Tenerife!

For my 30th birthday Murphey sent me away for 7 days (actually 9 with travel time) to the spanish Canary Islands. My friend Darcie invited me on this trip just after I had Nora, to celebrate our birthdays. Hers is Nov. 11, mine is Nov. 2. It worked out well, we left the states on my birthday and returned on her birthday!

We spent all 7 days on the island of Tenerife. The Canary Islands are off the northern coast of Africa. It was absolutely gorgeous there. There is plenty to do there, enough to occupy one for more than a week. We had a great time exploring the beaches, food, wine, culture and the large volcano in the middle of the island, El Teide.

We didn't know what to expect, since the Canary Islands are a popular holiday destination for British and other europeans. We were so happy to discover that not everyone spoke english and we had to practice our Spanish. I also discovered that so far, the Spanish accent is much easier for me to understand than the Mexican, Puerto Rican or Cuban accent! It was great! We learned so much and now I know that "bomba de sacar leches" is breastpump in Spanish! (Long story short, I left mine in Heathrow airport on the way TO Tenerife and had to get a replacement once we arrived).

I guess not many americans wander over to Tenerife, so we were somewhat of a novelty. The people were so hospitable and kind and after asking around we were able to discover what beaches and restaurants the locals preferred. The food there is absolutely amazing. I have never eaten such sweet juicy tomatoes, and thankfully they were served with just about everything. We got to eat lots of spanish tortilla, avocado, tomatoes, olives and cheese. I managed to make it the whole week without accidentally eating rabbit, which is one of the most popular dishes. I did mistakenly eat veal, but at that point I was just glad it wasn't rabbit.
There was a bit of a learning curve for us that went with dining out at a restaurant. First, do not wait to be seated, just walk in and find a table. Second, do not wait for the waitstaff to bring you your check, you will sit there all night. Not once did we get a check without asking for it.

All in all, it was an amazing week, and I had such a great time. It was terribly hard to be away from Nora and Murphey, but Darcie was so supportive and I knew that Nora was being well taken care of by Murphey and Charlotte.

You can see my pictures, I put them on a flickr account. To see the descriptions I've put with some of the pictures, don't do the slide show, just double click on the 1st picture in the set and you see each picture individually from there. You can see them by clicking on this link here.
(These are just the pictures from my camera. Darcie has more that I will share with you when I get them.)

Pictures of our hotel/resort