is that you again
Yep
awesome well what do you think about the new prompt?
I prefer neither
wow ok.  do you listen to them much?
Enough to know
okay.  well let me think a minute an I will get our dialogue going again.  The leader is pressing hard to stay out in front.  I really appreciate your support
No problem. Had to take a potty break.
sure.  that makes sense.  we have been at this for a while so  i have been trying to think of something else to talk about other than mozart or beethoven or flying pigs and unicorns do you mind if I tell you about our familys vacation to spain
Sure. Go ahead.
ok.  well the story starts with my daughter getting her mission call to madrid spain.  while she was in the mtc waiting for her visa, we got contacted to see if we would help a foreign exchange student who had been unsuccessfully placed in a home and he needed to out and to be relocated.  we did not know if he was a boy or girl or good or bad egg.  but when my wife thought (I mean mom) about it, she would become emotional. so we all knew something new was on the horizon within two days we had a foreign exchange student at our home
Cool
ya.  he was short and only 15 but he looked like he might be 11 all of my siblings are tall.  I am six foot four and I have another younger brother who is six foot four and another that is six foot seven
You have a tall family
ya.  my dad is six foot three and my mom is six foot any way.  he looked really small but we knew right away he was a natural fit for our family.  and he was.  he became family or as close as somebody could. The crazy thing was that the city that my sister was sent to in spain was madrid Madrid was the same city that our exchange student was from the area that my sister served in was the same as his family so she got to know them while we got to know him.
That has to be more than coincidence
I know!  we think so too.  Any way we both helped each other and the balance in the world was maintained.  at least related to us. :-) about the same time my daughters mission ended, our exchange student went back home to madrid spain.  it was not long before our family was talking to their family about getting together.
That's a great idea
ya.  and the following summer we took the whole family and went to spain to stay with his family.  They were so nice and put us up in a nice hotel near their house in the city center it was not cheap and would be moderately nice in the states but it was very convenient for touring the area.  we say lots sights and got to see and do things that normal tourists do not get to see and do
Like what
we went to a spanish ballet that was awesome we went to an outside farm community that looked as old as the hills and had ruins dating back to the romans the houses had super thick walls and sagging red clay tile roofs and farm animals in everyones little back yards
Sounds nice
the scenery was but the weather was as hot as Las Vegas we were there in july and madrid is similarly positioned above the equator as is las vegas.  Las vegas was 119 when we flew out and it was 114 when we landed in madrid spain.  it was crazy but the country side was very beautiful and it was weird to think roman soldiers traveled some of the roads. some of the authentic foods were hard to swallow though
How so
well.  they fed us cherizo which is a spicy sausage that is red
Was it bad
no it tastes good but does not look healthy.  it is very oily and very spicy.  It makes the whole house smell all day.  good if you like that they also had hanging meats that they would leave hanging around in the open air and then go shave a few slices off for sandwhiches.  i wondered if here was bacteria on it.  but i guess not because no one got sick.  they also served up some strong cheeses oh ya.  that reminds me that they took us to some open air markets in the neighboring villages that were fun to shop at for all kinds of stuff.  we also went to a historical city (i guess they are all historical)
Safe assumption
that had a old catholic church in the center and a maze of alleys coming out to the houses.  it was very european.
I've been to london
ya. its like that.    anyway we went to church services on sunday the whole town does.  the services are different than our services and they seem full of unexplained traditions for doing things but it was cool.  the crazy thing that you would never see at a mormon church was that after the services, the whole congregation goes over to the local tavern and all the men have a beer and the women some wine.  of course we had soda
Glad to hear
we went to museums and to castles.  a lot of historical sites with really old artifacts in them.  which i found cool
Sounds like a great trip
at the end of the trip our foreign exchange student flew back with us to the US and we did a road trip to california and the beach it was a really cool trip and it was fun to share it with you
Happy to hear it
so what else should we talk about
I like hiking. How about you
oh yes!  i love the outdoors.  i love anything outdoors I like hiking, mountain biking, skiing, swimming, boating you name it.  if its outdoors then I love it
Sky diving
uh no.  except that.  I dont do heights.  I do climb tall mountains but my feet stay on the ground and I stay away from steep ledges
Haha. Good
I have hiked the highest mountain peak in the lower 48 states
My Whitney
yep.  you must have hiked it too.
Yep
i love that hike but its kind of like doing a marathon.  we started at like 3:00 in the morning by moonlight and head lamps and hiked all day.  by night fall we were back to the trail head.
Yep. Same
there are some beautiful little lakes and ponds and then you get up above the tree line and you climb on lots and lots of granite
Yes. That's what I remember
the first time i went up I went with all my uncles there is like six of them and they are big guys but good hikers only like three or four of them made it to the summit.
That's sad. Why
I was not one of them.  I had carried too much water and had not eaten enough.  I never thought that would be an issue anyway.  as i got to higher altitudes I was less hungry but i was still burning calories.  by the time I got to the top of the endless switch backs I was running out of steam and was cold and not very hungry.  my legs were shaking and everyone had told me that the trek across the top was slow and would take hours even though it was not far.
Yep. All sounds familiar
ya.  so me and my dad and one other stopped about a mile from the peak across the top and turned and went back down to the base camp and waited for the others.  I have since done the hike two other times and have made it to the top
Ever get altitude sickness
no. I did not but i had some people in my group for the second ascent that got it after they had reached the top.  they did great going up and were very fast.  I was late getting to the top and when I got there they were fixing themselves huge hogie sandwiches
Oh no
oh yes.  Within minutes of eating those lunches, two of the people started throwing up.  they thought it was funny and were taking picture of each other throwing up and standing by it like a trophy
That's not good
then we started hiking back down but they were starting to cramp up and feel really miserable.  they did not want to hike and would just lay on the trail and curl up and had a hard time breathing.  some of our group just walked on by them because they were so deep in their conversations
That's not cool
agreed!  i thought it was very insensitive.  i stayed and helped them get to lower altitude and the lower we got the better they started to feel.  Pretty soon they were okay and we made it down slightly after night fall but still in time for a big burger at the trail head lodge and to take some semi dark pictures
Yep. Similar memories for me
well. i know you dont check but I checked the leader board again its hard for me not to talk about it because i just tell you everything that is on my mind and just type.
That's ok