So the first half of the trip, we stayed outside of Palma in the mountains. We went on day trips from there, checking out some mountain cities. It ended up being really good to be close to the city because Cora was sick and just got worse and worse. We took her to the hospital, and I ended up staying with her for 3 days. She was hooked to an i.v., and my only goal was to keep her from pulling that thing out of her arm. We spoke a mixture of german, english, and a few spanish words with nurses and doctors: it was a crazy experience. We all pretty much got the stomach bug that Cora had, but she just got so dehydrated: she was unhappy, didn't feel like eating, and wouldn't drink anything. It was a trip that was overall not very great, but with moments of coolness.
Ice cream helped to make moments of coolness. This little city we visited, Valldemossa, was a nice chance to walk around.
Cora was interested in being more mobile, though we wanted her to stay in the stroller so that we could be more mobile :) We tried to really go out even though she was sick, because kids don't seem to take a break even if you stay home, and hey, we were on a spanish island.
This was the cathedral in Palma: we went on a morning trip into the city. The kids, once again, loved the headphone museum thing.
Outside the cathedral in Palma.
This was Fornalutx, a little village tucked into the mountains. We were there early in the morning, so it was rather empty. It was tough deciding what to go see, so we just drove until we found something interesting. This was a nice one.
We spent a lot of time just letting the boys run around.
And this was them proudly displaying their brand new toothbrushes, because we forgot theirs.
Then we drove down to Torrent de Parreis. It wasn't a long drive distance-wise, but there are so many switchbacks and it is such a popular bike route that it took us over 2 hours. We must have passed at least 2 or 3 hundred roadbikers on our way. On the way back, it was getting dark and we made the same drive in 40 minutes.
We parked at the port, got some food, and walked over to the entrance of the canyon. Online there are a bunch of warnings about hiking the canyon and getting stuck and everything. It kind of spooked us. But when we got there, we hiked up a bit and we wished we had gone straight there and done the hike. I think being from families growing up in Utah with backpacking and canyoneering, we have a different baseline about what is really dangerous and what isn't (for better or for worse).
We felt like we were back in southern Utah again: hiking through a river in a canyon. Not quite red rock, but we still felt at home.
Just at the entrance of the gorge was the ocean. I was dying to go swimming, but it was pretty chilly and rough seas.
The second half of the trip we stayed at a little resort area on the eastern side of the island. We switched hotels while Cora and I were still at the hospital, but we weren't too far from the city still. The Stapleton's aren't really fond of taking vacations where there are loads of people, and there were loads of people there. But it was probably the best thing for us, because one of us could roll out of bed, take the kids across the street to the beach, then roll back into bed while the other rolls out for their shift. The water was really cold, but I borrowed a full-body wet suit from Bertram at work, so I was one of the only ones out in the water snorkeling. We went on a hike around a nearby state park along the coast:
This was Cora a few days after the hospitalization. This is how she looked "on the way to recovery," so you can imagine how it was in the thick of things!
So it was very pretty country, but the illness just got the best of us on this one. Katie spent all this time planning for our last European adventure, and we sort of endured it rather than enjoying it. But we still salute RyanAir, for making possible exotic-sounding trips on a less-than exotic budget!
