Twice on Sunday

Well...this is it. The countdown has begun. In two months my husband and I will be going overseas for a semester sabbatical.
Which would be a romantic and exotic adventure, if not for the fact that we are also including our three children. Their names are irrelevant, because they are duly defined by their ages.
There is a 15 year old girl (who seems to revel in the idea of celebrating her Sweet Sixteenth Birthday in Spain-or Germany the calendar is still open on where we will be that month), an 11-year-old boy whose voice threatens to change any second and refuses to discuss any one aspect of this trip, and a divine 9-year old girl who never causes an ounce of trouble. Really.

We have the children enrolled in Poudre Global Academy, and sent the Academy a mailing address to Vitoria, Spain so as to have the "huge boxes of curriculum" overseas and waiting for us when we arrive. Kudos to PGA for their open willingness to pay for what is to assuredly be a rather large postage fee.

While we wait, we do little things to prepare. We download Spanish lessons on our MP3 players. We watch various travel videos from the local library. Our favorite so far has been the bumbling Alex Riley, of the Globe Trekker series. Pilot Productions www.pilot.co.uk

His trip to Formentera is a cautionary tale, albeit,  seeing as its a nudist colony. Seeing as we just got done going through Human Growth and Development in the fifth grade curriculum, I doubt we need to revisit it so soon.                        

I also watched the first in the www.spainontheroadagain.com series with Gwyneth Paltrow and Mario Batali. Having seen her GOOP blog a few times, I know she is a talented writer and producer. But like many in the Hollywood profession, I question her comfortability with an unscripted plot. I understand there is lots to learn about the Spanish amores con alimento, and am not above learning from the well-heeled Paltrow. But for our first foray into into Spanish cuisine, I avoid all references to  Batali getting food poisoning from eating a half-cooked butterflied bit of chicken. The video was a bit long and a bit aggrandizing. Maybe you can only have  churros for breakfast with a large cup of coffee, but I am traveling with my family. Pour a shot of Bailey's in that cup of coffee and wrap that churro in a large slab of bacon ;). Protein is what makes the world go 'round.

Anyway...in the realm of travel videos, I have seen very few which compare to the ephemeral joy of two old friends exploring the world about them.
 Give me Ewan Macgregor and Charley Boorman on www.longwayround.com any day of the week. And twice on Sunday ;)