love of local in Utah
Things I Loved in Granada, Nicaragua
I am going to wrap up our trip to Granada in a good ‘ole Things I Loved style post.
Dinners at dusk, under the sky, on the main road, watching street performers.
Staying is a gorgeous house, Casa Anita. Indoor poor, open ceiling, balconies, and charm. The bedding, towels, dinnerware; everything was so clean and high end. I loved staying there, it was such a treat.
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!
You park your car right in the front room! Which had us worried, doesn’t it look like the van could slip right in? Plus then we couldn’t watch TV so we backed it back out onto the street. Did you know for $1 a night you can pay someone to watch your car? You can.
The girls loved SKINNY DIPPIN! One night it started to rain down on them and they were just flipping out, they loved it.
They also loved playing pretend with all of the home’s knick knacks, from waitress to missionary to yoga instructor.
Abby and I had a lot of fun picking our favorite doors and colors of walls.
Shae stood at the open front door and said hi to everyone walking past. I loved being part of the city. Hearing people walk past, trucks honking, motorcycles whizzing past, and dogs barking. I need to take a turn living deep in a city.
All of the seating for the restaurants were outside. So while waiting for our food we just walked up and down the roads. This makes dining out much easier with kids!
This isn’t the best picture of it and of course the only one I got isn’t of a little old lady. But a lot of the older ladies out here wore these cute aprons around. Different colors but all with little ruffles along the ends.
Ice cold sodas. Man Granada was so much cooler than where we live here, it was a nice treat to not be so hot. But an ice cold soda still was refreshing, we are in humid Central American after all.
I learned colonial style towns have a key to my heart. My husband has talked about them for years as being his favorite, now I know why.
We had breakfast in a beautiful chocolate museum. We read all about how chocolate is made, the history of chocolate, and watched the process right in the museum.
Sadly no samples. We did buy some chocolate bars, very different taste, fun to try.
I want to get a good picture of a little family all riding on the same bike. Usually the dad is peddling, the mom is sitting in front of him, with their child wedged in between. It makes me smile every time I see it, which is usually every day. This picture also shows our church.
Now, we had a bit of an odd experience at church. I love driving up to see the sign The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You know what it feels like to see it? Home. People are warm and friendly here and they had to unlock the gate to let a car in. We were the only car there! I was really looking forward to attending a larger branch, with more kids for the girls to meet. But during sacrament everyone was so excited to see a group of four girls it started to get odd. They were not paying attention to the speakers and just turning to stare and watch. Many cell phones were pulled out and people were taking pictures. I really wanted the girls to stay for Primary but I was starting to feel uncomfortable. After the girls posed for some more pictures on the front lawn we went back home.
Lastly, I loved being near my brother even though I did not see him. My youngest brother, Jonathan is serving a mission in this area. I was thinking about him the whole time and…my heart just hurt that I couldn’t see him. We saw 4 Elders at church that brightened me up a bit. And then on our last day there we were seated to eat at a restaurant. Guess who was at the table next to us? 10 Elders and 2 Sisters. Seeing them, how happy they were, how hard I knew they were working and how hot the gringo Elders looked. It just made my heart feel better. I felt like I had seen my brother even though…I hadn’t. On the way home we drove through the town he was serving in. It was peaceful to feel that I was in the same town as my brother. Who is working oh so very hard to change generations of lives. By teaching them of Jesus, a living prophet, and the gospel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
Learn more about my church at Mormon.org
