Victory in Hearts

So here I am, in a hotel room, perched on a cliff with a majestic view of the Bay of Biscay on the Basque Coast in Spain.

I am muy estatic (I am speaking Spanglish, which M may have described in one of her earlier posts) after my victory in a family round of the card game hearts that followed an amazing dinner at the Chateau that we stayed in in Bordeaux (bored- oh) last night. As I like to say, I wasn't BORED EAUXT of my mind. Haha. Anyway. Hearts. Victory. Right.

The reason I won is because I "shot the moon." In other words, I got every single point, and when that happens, you can subtract 26 points from your score or-- you know what? Anyone who is reading this must have possesion of a computer, so look it up and save the time of typing, because I type about 6-8 words a minute. In other words, a snail could finish a marathon before I can finish typing a school paper. The point is, I won for the first time.

I was in an especially good mood before playing Hearts because of the fabulous outdoors dinner we had just eaten. It started off with a tiny mug of canteloupe soup with 3 little "amuse bouches" (things you can eat in one bite.) One was literally a slice of a pig in a blanket on a stick. There was one that was a little spinach and white bean tartlet. The final one was something that resembled a mini pie shell filled with tomato cous cous. It was delicious. The rest of the dishes consisted of tomatoes and mozzarella, roast chicken, vegetable clafouti (a tart full of zucchini, cheese, and tomatoes, an awesome cheese course, and some mango tiramisu. I arrived feeling as if I could eat a cow, and left feeling like if I ate another bite I would spontaneously combust.

It's a good thing we had a light lunch today that M described earlier.

Well, my work here is done. Now that we're in Spain, I get to say "ADIOS!" -K

Pinxtos' FAQs: What are they? How do I pronounce them?

Today while traveling to our hotel in the city Mutriku, we took a several-hour stop in San Sebastian. Between gelato, watching people go boating, and visiting the aquarium, it was a fun trip. However, my favorite part was lunch: pinxtos. "Pinxtos?" you ask. "What are they?" Well, for those of you who don't know, pinxtos (peench-tohs) are tasty little snacks that the Spanish eat many of for lunch. We stopped at three pinxto spots including the Iberian-ham loving La Cepa (Google it). At these places we ate tortillas with potatoes, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, mariscos--aka seafood, salmon pizza, and Iberian ham sandwiches. Iberian hams are happy little pigs who are fed only acorns so that they are tastier than the usual happy little pig.These were quite a lunch, making me sigh with delight and inspiring me to repeat one of my favorite sayings: "My stomach is a happy stomach." I'm sure you would have found these delicious as well. We are resting at the hotel to make room for our late-night Spanish-style dinner. (Hopefully Mom will let us go to the spa tomorrow!!) Hasta luego! xo, M