Brooke and I were up around 7am, and, after our first croissants of the trip, we went outside to spend some time with Grammy and Aunt Naomi. A few lazy hours ticked by, and finally, Jay and Beckett woke up at 10:30 am! This was definitely the latest Beckett has ever slept in his life and we were thankful he caught up a bit on some sleep after our busy travel day yesterday!
Next, I attempted to go running with Ryan, but I didn’t last long due to the blazing sun and heat. However, I did get to see a bit of the neighboring farmland and I am excited to go for a farther run later on in the trip when I can avoid the hottest part of the day. The tractor driver was so friendly and gave us a big wave and thumbs up. I don’t think he sees many runners around here!
Our first big adventure of the day was to take a drive to the nearby supermarket. We went to the Eurospin in a town called Pozzallo. It was a fun little outing for us to see the differences between American and Sicilian grocery stores! We had to figure out little things like how to acquire a grocery cart (you need to insert a euro to unlock them and you get the euro back when you return it) and, Jay was overly excited about the “4-wheel drive” feature of the carts. All 4 wheels can turn independently and I found it nearly impossible to steer the cart around the store, so Jay was the designated driver! We thought it was quite amusing to see the ratio of pasta in the store and I noticed that they really don’t sell canned goods since they primarily cook with all fresh and local produce! I also got a chance to practice my very limited Italian to speak to the super nice deli workers.
As soon as we left the store, I dropped the euro I got back from returning the cart smack dab underneath the middle of the car next to us and Jay kindly laid down on the pavement to retrieve it. It would have looked very suspicious if the owner of that car came out of the store, but fortunately, we didn’t have to awkwardly explain ourselves with the language barrier. After unpacking our groceries and enjoying our fresh cold-cut sandwiches, Brooke got to finally jump in the pool with her cousins, Parker and Serafina!
We also checked out a nearby beach with the hilarious name, “Soda Thanks”. Brandon’s catch phrase of the trip became “Beer please, soda thanks!” This free public beach was our first glimpse of how amazing the beaches are in Sicily. There are so few people around and the water is so warm and extremely shallow due to the sand bars, which makes it a perfect place to bring a toddler. Beckett loves playing at the beach and could play independently and dig in the sand all day long. Meanwhile, Brooke swam in the water and went for a walk with Ryan, Parker, and Serafina. Upon returning from the walk, the kids animatedly told us how Uncle Ryan took them to play in a “river full of dead fish” and Brooke said that her and Parker saved a sardine. It turns out that Brooke’s contribution was delegating to Parker how to save the fish and Parker was the one who helped it safely swim back to the water. In case anyone is wondering, Ryan used AI to determine what kind of fish it was. Not the first, or last, time of the trip that AI was helpful haha!
Although we insisted that she didn’t need to cook while we were out, Grammy prepared a delicious meal of lemon-garlic drumsticks, broccoli and a salad. Since we were at the beach for awhile, we ate around 8pm to start transitioning to a Sicilian meal schedule. All 4 kids devoured their meal! Brooke ate 3 large drumsticks and then happily went to bed after a fun day. Since Beckett slept in and was entertaining everyone he got to stay up late to “party” at the dinner table for a while.
-Jaclyn