Saturday June 22

So today I took Nikki to see Pl. de Catalunya and we stopped by the department store to go to the supermarket before coming back to the house for the siesta.  Nikki is still mostly on Utah time and actually woke up in the middle of the night (between 3 and 6 this morning), so she was exhausted and ready for a nap.  We both think that the whole idea of a Spanish siesta agrees quite well with her!  In the afternoon I wanted to take Nikki to visit Parc de la Ciutadella to show her the Arc de Triomf and all the stuff I saw on my first weekend.  We made our own bocadillos and brought a picnic with us, which we ate sitting in front of the waterfall fountain.  We also visited the lake in the middle of the park.  It’s more like a large pond, but then again we are used to Lake Powell, Utah Lake, etc.  This lake was right next to the Parliament building, has been there since the 19^th century, and has had rowboats available for rent since then as well.  I, or course, knew this and had brought Nikki here with the express purpose of taking her out for a time on the lake, and it was a raving success (if I do say so myself!) 

We also got to enjoy watching all the people in the park: the people on the slack line, the bachelorette parties, the birthday parties, the families spending the night together, and the random performers.  Mostly they were musicians, but we did run into one of the giant bubble blowers who use a large loop of string to make ginormous bubbles!  On our way back through the Arc we found a troop of dancers who were doing a cool break dance routine, so we sat for a while to enjoy the show.  At one point, a little kid, maybe 2 or 3, wanted to dance so they let him come out and dance in the middle for everyone to watch and cheer.  It was pretty cute!  Before coming home we made sure to leave some time to grab a couple ice creams and walk around the block, just to enjoy the evening.