Home es...

We are home from our (belated) honeymoon! Paris and Mauritius were amazing and we will be doing a post soon (after we go through over 1500 pictures and get settled back in at the casa) but it got us thinking about something. Where is our home? It's a simple question we get asked all the time, but it's getting harder and more complicated to answer.

The longer Graham is in the Navy (almost 8 years!) and the more we move (too many times to count!), the more difficult it becomes to define where "home" is. We can go home to the States and also home to Spain. There is the place where we were born, where we're from, and where we live. And there are many clichéd ways to define home:

Home is where the heart is.

or

Home is where you hang your hat.

And of course, in this lifestyle, the ever-popular:

Home is where the Navy sends you.

The truth is we have a collection of places that are special to us. Here's a quick rundown of some of the places where we have hung our sombrero, where the Navy has sent us, and/or where our heart is.

Semana Santa Procession

Easter in España is a major holiday. The country is predominantly Roman Catholic (Wikipedia says 94%) and that means Easter isn't just religious, it's also cultural. Many businesses close not just on Easter Sunday, but for a large part of the week before, and it is spring break for most school children. Each night of Semana Santa, or Holy Week, features church processions through the streets. Sevilla has the most well-known and largest processions, but most towns in Andalucia have their own. We went to downtown Puerto last week for some Tuesday night tapas hopping and to see one of the processions.

Rainy dias

The rain in Spain...doesn't just fall on the plain. It falls in Puerto, too. The weather here has been a combination of windy, gray, rainy, and generally dreary for a large part of the past week. It's not always sunshine and walks on the playa. And that also applies to our life aqui.

Puddle outside of our front door. Boo.

La Playa in January

We took a late afternoon walk on the playa today.  Chloe ran off some of her terrier energy, Graham collected beach finds, and Meghann took pictures.  We have been having some lovely winter weather here in España.  Hope you are having a feliz Sunday!

6 Months y Seaweed

When we first moved to Puerto, we heard about an amazing restaurant right here in town, called Aponiente.  We could hardly believe that the New York Times wrote an article naming it one of 10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride.  The thought of a Michelin-starred meal just minutos away in our tiny town was too bueno to be true. We knew we would have to check it out, we just needed the right excuse to go. Tuesday, the 3rd, was our 6-month anniversary (monthiversary?) so Graham made reservations!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hola 2012!  We've all said adios to 2011 (it was a good year - we got married, we moved to Spain, Graham learned to order a beer in Spanish) but the holiday season isn't over yet here in Spain.  While people in the States are already taking down their Christmas trees, putting away the Mannheim Steamroller CDs, and folding their ugly sweaters, the Spanish are still in full swing.