TravelStream™ news feed for member deserters on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/deserters en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:56:04 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/3/1231217460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/3/1231217460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/3/1231217460/tpod.html Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:56:04 -0500 Lil' Sweet

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Manama, Bahrain

Catalina had a fun and festive Christmas and New Year!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229762160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229762160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229762160/tpod.html Sun, 21 Dec 2008 08:03:49 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

Casrep (our boy cat) likes to protect his lil' sister!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229519700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229519700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229519700/tpod.html Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:17:36 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

More pics of our darling daughter!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229273640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229273640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229273640/tpod.html Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:13:14 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

We took some nice Christmas pics and Catalina had her first restaurant visit.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229175660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229175660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229175660/tpod.html Sat, 13 Dec 2008 08:44:19 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

Mommy and Catalina did a photoshoot this afternoon!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229071560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229071560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1229071560/tpod.html Fri, 12 Dec 2008 08:19:45 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

Catalina had her blood tests yesterday and took her fist bath. She did pretty well with her shots
but hated the bath!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228923840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228923840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228923840/tpod.html Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:49:22 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

Catalina is home safe and sound in her nest.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228801260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228801260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/2/1228801260/tpod.html Tue, 09 Dec 2008 10:25:08 -0500 Catalina Sol!

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Manama, Bahrain

27.5 hours of labor --> @ 4:29AM, Monday, December 8th, 2008; weighing in at 7.3 lbs, 20inches long...a healthy baby girl......Catalina Sol!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216241640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216241640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216241640/tpod.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 07:34:09 -0400 Espana

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Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and Canary Islands

So it's been a pretty awesome rest of the trip. I told you guys I would be back to try and fill in the gaps so here goes...

Went to Sitges and basically vegetated for a while. No phone, no internet, no alarm clocks...truly unplugged for a bunch of days. What a relief and release. At first the apprehension of being unplugged makes ya nervous...you just feel like there might be so much happening out there that you're not aware of. Then it starts to set in-----> that marvelous feeling of complete and utter freedom.

Sitges is an absolutely beautiful town along the coast of Spain. We got to know the city and the little shops and restaurants. Hung out the beach most of the time. Did some distance swimming (for me) along the coast in the Med. Snorkeled a bit...some pretty decent sized seabass are in abundance along the rocks, along with a ton of other more exotic looking creatures of the sea. Every now and then, you run into some topless folks and at some beaches...totally nude folks. Unfortenately the lot of them were gay...which to me infects the raw beauty of things with a bit of human unnaturalness. But, with a conscieous effort to look past it - I did. And thank God for the cleansing ability of the sea. :)

We also took the train a bit further south on the line to a stop called St. Vicent de Calders. This took us to a smaller, more local type of place and the beaches were massive compared to what we'd so far in Barcelona and Sitges. Best of all, there were tons of kitesurfers around Calafell... something not allowed on the beaches of Sitges and Barcelona (due to the amount of tourists). So this was a breath of fresh air...it was troublesome to not have the gear to go out because it was a perfect beach for it.

Lots of campgrounds around for vacationers...mostly aimed at the family crowd. Booked far enough in advance, the cabana's at these campgrounds would be a pretty cost efficient way of travel if we were to ever to do it again.

On the train back to Sitges, we felt the baby kick for the first time. Pretty wild feeling. It was actually pretty active once we could feel it. Another thing to note about the trains, is that throughout the trip...little bands would come onto the trains and play folk tunes. It was the coolest thing...

Back in Sitges we got some rain our last night there which was really cool... There was a percussion festival during the rain storm which consisted of about a dozen percussion teams rolling through the village streets on their instruments. Was pretty cool. The train-ride back to Barcelona was surreal...it was too bad we had to leave. Sitges sort of became our home and it was like pulling off duct tape from your skin to leave. Back in Barcelona, we rolled through the sights of Pablo Espana, the olympic stadium area,
museam of contemporary art
, and other odds and ends of the city
. It was just cool to relax at some of the vistas around town
...didn't want to take it too rough, because the baby was starting to feel heavy for Steph. We were going to go and see a bull fight, but while we were in line, there was a guy who was protesting the cruelty of animals and Steph got sad, so we decided we didn't want to go and watch it. That damned guy.


To be honest though, we were both exhausted from the trip. It was either time to go back down to Sitges and max out our credit card...or come home and rest.

It was a blast. Can't wait to go back and bring our kitesurfing gear next time!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216151820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216151820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/deserters/1/1216151820/tpod.html Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:08:40 -0400 Espana

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Saint Vincent de Calders, Spain and Canary Islands

So we went off the grid for a while when we were in Sitges for a few days and then ventured out to some surrounding areas further south and west from there.

It is our last day here...and were back in Barcelona so I wont be blogging too much. However, I will fill in some of the blanks when we get back!

Adios!
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