These shoes were made for walkin'...walkin' to the beach and the countryside...ending with my eighth round of...PAELLA!!!

On Friday, the "Mando-Man" took us to visit a couple of shoe factories in order for us to get a taste of the economical side of Spain. The factories we visited were Panama Jack´s (predominately a hiking/recreational boot factory, which hopefully got your attention, DAD!) and Pikolino´s which makes virtuously all types of shoes from the finest materials and machines. We saw a 3-D video (complete with glasses) in the Pikolinos factory which explained the import-export business in Elche (the main city). I found out that the Panama Jack factory in America is known as Panama Joe´s. Have any of you heard of it, by any chance?

On Saturday I went back to Santa Pola via bus at 10:30 am and stopped by the mercadillos (open-air markets; swapmeets) to pick up Alexis´Christmas gift.....shhhhhhhhhhhhh.............I´m not saying another word...................................not until Christmas, so hang in there, baby! We spent the entire day at the beach along with Luciano once again, had lunch, spent the night (pretty much the same routine), but instead of heading home on Sunday we stopped by the countryside to visit my Spanish "extended family" (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, you name it!) of which I took a photo that you all will soon see. There was a swimming pool, so we all took a dip both before and after we feasted on my eighth round of YOU-KNOW-WHAT! The house was so interesting! The cooking facilities were old-fashioned-looking complete with stove and bread oven! There was an olive tree overlooking the pool so again I was reminded of the Man praying in the groves before sacrificing His life for us all.