We were so blessed to have family come visit us while we are in Chile. Tom’s sister Michelle and her family (Neil, Chelsea, and Courtney) came to visit us for 7 days in Viña del Mar. On their way to see us they flew through Chicago and Atlanta. At the airport in Chicago they walked past some pretty famous people, Bill and Hillary Clinton. No matter what your political opinion is, it is very cool to see a former president and presidential candidate.On Sunday which was their first full day. Our group walked around Viña checking out some of the local shops and restaurants. Mason found a blue bus that he had to have in one of the shops. We told him if he was good we could stop back later. He was very concerned about there only being one left and wanted us to hide it. We assured him that nobody would buy it, and if they did, there were probably more in the back. We stumbled upon a great little Venezuelan restaurant where we had some empanadas and sandwiches. After lunch we stocked up on some groceries and hauled them a mile back to our place. When we stopped back into the store to buy Mason’s bus, as luck would have it, the bus was gone. Luckily Mason was ok with the red bus they still had. On our walk back, Tom noticed a kid walking in front of him that just so happened to be carrying a new blue bus. We did not have the heart to tell Mason. That would have undoubtedly ended poorly. There was a beautiful sunset that evening that we all walked across the street to the ocean to watch and then headed back up for some wine.On Monday, we took a bus ride over to Valparaíso where we spent another fun day looking at artwork and wondering the city. We went up and down a couple of the funiculars. One of the funiculars has a slide at the top to get down to the next level. Everybody tried it out. Our kids went down at least 10 times each. After that we took photos on the piano stairs and had a fantastic lunch at a new little restaurant called Inquilino.The next day everyone took a bus ride to a nearby city called Concon for a beach day. It got up to around 75 degrees which was one of the warmest days of our trip so far. The Howe family bravely went in to the waiter, but only Neil was daring enough to dive head first into a wave. The water was freezing! The boys enjoyed digging and burying their toes in the sand. We ate a picnic lunch on the beach before splitting up. Some people returned to the apartment and others went to see Cooper’s therapeutic horseback riding.

On Wednesday, we walked up the hill behind our place and found the president’s house. And checked out the city from above.We walked around town and did some shopping for jewelry and other small gifts. In the evening we went out for a night on the town. There is a small block with bars up and down the street. We started at Bar Catrina a cute little Mexican bar and then went to Barney’s. Barney’s is based on Barney from the Simpsons.While jamming out to “Titanium” by David Guetta featuring Sia, we saw some ladies at a nearby table singing along too. The next song was reggaeton, but a catchy song. Coco went over to ask the girls if they knew the title of the song, and although they didn’t know, we ended up chatting with them. They are English teachers! Chelsea and Coco planned to go to a great disco/dance club called OVO with these new friends V and L. We got tickets, stood in line practicing tongue twisters, but L was stopped at security for having her laptop in her bag. Without ou new Chilean friends, we finally headed into the club. We looked around and found….Coco’s dad, Neil! Instead of the long lines and tight security, he had just asked about the club in limited Spanish and bought a beer on his way in. We didn’t stay long at the club, but it was fun to check out.Thursday we ended up taking an uber to a beach/park a few miles away in Viña that was across from the Naval academy. It was a holiday in Chile so all of the vendors were out and the beach was full of people. We watched people surfing in the ocean, jumping on trampolines and playing lots of other games. There are lots of giant guns from war ships on display along the boardwalk that the kids were able to check out.

We walked down the beach and found a nice place to eat overlooking the ocean. For desert we walked down by the famous pier and had some churros filled with dulce de leche that were delicious. There were also lots of craft and souviner vendors in the area that we checked out and bought a few things from. After a few photos on the pier everyone decided we should walk the 2 miles back to our place. It was a great day with lots of fun had by all. Friday was unfortunately the Howes last full day with us. Time flies when you’re having fun. Especially on vacation it seems. We spent their last day back at the Jardin botanical garden walking around and exploring. We stopped to have a small baseball game with Mason and had some tea and desserts from an old VW bus. The owner had brought it over from Germany and turned into a mobile cafe. Tom was fascinated by it since it is his dream car. We would love to tour the country in one someday. Perhaps in 2022 when the new electric VW bus hits the market! That evening a few of us went back out for drinks. We shared pitchers of sangria and mojitos at the garden rooftop bar and then met up with our new English teacher friends along with two more of their friends at bar Katrina.We had a wonderful time with our guests and were sad to see them leave. It was lonely the next few days on our own. It made us realize just how much we miss our family and friends. Here is the YouTube video Chelsea made of our time together. Our favorite uber driver Antonio drove them to their hotel in Santiago. He also picked them up at the airport and brought them to us in Viña. We met Antonio when he drove us from our hotel in Santiago to the bus station, Pajaritos. He is a very nice guy and we exchanged business cards.Everybody is excited for the next round of guests to arrive later this week. Both Grandmas arrive on Saturday and will be with us through the end of our month in Chile as well as our first week in Argentina. Antonio will be picking them up and delivering them to us as well!