David's Diary: Saturday, April 13, 2002

Clouds and Ears

When you come from rainy Vancouver, it is hard to appreciate how much the Spanish are affected by a rainy day. Take today for example. The day is cloudy and overcast, but it is not raining. Yesterday, we heard about an outdoor fair, one of the largest traveling fairs in Europe, which is in Palma until the end of the weekend.

We followed the river which runs beside the original fortified wall of Palma until off in the distance we could see the Ferris wheel and other tall rides of the fair. But when we got there, the fair looked like a ghost town. Almost all of the rides were closed and the five of us looked like a crowd. We wandered around looking at all of the closed attractions and realized that the Spanish truly stay inside if it is rainy or cloudy. We wonder what they would make of Vancouver in the winter.

Not all was lost. We did double rides on the bumper cars pitting Greer family member against Greer family member. We had some spectacular crashes (there are some advantages to being the largest member of the family) and afterwards we stopped for hamburgers and hot dogs. We did feel badly for the tour operators who no doubt count on Palma's fine weather to guarantee good turnout at the fair every day. That certainly didn't happen this year.

Pierced Ears

After our visit to the fair Karalee and Jocelyn headed off into town. We had agreed that Jocelyn could get her ears pierced when we returned to Vancouver. Now that we've decided to stay in the Mediterranean for another year, we decided that Jocelyn could get her ears pierced now. In Spain, ears are pierced at the pharmacy and it took only a few moments for Jocelyn to have hers done. Maybe it's just time together on the boat or perhaps it's just that she's almost a teenager, but she seems to be growing up so fast.