Yes, this is a kid blog. But, every once in a decade, Mom and Dad get a vacation sans kids. And this time, we’re going to Barcelona.
Lucky us, i’m here on roller derby business as the representative for the WFTDA Board of Directors at the first European Derby Conference. Super exciting stuff, but before that, Ben and I are checking out Barcelona. Today is day two. So far, we’ve done a lot of walking and eating. And I don’t see much changing over the next few days.
Tonight, we went on a tapas tour of the city with an excellent guide (Javier) and met some rad people who we plan to meet up with tomorrow.
The excitement started back in LA when I got these pictures with LA Kings head coach, Darryl Sutter at the Canadian Air gate. He’s clearly into it. Nice guy.
Ben has no idea I’m taking our picture with Coach Sutter.
After many, many hours in the air and through customs we arrived to our hotel where we were treated with complimentary Sangria on the balcony.
The first restaurant we hit was Cuidad Condal. This is where we were first introduced to Catalan bread, basically a light airy bread, rubbed with garlic and topped with tomato and oil. This has now become a staple of our cuisine.
After eating we did our best to not fall asleep so we could acclimate quickly to the time change. We went back to the hotel, hung out by the pool and read. Then walked Las Rambla and ended up at the Plaza de Rieal where we had our dinner tapas. This picture was taken from our seats.
The general square had a lot of government buildings, Refugees are Welcome here (unlike our own country). 
Random art. This is a basket ball net, we think. Ben is at the bottom.
Walking back from lunch, we stumble across El Born Cultural Center that has the remains of the seige of 1714, where the Catalons fell to the Spanish in the War of Spanish Succession.
It’s Pride Week! We avoided the parade, but came across a lot of revelers.
Gorgeous market in La Rambla.
Saturday we opted for a light lunch at Lonja De Tapas, knowing we would head out later. Sangraia, bread, salad and grilled octopus. SO GOOD.
We tried to go to the Cathedral of Barcelona but I was not dressed appropriately. No shorts or undressed shoulders. We’ll try again tomorrow. 
On Saturday night, we went on Food Tour of Barcelona. The restaurants we visited were: 2254 Restaurant, Cu-Cut and La Bodegueta. At 2254 we had Vermouth and tapas. We were doing a lot of talking and not a lot of picture taking, lo siento. Here’s a couple shots we did get:
Green Olives with dried orange and a shot of Campari. This was not a favorite.
Here we have foi gras made up to look like an ice cream cone. It did not taste like an ice cream cone.
