Brae's 10th Birthday Adrenaline Adventure

We were fortunate enough to have a 4 day weekend for Brae's tenth birthday, so we decided to go adventuring. As we tend to do...we headed out the door with a pile of ideas, and no structured plan. While the kids were at school on Wednesday, we played the amazing game of tetris packing up the car for the weekend. Unfortunately, our rental car this month happened to be a Hyundai I10...which is quite tiny (by Canadian standards). We did however manage to fit 4 people with clothes for 4 days, plus camping gear, wetsuits...oh yes, and birthday presents (hidden of course). We headed to Tarifa, the most southern (and windiest) point of Spain. There, we walked down the dividing line of the Mediteranian and Atlantic oceans and got soaked by the waves crashing over the road. The wind was so strong, we struggled to stand up straight. We also got to watch some incredible kite surfers in action. I would love to try the sport, but these were definitely not beginner winds.

We didn't attempt kite surfing, but we did go landsailing which was a blast! For those who haven't heard of it, you sit in a three wheeled gokart with a sail attached to it, and it is very much like sailing except the ground is a little harder than water when you flip it. I was thrilled and shocked when we showed up and they gave us all our own landsailers, as I figured they would put an adult and a kid together. It was really great, because we each got to control how fast we went, and how extreme we took our turns. Shane and I pushed the limits, got them up on two wheels a few times, and eventually managed to each flip them, and then reined it in to keep our wheels mostly down. Jaedyn liked her wheels firmly on the ground and was the only one to maintain total control. Brae on the other hand, spent more time upside down than right side up! He pushed the limit, flipped, got back in and pushed a little harder. I think he flipped it at least five times.

We went to Bolonia and hiked past some cool Roman ruins and to the top of a massive sand dune. We had a blast leaping off the tops of the windswept ridges and landing on the steep banks of soft sand. The wind was blowing the sand so hard, that we were wishing we had goggles to keep it out of our eyes. We were all happy to have a long hot shower that night, as there was sand everywhere!

The next day we thought it would be fun to climb the rock of Gibraltor. Since the UK has not left the EU yet, we were shocked when we got turned away at the border for not having our passports on us. Oh well, live and learn. After getting kicked out of the country however, we did find a crazy fun playground with ziplines and rope bridges and super fun obstacles...so, we played at the park with the beautiful view of the rock of Gibraltor looming over us.

Determined not to let this minor set back ruin our weekend, we went for lunch and made a new secret plan while the kids were off playing. First we headed to Cadiz and explored the old town and seawall, then we headed north to Jerez where we took the kids gokarting, and since it was getting dark with a chance of rain, we booked a hotel with a pool for the next two nights instead of camping. We told the kids that because we stopped to go gokarting we were going to have to set up camp in the dark, but we would go out for dinner first at a nice restaurant in a hotel nearby. Jaedyn started to clue in on the plan, but we kept Brae confused right up to walking through the hotel room door.

We brought camping gear with us to save money on our weekend excursions, but so far we have not been thrilled with the campsites in Spain. They charge you per site + per person + per tent (we have 2 small tents) + per vehicle. This adds up quite quickly per night. The plots tend to be close together, on skarse grass/dirt with no picnic tables or cooking areas, and in off season the pools are shut down. The hotel room we got was a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen and indoor pool and spa. The amount we saved by cooking a few meals in our room actually made it cheaper than camping. Hmmm.

The next day we drove to Sanlucar de Guadiana, Spain where we took a zipline across a river to Alcoutim, Portugal (no passport required). The Zipline was 720m, crossed an international border, and went back an hour in time. Definitely a bucket list activity. While walking back to the car, we came across an archery booth, so naturally we had to have a friendly family competition. I will let one of the boys brag about who won....

The best part about visiting Portugal however was finding “Chickets Canela” or cinnamon gum for Shane. This is something you cannot get in Spain, so currently our only source is people coming to visit us, and trips to Portugal.

The next day, the boys booked me a massage which was lovely, but made me miss Crystal (my very fabulous and strong massage therapist) terribly. Then we headed to Huelva to see the replica ships of Cristobal Colon AKA Christopher Columbus. Unfortunately the site where the ships are located was under construction and fenced off, so we had to view them from a distance. Perhaps we will make it back with guests at a later date.

Although we ran into a few obstacles along the way, we had an action packed, fun filled adventure weekend.