Carnegie Hill Mom

As hot August nights roll into crisp September mornings, I kick back into gear. My body knows that something is up. I naturally begin waking up earlier despite my love of sleeping in. Perhaps this is because, after nine weeks of summer, I’ve finally caught up on all the sleep I missed during school-year mornings. Most likely, these earlier wakeups are prompted by my mind gearing up for all the new beginnings September holds. Even more so than in January, I catch myself making resolutions for the new year in September. I’ve lived my entire life to the rhythm of the academic year–first as a student, then as a teacher, and now as a mom of four school-age kids. As a result, Labor Day has always been the beginning of my year.  And I love it. It’s a chance to start anew. Fresh folders and perfectly pointy pencils. Revamped routines and optimistic outlooks. I’m recharged from summer and ready to return some structure to my days. The sky's the limit.  As a stay-at-home mom , I h...

Late Monday morning, we took a cab up to the very top of Montjuic, where we admired the sweeping views of the Mediterranean and the vast city of Barcelona from the vantage point of the castle, which served as a lookout tower (guards could send signals down to the city with daytime flags or nighttime fire if an enemy ship approached), prison, and execution site over the years. We wandered through the tiered plazas of the Jardins del Mirador with more great mosaics, dry fountains, switchback gardens, and forested paths downhill to the Teleferic del Port cable car. It carried us across the expansive port with its yachts and cruise ships and down to the sliver of beach.  We lingered at a beachfront bar, where I waded in the sea before cooling off with cava sangria (my new favorite drink), a mojito, and white wine. Locals used the beach as their gym, running sprints in the sand and doing pullups on the bars. We hopped over to a restaurant next to the W Barcelona for more wine, tapas...

On Sunday we slept in, only setting our alarms for 9:00 a.m. to catch the tail end of breakfast: churros with chocolate, melt-in-your-mouth potatoes and eggs, and a salad (because I was craving fresh veggies after our meat-, cheese-, and bread-heavy restaurant diet). We perused the Picasso Museum that morning during a pocket of unscheduled time. Favorites included a blue still life with doves perched on a window and Picasso's many variations of Velazquez’s Las Meninas painting. Apparently, Picasso preferred to study the masters by copying their work at the Museo del Prado in Madrid rather than by sitting in a classroom. Afterwards, we picked out pottery and tile magnets at a shop, wandered around the greenhouse and lakefront fountain in the Parc de la Ciutadella, and shopped for a hand-made leather bag at an atelier.  We strolled north for a late lunch at Els Quatre Gats, the restaurant where Picasso held his first solo exhibition. A delicious seafood paella and brisket with g...

With Saturday came a total change of scenery in the form of a day trip out of the city to Montserrat Monastery and Oller Winery about an hour northwest of Barcelona in the physical, cultural, and spiritual heart of Catalunya. We navigated the multi-level bus depot Estacion Del Norte, met our peppy tour guide Leslie (dad joke expert), and listened to 2,000 years of Catalan history in 20 minutes. Apparently Barcelona was originally a Roman outpost useful for trading along the Mediterranean Sea. Under Franco's dictatorship (Franco was buddies with Mussolini and Hitler), attending Catholic mass was mandatory and speaking in Catalan was illegal–but the language survived with the help of subversive monks and congregants who continued to chant in their native tongue during mass. We transferred to a cogwheel train and ascended Montserrat (which means Serrated Mountain), recognizable by its knobby crest like a dragon's back that likely inspired the towers of La Sagrada Familia and...

Thankfully, we awoke refreshed and ready for our first full day in Barcelona, during which we would focus first on Gaudi up north and then on food down south. We filled up on a delicious hotel breakfast buffet that featured yogurt parfaits with honey, a fresh fruit bar, artisanal bread with jam, chocolate croissants, and almond cake. The melted mozzarella tomatoes along with roasted potatoes and chorizo left nothing to be desired (aside from a larger appetite to taste even more!) Casa Batllo We set off west and took in the stunning beauty of Casa Batllo in the early morning rays. The exterior reminded me of the sea with its coral-like balconies that also resembled bones or masks. The blue tile and window shutters invited the eye to linger and wonder what beauty lay within. We first entered through a basement room and stood on a moving sidewalk that circled around a sleeping figure depicting the architect Gaudi. Meanwhile, lights and projected images flashed and swept around the roo...