Lucía's First Trip to Bilbao

Last week we took Lucía for her first trip out of Barcelona to visit Hannah's family in Bilbao. We were initially nervous - this would be the first time Lucía would leave Barcelona, we'd be without our growing supply of baby gear, and she'd be flying on an airplane!

Our worries were overblown. Lucía was a rockstar and turns out you can buy diapers anywhere.

Just in case, we got to the airport early and the baby was really digging it. There's a special family security entrance at the Barcelona airport and we were amused to find that it has a baby cage to imprison your baby while you go through the metal detector.

Our biggest worry was Lucía having a tough time with the air pressure change, but she breastfed and didn't seem to mind at all.

Arriving at Hannah's aunt's house, we immediately met up with some cousins and then headed to Hannah's cousin Circe's house for a lunch in her beatiful yard. Lucía got to meet some aunts and cousins while I attempted to master the slack line. I did not master the slack line.

We finished the day with a beautiful sunset walk in the La Galea neighborhood.

The next day we had a huge family lunch at Urizar Asador Cervezeria in Gorli, where we had delicious food and played fun lawn games.

During the whole trip we monitored the goings on in Barcelona - the Spanish supreme court issued its sentence for several Catalan pro-independence leaders that had organized an independence referendum. The leaders with convicted of sedition and sentenced multiple years in prison, sparking massive protests in Catalonia and especially in Barcelona.

These protests were starting to accelerate as we got to the airport. Hannah and I saw this video as we entered the Bilbao Airport terminal - our flight was canceled moments later.

With the airport blocked, we came up with Plan B - Hannah and Lucía would stay in Bilbao a few more days until things calmed down in Barcelona and I would take an overnight bus to return to work by morning so that I could assist with emergency messaging and worried American citizens.

Lucía and Hannah did come back to Barcelona a few days later with no problems. Quite a first adventure!