My pater, in his eminent glory, is an ocean swimmer.  For those of you who have not heard his tales of daring-do, prepare to be suitably impressed.

His current residence, and my home town of Santa Cruz, is located on the Monterey Bay in California, where the Marianas Trench brings all the horribly cold water from the depths of the ocean. This makes our beaches nice but the water is flipping freezing. Those of you in Vancouver, think of the ocean water there and you’ve pretty much got the right temperature. So it’s cold. The guy who invented proper wetsuits is from our town- just to give you an idea.

Dad swims in this water for about an hour a day without a wetsuit. I repeat WITHOUT A WETSUIT.  I can’t do it, as its flipping FREEZING.

Pater wanted to swim in the Mediterranean. Mum and I came along.  Their very good friends recommended the town of Sitges just a half-hour transit train ride from Barcelona.  Mum and I camped out and drank beer while pater got his groove back in the sea.

Pater said it was the high point of his trip so far!  He said it was much warmer water than back home.  Sitges was lovely as promised though wicked hot. And I kinda melt into a bitchy puddle when overheated and dried out.

Knowing that my evil side was about to take over, Mum and I made the deep sacrifice of sitting in the shade and drinking very cold beers.  It was pretty hard for us but it was a risk we were willing to take (a la Lord Farquaad, Pater I guess is Shrek in this analogy. Sorry Pops!)

Sidenote: we saw more Rainbow Flags here than anywhere else! Way to go Sitges!