the decision-making, so there is shared responsibility for the outcome. She also often needs help in the feasibility analysis and technical execution, and those tend to be in my strength area.

While we were on date, Kids ate takeaway pizza and ice cream. There was a funny moment there about Thane being asked by hotel staff about needing his passport in order to get ice cream.