Peninsula Valdes - Days 1 & 2

One of the sales pitches we used to inspire Quinn and Jack to follow us to Buenos Aires is that we would arrive in winter and soon after take a trip to see snow (one of the other pitches was that Dad would donate his store of United miles to upgrade to business class and the lie-flat seats, which [full disclosure] is really one of the sales pitches said Dad uses to get the family to allow me to travel so much to referee, but you should see the cool, gray socks you get in the goody bags - Erin's a sucker for anything that keeps her toes warm!). Alas, when we arrived we realized that a trip to see snow wouldn't be great schedule-wise, somewhat because of the school schedule, but also because - of course - I went on another referee trip to Australia in August, not four or so weeks after we arrived. So we turned our sights toward a trip planned later in the school year for the boys.

So turning our sights away from snow, we planned a trip in the fall to Peninsula Valdes in Patagonia. If you've ever seen those Discovery Channel videos of orcas surfing waves onto the beach to chomp baby seals you were seeing Peninsula Valdes. It's the only place in the world where the orcas use this specific feeding strategy. The peninsula juts out from the mainland but then curls back around on both sides toward the mainland, forming two large bays, one on the north side, Golfo San José, and another on the south side of the peninsula, Golfo Nuevo, both of which have narrow openings to the Atlantic Ocean. It was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 and there is much wildlife and flora protected there.

Our adventure began with a 6:05am Aerolinas Argentinas flight out of Aeroparque Jorge Newberry, the domestic airport that is, thankfully, only a 10 minute taxi ride from our apartment. After sitting in an airport cafe and waking up with café con leche and some medialunas dulces, we boarded our flight and took off to Trelew. 1 1/2 hours later we landed in stiff, cold winds whipping along the arid, low-bush dotted Patagonian landscape in Trelew. From there we boarded a bus for drive to Puerto Madryn, along the shore of Golfo Nuevo.

We had booked a room at a hotel on the outskirts of town, on the beach, with a view of the gulf through our main and bathroom windows. Since we didn't have any tours planned for the first day, knowing the early wake-up time was going to leave us exhausted, we took a long nap and then headed into town to book a trip on our last day to Punta Tombo to see commerson's dolphins and magellanic penguins, and to make sure our tour the next morning was led by a bi-lingual guide. Once we had taken care of those appointments we wandered into a pharmacy. I had (have) been having lower back tightness/pain (undoubtedly caused by the stress of four work-less months in Argentina) and wanted to purchase something that would get me through the next day's tour; however, once we got in there, Erin smartly asked if we could purchase some antibiotics that would cure Jack's frequent ear infections and other flu attacks on the rest of us. No doctor's prescription, no worries; we walked out of there with medicine for my back and an armful of antibiotics that should last us until the end of 2013! After a stop for fruit smoothies and my daily doble in a mini-mall we had pizza and pasta dinner while watching the first of the Chilean miners ride to safety, then headed back to our hotel to sleep.

Our first day-long tour began at 8:00am with a few loops through town to pick up all the other tourists before we headed out of Puerto Madryn and along the shore of Golfo Nuevo toward Puerto Piramides and the Southern Right whale boat tour. The Patagonian landscape on the peninsula is mostly flat, filled with low bushes that hide maras, small rat/guinea-pig rodents that perch on their hind legs; guanacos, relatives of llamas; and rheas, big brown birds that resemble ostriches. The ride took a couple hours, but while we drove the guide told us about the history of the area and pointed out wildlife hiding in the bushes (and running when we stopped to take the blurry pictures we've included). The shoreline became elevated, so when we arrived at Puerto Piramides we descended to the small beach town in an arroyo between sandy cliffs and stopped near the water's edge. We were outfitted in life preservers, led to the beached boat, pushed backward into the water by a tractor much like an airplane being driven backward from the gate, and after the captain spun us 180º we motored out to the whales.

It didn't take long before we were seeing whale spouts in several places. The captain steered us toward a mother and her calf, and soon we pulled up right next to our first southern right whales. The most prominent feature of the whale are the callouses on their heads, and we got super close-up looks at the barnacle covered whales. The whales surfaced near the boat, posed calmly for pictures, and then dove, sometimes gliding just under us and over the other side. The whales were so peaceful that I had to squash the urge to jump in the water and swim with them by reminding myself that the water was freezing cold. Sometimes both mother and calf would offer a tail or a fluke for photos, but mostly they tolerated our presence, with the mothers being careful to stay between their babies and our boat.

We were on the water for about an hour or so before turning back to shore to shed our life preservers and board the bus and drive toward lunch and the elephant seals.

The tour company wisely breaks up the long driving day with stops along the way every hour-and-a-half or so. Lunch came at an estancia far out on the peninsula, where lamb seemed to be the featured offering, but after seeing so many sheep grazing alongside alcortas and maras Quinn and I opted for beef dishes so we didn't have to encounter relatives of our meal when we took off toward the elephant seals (every once in a while Jack expresses his sadness that animals have to die for us to eat, but soon the ol' "out of sight, out of mind" saying kicks in and we all eat guilt free).

By the time we reached the beach where the elephant seals sunbathe it was roughly 3pm. The beach lay below some pretty steep sand/clay cliffs, which we traversed by following a switchback trail three quarters of the way down. Jack was freaked out since it felt like we were clinging to the face of a cliff (which we kinda were, though for some reason it was perfectly safe) so I ended up carrying him down until we hit a spot where everyone could sit and observe the crowd of sleepy walrus-looking seals and their pups. Most of the animals lay motionless on the wet sand, conserving their energy after long swims from wherever it is they come. My understanding is that when they get hungry they have to swim miles for food, and there was a constant trickle of elephant seals surfing in to the beach to waddle through and sometimes over the other sunbathers, which elicited loud grunts and snorts of consternation but little actual effort to retaliate or move out of the way. They seemed to know that we were watching them from above - sometimes one would open an eye and peer up at us, but for the most part they couldn't have cared less. Conservation of energy, I guess.

With so much bus riding to do my concern was expenditure of energy, the boys' energy. So once back on top of the cliffs I set the boys off on laps around and through the bushes near the bus, timing them with exactitude that kept inspiring a subsequent effort, as each time they ran their times reflected a miraculous improvement, sometimes by tenths of a second. Amazing! After a pee break that included a lesson in aiming with and not into the stiff winds we were back on the bus for our last observation, a small colony of magellanic penguins. Since we saw a much larger colony the next day at Punta Tombo, I'm saving the penguins for the next post.



By the time we returned to Puerto Madryn we were tired but filled with chatter about all the wildlife we had seen. Opting for dinner at the hotel so we could shower the boys right away and fold them into bed, Erin and I cracked our books for only a few minutes before we, too, crashed hard like two worn and wasted elefantos marinos.

Biking

The boys had not done any biking since August, when I was in Australia, so Jack recently suggested that since the weather has been so warm and we had a free morning we should head to our old haunt, Los Bosques de Palermo, with its street closed to traffic that circles a small man-made lake, and ride again. What a great idea!

When we got to the people who rent bikes, Jack was overjoyed to see that there was one without training wheels that he could ride. Most of the small, kid-sized bicycles have training wheels on them, and since he's been riding without assistance for a couple years he is loathe to suffer the embarrassment of riding a "four-wheeler." Quinn chose a purple cruiser that was by far the coolest of the ones his size, and Erin and I both got steeds with high cool factors as well.

After three laps of the lake, a family record, our riding thirst was quenched, so we headed off for fútbol classes at Club de Amigos and the rest of our weekend.

By the way, I'm not sure who the young man with that patch of gray hair is in the video, but I'm pretty sure he was in the barber's chair just before I got in it earlier today and that the shop owner forgot to sweep up his cuttings before letting mine fall to the ground...

Jack Starts Fútbol

After two or three weekends of Iniciación Deportiva Minis class, Jack decided he no longer wanted to take part in it and asked if he could take a different class. We were sad because at the end of the last class he attended he was amusing his favorite profe by putting on a basketball dribbling and shooting show in the gym, with through-the-leg moves (you know, the kind where one lifts a leg high over and across the ball...) and a behind-the-back move that includes a quick quarter twist of his body to create the illusion that he's actually dribbling behind his back. We were all cracking up at him, and Erin and I started believing that he'd turned the corner and would no longer ask if he could switch to a different class. We were wrong; he still wanted to play fútbol instead.

The reason we hadn't signed him up for a fútbol class is that the youngest age group is for six-years-olds and at the time we joined the club Jack was still a month or so short of his fifth birthday. The only other option besides the Iniciación Deportiva Minis class was a swimming one, and with his ear infection issues we passed on that offering. We nevertheless told Jack we'd take him to fútbol with Quinn and see if they would allow him to join the youngest group.

Club de Amigos is the best; not only did they say he could play with the youngest group, his profe Manuel is awesome. On the first day he made sure that he continually checked in with Jack during the drills; quickly rescued Jack from a stint in the goal during the scrimmage, when one of the older boys made the not-so-brilliant decision to stick Jack in as the last line of defense; and encouraged Jack when it was his turn to take a penalty shot at the end of practice.

Jack's easily the shortest boy in the group, but the other boys cheer him on and I've never seen whoever partners with him during the drills look disappointed or get frustrated with such a tiny target when they pass. All of the six-year-olds encourage him enthusiastically, and last Sunday when practice ended two of the boys stayed late to play two-on-two against Jack and Quinn. We love the club because they espouse values such as good sportsmanship and fair play, and all the kids take the values to heart in their practice. We knew that Quinn would enjoy the classes every viernes, sabado and domingo, and we're even happier now that Jack is learning how to win and lose while he grows his skills as a fútbol player.

Temaikén

Okay, I have to admit publicly that Erin found us an excellent apartment, and some of you know why I'm admitting this publicly. For those of you who aren't family members, who had to suffer through our "negotiations," or those of you who talked me into letting go of my Palermo penthouse plan that day at the Elks Club, let me simply say that the penthouse would have required a looong walk to school and back during the winter months as well as a move after the two months it was available to the apartment we ended up with for the entire six months, which among other positive qualities is only about seventy-five steps from the boys' school. And the best part is that in December when Erin's family comes to visit, some of them will be staying in the same penthouse apartment, which means we'll still get to see it and hopefully enjoy the rooftop barbeque grill during a summer month!

(Thanks, Erin, you were right...this time)

But among the other positive qualities is the great landlady we have, Flavia, and her family. Erin and I have become good friends with Flavia and her husband, Fabio, and Quinn and Jack enjoy playing with Alessandro and Anahí, their two children. Though there's the language barrier for the children it doesn't seem to interfere at all with their having a lot of fun together, whether playing Crazy Eights in our apartment or fighting it out on the foosball table on their lanai.

Recently we took a bus out to Pilar, the suburb where they live, to join them for lunch and an afternoon at Temaikén, a large bio-park/zoo nearby. After we got into the park Jack consulted the park plan and decided that he wanted to see the bats as soon as possible. Along the way to the bat exhibit we saw meerkats, flamingos and various other animals, but we all agreed that the bat house was pretty amazing. Temaikén has done a great job of providing what appear to me to be quite authentic and animal-friendly homes for the animals, while making sure that they allow maximum visibility for the public. The aquarium area housed a Sea Life Park style tidepools-to-deep-ocean tank that we observed along a short walk. The deep ocean part of the tank featured two archways, one at the entrance and the other at the exit, that allowed us to walk "through" the tank and watch sharks and other large fish swim by over our heads. Very cool.


There were the usual animals one expects to see in all zoos or bio-parks, such as lions and tigers, and there were other animals like the tapir that we didn't at first recognize, especially because sometimes it didn't allow us to see it from its more recognizable end...

We loved being able to see the animals up close, though, and at the end of the afternoon all of us got to enjoy large cups of ice cream, which left everyone sticky but smiling. Quinn and I had a great adventure, when after finishing ice cream we went to wash our hands at the restrooms. Leaving the building we ran into a family of birds on the walkway and accidentally separated the four chicks from their parents. Actually, we didn't do much to separate them, the two adults actually flew away long before we were at all a threat, leaving their little charges to scatter, chirping loudly and looking around in frantic fear. Feeling guilty and also curious to see if the parents would ever return to rescue their young, Quinn and I sat down a short distance from the bushes where the young birds had hidden, and waited for the adults to return. Sure enough, within minutes the two adults landed on the roof of a nearby building, and after making sure that there were no other scary human predators emerging from the baño, flew the final few feet to the grass below, where the family was reunited and all the chicks were able to squeeze under the mother's (I think it was the female) soft plumage and hide. Coincidentally, at the same moment Erin and the rest of the gang walked up to me and Quinn (but rather than nuzzle under my protective arm Erin gave me Jack's still sticky hand to hold). Reunited, our family happily headed to the exits with Flavia, Fabio, Alessandro and Anahí, the friends that Erin's wise apartment senses found.

Colonia

As tourists in Argentina we have 90 days before we are obligated to renew our tourist visa in order to stay another 90 days. There are two ways we can renew our visa: leave the country for at least four hours, or head to microcentro (the city center area) and stand in lines to pay for a visa renewal. Since we spend countless hours standing in grocery store lines each week we opted to look into leaving the country, and we learned the the simplest way to do so is to take the ferry across the river to Colonia, Uruguay and walk around the town long enough to legally re-enter Argentina with a new lease on Buenos Aires life. Woo hoo!

The ferry company, Buquebus, offers two options for traveling across the river: the fast ferry, which takes one hour, and the slower one that takes three hours. So we booked seats for four on the fast ferry,departing at 8:45am, and a return at 4:30pm. The boys were excited but actually a little bit bummed out because they had to miss a day of school (a complaint Erin and I were happy to hear), but once we piled into the taxi with the long-haired, mate sipping driver who spoke a mile-a-minute and drove even faster, Quinn and Jack were all smiles.

The whole ferry terminal experience was impressive. The first line to check in moved quickly, and soon we were in the migraciones line to take care of leaving Argentina and entering Uruguay. Two customs officers sat next to each other in a small booth, first the Argentine woman who quickly scrutinized our passports and handed them to the Uruguayan customs officer who just as quickly peered into our pages and awarded us the official entry stamp. So efficient! Then we were on our way to the large waiting room with a view of the ferries, where we entertained the boys by reading a few chapters of Ramona and her Father from the Kindle app on our iPhones (not as good as reading from a real Kindle, but having destroyed our second fragile machine we are now reading off the phones and laptops).

There are two classes of service on the ferry, but we found no reason to sit in first class. As far as we could tell the only differences were that first class is on the second level of the ferry, one sits in a large chair in a group of three leather thrones surrounding a low, round table, and instead of getting up to stand in the fairly short and quick-moving snack bar line, one is served by a ferry attendant. None of the perks left us regretting not paying the few extra dollars. Our seats were also large and leather, and because we made sure to get to the front of the boarding line, the boys were rewarded with window seats. After Erin bought us a few medialunas for breakfast from the snack bar at the front of the seating area everyone was comfortable. The journey across the river was so quick that it took only one trip to the Duty Free store onboard (!) for me and the boys, and we were soon arriving in Colonia without any measurable peep from either Quinn or Jack!

Once we left the terminal building on the Uruguayan side we soon decided to walk toward the old town section of Colonia, an approximately ten block by five block neighborhood dotted with one or two-story buildings, small tourist shops and boutiques, and restaurants offering seafood or parilla meals. Some of the streets are cobblestoned with trees lining both sides, and for the most part tourists from the morning ferries seemed to be making up the bulk of the foot traffic.

Our first stop was along a harbor area where there were small sailboats moored and restaurants with shaded tables along the water. It was too early to sit down and eat anything, so Erin and I watched the second hand crawl around our watches while Jack chased ants along walls and Quinn kept asking how much longer until lunchtime. Wandering along the shore we saw the glass and bulb of the local lighthouse above some roofs and beelined toward it. When we got to the entrance we were disappointed to learn that only visitors eight-years-old and above were allowed inside and up the spiral staircase to the top. I heroically volunteered to remain behind with Jack while Erin and Quinn explored the heights, and Jack immediately registered his anger by picking up a small stone and chucking it in the direction of the man sitting inside the open door. Luckily he missed the doorway, the glass door propped open, and, therefore, the man sitting inside issuing tickets, hitting instead a large plastic garbage can next to the entrance, producing a loud bang that I immediately pretended I knew nothing about!

Once I took Jack more than a stone's throw's distance from the lighthouse, across the street and into a nearby alley, I entertained him by having him work on "throwing" a small piece of styrofoam into the wind and working on distance records. Of course, most of his attempts ended up landing behind him, which left Jack giggling hysterically and hurling his next attempt with even more vigor. Soon he had forgotten his anger at being excluded from the lighthouse adventure and all was well with him.

Soon we rejoined Quinn and Erin and sat down at a restaurant in a small square (it's visible behind Quinn in the picture of him atop the lighthouse), where we had a nearly two-hour meal that included time for Jack to sleep on Erin's shoulder while I had my daily cortado doble. After lunch we wandered through a few boutiques and killed our last hour eating ice cream along the main street leading back toward the ferry terminal. A short sugar-fueled walk later we were back at the Buquebus check-in counter and in line to hand our passports back to the Uruguayan and Argentine custom agents, the latter leaving us with another 90 days to spend in the country before we leave - we actually leave six days after our second allotment of 90 days, and at this point we're not sure whether we'll brave the lines in microcentro or pay whatever the fine for overstaying our welcome. Stay tuned!

Casimiro - A Parent's Dream!

Those of us in Hawaii who have taken our kids to Chuck E. Cheese know that there's a hint of a good idea there, but it usually falls short of being a great one. For one, I can't stand the barrage of video game noise at jet engine decibel levels; second, the food isn't exactly the healthiest; and most importantly, with young kids one has to be with them the entire time rather than being able to hide under a cone of silence or in some air conditioned room where ESPN or better yet non-stop water polo game videos are shown on huge HD television screens.

Well, Buenos Aires has the greatest alternative: Casimiro. This restaurant and others like it have a separate kids area that is filled with entertainment for children, their own eating area and menu, and best of all, supervision! We joined the Adams family for dinner a few weeks ago and enjoyed a five-hour-long mostly adults-only meal, while the children had a ball on their own.

As soon as we entered the restaurant the kids headed to the kids area, which is separated from the adult area by windows that are tinted to allow visibility but some sense of "privacy" for both sides. There were at least three or four young women who greeted the kids and right away began taking their dinner orders and showing them all the games and entertainment. Hanno, Paula, Erin and I sat contentedly, once the kids were situated and comfortable, for the rest of the night in our booth next to the tinted window and with a clear view of the asado area (it was a parilla, of course). We ordered appetizers and wine and enjoyed good conversation and a view of all the fun the kids were having.

Through the window we watched the kids draw with ample amounts of paper and colored pens, play on computers that had internet access (to be honest I'm not sure if they could "go" anywhere they chose...) and simple video games, run through an indoor play structure with the requisite ball pit they could dive into, and best of all dance together to music the young women played while leading the gang's "moves."

We enjoyed ourselves so much that while Erin and I had planned to be home by midnight, since I had to wake up early to depart the next morning on a seven-hour-long bus ride to referee a game in Santa Fe 400km away, we found ourselves standing on Av. Libertator at just after 1am hailing a taxi for the ten minute ride home!The boys had the best time - Jack left with some kind of lighting bolt and stitches painted on his left cheek, and Quinn was pooped from all the dancing and running around he and Tim did. Hanno, Paul, Erin and I had our first fairly uninterrupted adult conversation - the kids, usually Jack, would occasionally return to our table to deposit handfuls of hard candy they got as dance prizes - and for the first time in a while (well, since the last time I abandoned the family for a water polo trip) I wasn't cutting up the kids' meat or reminding one or both to chew with their mouths closed. If you listen closely to the video you'll hear Hanno talking about a slightly altered kid area viewing window where the lower half of the window is completely blocked so the kids can't see the adults (perhaps discouraging them from even considering running out to deposit candy on the dinner table) while still allowing the adults a clear view of their children having fun - not a bad idea, building on an already ideal family restaurant

At the end of the night I think we owed $40 pesos ($10 American) for the kids' meals and supervision - an amazing deal. I'm sure there's no way a restaurant like Casimiro would start up soon from scratch in Honolulu - not the way things are going economically at the present, at least - but I wonder if the Fun Factory or Chuck E. Cheese experience (if I'm ever forced against my will to go there again!) could be easily altered to resemble the both parent and kid-friendly model we're anxious to return to soon.

Villa Maria

September is a birthday month in our family, so after we convinced Jack not to have a birthday party here (actually, I think he still believes he'll have one, maybe when Erin's family and the cousins arrive in December...) we booked three days and two nights at an estancia just outside of the city and near the international airport. It's not a working estancia with livestock and guachos - we'll see one in December when everyone comes for Christmas - but we chose it because it looked relaxing for parents yet still entertaining for the boys. We were definitely correct - kudos to Erin for the find!

The house was a two story Tudor style villa in the middle of a very large property. We were kinda sad to see that they're actually in the process of developing a lot of the greater property, with plots for houses already laid out and a golf course in the plans. But driving into the main grounds we found ourselves surrounded by beautiful trees, large lawns, dirt roads that radiated out through bushes and trees, and even a small pond/lake and tennis court. In the main room we sat down to wait for Florencia, the manager, to show us to our room, and Quinn and Jack found the bar, poured themselves drinks and sat down in one of the large chairs. Luckily, Florencia was soon able to take us upstairs to our room and Jack could get into the tub and take the edge off!

Our room was amazing. We had to take the family suite because we were four, so we ended up with two bedrooms, two separate bathrooms (luckily, given the boys' drinking habits!) and a living room. The boys' room had only a king-sized bed, but they thought sharing was great (well, I had to demarcate their respective sides at one point but by nighttime all territory was forgotten). One of the other hits was that even the boys got bathrobes, which reached the floor, but that didn't stop Quinn from donning one before bed on the first night. Jack tried his on but it was waaaay too long, and so heavy that it was as if he was a one-boy caravan carrying a load of Egyptian cotton through the halls!

When we booked the reservation Erin and I were concerned that other guests would be bothered by the arrival of two young boys with a lot of enthusiasm for loud, boisterous play, but we were happy to see that there was only one other group of guests (a family of four with two twenty-something daughters) so we were able to stay out of their way most of the time. Phew!

On one side of the house there was an enormous lawn, almost two or three football fields of space, so the boys had ample room to run around playing tag and fútbol with Jack's new ball. He also got new Argentine/Messi jerseys, which he cycled through from one hour to the next. We found ourselves moving from fútbol to the tennis courts to the barn where there was a ping pong table and to the dirt road on bicycles.

It was great for the boys to be able to run outside and play as if they were back in the St. Louis Heights house with our little backyard and hiking trails. There was even swimming pool that they happened to be filling that weekend, since winter appeared to be coming to an end. Although the water they were filling it with was super cold we couldn't resist a chance to swim, our first since leaving home, so on the second day we grabbed towels and jumped in without asking permission. I've never seen Quinn move in the water as quickly as he did when he hit the water!

Meals were also incredible. In total we ate in three different locations: the veranda that opened out to the big lawn where the boys played, which meant that as soon as they were done eating (and sometimes between courses) they could leave me and Erin to actually have a little uninterrupted conversation (we were a little unsure how to do that the first time they left us alone!); the dining room, where we at dinner and breakfast; and once we had lunch on a lanai on the side of the house that had a view of the pool and the lake/pond. In true Argentine fashion there were not only the three regular meas but also a merienda tea between 5:00-7:00 or so, which helped us bridge the gap between lunch and dinner, which was served at 9:30. The food was delicious and on Jack's actual birthday Florencia and the other staff surprised him with a dulce de leche cake with candles and ice cream - muy rico!

One of the funniest things, though, was our horseback ride. On the first day we had gone on a carriage ride through the woods and along the dirt roads, so the gaucho-ish horse guy/guide knew us pretty well. On the second day after lunch and before Jack usually takes a short nap Florencia told us it was a good time for the horseback ride since the horses were ready and available. The boys were excited, especially when she brought out helmets for them to wear. Quinn got to sit on his own horse, though he was bummed because the guide held a rope that essentially tethered them together until the last couple minutes when he let Quinn's rope go and Quinn got to "steer" his own way back to the barn area. Jack got to sit in front of the guide since he isn't old enough to ride alone, and the man held him carefully against his chest so that Jack wasn't scared and didn't wobble off. About five minutes into the ride, the guide chuckled and gestured that we should check out Jack, who had been lulled to sleep by the slow gait of the horse (and his fully after-lunch belly) and was slumped forward like a drunk little man (as far as we know he hadn't made a quick trip back to the bar after finishing his meal!). He didn't wake up until we finished the ride - his first (and I'd bet, last) nap on the back of a horse!


The stay went quickly and soon we found ourselves climbing back into the remise and heading home. We made ourselves feel better by dreaming that maybe we'd return in November, but by then there will be more guests and we know we won't have the same experience (the other family only spent one night so we had the entire place to ourselves for the second night and third half day) so we've decided that we'll just enjoy the memories of Jack's 5th birthday at the beautiful Villa Maria and continue on to other great adventures.