Its All Relative

Well we are just back from 5 days in Portugal. Kiki & Snake are off school for 2 weeks of Spring Break. 2 weeks!!! Sometimes I think they are never in school. Chizz's brother, Uncle Funsucker, his lovely wife Auntie C and their two strapping boys (names to be determined later) are visiting for a bit over a week. We are very excited and we have lots of fun things planned.

But before they came we decided, in some kind of misguided way, to try and find a little sun. So at the last minute we booked a short trip to Portugal. We figured that was the farthest south we could go and still have a flight under 3 hours so we wouldn't lose a lot of time travelling. Auntie L. was born in Portugal a few years back but she was born in the Azores, an island chain off Portugal in the Atlantic.We ended up in a section of southern part of Portugal called the Algarve. The kids were begging for some relaxing time (read get up late i.e. the afternoon, sit on the beach or by the pool, drink endless cokes and hang). We accomplished quite a bit of that, although the weather was not as warm as we hoped. But to show you how far we have fallen from our sun worshipping California days, we rejoiced when one day the weather reached a blistering 72 degrees. Woo-hoo!! Listen before you judge, remember that a warm winter day here is about 48 degrees, sometimes if we were lucky it would pass the 50 degree mark. It is all what you become acclimated to, in California, you didn't complain until your 50th day of 100 degree weather. In London, you rejoice at your 3rd day of 50 degree weather. It is all what you are used to or get used to.

Degrees of weather aside, the kids had a wonderful time.
We managed to get some time at poolside. Here is a view of the pool of our hotel, the cliffs were amazing. Kiki & Snake were content to lie on those chairs most of the day and soak as much sun is as they could. The hours broken up by ordering cokes, french fries and playing endless games of darts and foos ball. They met some English kids around their ages and spent the time after dinner playing pool and hanging out with them. Apparently this is exactly what they wanted to do and they thought it was a very successful vacation.

Now Chizz and I can handle about two days of sitting around a hotel
pool before we go crazy so we did a bit more exploring. We stayed near a beautiful little town called Carvoeiro, so we walked about 1/2 mile into to town every day to explore and pick out a place for dinner. It seems like all of the villages in Portugal have white buildings. It makes it very picturesque. One day we decided to explore a little further out and take a drive. Of course for the kids that would require leaving the pool and they just couldn't imagine doing that, so we went on our own. They are old enough to fend for themselves. Hey! Its not like they had to forage in the forest for food, they figured out pretty darn quickly how to charge stuff to the room. (Thanks Auntie M. for teaching both of my children the joys of room service!)


Chizz and I rented a teeny, tiny car. If I had reclined my seat, I would have been in the back seat. But that is okay, on these small Portugese roads, it was much better to have a small little car. We drove out to Silves. Portugese sounds alot like Spanish but there are more 'sh' and 'ch' sounds. So Silves is pronounced 'silvish'. Enough phonics today. Silves has the ruins of a Moorish castle that were pretty darn interesting to walk around. It really looks like a castle, when so many of these ruins don't. It is currently being restored to include all of the things a castle needs, like a gift shop and snack stand. The castle is up at the top of the hill because all the better to see people that might be invading you, so you find yourselves slowly meandering up the hill up these little cute cobblestoned streets. We drove through quite a few of the small towns in the south Algarve, Lagos (pronounced Lagosh), Ferragudo, Portimao, Alvor. It is a beautiful area.

Portugal is known for, among other things, their beautiful tile work and pottery. We were taken aback by some of the little buildings that were covered in very beautiful tile work. This picture doesn't do it justice but it does give you an idea of what you might see. The pottery is beautiful too. I picked up a piece to bring home that Chizz was convinced that would ended up smashed to smithereens on the airplane home but with a little work and careful nurturing (Hey! Watch out for my pottery!) it has successfully made it back. Of course, I lost Snake somewhere along the way but you can't have everything.

So even without the really hot weather, we had a great time. Now onto having more local fun with Uncle Funsucker, Auntie C. & gang. It is great having family in town. I am not sure how much time I will get to blog anything so I will leave you with some miscellaneous pictures of our trip to Portugal. Discuss among yourselves.