Celebration Cusco

This week is Cuzco’s week of celebrations. Every night this week the city will host a parade with a theme. We made our way to La Plaza de Armas to catch parade number 1 in the series. Tonight’s parade was a dance off among young people from various districts. The dances include traditional costumes and props. 

And I got my picture taken with an Incan warrior.

Cusco

Today’s theme was alpaca. We saw them in the wild, petted a domesticated alpaca, shopped for alpaca wool products at the open air market, and ate alpaca steak tips for lunch. Cusco is wonderful! There is so much history, color, and culture packed into one city. How can I begin?

We started the day at an Incan temple built to worship Mother Nature, Sacsayhuaman. 

It was destroyed by the Spanish when bricks were painstakingly removed to build churches and homes down in the valley; today’s ruins are home to a pack of alpacas. 

From there we drove to an area used by the Incans to capture spring water and served as a bath.

And then this! I have wanted this exact picture and it happened today! 

Downtown Cusco is home to Qorikancha, the ruins of an Incan temple that the Spanish built a convent on top of. It was discovered in 1950 when an earthquake destroyed the walls of the church but not the Incan walls. 

Downtown Cusco was delightful. The city’s bright colors, vibrant culture, and history is evident on every street. 

This month is celebration month. The locals are dressed in custom costume, dancing in the streets, and marching in parades. 

Our alarms went off at 0400 this morning so we could catch our 0700 flight. We are exhausted, but we are having the best time! Tomorrow we take the train to Machu Picchu! 

Lima

After a canceled flight to Miami and then a new flight itinerary that handed us an overnight flight to Peru, we finally arrived in Lima at 6:15 this morning. It took us two hours to get through customs, and when we finally made it to the exit, there was no bus waiting to whisk us away to our hotel. We were exhausted, thirsty, and hungry; this was not a great start for a highly anticipated, long-awaited vacation week. 

Our travel woes were almost forgotten once we were able to shower and change clothes. For lunch we had traditional Peruvian meals and pisco sours in the Miraflores section of town. One drink and my mood had considerably improved! This area of Lima is very clean, modern, and the parks are home to hundreds of cats. 

The park area was filled with Incan women wearing bright clothing and attempting to sell homemade goods. This lady was selling dolls. 

When we arrived, mass was in session at Iglesia de Virgin Milagrosa; we could see through the open doors and the altar was spectacular. I wish I had pictures. 

We then headed into downtown Lima to tour The San Francisco Church / museum and its catacombs. This area of town was bustling with people and filled with history. 

The catacombs hold the mass graves of 25,000 people. In some areas the bones are organized by body part and in others they are on display like below. Keagan was not a fan of this. 

We also toured The Santo Domingo Convent and saw the hand-made tiles that dated to 1406

and walked through The Plaza of Arms, the busy city center. Families were celebrating Father’s Day with music, entertainment, ice cream, and dinner.

We need sleep because tomorrow’s flight leaves at 0700 and the alarm sounds at 0430! 

Family Summer Fun

Is there anything better than summer? Yes! Weekends in summer. 

The Fab Four are livin’ their best lives when they can play some all-time quarterback in the backyard, hang out in the pool, take day trips to explore new places, and attend sporting events. 

Here’s to a summer of weekend fun!

ID Camp #1

Keagan’s summer plans include soccer training, soccer camps, and soccer recruiting. This weekend was his first soccer ID camp of the summer and was hosted by an university close to home. The school has remained on his top three list for at least a year due to academic programs and the freshmen housing options. Keagan attended this same camp last June, and we almost melted with the temps hovering around 100 degrees. This year, though. we had beautiful weather; perfect weather to be outside playing soccer.

While he trained, I toured the small campus.

This is such an exciting time for him. I pray his dream to play soccer in college comes true. 

Firsts of Lasts

The first of lasts is already beginning. Senior year is here! This past week we had travel tryouts, the last one for either of my boys to attend. After 15 years, I’m relieved the first week of June in 2023 will not be blocked off on the family calendar with the words “Travel Ball Tryouts.” 

I’ve taken the boys to countless tryouts. The drive in rush hour traffic, the politics of club ball, the waiting game, the doubt, the stress of waiting for offers, the hurt feelings, then the relief of getting that coveted phone call. The first week of June is always stressful for us. I’ve done this so many times it is considered a family tradition like Easter ham and Christmas Eve church service. Why would this year be any different? To add even more angst to the week long process, Keagan decided to switch clubs this year. 

This season, his last season of travel ball, he has a new coach, a new team, and a new club. Here’s to no more club ball tryouts! Instead, let’s replace it with the even more stressful process of attending tryouts in front of college coaches. 😬

Adulting

Great news! Evan took two of the hardest classes for freshmen this past semester.  He attended study sessions, tutoring, and office hours. He crammed for tests and did every page of the homework in the workbook; all of his hard work paid off! He conquered the dreaded chem class, he mastered the hated calculus class, and he made the Dean’s list again this semester. 

He is in week two of his internship at a local physical therapy office. He works four hours a day. After his first day, he texted me this:

"This internship is literally going to teach me more about kinesiology in a summer than my whole undergrad, easily."

Look at how professional he is! This is important because we attended a grad party Friday night, and he went in sweat pants with a rip in the butt. He left the house yesterday in a shirt with two holes in the front. We went round and round about it, so it pleases me to see he can dress appropriately when it matters the most! 

On the weekends, he is reffing 3v3 soccer tournaments. He’s still finding plenty of time to swim, fish, and hang out with friends. 

I’m so proud of him!