Today we say Hasta Luego to our wonderful town of Almuñécar, our beautiful view from the terrace, the sounds and smell of the sea, and good friends.   As we drove up and over the hill, we looked over for our final birds-eye view of the town.  My eyes instantly welled-up and my sunglasses caught the puddles streaming down my cheeks. Never did I think that our hearts would be touched so much by our time in Spain and the people we met along the way.  After many tearful goodbyes this week, we left Almuñécar this morning. Thank goodness for the tissues we had handy in the car!

UPDATE:  We returned the following Spring 2015 and are still in Spain.

I can’t even try to summarize how we are feeling or what we are thinking right now, but just wanted you all to know that our hearts have been forever touched.  For some reason, this departure was far more difficult on all of us than it was to leave our home of 12 years in North Carolina.  We have made such wonderful lifetime friends in Spain and know we will keep in touch.

We made the choice to have the life of travel and part of that is saying good-bye, or as we now like to say “Hasta Luego”.  See you later is so much easier to digest, isn’t it?   As you know our current plan is to return to Spain in a year, so we will see what we can do to make that happen.  Until then, we will have that little pang in our gut missing all of the wonderful people who have touched our lives during the past 2 years.  There are too many people to list, but know we are thinking of you.

Oddly, I do have one odd regret.  I didn’t get a chance to tell the ladies at Mercadona that we were leaving (Pilar and Ana and one more, but I can’t remember her name).  You see tourist season has been in full swing the past several weeks and they have been too busy for me to chit-chat with them.   I am curious if they will wonder “what ever happened to that American family?”  Who knows, they may not even notice we are gone, but I do wish I took the time to say so long.

Before leaving this morning, we said our final good-byes to a couple of our good friends and neighbors.  It was so sweet that they wanted to see us right before leaving, so we rang their bells and down they came to see us off.

Hasta Luego

Omar, Josina, Isla and Luna!

Grahame, Tanja, Luke and Lewis

Lars, Anya, Luke and Lewis

We needed to do a few things in town this morning and were thrilled that we also bumped into Tania and Roberta for a final goodbye.  Last night we made a few rounds and said goodbye to Donna, Russ and Beau, as well as Vittorio at our favorite pizza place in Almuñécar.

Thank you all and many more for making our time special.  We will send you virtual hugs from around the world.

 Hasta Luego España!  Our Hearts Forever Touched