Wednesday, the 8th we woke up at about 10am and had a light breakfast with my friend's family before dropping the boys off at nursery school and heading to Vina del Mar a resort town on the pacific coast about 1 hour or so from Melipilla via a winding back road that was much more adventurous than the road over the Andes. We arrived Vina and proceeded to park in the lot of the Sheraton so we could wander about and take pictures. Vina has quite a bit of beautiful landscaping and a clock made out of flowers and we took a ton of time walking around before having a late lunch on the beach.

After lunch we headed to Valparaiso the next beach town over and connected to Vina by a causeway. Valparaiso is a working-class town with a Naval Base and the largest port in Chile. The homes and buildings are built into cliffs overlooking the ocean and many are brightly colored.

We stopped at the Naval museum which overlooked the port and was located in an old colonial house. The exhibits were first class and the admission at a little over $2.00US per person was fine. My friend and her husband got in free because she is a Captain in the Army. I am a fan of military history and enjoyed learning about the Chilean civil war, the two wars against Spain and the war against Peru where Chile captured Iquique and Arica.

We left the museum and were running far too late to pick up the boys on time (the school closes at 6:30) but fortunately my friend's husband grew up in Melipilla and they were able to reach his mother who picked up the kids and Mrs. Dcstudent got to meet his mom when we picked the kids up.

We went back to the house and relaxed for awhile before heading to Tierra at 8:30, a really nice restaurant just off the main square in Melipilla. As February 9th was the birthday of Mr. Friend of Dcstudent, we wanted to treat the family to a nice meal as both a birthday present and a thank you for their hospitality. (The other thank you was a huge box full of toys for the boys that we had mailed just after Christmas.)

We all had mineral water, Mrs. Dcstudent and Mr. Friend had a beer and Mrs. Friend had a mixed drink (I had a coke) as we waited on our appetizers, which were devine. Mr. Friend had ceviche Mrs. Friend had a fish dish that I can't even explain, I had Trio Gringo (chicken wings, french fries and onion rings...all of which were awesome by the way). I ordered a ver nice bottle of local wine for dinner and Mrs. Dcstudent had a cheese pizza (that she ended up not eating because even though it said 4 cheese and did not mention meat, it had bacon), Mrs. Friend had pasta, I had a pepperoni pizza, and I forget what Mr. Friend had. For dessert everyone but me had chocolate cake, but with my chocolate allergy I stayed with homemade apple pie and ice cream which was awesome.

Total bill, including propina (tip), 50,000 Pesos, or $104US

After dinner we headed back to our friend's house where after the kids were put to sleep we all sat outside drinking more wine and talking until Mrs. Friend and I finally went to bed at 1:30am. Mr. Friends and Mrs. Dcstudent stayed up talking until almost 5am!