Hagar Qim and Marsaxlokk Tour and the Edward Jones Theme Dinner in Mdina!

We went on our tour to Hagar Qim today.  I've NEVER experienced heat and humidity like we did today!  Wow, it was uncomfortable!  It was fun to explore the ruins and learn about these people!  They were built around 3600 BC, so they are older than the pyramids!  They only found animal remains, so they think the "temples" were used for animal sacrifices.  They realy don't know much about them, as no written record was left.  From there, we went to a fishing village called Marsaxlokk and were given free time to poke around their market.  we saw a lot of produce and fish and A LOT of trinket types of souvenirs-- probably from China, hahaha!  It was fun to browse and see all the different types of fish and seafood-- nothing was on ice though!  The fishing boats were all in the background docked in the harbor, so everything was probably brought in today, I'm sure.  The produce and fruit all looked really good, though.  We dealt with the wet heat by getting Magnum bars as a treat!!  Our boat ride to the Blue Grotto and caves was cancelled due to high winds.  (They use really small boats.) So we didn't get to see that.  They gave us a refund, so maybe we'll go back another day?  We were bummed we couldn't go because that would've been fun to go on a boat and get some ocean air and wind!

We came back to the hotel and we all crashed and took a nap.  I woke up and wrote Brooke, since it's Sunday today.  I wrote her a nice long letter explaining all of our adventures here and last week at the family reunion.  We got cleaned up and went on motor coaches to the Edward Jones Theme dinner in Mdina-- a really cool medieval town on a hill in the middle of the island.  I would love to come back here and poke around!  The dinner was amazing with a lot of food at the buffet that was very traditional Maltese cuisine-- including Rabbitt-- which we all tried.  It was good.  It tasted like chicken!  I liked the tomato based sauce it was cooked in.  The food was really good!  I think it's influenced a lot by Italy--and also Sicily, which is closer!  (On a clear day you can see Sicily from Malta!)  There were vendors at dinner selling handmade rugs and jewelry.  It was all beautiful!  There was also a lot of entertainment!  There was a sword swallower--he performed for quite a while!  Then 2 funny sword fighters-- more comedic than anything else!  Then some beautiful Maltese dancers finished the evening!  Bill and Katelyn had their palms read and got some pressing questions answered--Hahahaha!  We took the bus home and met an FA and his wife from Minnesota!  We learned ALL we ever wanted to know about Minnesota's winters and ice fishing!!  He was quite enthusiastic about telling us and showed us lots of pictures on his phone!  It's quite the sport and he has all the high tech equipment to find the fish!  He told us that if we were ever in Minnesota, that he'd take us all out ice fishing!  (I highly doubt I will ever venture to that kind of cold!)  Brooke is serving in such an unique place!  We went to bed when we got back to the hotel! 

(NOTE: The last 2 pictures are Katelyn's drawings on the pad of paper from the hotel!)