la hora del té

There isn’t too much to do in Gaiman. So after giggling at the name for while, we decided to act a little more civilized. It was high time for high tea.

The town was founded by the Welsh, and although the town is about 5 blocks by 5 blocks big, it has no less than 10 tea houses. They are everywhere. We couldn’t not go.  Still, MC and I had to do a bit of convincing to get the guys on board.

With high recommendations from the crazy cabana owner, we set off to one of the nicest places in town. Soon after we sat down in the very English parlor, trays and trays of pastries started to arrive. We didn’t even have to order. We had all forgone lunch in order to eat as much as we could, but we weren’t prepared for the amount of sugar that would be served to us.

Bode declared this his new favorite meal ever.  And this is from a kid whose allergies prevented him from eating about 90% of the goodies offered. Still, he got scones with 3 different types of jelly, lemon pie, some sort of traditional fruitcake (which is actually a lot better than fruitcake) and tea with a whole lot of sugar.

When the check came, we were all a bit surprised… nearly $20 USD per person. There was no possible way we could have eaten it all, so we decided we’d get all the leftovers to go. And then, we all needed some exercise. Luckily, the playground is right across the street, and it has the steepest tunnel slide in the world – it just shoots kids out like a cannon. Full speed. Despite the only warning sign for kids I’ve seen in South America (6-14 years only), we all gave it a try. And all of us tried it only once.

We also peered into a closed-down park that was built with recycled materials. This was the reason I’d wanted to come to this town (thinking it would be a bit like Coco’s Corner).   The artist died a few years ago, and the family kept it open for a while but couldn’t maintain it.  It’s for sale now, and looks pretty amazing. Alas, this isn’t our opportunity. I would get too fat here with all these tea houses.

MC and Simon ended up staying in town an extra night (they are due in Osorno, Chile to meet up with their VW’s new owner) to celebrate Bode’s actual birthday.

Bode has had no less than 3 other birthday celebrations already this year, so this was going to be the final bash.  The over-abundance is largely my fault.  I don’t want him to miss friends and family on his birthday, so whenever we have been around either (Houston, Ushuaia) he got a party. Just in case his actual birthday is a dud.

Rest-assured he got exactly what he wanted on his birthday. Since he loved the tea so much, we surprised him with another (in-home) tea party.  I’m not sure how many other 7 year old boys would be thrilled with a tea party, but mine sure was. BIRTHDAY CAKE for breakfast! Heck yeah, that’s how we roll.

Gifts of Legos, video games… and an entire day spend finishing Wii Super Mario Brothers with Simon.  Later that evening we had a Wii Sports night. We will always and forever have strike and spare bowling dances inspired by MC.