Maria's country house and the Oceanographic Museum

Another typical Spanish breakfast is toast, rubbed with garlic and topped with meat and cheese. It was really yummy, and something we'll probably serve at home again! I forgot to mention that we ate rotisserie chicken and potatoes from a local shop for dinner last night...the potatoes are some of the best I've ever eaten. They were cut in half, scored, sprinkled with salt and I'm not sure what else and turned just like the chicken. Heavenly!

I've also failed to mention that, for the most part, we've been speaking in Spanish this whole time! María and Will speak some English, but being that we need to work on our Spanish, we've been trying hard to use just Spanish. I am, quite frankly, shocked at how much our ability to understand and speak has improved in such a short period of time.

The Linguist is narrating now...After breakfast, María wanted to show us her country home near an orange grove.  It was quaint and what added to the ambiance was the sweet smell of orange blossoms.  After visiting her country home, we headed to Valencia to visit the "Oceanografic" museum.  It's part of a series of the impressive museum complex called the "Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencas" (the arts and sciences city) in Valencia.  The oceanografic is a marine-like park (similar to Sea World) that is not too big and not too small. We saw some of the most bizarre fish in the aquariums there.  There was an enormous one with a single fin on top and bottom that really was cool.  We also saw a tremendous sea lion that must have weighed a ton (literally).  When they howled, it sounded like a really loud, really long burp.  The entertainment value was great, the animals were super cool and we had a great time.  We'll have to finish visiting the rest of the museums next time we visit Spain.

All smiles!

Cool rays!

Sun fish...not like the ones we catch in the US that fit in your hand.

Close up of the mighty sun fish (Oceanografic) 

Belching seal.

Looks like a whale no?