Anyone who has ever visited Barcelona has always had wonderful comments of this city, but for me it is a special place. My father was born here, and unfortunately it now has been over 20 years since his passing. Many of the people I knew growing up are now deceased, but I still have my cousins Marta and Carles who I was excited to reconnect with. Ryan and Wesley had first met my family when they were not quite two, and on a second time on a sailing adventure when they were about seven. I wanted to have them meet my family here, and feel that they know they have "aunts and uncles" here, just as they have been fortunate to meet their relatives in Chile. Dave as well has met my cousins, but it has been a number of years since he had seen them as well.

We pulled into Port Forum, just outside central Barcelona and settled ourselves into cleaning and reorganizing after a three-day passage. Carles and his wife Magda, and Marta had just returned from their month long August vacation, typical of most of the time off for Spaniards. Our timing was excellent to reconnect with them. After a few phone calls, we would go to their home for a typical Spanish dish, paella.

Carles and Marta came to pick us up on Saturday, and we came to the apartment, where our noses were delighted with the delicious aroma of paella created by Magda. Their daughter Carla was also able to join the get together. What a lovely afternoon to be surrounded by family members I've known now for almost fifty years! I first met my cousins at age two. Carles, a few years older than me, recalls the first time he met me. He says we were eating paella, and I decided to smear the rice all over the floor and table. This time, I did not let one grain of rice escape my taste buds. Later, we went to see my Aunt Pepita, who has unfortunately become very incapacitated with advanced Parkinson's. Her speaking and physical limitations are extreme, but her eyes lit up when she saw me. She struggled to enunciate some words, but sadly they were indiscernible, yet I do feel she did recognize me. It was a special time to share with her, a time I will remember and treasure.

That evening we had invited everyone to the Gone Native. We had planned to eat fish that we had just caught on our passage, but our bellies were still full from lunch. Instead we had wine, aperitifs and appetizers. We showed them our website and recounted the last three years. Carles is quite the mariner himself. For years he had a sailboat, not joking...named Desiree! He sailed regularly to the Balearics and Tunisia. However, with time his hobbies switched to bike riding and golf. As the evening progressed, I think we ignited his sea interest, and he now speaks about heading back to ocean adventures.

Our night ended in typical Spanish fashion at 1AM. We will go visit them Monday morning at their family shop before our departure that evening. There is an excellent window of clear weather, and unfortunately we must take advantage of this opportunity. We still have 1000nauical miles to get to the Canaries, and the push is on for me to catch an airplane home on October 7 for a few short weeks to put some hours at Family to Family Medical Center.