DAYS 62-63: Natural Science Museum and Angela's Birthday Hike

The weekend after Amsterdam, Pilar and Luis took the kids and I to the Natural Science Museum. Unfortunately, I no longer have pictures from that day, as my phone was stolen. But we had a really good time looking at all the cool animals and skeletons of mammoths and saber tooth tigers!

On Sunday, Lizzy and I joined Angela and Alvaro with the kids and a few of their close friends for a hike to celebrate Angela's birthday!! 

We drove about 45 minutes to a town called Manzanares.

The super giant goat we saw

FUN FACT #43: Manzanares is named after the river that runs through it, called the Manzanares River, which also runs through Madrid.

There was quite the crew of us- Angela, Alvaro, the three kids, Lizzy and I as well as two other families and their kids. We carried a bunch of food in with us and set up some of the moms and the younger kids with their own picnic area. Then me, Lizzy, Angela, Alvaro, their two sons Danny and Lucas and their friend and his father set off to go straight up the rock!

Lizzy with Danny and Lucas at the top of the mountain

The plan was to make it to this giant rock that had the shape of an elephant. Alvaro led the way up the mountains as we passed many people rock climbing. When we got to a big overlook of the Manzanares city, we took out our lunches and enjoyed the view. Our break was short lived however and we were off again in search of the "elephant rock".

As we set off down the path, we stopped short. A huge, and I mean HUGE mountain goat was in our way. Like, this thing was massive. The boys were so funny- they got so quiet and were trying to sneak up and take a picture of it. We quietly took a little detour and kept going.

Anna and I singing our way home

Unfortunately, we were not able to reach the elephant rock in time for the sun set. So we turned around and headed back down the mountain. Anna and I sang "Frozen" and "The Sound of Music" (her new favorite) the whole walk back to the cars. We grabbed a couple beers to cheers Angela's birthday and then we were on our way back to Madrid. It was a lovely day back in the mountains, and Lizzy and I had so much fun.

The whole gang. Happy Birthday Angela!