Kernovich Abroad: Canary Islands

We had an unbelievable time in the Canary Islands over Easter Break. We only had time to go to one of the islands and after a bit of research I chose Lanzarote. It seemed to be the most untouched and relaxed island of them and we weren't disappointed. We flew out early Thursday morning and were a little nervous about how Tyler would do on the flight considering we had to pull him out of bed at 4:45am, it was a 4 hour flight, and he is a lot less happy with being confined these days. He ended up being a complete angel and sat contently on our lap through most of the trip. There were a ton of kids on the flight, and most of them were unhappy so we felt pretty good about the journey out. We hopped in our little Seat rental and made out way to Playa Blanca where we were staying. It was a stick shift little Euro vehicle and I was impressed with JJ's driving skills in another foreign country. The only hiccup we had is we couldn't for the life of us figure out how to reverse it - the gear just wouldn't allow you to get to the reverse position. Feeling a little foolish, but stuck in a place where reverse was the only option, we googled "How to reverse a car in Europe" and it turns out you have to press down on the stick to get it in reverse. Who knew?

The landscape of Lanzarote was breathtaking. It had some serious volcanic activity in the 1800s and because of little wind, rain, and development the environment looks a lot like it did just after the volcanoes with black rock against the beautiful blue ocean. We found our hotel and settled Tyler in for a much needed nap. Nap time let JJ and I escape to the pool near our room to enjoy the sunshine. The weather was absolutely perfect there - 80 during the day and it got a little chilly at night but not below 60 degrees. The rest of the day was spent exploring our resort and the area of the island we were near.

We only had two full days on the island so we decided to make Friday our adventure day and Saturday our relax day. On Friday we woke up with Tyler at the usual 6:30am time and set off to get breakfast. We quickly realized that Spain was not quite on our (well Tyler's) same schedule. Breakfast didn't start until 8am and the resort was a ghost town. We were the first to eat right when they opened and then went in for a dip in the pool. Again, we had the whole pool area to ourselves all morning as the Spaniards continued their siesta. Tyler LOVED the water. He loved kicking and getting tossed around by JJ. He didn't want to leave but the pool wasn't that warm yet and after about 10 minutes his little teeth started chattering and his lips started to turn blue so that was our cue to leave. We set off to see the Timanfaya National Park. This was the site of most of the volcano activity and they only let their organized coach buses drive through the park in an effort to preserve it. The drive in was beautiful and at the gathering point of the park they were doing demonstrations about how hot it still is there under the surface. There were guides there that threw brush into a pit and it immediately caught on fire and they also dumped a kettle of water down a hole which turned into a geyser. We loaded the coach bus for the tour. As a mom now, I'm constantly thinking ahead on how I can entertain my child while he is confined with other people. For the coach bus I had Spanish animal crackers, milk, 3 books and a few toys (my bag always weighs a thousand lbs now - how do moms with multiple kids do it?) and prayed that he would make it the 30 minutes. It worked and he was good and I managed to take a few pictures too. The real adventure happened as we were leaving the park and saw the camels. Now we were pushing Tyler's awake time as his afternoon nap was approaching and he also needed to eat lunch. But, it seemed that we couldn't turn down the opportunity for a family camel ride up a volcano, right? In the back of my mind I kept thinking this was a bad idea (and I could tell that JJ did too) but I pushed to do it and before you knew it we were up on the camel! Tyler had no idea what was going on but at times he pet the camel like he would his stuffed animals and since he was tired he didn't put up too much of a fuss to stay on JJ's lap. Our camel was good, I think they put us on an old one because she was really slow, but there was a particularly frisky camel behind us. You could tell that camel behind was not pleased with how slow our camel was going and it started to inch up. This meant that it was sniffing JJ's feet and at one point sticking it's head up my backside. So that made the ride interesting. After 20 minutes the ride was over and we were off the wild animal and I could breathe again, thankful that it wasn't a disaster and that Tyler didn't fall. We headed back for nap/pool time and then got dressed again and headed to El Golfo. I had read about this area and there was supposed to be great views of the ocean and Lago Verde (the green lake). There were tons of points to stop on the road and take pictures and it reminded us of the incredible views we had seen in Hawaii and Cape Town. We went around 5pm so the sun was starting to set and the colors were amazing. Tyler loved walking around the rocky terrain and exploring. One thing that JJ and I really love about foreign countries is that there are not as many rules and warnings. We could walk right out to the cliffs and really feel close to nature. We ate dinner right there overlooking the ocean and saw another beautiful sunset.

Saturday was our pool/beach day and Tyler continued to love being in the water. Every time a wave came we would stand there and wave his arms and give these excited little grunts that were adorable. He was also interested in playing a little Spanish "futbol" that the kids were playing on the beach. We had lunch at a great spot on the marina that gave you bread to feed the fish. We mistakenly tried to get Tyler to feed them before lunch, but since he was hungry he just kept putting the stale bread in his mouth. He did much better after lunch and didn't want to stop feeding the fish. We had another lovely oceanfront, sunset view, dinner and were sad to leave this beautiful island. Overall it was a great trip with just the right amount of relaxation and adventure.

The flight home was a much different story than the flight there. I knew we were dealing with a ticking time-bomb since we had Tyler out late every night for dinner (again the Spanish aren't on our eating schedule - we were the only ones at dinner every night at 6:30pm and it took forever to eat a meal since they are much more relaxed about dining there) and he didn't nap as long as he's used to. He was a mess on the plane, crying a lot, trying to escape walking the aisles, etc. RyanAir was a horrible airline to fly with a toddler too. The flight attendants were not really trying to make life easier and they kept walking the stupid cart up and down the aisles the whole flight, making it nearly impossible for Tyler to walk around. Because it's a budget airline they charge for everything and try to make money off people in flight. So they had a beverage cart, a snack cart, and then a weird cart with duty-free items like smokeless cigarettes, perfume, etc. People kept buying things so there was constantly a cart right in front of our seat. Because Tyler is obsessed with his dad right now, that meant JJ had to figure out how to keep him happy all 4 hours. So JJ was especially exhausted getting off the plane.

It was a little depressing to come home to cold, dark, windy London. Monday JJ was off for another bank holiday so we all bundled up in winter coats and went to check out the Easter carnival that was happening in the park by us. We didn't stay long because it was too cold. I hope spring makes it here some day but it sure was nice to get away for our spring break! Regardless of the weather here in London, I can't help feeling so blessed again that we get to see all of these amazing places as a family. This is the 2 year adventure of a lifetime!

PS - sorry for the ridiculous amount of photos below.

Welcome to Lanzarote! Tyler is showing off his American belly :)

Playa Blanca beach

Me and my big man (he quickly started crying after this picture to get back in Dad's arms)

Sangria de cava (de cava means sparkling wine) at the hotel bar!

Drive up to Timanfaya

Tyler horsing around in the car seat. I think he actually liked being back in the car.

Entrance to Timanfaya National Park

Demonstration of the fire just about 10 feet below the surface.

Volcano crater view from the bus

Oblivious to the cool sights outside the bus, but happy so that's all that matters!

The Kerns at Timanfaya

Here camel, camel!

Sucking his thumb on the camel ride

The Kerns ride a camel!

The only way up this volcano is by camel!

Stopping point by El Golfo

Ocean pondering

Another beautiful stopping point.

More ocean pondering

El Lago Verde - right by the ocean

I love this picture of my boys strolling by the ocean!

Tyler loved walking on all the black pebbles. He would stop and pick them up to inspect them

El Lago Verde

Checking out the ocean

Big boy wanted to walk all the way up himself!

Loving the oceanfront dining experience!

Sunset over the town of El Golfo

Big T!

Big T loves exploring

He loves getting tossed by dad!

OK dad, I'm going to go explore!

Another beautiful sunset

Our little fish

This was paradise!

"Hello? Wait, what? Michigan beat Kansas last night in OT? All while I was sleeping? No way! I know, Trey Burke is amazing!"

Here fishy, fishy!

Tyler got a real kick out of feeding the fish - hopefully this video link worked

Although it would have been perfectly acceptable for me to be topless since lots of other women were, I was not - just can't see the strapless bikini in this picture!