Amigos in Barcelona: Tues., Aug. 20th

We had great ambitions to wake up at 7:30 this morning so we could be at the Sagrada Familia by 9 to beat the lines. Instead, the following occurred:

4:30am - go to bed

5:35am - Corinne crawls over Rosie to turn off Rosie's weekday alarm that goes off at 5:30am. After confirming (just barely) that it isn't Corinne's 7:30am alarm, all resume sleeping. 

7:30am - Corinne's alarm probably went off.

10:30am - Corinne wakes up with a phone smothered under her pillow and Rosie still asleep beside her. Plan B for the day commences. 

So we had a walking tour at 1pm. We used the hostel Internet to book tickets to Sagrada Familia at 5pm for a guided tour and Casa Milá for an entrance at 7pm. Impressively, everything we wanted to see was lining up exactly for the day.

We wandered through the Boqueria at about 11, where Rosie bought some fruit juice from one of the stalls in the marketplace there. 

We next found a mural by Mirò in the center of La Ramblas, followed by a bakery shop for an Americano (Rosie) and an apple tartlet (Corinne). We walked past the Palau de Güell, but just admired the outside as we already had two Gaudi works lined up for the day. We instead spent our money on sunscreen and a ham sandwich (where "ham" is more like prosciutto).

Our walking tour covered the Gothic Quarter, which was perfect since we hasn't been wandering around there as much as Las Ramblas. We saw the square where over 30 people, including children from the orphanage next door, had died during a bomb squad. There was still cracks and pock markers from the blast.

We stopped at the corner of two alley where Els Quatre Gats, where Picasso and his contemporaries hung out and drank absinthe. It was also designed in the Modernisme fashion (Neo-Gothic Modernisme by Josep Puig i Cadafalch). 

When we walked into Plaça Nova, we were greeted by a giant advertisement with Iggy Pop. However, underneath there is a frieze designed by Picasso that secretly depicts Catalonian traditions even as it was commissioned by Franco while he oppressed Catalonian culture.

There was also the impressive cathedral. We learned about Barcelona's two patron saints. The first, St. Jordi (George) was famous for slaying dragons. "Slaying dragons," apparently, is a metaphor for killing off other religions and their followers. In George's day, the last of the Muslim Moors disappeared, and he probably contributed. 

The second saint is Eulalia. She was tortured at 13 in 13 different ways - our tour guide broke this one down too (just like those imaginary dragons): she is probably symbolic of the many children who were abused and tortured for their religion. When they finally cut off her head, a dove came out. 

Another figure we heard about was Wilfred the Hairy. The Catalonian flag (five yellow stripes with four red stripes) is from when he was injured and his blood was used to wipe the four stripes on the yellow background. 

In sum, the two-and-a-half-hour tour covered a lot, Rick Steves covered a lot, and I'm sure we are just "scratching the surface," as our guide kept saying, of Barcelona. (Scratching the surface of La Ramblas put us at what was a giant sewage ditch leading to the harbor that was paved over.)

We came across Plaça Reial again, where we attempted to go find a club at last night and instead found an awkward dancing bar. All of the pretty palm trees are "implanted," as Rosie has been saying, as are the two street lamps designed by Gaudí.

After the walking tour, we had our favorite meal yet at a restaurant recommended by our hostel receptionist called Origens, which was down by the harbor. We had a delicious lentil, pepper, and octopus salad with a beef-stuffed onion and a vegetable-stuffed eggplant. We needed that energy as we took the metro to the Sagrada Familia.

Oh, the Sagrada Familia. We are almost done with our visit to Barcelona (leaving in the morning) and at 5pm on the second day we are just getting to the architect Antoni Gaudí's unfinished masterpiece. (It has been under construcition for over 100 years.) But, nevertheless, we saw it, inside and out, without having to wait in the line stretching around the block. 

We also might have gotten in for free. We booked a 5pm English tour, but they didn't book the tour guide, so they said our money will be refunded in 15-30 days. We'll see if that $40 ever lands back in our pockets. (If you are reading this 30 days from now, let me know so I can check my credit card and update this post! Or call and complain...)

Instead of a tour guide, we had Rick Steves. (I skipped the part were I basically fell asleep inside the church while we were waiting for the tour, but who cares about that. Except Rosie, who took a picture for blackmail some day.)

Rick Steves outlined a tour in his book where we wandered from the Passion Facade to the Nativity Facade, from the nave to the unfinished entryway. The tri-colored columns inside evoked a canopy which had light filtering in from the stained glass (not all of it done). The columns were built to hold an not-yet-realized cross, meant to be light up and 560 feet tall. It will be the tallest steeple in the world, but a few feet shorter than the summit of Montjuïc, since "the creation of man should not eclipse the creation of God."

More awesome stuff about Gaudí and the church:

* Gaudí improved on the arch so it would support his grand steeple by hanging chains with weights and flipping them 

* A 4x4 grid adds up 33 in all directions on the Passion Facade - Jesus' age at his death

* One of the men on the Passion Facade (sculpted by Josep Maria Subirachs) is a monument to Gaudí

* The roof and floor of the church were just completed in 2010, right before Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it

* A bronze door has been made for the Glory Facade that has the Lord's Prayer in Catalan and "Give us this day our daily bread" in 50 languages.

Also, there's a turtle holding up on of the columns on the Nativity Facade (reminding me of Stephen Hawking's "turtles all the way down.")

Overall, it was amazing. Highly recommend it. 

We scuttled out of Sagrada Familia to make our timed entry into Casa Milà. But then we found a shop with espresso for Rosie and ice cream for me, and then the caffeine didn't kick in until we had walked a few blocks in the wrong direction, so we took a cab to what is also known as La Pedrara ("The Quarry" because of its massive amounts of stone).

We had an hour to tour the house before it closed, and we spent most of it on the undulating roof. We had this Canadian guy take our picture in front of one of the chimneys, and then he started following us. (Not quite true - Rosie kept being friendly and asking him questions about architecture school and traveling...)

So we had a new amigo named Merdad who we got to know as we walked through the attic, which housed an amazing display of the genius of Gaudí, and the apartment, which was pretty but also seemed very bare compared to the intricacies of the external details. Though there was an umbrella stand that I'm in love with (birthday present - hint hint):

If you can't afford it, a print or scale model of the bronze door from the Sagrada Familia would work too. Wink wink, nudge nudge. 

Rosie and I had this grand plan to see a flamenco guitar concert at the Palace of Catalan music, which is supposed to be brilliant on the inside. We got there right at 8:30, but the concert was sold out. It will have to be on our next trip to Barcelona. 

We saw the outside for the third time, then headed to a restaurant for a not-great tuna and greens salad and a much better entree of veal with fig and walnut compote.

We were still seeking tapas, though. I didn't think yesterday's two mini-meals were very tapas-like, so I wanted to have a small plate and a drink at a table on a terrace. However, we were thwarted, first by our decision-making skills (or lack thereof), then by two different restaurants saying they wouldn't seat or serve us without a minimum that was too much food for people who just ate dinner. 

So we ended back up at Taller de Tapas, a local chain that we had the artichoke and chickpea dishes at yesterday. A pitcher of sangria (our new friend was still hanging out) and some octopus (not good) and some razor clams (very good), and we were back to our relaxed selves.

We wisely asked our young, cute, Ted Danson look-a-like for a bar recommendation, and wandered toward Shakerato, where we talked music, drinks and life while all three were happening (loudly) around us. 

I heard (from Rick) that churros with melted chocolate is a post-bar treat, so we wandered toward the hostel and the Ramblas in a futile search. I had to be content with some Cadbury chocolate we had bought in the Madrid airport. It was partially melted from the lack of air conditioning, but all the more delicious when a bed awaited afterward.

Perdóneme in Barcelona: Mon., Aug. 19

I was confused when they gave us dinner on the flight to Madrid from JFK. Aren't you supposed to be habitualizing yourself to the time you are arriving to? Our 10pm departure was 4am in Barcelona (which was, almost exactly, 24 hours ago). As Rosie said earlier today, "Can you believe how long it's been since we were in a bed?"

The hostel has a bed in a room just for us... On the fourth (fifth in America), un-air-conditioned floor. I did say I wasn't happy with just the 80 degrees it was in DC, so even at night it is going to be warmer than that. 

We easily got to the hostel from the airport, washed off nearly 12 hours of airport, then hit the Ramblas. It is an awesome pedestrian street that runs from the Placa de Catalunya to a giant (200-foot) Christopher Columbus statue by the water about a mile away. We heard it was awash with pickpockets, so we've been extra careful and haven't lost anything yet!

Our own "ramble" let us to a plaza with some outdoor tables where we got some paella and bread with tomato spread (almost just tomatoes crushed into juice with olive oil) and Manchego cheese.

 It was a great place to people-watch before we took to the bus to Parc Güell. 

Gaudí (or "gaudy" as Rosie keeps calling him - could someone tell us if there is a connection?) devised and built this estate for the rich to be sheltered from the city from a hill on high. It didn't quite work out - turn-of-the-century nobles thought it was too far from the thick of things - but the entrance gates, with a dragon that tourists fight over to get picture with, still lead to some dazzling terraces and views. 

(The kid who took the picture of us was very confused when we ask for a photo. We think he might have thought we were asking to take a picture of him.)

We continued hiking up stairs and stairs (they are there...must climb...) and found the local dog hang-out. (My coworkers will have to wait until Animal Photo Friday for me to send in pictures of the dazzling view that might just happen to have dogs in it too.)

We drove past the "Block of Discord", three competing Modermisme works along one street. We will be walking that way tomorrow, but it was a fun evening preview. 

We knew there was a flamenco concert at 8:30 at the Palace of Catalan Music, but thought there was one at 9:30 and 10:30 as well. When we showed up confused to an empty ticket office, the security guard showed us a schedule. 8:30 was the last one, not the first one! That'll be an adventure for tomorrow then.

Instead, we walked to the water. And back. And had some tapas along the way (fried shredded artichoke and spinach, chickpeas, and panchetta - the second one was better because it was correctly salted).

Our plan had been to go out, but my feet were hurting and we couldn't find a place that was quite right along the Ramblas. We stopped back in at the hotel for a clothing change and a read-through of the suggestions we had procured before deciding on one in Garciá. Our cabbie knew where it was, thankfully, but it was for naught - closed on weeknights in August!

Thankfully, he was an awesome taxi driver and knew where to take us instead. We danced and fended off men at the Port Olimpic area at a Japanese (potentially?) themed club. It had great music, until about 3:30 when it turned into house music and we turned around and left. Overall, a successful, if dreadfully tiring, first night in Barcelona. 

The pre-trip: Sat.-Sun., Aug. 17-18, 2013

Everytime Alisa and I take a trip together, I make her drive to DC to fly out with me. It is only fair that I transport myself up to New York to fly out of JFK with Rosie. (Not really fair to either of them, but in the karmatic total of the universe.)

I spent my Friday night loading maps onto a borrowed GPS (Kelly, again, thank you immensely. I'll put "Afrikaans" back on your GPS as a language before I give it back if you want. It just didn't fit with the Spain maps on there too.) I attempted to put in the street addresses for all of the wineries we were visiting, but Spain addresses are illogical and confusing. (How are you supposed to assume that a winery is on a road with its same name by just a number in the street address line?) Not know any Spanish, I couldn't parse the street names for the important bits ("Calle de Grande", "Plaza Mayor" - you look up Grande and Mayor instead!) I'm hoping driving is going to go smoother since I did that upfront work. 

It was a 8:30am bus that finally got into NYC at 2:30. I slid onto the local train up to Larchmont where I was greeted by Roaie and her mom... On bikes. 

We'll see if this becomes a reoccurring theme, but we biked (with my luggage in the trailer cart) back to their house to play some Boggle and organize seating charts for the party that night. 

The major reason we are meeting in New York was this party - a classy little affair at the country club with a tequila tasting and an impressive salsa band. We scarfed down our food so we could jump on the dance floor. I got to see the one cousin I had met before and meet a myriad of Rosie's cousins, family friends, and relatives.

Many people have asked if we were sisters in the past, but it took two of her relatives tapping me on the back assuming I was Rosie to seal the deal. 

Today (Sunday), I traveled into the city again to see a high school friend. Christine (Christie, when I knew her) and I hadn't seen each other for at least three years, so we had wonderful catch-up conversations as well as great conversations on traveling, politics, the economy, art... Having captivating people to talk to makes four hours too short for a conversation. 

I had biked to the train station, and, after my afternoon with Christine was over, I biked back to the Weisburgh's house. Good news - I found the street with no issues. Bad news - I didn't find the house the first time I passed it. Or the second. We'll just call it accidental exercise (just like when I zoned out after the second floor and ended up on the fourth floor of my apartment complex instead of the third this week - it's just more exercise!)

A bridge game was wrapping up, then it was sushi at the family favorite, and off to the airport, where I'm finishing this post. Rosie and I are teeth-brushed, contacts-out, faces-washed, ready for our red-eye! We don't have tickets together, but we are hoping our 40D and 39C will have someone between willing to trade with us.

Either way, the Salsa Sisters are going to be in Spain tomorrow! Goodnight, America!

Tanzania Wrap-up : Haggling and Hanging Out - March 3

But Corinne, how did it get to be March 3rd?

Because I spent 20+ hours confused about what time it was on a plane, that's how.

Alisa and I spent our final day in Moshi attempting to spend all the shillings in our pockets - and managed to spend most our dollars too. Tanzania shillings aren't legal tender outside the country, so except for the few (thousand) that were taken home for commemoration, we needed to spend them.

One USD is about 1600 Tanzania shillings, so converting while trying to bargain was always fun. $25 equal 40,000 shillings, but mostly they are just a lot of zeros and I start getting confused when I have a 1,000 and a 10,000 shilling note in my hand. 

We didn't have to check out of Springlands Hotel until 10:30, even though we were up at 5am with the call to prayer and then again at 7am when we got hungry and it was light outside. So we hung out in the room, read, took our fourth shower in fourteen days (in true CS major fashion), and got our buffet breakfast. (Neither of us had the porridge - shocker, I know.)

I had some gifts and souveniors I wanted to buy, and Alisa was always interested in looking, so we took the $1 shuttle a quarter mile into town and started wandering.

There was a row of shops, and the first we stopped into gave us pretty decent prices up front, so we didn't do much haggling and came out with some hand-carved stuff. Both Alisa and I wanted Christmas ornaments, so we found some keychains made of cow horn that could service, but we didn't want to pay more than $1.50. The first shop, we talked them down to $2, but weren't satisfied with that. The next shop, we asked for prices and the girl started them at $10! It is always more fun to haggle when you know that actual valuation of what you are trying to buy.

None of the shops would go down that far, but we stumbled upon one with beautiful beaded and metal animal ornaments, so scooped up those instead. I'm hoping that using the Masai blanket I bought there too as a picnic blanket isn't offensive...

Traveling back to the hotel, we saw Thomas again and said our hello-goodbyes again. Other than that, the next 24 hours were hotel-airport-plane-airport-plane-airport. I got a few hours of sleep in there, watched some movies, and was driven crazy by the guy behind me tapping on the touch screen right behind my head while playing a game.

We did run into another couple that we had sat with at dinner, then again at breakfast, then again on the way to the airport. In Addis Ababa, we played cards for the duration of the layover, so it went pretty quickly, thankfully. All of the international departure terminals were much nicer than the international arrival terminals, so we weren't sitting on the floor being hot and sweaty.

We made it to Dulles, where a friend (who I'm highly indebted to for getting to the airport at 9am on a Sunday) picked us up to take us to my grandparents' house. Alisa's car was still there (yay), and we went our separate ways. During the trip, we did figure out that I'm headed to Pittsburgh in two weeks anyway, so it isn't going to be long until I see her again anyway.

My day was seeing Rosie (who is headed to a conference for a week, so needed to make sure I said hello-goodbye to her) and trying to stay awake and failing. I don't think a 5-hour nap is going to help me sleep soundly tonight, but I'm still tired and ready for bed - so here's to hoping that jetlag isn't as bad going west!

Safari Day 3 - Family Groups : March 1

The Octagon Hotel, where we spent the last two nights, was pretty snazzy. Each room was really a hut and had two double beds with netting over them. The bathroom and shower area curved around back, though the water never got warm so we only took one shower. The bar and restaurant were in the middle of a garden with cacti and birds (and bullfrogs, or something that sounded like them). Overall, a nice place, except for the lack of Internet and the blackouts. And the mosquitos, but I covered that yesterday (and covered myself with a mosquito net).

We negotiated to get an extra hour at the Tarangire this morning and left after breakfast at 7:30. Or, you know, African 7:30.

The Tarangire was an hour and a half away, though the roads weren't too bad. The park itself was grassland with a river and trees around, unlike the crater, which was just grassland, and the lake, which was just forest with some clearings (and a lake, of course).

There were some zebra and impala grazing with a bushback right inside the gate. Two dikdiks jumped across our path down the road a bit, and then it was just birds for a drive further into the park.

My goal today was to see a giraffe, since rhinos, cheetahs, and leopards are pretty rare. So, after the ten minute drive, a pair of giraffes were feeding about a hundred yards away. Goal achieved!

Those were two of the six giraffes we saw today, so not a large amount, but what we missed in giraffes we more than made up for in elephants.

The first family we saw had a few young ones, and was slowly meandering away from the shade of the baobab tree and towards another across the road. We waited and got to see the whole family cross the road twenty yards in front of us.

We drove to an overlook with a view of the Tarangire River (which never dries up) and another herd of elephants approaching it from far away to drink. We took in the scene (which included impala and ostrich) before heading that direction.

This group had finished crossing the river by the time we got there and was hanging out under a tree by the road. We got to see the smallest baby nursing as well as some elephant-trunk-on-tree-trunk scratching action. We were both thrilled, especially when they passed within a few yards of the Land Rover.

There were some mongoose and hardbills and "Zazu" birds (from "The Lion King") and more ostriches. The elephants were definitely the highlight.

The low of the day was driving all the way back to Moshi. We felt rushed at the end (he started driving us out of the park without really letting us know, then we ate lunch at a boring picnic area at the entrance instead of while watching any animals, or at least a pretty scene). We were told at the beginning we would get lots of choices, just tell our driver what to do, but we didn't know the choices enough to tell him to do anything differently than what ended up happening.

And so, he asked again if we wanted to go to the snake zoo (again, no), and then we jangled our way back for four hours, arriving well before sunset.

Safari Day 2 - Herds : Feb. 28

I woke up with a surprise this morning. We had heard some buzzing around at night, but I didn't think much of it until I woke up and my eyes felt really heavy. Well, not both eyes. Just my left one.

My face had been attacked last night. There was a bite in the middle of my forehead and one on my left cheek, as well as the one that caused my eyelids to no longer crease. I guess I learned the lesson about the mosquito nets hanging around the beds.

Alisa, while not feeling 100%, was a trooper and decided we should do the safari today anyway. Today was the Ngorongoro Crater National Park ("ngorongoro" being the sound cattle bells make as they are being herded).

After breakfast (pancakes!), we headed out with Abu for about an hour's drive to get into the crater. At the rim, we could make out a lot of dots, which came into focus as zebra, wildebeest, and even warthogs (all of which had mothers roaming around with their babies!) Apparently, wildebeest and zebra take care of each other, because zebra can sense danger and wildebeest can sense water.

There was at least one zebra that didn't sense danger well today though. We found a pride of lions that were being lazy but attentive. Abu said that it would take hours, so we moved on to the hippo pool.

I learned hippos can roll over. And over. And over. And just hang out upside-down if they are feeling hot. What the wild teaches you. (Don't worry, there were babies.)

On our way to our lunch spot, we saw a hyena or two and a jackal running through the grass. That was, again, amidst wildebeest and zebra a plenty, a few warthogs, Grant's gazelle, and Thompson's gazelle - and those were just the mammals. There were lots of ibis, bustards, and cranes, and some ostrich pairs now and again. The lake in the middle had a pink band of flamingos on the far side.

There were hippo bumps in the water at lunch, but we were warned about the hawks that would swoop in and steal food, so we ate (or napped, in Alisa's case) in the car. At least hawks didn't climb into the car like the baboons at the park gate threatened to.

The zebra-lion incident I mentioned earlier we found after spotting some cape buffalo and a lone elephant in the far distance. The pride was teething at the carcass, and we waited around to see if there was going to be any action from the hyenas that were circling. I was falling asleep when we decided to move on, and found the rest of the hyenas just down the road.

Hyenas live in groups, and there were six to eight adults and about four young clustered around the entrance to their den they kept peeking in and out of. Even though they are villianized in "The Lion King," they were some of the animals I enjoyed most during the day.

There were any surprises left except for a warthog and her triplets. And the rain that followed us to the park gate before abruptly stopping.

Alisa had been picking at parts of her lunch all day, but the whole-hearted attempt to eat it when we got back was rejected by her stomach. If only we had soup and porridge!

Thankfully, dinner was hanging out with the other Zara folk and not either of those. Pork and chicken and more delicious avocado salad. Dessert (besides the chocolate that I had bald at the room) was some "pudding" that was basically a cake. Coming back to the room to see Alisa in a better mood too was a fine way to end the day as well.

Safari Day 1 - Blue Monkey in a Troop of Baboons : Feb. 27

I woke up before 7am today, and not just because of the call to prayer. It was weird, though, because our room was much darker than a tent would be at that hour.

We had two hours to eat and sort our safari stuff from our hiking stuff. Pretty much, we just took out our toiletries from our disgusting, dusty duffel bags and tried to shove our day packs back into them.

We waved goodbye to our crew one last time, then headed out to a waiting Land Cruiser with Hussain, a softer-spoken older guy. We put our bags in his car, and started to pull away.

Except that we were stopped by some of the Zara people. They had us get out of the car and introduced us to Abu, our real driver. The bags were switched to his car and off we were for real this time.

It was a long drive to get to Lake Menyara. Alisa has been having an upset stomach since yesterday, and the lulling of the car made us both take naps.

There was a few kilometers of construction that had us driving on gravel paths that weren't very comfortable. The trade-off was no air in the car or dusty air. And some pretty intense speed bumps.

There were some interesting things to look at along the way, even if they weren't wild animals (yet). We passed through some areas with Masai, an African tribe that still maintains a lot of their heritage. One of their rites is that they have boys in their early teens cast out to sustain themselves for a few months. The boys wear black clothes and skeleton face paint and often bans together for those months. I saw about half a dozen walking along the road as we drove past.

Once we were through Arusha, it was mostly rural, with fewer people alongside the roads, but many still plowing or herding or toting things here and there. There were bands of kids in uniform coming back from school that we waved to as well.

Lunch was a packed box that we ate outside a big gift shop. There were mini bananas, per usual, but I got Abu's, since he said he didn't like them. Someone else said they were allergic, and a third person wasn't hungry enough. By the time it was all said and done, I had enough bananas for a troop of baboons!

It still seemed like forever before we got to the park, but we finally did around mid-afternoon. Alisa still wasn't feeling well, so I walked the little interpretive trail before starting our game drive.

It was dirt roads, but winding through jungle, and the anticipation that an animal might jump out at any minute!

Our first sightings were of baboons (of which the park had a lot, we came to realize). We chilled with the family group, saw some babies and some baby-making (apparently they do it for fun too), and then moved along toward the Hippo Pool.

There was a stopped vehicle in front of us, so we checked out the red-backed deer (or something like that) before determining there wasn't a lion behind it and moving on.

Right in the clearing ahead of us were six elephants grazing (including a baby!) They ambled along, grabbing grass with their trunks and shoving it into their mouths. Apparently, they spend 18 hours a day eating.

One gray lady looked like she was trying to pass in front of our car, but another car was blocking her way. She ambled around and continued eating.

We watched the elephants for a few more minutes until they has passed the car, then continued on. We could see herds of wildebeest and cape buffalo in the distance, but we'll see a bunch more of them tomorrow. The final patch of forest before the pool had some baboons running around, so I assumed the other brown things running were baboons as well. Turns out, two warthogs crossed our path instead. Pumba!

At the Hippo Pool, Abu said that it was hard to see hippos when it was sunny out, since they don't have sweat glands and need to stay in the water to keep cool. However, the hippo in the pool 50 yards away yawned just then, and we got to see the first of the beasts.

More pool and hippos were a bit farther away. As we were looking there, a mom and her calf came lumbering out of the water! Another baby! They were out for just a minute, but it was exciting nonetheless.

At this point, Alisa's stomach was really starting to bother her. We decided to head back toward the hotel, and along the way managed to see zebras, gazelle (with babies!), a mongoose, guinea fowl, and a single blue monkey in a troop of baboons.

The hotel was another 45 minutes away, but Abu did a great job of zipping us there as quick as possible. The landscaping is great, and we have our own little safari hut.

Alisa hit the bed and is staying there. Her bug is really biting back, so I'm really hoping tomorrow dawns bright and healthy. I had dinner with another couple that did Lemosho, so we traded Zara and Kili stories all evening. But, on Kili time, 8:30 is bedtime, so we tried to chat a little later, but bedtime it is.