Michelle's Beach Birthday

So still the evening of Monday, August 4th after a crazy day on 3 hours of sleep, Victor and I packed up the car with a ton of stuff and Michelle and headed down to my favorite place in the world, La Herradura. We got there and unloaded the car which only moved the disaster of stuff I had brought from one place to another, but it sufficed. Then we went to the best bar in the pueblo, La Barrica. We got tapas and a rosco for dinner. The bar was packed as always but we totally succeeded and got a table and 3 chairs, because of positve thinking and because it was Michelle's birthday eve. After dinner we then headed back up to the house and freshened up. It had been a long, stinky, hot day. Then we were invited up to Santi and Antonio's house for a botellon. They have a beautiful house right on the sea cliff so its always nice to go there. It was pretty fun, but after sitting for a while, I started to feel the effects of 3 hours of sleep and such a hectic day and I was getting really tired. It was also the first time all the summer beach friends were reunited so they had a lot of catching up to do that left Michelle and I a little out of the loop. We were there till probably 3AM, before going home and going straight to bed, all in all a wonderful welcome back to the world of La Herradura.

Tuesday August 5th Michelle and I woke up and I finally let her open her present. She put on her birthday crown and really liked her gift. After opening it up, we wrapped it up again so that she could open it up again when Victor woke up. Then we went to the bakery to get some delicious baked goods for breakfast and woke Victor up to eat with us. Then Michelle and I headed down to the beach for a bit. When Victor finally headed down for a swim, we had to go to the grocery store to get food for lunch that day. We made tacos, with some of my spices that Aunt Lisa had sent me for Christmas, which turned our really good. I had been saving all my American treats to share with Victor and Michelle because I knew they would appreciate it. After lunch and Michelle reopening her present for Victor, we took the mandatory siesta and later headed back down to the beach. When it got dark, we headed up and showered and ordered some pizzas for dinner. We were going to go out to La Cochera for a drink and some music, but Michelle got hooked on Criminal Minds and we ended up watching around 3 hours of that and going to bed. It was good and hopefully a really fun birthday for Michelle.

Wednesday August 6th, I woke up and went to the store. Victor's beach friend, Maria, had invited us to a potluck bbq at her house that day and I had volunteered to make potato salad. After getting the ingredients for the potato salad, Michelle had woken up and we went to the bakery again for breakfast food. Then Michelle headed down to the beach, and I made the salad. Then we all went down and we met up with Wali and Fabiola, who were also going to the bbq. Then all 5 of us headed up to Maria's huge, impressive house and enjoyed the bbq and pool. There were a lot of people there that I knew, but also a lot that I didn't know. Thankfully, my potato salad was a huge success!! Lots of people kept going back for seconds or thirds and there was only a little bit left at the end of the day. I love it when people enjoy American dishes that I make. There was a lot of delicious food there, meat, fish, and salads. Unfortunately, we had to take Michelle back to the bus stop so she could get ready and be back for work on time, so we did that. As we were leaving we saw a really cool cameleon walking across the driveway and saw it changing colors. Back down in the pueblo, we stopped by the bakery, one last time, and dropped her off at the bus stop. I love Michelle and I know it was hard for her to spend a lot of time alone in Granada this summer, but I really hope she had a great birthday weekend with us at the beach.