Madrid

For years, we laughed when my Father would fall asleep at the
table after finishing a meal.  Apparently, the problem is
genetic.

I had leave this week, and we went to visit Madrid, Spain.  It's a great place to visit with a family.  We rented an apartment a block from the Prada Museum.  Each morning, we had breakfast at the apartment before moving out for the day.  We were staying close enough to walk throughout the city center to see the Palace Real, Plaza Mayor, and the Prada Museum.  It's not exactly like Rome where there are so many things to see that you are constantly on the move.  That kind of makes it nice with small kids.  We could go back to the apartment for a siesta (and did a couple of days).  We could walk at Isaac's pace.  Emily loved the shopping.  I enjoyed watching the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace.  You don't see a guard detail with mounted cavalry, infantry, and a canon very often.  For the first time in several years, we only visited one church on a trip.

We did notice that the city of Madrid puts a lot of effort into keeping the streets clean.  It was one of the first things we noticed when we got out of the taxi.  We had rain a couple of days, which gave Isaac the opportunity to sprint ahead and jump into puddles.  Claire took a step without holding onto anything in the apartment.  We're counting it as her first step even though I didn't see it.