Castle Dawson

How lazy are we?! We finally rolled out of bed around 9:30. I dressed, put on the coffee, and walked a couple of blocks to a local market for some freshly baked french loaves. Does breakfast get any better than that? Gabi drove back to NH this morning as she is to fly to Sao Paulo tonight. Despite the continuing cloudy skies the boys couldn't wait to get to the beach. We packed up all the essential beach supplies - buckets, shovels, sunscreen (wishful thinking), etc. and off we went. The water was actually not as chilly as I expected it to be so the boys and I waded in. After a little wave jumping we headed in to get started on what would be an awesome feat of engineering. Paul helped Lucca create a terrific sand castle complete with towers, a moat, and a tunnel. Bernie and I lent our expertise in water hauling...somebody has to do the grunt work afterall. After our engineers completed Castle Dawson, Bernie and I decided it would be a great idea to bury Lucca in the sand. He was a very cooperative subject...smile. Back home it was showers all around, lunch at a local "por kilo" restaurant, and an afternoon nap. We went to a nearby park that evening and tried our luck in a very LARGE swan shaped paddle boat. Paul's legs were "conveniently" too long to paddle so he and Bernie lounged in the back, Lucca took over the "helm", and I got saddled with the job of providing the manpower to get us across the lake. "How did you fare?", you might ask. Let me put it this way...our trip lasted approximately 5 minutes. Did I mention it was a VERY heavy paddle boat??? The boys were exceptionally good sports about the whole thing and decided that walking the perimeter of the lake would be almost as much fun...sweet boys! Our first full day came to a close around 10:30 that night (I'm sensing a pattern here) after several games of Chutes and Ladders (a game at which I do NOT excell by the way). The boys assured us they were not at all tired, but were sound asleep about 5 minutes after their heads hit their pillows. We all went to sleep hoping to see the sun tomorrow.