December 24 , 2018 – January 1, 2019

After 20+ hours of traveling, we arrived in Gran Canaria late evening on Christmas Eve. We picked up the rental car, shoved 5 humans and 5 large bags into a Renault Captur (just like a clown car), and headed to our rental house. There had been a huge storm the day before so the owner of the property was tidying things up when we arrived. He requested that we go grocery shopping then come back. We left for what we thought would be a 30 minute trip to the grocery store, little did we know that every store was already closed. Sleep deprived and hungry, we drove around the neighboring towns, looking for anything that was open. After driving around for at least 30 minutes we received a Christmas miracle, there was a little gas station that was still open! This was a very special gas station (to us at least); it had a lot of useful groceries and a little restaurant attached to it. After buying just about everything in the store (including my arms full of wine), we went to the little restaurant and had several beers and some fresh tapas. It wasn’t the Christmas Eve dinner we were planning, but we were pretty damn pleased, especially for $17.

Luckily, the rest of our trip was much smoother than that first evening.

We played games for hours and hours throughout the week; adult versions of Clue & Life (check them out, they’re hilarious!), Pandemic, Betrayal of Hill House, crib and set.

It was very relaxing; playing games and drinking by the pool.

We also spent a lot of time discussing the song Werewolves of London, due to the overwhelming dislike the group had for the song. Yet somehow, it became the theme song of our vacation. If you haven’t listened to that song in a while, please do so..it’s lyrics are strangely entertaining. I hope I have the song stuck in your heads now. 😉

On Christmas we had a wonderful dinner together, delicious food and wine at a restaurant located inside a beautiful park. Afterwards we went back to our place and played games and relaxed. The next day I taught the family how to make pierogies. It certainly was a team effort, but everyone liked them and they turned our very well!

Friday, Scott and I went scuba diving off the coast of Puerto de Mogán. We did two dives, one was a drift dive with a ton of cute baby puffer fish and the other was a wreck dive. The wreck dive was our favorite. The ship was a Dutch ship, used for drug trafficking, confiscated by the police. A tourist company bought the boat and sunk it intentionally. They have submarine tours of this wreck as a tourist activity. So, while we were down there, a submarine with tourists waving at us circled around us. It was a surreal experience. We felt like we were those little scuba dudes in fish tanks! We were fortunate enough to chat with some more expats and learned that the people living on the island are extremely helpful and kind people.

Saturday, we went into Las Palmas for a paella cooking class. It was through a platform called EatWith (which I highly recommend if you’re traveling and want a cool local experience). We went into the home of Adan & Fatima and shared lunch with them. Adan prepared the paella and explained the steps to make it. Meanwhile, we drank wine and delicious tapas with his wife, Fatima.

One of our favorites was  papas arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes) with mojo rojo sauce, a Canarian special.  It was a really amazing experience, eating with locals and getting to know the culture a bit more.

On Sunday, we went to Maspalomas. We had a quick breakfast and walked on their huge sand dunes before going sailing for the afternoon. We spent all afternoon on the sailboat operated by a German expat, whose family had vacationed and then opened up some businesses in the Canary Islands. We saw a ton of sea turtles swimming about and several whales as well. It was a wonderful day!

New Years Eve, we relaxed by the pool and played games for hours. At midnight we went outside and watched tons of fireworks. Our house was towards the top of a hill and the view was stunning, seeing all of the fireworks in nearby towns the whole way down to the coast.

New Years Day was our last day, so we packed everything up and headed to the airport.  And so starts the next adventure..