Day 20 - HAPPY 3rd BIRTHDAY COLIN!!!

Barcelona II

Shelby was so excited about it being Colin’s birthday he was up at 4:30 this morning. He woke me up about 5:30 and just after that decided to wake Colin up too. He put three candles in a blueberry muffin he got from the buffet while walking around the ship at 5am, lit them and woke Colin up with the birthday songs. This song, and this one, are family traditions in our house. You always get woke up on your birthday by these songs playing and you are then stuck with the goofy melodies in your head for the rest of the day (and likely the next few days…just listen and see, lol!). Colin was only slightly amused, totally confused and tired. We all got up and got ready and wanted to get an early start in Barcelona because there were a record twelve cruise ships docked at port today and it was going to be packed. First thing we did was hit up Starbucks, and then went over to the big market, La Boqueria to wander. Amazing fruits and veggies piled up, candies and goodies too. Meat and cheeses, including whole skinned rabbits for sale in the meat case, as well as every kind of seafood you can imagine. It’s so colorful and interesting to walk through, I LOVE markets in Europe. The flowers were incredible. Every kind you could think of and CHEAP! There were huge arranged bouquets with lilies, roses, and a variety of other flowers that would have been well over a $200 arrangement in the US and I had to ask the price just to satisfy my curiosity. I about fell over dead when the guy told me THIRTY EURO! If I had room in my suite for that thing on the boat I would have been carrying it on board for sure! I couldn’t believe it. It would have been at least 80 Euro in Germany for that kind of thing, and probably about $225+ in the States. Crazy! After the market we got on the bus to take us back over to La Familia Segrada so we could tour the inside. It opened at 9 AM and we got there about 9:30 and couldn’t believe the line to buy tickets was already wrapped around the block! I didn’t think waiting in it was going to be possible, but Shelby and Colin jumped in line to wait while I walked around the outside of the building to take the pictures I wanted to get. The line turned out to be moving pretty quickly for as long as it was and within an hour we had made it up to the booth to buy our tickets. It was totally worth it, the interior is amazing! The church became Antoni Gaudi’s passion and life’s work but it has been left incomplete since 1926 when Gaudi was run over by a tram and killed. In recent years a private organization has taken over the goal of completing it and it is being funded solely by anonymous donations and admissions to the church paid by tourists. Inside is truly a masterpiece, amazing and whimsical, very Gaudi-esque. After that we got some lunch and then headed to the aquarium there for Colin’s birthday. Colin slept through lunch (yay for tiny blessings!) and we woke him up once we were inside the aquarium standing in front of a tank with large fish in it. He opened his eyes a crack, saw the fish and shot up wide awake saying “Look, fish! I love fish!” We laughed hysterically. He enjoyed the aquarium but rushed through most of the tanks in search of the sharks. Having been at the beach and on the boat we’ve been talking a lot about sharks and he was more than ready to see some. He was very interested in them and didn’t care a whole lot about much else. After the aquarium we took a cab back to the boat and boarded a little bit early so that we could relax some and clean up for dinner. For dinner we went to one of the fancier special restaurants instead of the buffet since it was Colin’s birthday dinner. The stewards there were amazing and entertained Colin the whole time. They kept coming over with origami paper animals and making stuff for him, birds that really flapped their wings and frogs that really jumped. The majority of the dining room staff were from Indonesia and the Philippines and all had family and children back home. They sail 9 months out of the year so they really miss their families and loved seeing little kids on the boat. I imagine the money they make on the boat allows them to provide a pretty good life for their families back home. Colin wanted a chicken quesadilla, Shelby had an amazing filet and I savored every bite of my king crab legs. For dessert Colin got his own chocolate birthday cake brought to the table with candles and singing staff. After dinner he was able to go to the kids club, Club HAL, since he was officially three now. He was super excited to play with other kids and was known as “the birthday boy” all night. He got another birthday cake there too, spoiled boy! Shelby and I enjoyed some kid free time and went to the piano bar and had a few drinks. When we picked Colin up at 10 he was good and tired and so were we!