There are few trees that produce a lovelier bloom than the pear. The driveway into the iRobot parking lot is lined with them producing a white petal-lined corridor for a few special days each year.

Local CBS affiliate WBZ carried an interview with Nicolai on their evening news today about his involvement with the Powerade #powerthrough campaign for the World Cup.  Jeanine was heavily featured and it is no wonder to me where Nico got his great public speaking poise.

My soccer game this morning is in Fall River and the 8 am start time required that I leave by 6 am.  The long drive gave way to a long match.  I played most of the first half and all of the second half. My recovering ankle held up well but my conditioning was not where it needed to be. Nonetheless, I made good contributions on the field and helped my team secure an important 4-3 win.

Kyle recently got me hooked on a TV series called House of Cards and I used a good portion of the afternoon to finish watching season two before heading out in search of some nice spring scenes.

It takes a bit of coercion but occasionally we can obtain a college-life photo from Kyle.  Jeanine and I are planning to visit with him over the Memorial Day weekend.

I spent several hours this afternoon taking down the treehouse I built for the children some 6 years ago.  The kids have outgrown it and it was beginning to show signs of dilapidation.  It was a more challenging project than I anticipated. Removing the roof released a colony of termites onto my head and even though gravity was in my favor, I had to be very careful not to get crushed when I dropped the main platform.

It’s that time of year when the Blue Heron prepares its nest for the arrival of chicks. After work, I dragged my long lens out to the rookery where I photographed many families last year. I did not see a single heron but I did capture a nice Pileated Woodpecker and European Starling.

It has been raining on and off for several days now. This evening on the way home from work I paused for a photo of the Sudbury River. The sun was out and low in the sky creating beautiful light on the cloud filled scene.

A long-time favorite lens of mine will go up on Craig’s List for sale later today.  I am replacing it with an updated version which was just released.  Pictured below is a favorite photo made with this lens featuring Kyle and two of his friends from high school.

Signed by Andres Iniesta, this is the invitation Nico received to attend the World Cup in Brazil. We will plan a vacation day on either side of the quarter-final match, scheduled for July 4th, to enjoy the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Nico has also secured a corporate speaking engagement for Western Union. They are flying him to Italy for the conference and have invited him to join them for the Europa League Finals in Turin.

Maya got a bit of a sunburn on our last day in Barcelona.  She and Jeanine spent most of the day on an open-air tour bus seeing the sights while Nico and I were occupied with his Powerade media event.  Both Maya and Kyle produced exceptional grades this semester and we are very proud of their academic accomplishments. Meanwhile, Nico has accepted an interview with the BBC for their Outlook show which will be taped at their local studio in Boston next week.

Maya and I were both back on the soccer pitch today. With no subs, Maya played a full 90 minutes. Her team managed a 0-0 tie against Nedham which made constant use of their 8 subs. She looked much stronger than last season. Even though she was tired, Maya had some very strong shots on goal, did a great job of distribution, showed a new propensity for heading the ball and showed some strong moves that reminded me of Kyle’s.

By contrast, I played one of the worst games I can remember. My legs felt like jello and my touch was spastic. We suffered our first defeat of the season 0-2 even though we dominated second-half play. Adding injury to insult, I hyper-extended my ankle while taking a shot and it feels like this will cost me a match or two on the sidelines.

It rained all day which gave me a good excuse to process all the photos and videos I took while in Spain. Of the 2000 images I made, I have down selected to a mere 500. By next week I hope to further reduce that number by half. I find that with time I can be more objective about which photos are worth keeping. Even though storage is cheap, the time spent looking through them all again at some point in the future is not. Here are a few that did not make my earlier posts.

The bulk of the day was spent flying from Barcelona back to Boston arriving late in the evening. Although we really enjoyed our vacation in Spain it was nice to be back home again.

Here is a video taken yesterday of Nico training with Andres Iniesta.

For weeks now, Nicolai has been looking forward to meeting Andres Iniesta, the world famous Spanish midfielder who plays for F.C. Barcelona and the Spanish National team. Iniesta is the headliner in the Powerade TV commercial in which Nico also appears.  The TV adds and related media campaign were launched today and Nico is here to film some additional footage and to do a couple of media interviews. Nico tried to get Iniesta to play him on an extra set of crutches while holding one leg up (leveling the playing field, so to speak). Andres said he was superstitious and did not want to tempt fate. He was entirely gracious about everything and it was apparent to me as I photographed and filmed him playing with Nico that he is a genuinely kind and good man, something I doubt is true of most multi-million dollar athletes. The session culminated when Iniesta invited Nico and a guest on an all expense paid trip to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, compliments of the Coca Cola company.

With our last night in Spain upon us, Jeanine decided we were going to celebrate with a fine meal at a truly authentic regional restaurant. She selected Bilbao, a more perfect choice would be hard to imagine. The food was exquisite and the service was exceptional. A fitting end to a truly wonderful vacation.

Our first full day in Barcelona coincides with the Sant Jordi (Saint George) Festival. Although it is not a public holiday, his saint’s day (April 23) seems to bring out everyone for the celebration. Tradition dictates a rose for her and a book for him on this day for lovers. La Rambla, our destination this morning, seems to be the epicenter for booksellers and flower vendors drawing thousands upon thousands of visitors. We navigate the throngs until we reach La Boqueria. This amazing market has vendors selling every type of food imaginable with a degree of specialization that is unknown in the US. The slide show below is a small sampling of what can be found.

After a brief snack, Nicolai left by taxi for a video production studio to make an audition tape for a TV series in the US. More on this later, should he get a call back. Meanwhile, Jeanine, Maya, and I walk to the Barcelona Cathedral. Maya opts to watch the street performers gathered in front while Jeanine and I take the full tour.

After completing the tour we gathered up Nicolai and drove to Park Güell, a garden complex with architectural elements situated on the hill of El Carmel and offering panoramic views of the city of Barcelona. It was designed by Gaudí and built in the years 1900 to 1914 and is now part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Works of Antoni Gaudí”.

For dinner, Nico and I joined the folks from Coca Cola who have sponsored our trip. We met at the Hotel Rey Juan, pictured below, where we met the whole team.