McGaffs On The Fly

We made it home yesterday afternoon about 4pm but not before we spent one last day in Madrid. The hotel was big $$$$ and probably the worst hotel we’ve stayed at in all of our European ventures . But, what a great location…I guess that’s what we were really paying for anyway.

We couldn’t leave Spain without Joanie having at least one “Artsy Fartsy Day” and our last day was that day. We started at the Banksy Museum then took advantage of the free Tuesday night offer with thousands of others to enjoy the Prado Museum.

Until we are off again, this…is…the…end.

We joined up with Big Dick and Brenda and spent the day checking out downtown Seville. The girls decided they could not go back to the US without a bounty from Zara so Dick and I checked out the local beer varieties while they took a short time to shop. That “short time” became a “long time” and the few varieties became quite a few, Dick consuming a few Big Boys and I with my usual one chica beer.

The wedding was beautiful and well served.

With a Persian theme, the evening started with champagne then a wonderful symbolic wedding in which both families participated. While waiting for the couple to take photos we were served so many appetizers I had to pull a “no mas” once I found out we were eating dinner too.

After dinner, and more symbolic events and dancing, we were taken to another building (built in 1925) for an evening of treats and dancing. The good news is that we were in no hurry because the event center was booked until 5am. It was indeed a late and wonderful night…and no, we did not shut it down.

Onto Madrid in the am and then back home Wednesday.

For the past 2 days in Seville we have been putting on the steps to check out the city. Our hotel is away from the main city so most of the time we taxi into downtown then walk from there.

Just like a lot of cities across the world, weekends are a time for family and it is no different here. Everywhere we walk to there are families enjoying the beautiful weather, the difference here is that they do it well into the night. It is not unusual to walk around strollers at 11pm at night. Maybe it happens in the US but I’m already asleep?!

Two more days here then on to Madrid…

Long, but quick, day yesterday.

We took an early train from Cádiz to Seville and checked into our hotel that is only a short distance from the wedding site for Saturday and Monday. After a quick siesta (don’t want to upset the customs), we took a taxi downtown to catch up with the wedding crew.

Our dinner was wonderful, with wonderful friends, then we met on the rooftop for a last minute party. The scene in downtown Seville was same as Cádiz but on steroids, seems everyone and anyone was there. Being responsible adults that we are, we took an early leave at 11 and headed back to the hotel…we’ll see how long we continue to be responsible while we’re here!

Since we spent the last few days putting mega steps on our feet we decided to make Thursday a chill day and take it easy. As usual, we started out with the great hotel breakfast then took a casual stroll towards the Cathedral to check out that scene.

The Cádiz Cathedral took over 116 years to build and was finished in 1838, seems just like yesterday. As you walk inside the first thing you see is netting stretching across the entire top of the interior. My first thought was “what a great way to keep birds out” then you notice stones and mortar from the ceiling has dropped into the net. Guess they don’t make them like the used to.

Last night we bid farewell to the Cádiz food scene by visiting a local favorite bar and ordering several tapas with the help of my second BFf…Translator GO. We do have several favorites but it seems that whatever we do we cannot order the same thing twice. No matter, surprises are good.

Me…”Do I eat the whole shrimp, or peel it?”

Waiter…”You eat the whole thing, head and all.”

Me…”Awesome, that is deliciousosy.”

Joan…”No bueno, I’m out.”

Marc…”Bueno, more for Marco.”

On to Seville in the am…

We asked my new best friend, ChatGPT, for suggestions of what to do with a full day in this beautiful coastal city. Among the highlights were,

Lunch at the Central Market. Nothing like the one in Texas, great selection of local foods as well as just about any type of seafood imaginable. We chose several with sangria.

Walk the streets of old town. Seems like the whole city is old town and we did our best to get as many steps in as possible.

Act like a local and take a siesta. Probably my favorite suggestion from my bestie, the locals shut everything down from 2-5 so it’s not like we could say no. We followed up the downtime with some great pool time.

Do a tapas crawl. After a great wind down time we had the energy to start our crawl at 8:30 then crawl into bed a little after 11pm. We had great tapas and wine with relatively cheap prices followed by an unexpected concert in front of the cathedral. The city is more alive after dark than during the day, even young children are playing late at night.

One more day here, what to do next ChatBff?

We are less than 48 hours into our latest adventure and we’ve already had our share of PTA&F’s, although we know we have more coming.

We left Newland on Monday morning to fly out of Charlotte but not before stopping by Nordstroms to return over $$$$ worth of women’s clothes. Apparently the 2026 woman just keeps ordering online until something (and size) catches her fancy, all I know is that we personally paid for at least one UPS driver this year.

As always, and always with AA, our flight to Madrid was over an hour late. No problem though. We were able to catch our train, after a 45 minute cab ride, with at least 4 minutes to spare…we were never worried. Our scheduled 5 hour train arrived on Europe time almost 6 hours later, I guess someone was using the same tracks?!

But…we are in Cadiz, Spain at a beautiful hotel overlooking the Gulf of Cadiz (name for now) for the next 3 nights.

Last night we used our little feetsies to check out the town, try out their Sangria and feast on tapas. Although most restaurants here don’t open until 8:30 (my winding down time), we were able to find a few bars to try out.

Great start to…more…coming.

Pulling Little Al behind my Ford F150 is a pretty easy task since he weighs less than 4,000 lbs. On our way back to Texas, however, a wind storm in Las Cruces made the drive a little more treacherous. I wasn’t concerned about pulling, I was more concerned about Little Al having a “great fall” (ie: flip over) and “all the kings horses and all the kings men” not being able to put Marco and Joanie back together again. We got through it, but not without some nervous excitement!

The plan was to visit Grapevine Lake for a night with the girls but wind, weather, and a desire to get home canceled those plans.

The worst part, sometime best part, of our trips is the driving to get to where we are going. Parts of New Mexico and Arizona are beautiful and we get mesmerized by the views while listening to either books on tape or podcasts.

The drive through west Texas…not so mesmerizing! The roads on I20 through Midland/Odessa are the absolute worst of our trip and there is not enough super glue to hold our cabinets in place during that drive. And the traffic on the road is mainly tractors pulling tankers while using at least 1 1/2 lanes or Landmen in white pickup trucks either going 95 or 45 mph. Why don’t you make a show about that Taylor Sheridan?

We are back in Austin with a 2 month countdown to Adult Summer Camp in NC and a weather forecast of 86 degrees today. Where next to find that 70 degree weather we yearn for?

Ok, we made it home…more on that later…just catching up.

We had a great 3 days in Tubac and were able to play golf 2 of them, it rained us out on Tuesday. Tubac has 27 holes so we got to try each 9 hole course out and leave our wake of sprayed shots and divots. Since we did watch Tin Cup in preparation for the visit we knew exactly what we had to do…right, hit at least one ball in the pond.

On our “rainout day” I did some research and decided that a quick drive south to visit Nogales would be a great time. The Chamber of Commerce created a nice story of a wonderful shopping and cultural experience within walking distance of the border. It seemed so nice we couldn’t resist. Long story short (short story long?), the only time we stepped out of the truck is when we saw a Baskin Robbin’s when leaving town and were able to get Joan’s favorite Jamocha Almond Fudge scoop. I do recommend BR…maybe not Nogales.

Almost done with this trip…but not yet…

We spent our last 2 days in Phoenix cramming in all that we had planned to do when we arrived. Since it was the weekend, we decided against the elevated golf course rates and did something that wouldn’t cost as much…shopping and eating.

We of course had to stop by our annual Italian run to Andreoli Trattoria to share the best salad and Italian sausage sandwich. If it was ever a hidden gem it certainly is not now, the wait for their mouthwatering food has doubled since we started visiting…no matter we waited. And of course we had to go by Matt’s Big Breakfast because what could be a better way to start off your morning than to eat 5 pounds of pancakes smothered in syrup? Marc had eggs and ham…Joanie is now pre-diabetic.

After a Saturday night run back to We-Ko-Pa Casino to take back some of our money, we awoke Sunday morning and headed to Tubac Golf Resort. We were able to get a late tee time and were matched up with a great golfing couple…Hugh and Chris. We enjoyed our time so much we may go to see them in Tahoe, they may come see us in NC, or we may never see each other the rest of our lives…but there is a plan.

Enjoying Tubac, golf for 2 more days.