Fiestas Patrias and Frank's visit - Day 2

Soooo....
Friday morning, Frank was a great sport and got up to meet me at 7:30am! Unfortunately, what we didn't realize was that the metro didn't open until 8:00. Oops. So, we caught a cab to the bus depot where we caught the 8:30 bus to Vina del Mar, a beautiful Chilean coastal city. After the two hour bus ride, we narrowly managed to dodge salesmen selling tours and decided that walking at our own pace was more what we wanted for the day. So, we headed out to a museum on Easter Island; unfortunately, due to the national holiday (Armed Forces Day), it was closed :( However, we did get some cool pictures in front of the moai statue - the big heads from Easter Island. From there, we walked around the city, getting to see some cool castles and a bay where the river and the ocean meet - I thought that was really cool! Took some pictures, and then headed downtown for lunch. We stopped at this great Chilean bistro and got to try some of Vina's famous shellfish plus empanadas, palta (avocado), and sopaipillas. Afterwards, headed to Bravissimo for ice cream and split a HUGE chocolate sundae. After enjoying our dessert, we took a leisurely stroll to the beach :) The weather was cool (like 75), but I changed into my swim suit anyway after managing to soak my jeans from a stray wave that was a lot bigger than it looked while trying to wet my feet. Took turns sun basking and walking in the water, and then just relaxed and watched the little kids flying kites on the beach (note to self: will learn to do that one day). We then got to watch some people make sand sculptures, which was pretty impressive, and then changed clothes. Must make a note here: Frank was the hero of the day and went back to the dressing room, by himself, to ask the changing room attendant, in Spanish, to let him in and find my sunglasses...what a brave guy! From the beach, we went to dinner at a restaurant that advertised "More than 40 flavors of empanadas" which we thought was really funny, because when we counted how many flavors they had, they had 41. From there, we started heading back to the bus depot via the beach and got a chance to watch the sun set over the ocean. Truly a gorgeous site that I will never forget. Unfortunately, no pictures because my camera had decided to fizzle out by this point. So, back to the bus depot and the 2 hour ride back. Then, I dropped Frank off at the hostel and headed home to sleep and get ready for Saturday.