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Well we did it.  We got up and out extremely early to get to LAX for our 6:10 AM flight.  It was shocking to see, but the airport was packed.  Luckily our driver was a crazed madman and got us to the American Airlines terminal in plenty of time to catch our flight.

We purchased coach tickets and hoped to get upgraded to First Class thinking, who would want to go to St. Louis especially at 6:10 AM?  Well that question was quickly answered, lots of people!  Not only was First Class full but we were 9th and 10th on the list to be upgraded. Only a natural disaster would have allowed us to advance.  Who are these people and why in the world would they want to go to St. Louis?  Do they know something I don’t?  No worries we are comfortably crammed into coach.  So far I have only been hit 3 times by the flight attendants walking by and I am sure the 4 year old sitting behind me will eventually stop kicking my seat.  All that doesn’t matter, we are on vacation and I have internet access at 30,000 feet above Arizona.  Oops, we are over Colorado now.  This has been a fun flight so far having seen the Grand Canyon and now the Rockies (see below).

Patrice and I are excited about starting our trip and look forward to seeing the Pirates crush the Cardinals.  The baseball fans among you might be saying I am delusional since the Cards are loaded and off to a great start while the Bucs just dropped 2 out of 3 to the Cubbies.  Well things are different when we are at the game.  The Pirates have won 8 of the last 9 games I have attended (including coming back from 4-0 and 6-0 deficits in 2 of them) and they are 3-0 when Patrice is at the game).  Tonight will be no different.

Enough for now.  I need to get back to my book and try to not think about how to strangle a 4 year old.

Robert (sending this from 30,000 feet over the Earth’s surface.  Sorry I can’t get over how cool this is).

This is my first Travel Blog post.  I am quite thrilled that so many of you have subscribed.  Except for my mother, I have been quite astounded that anyone really cares about my trips or what I have to say.  What started out as a way for me to keep my mom in touch with her baby has grown into a labor of love.  I really enjoy the entries and find myself thinking about what to write during the day as I experience my trips.

I am just learning how to use the blog so things might not always look pretty.  So please accept my apologies for now if things don’t look very professional. Right now I will settle for goodish grammar.  Well, at least accurate shpelling.  I’ll try real hard to make good righting.

The plans for this trip started many months ago.  Those of you who have been on my email list since the 2012 “Hall of Fame Tour” recall that I enjoy baseball. I have long thought it would be fun to see a game in every Major League baseball stadium.  When the MLB schedule was unveiled and I saw that the Pirates would be in St. Louis in early May I said “Great!” and the National Park Tour was born.  After all baseball is played in a park and the Cardinals are in the National League so where better to start a National Park tour but in Busch Stadium in St. Louis?  Yes, yes, Patrice is with me so this will include those other less important kinds of national parks, but more about them later.

Our flight to St. Louis departs at 6:10 AM so goodnight to all.  This morning’s earthquake reminded me we were still in good old Los Angeles and it is time to get out of town.

Robert

To paraphrase Lennon and McCartney, “Been away so long we hardly knew the place, gee it’s great to be back home”.

Sorry about the little April Fool’s joke yesterday.  It certainly got a huge response so it is good to know that people are still readIng this drivel.

Today my life changed forever.  As most of you know I have had an ongoing love affair with the country of Spain. Today I met with a long time friend (Rodrigo Jiménez Hidalgo) who spoke with me about being an American living in Spain.  According to Rodrigo one needs to file a “Solicitud De Residencia Extranjera” to the Oficina de Inmigracion in Madrid.  Well lucky for me Rodrigo works there and my documents have been completed, filed and approved.

Another great day for the Reiss family in Spain.  We had a wonderful tour of the city of Santander with our guide, Pilar.  She was (like Esther in San Sebastián) very amenable to our needs.  She knew we were English speakers but when we tried to speak in Spanish she went with the flow.  The majority of her information was spoken in Spanish but she quickly added English when we lost our understanding.  One of the things she showed us that I found very intriguing were some remnants of trees that needed to be removed.  Apparently the local arborist is a sculptor as well.  He has crafted swans, chairs, mushrooms and elves from the residual stumps (see attached).  We also got to see the local lighthouse (did someone tip Pilar off about my lighthouse obsession?).

Today was a travel day and we left San Sebastián bright and early (that means at about noon here in Spain).  We then drove to Guernica a small town (population about 16,000) that is best known for being the site of a Nazi bombing (with the permission of Spanish Generalissimo Francisco Franco) on April 26, 1937.  In a 3 hour bombing raid 1,654 civilians were killed.  The bombing was the inspiration for the Picasso painting named for the town.  The painting’s meaning has had many interpretations but certainly the horrors of war are most prominent amongst its themes.  Picasso asked that it not be exhibited inSpain until the dictator (Franco) was removed and liberty and democracy had been established in the country.  It finally came to Spain in 1981 and now hangs in Museo Reina Sofia (in Madrid) but a mosaic replica is located in Guernica only steps from the memorial (see attached).

Today we had an 8 hour tour with our wonderful guide, Esther.  She gave us a fantastic tour of the town and pinxto bars yesterday and today we explored much of the surrounding communities and more of the city.

Today was our “Culinary Delight” Tour of the City.  The tour was due to start at 12 but lunch in this country doesn’t start until 2 pm.  So our wonderful tour guide showed us the various sites of the city.  We got to see the Cathedral (this is Spain, what is life without a cathedral?), shopping area, royal palace, ocean (this place has nothing on Hermosa Beach in regards to an ocean or beach) and then we moved on to the bars.

Erica and I got an early start and picked up our rental car. That went smoothly but the drive to pick up Lindsay and Patrice was a much different story.  I will spare you the gory details and just say we got back safely and did not kill any Spanish commuters in the process.