Portugal

PREPARE FOR PICTURE OVERLOAD!

We planned this trip with our good friends, the Barkers, who are living in Germany right now. It had been over 3 years since we had seen them and it was so great to catch up with them. We had missed them a lot!! Portugal is a beautiful country with amazing beaches all along the coast. We stayed in the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal. We had some rain. One day it rained really hard and didn't let up until late afternoon but, for the most part, the weather was good. The last two days were perfect - - sunny and low-mid 70's! I can't say enough good things about this trip. Loved the company, loved the beaches, so relaxing and fun!!

We got in very late on our first day......or I guess I should say early because we didn't physically get to the villa until 2am. It was so dark and we didn't know exactly what we were looking for (my fault as I was the navigator and didn't see the last of the directions! oops!) We sort of slept in, at least it was sleeping in for us because our kids are usually up by 6am. So, it was a slow start to the day. It was cute to see Allie and Adeline get reacquainted. Adeline was Allie's first little friend in Ohio. They really didn't remember each other at all except for pictures and stories we've told them. Norah and Avery hit it off and Blake and Meika were so cute together! Six kids between the 2 families.......ages 7, 6, 5, 3, 2 and 1.....we had lots of stares! :)

The kids swam in the pool some which was freezing cold! Then we eventually made it to our first beach.

 

 

This was kind of scary. They were walking around this to a small tunnel that took them over to another beach. You had to time the waves just right!

 

The next day we thought was going to be our rainiest day. It rained on and off most of the day but nothing too bad. We spent the day exploring the town of Silves and it's castle.

The town and castle from afar.

Playing hide and go seek in the castle

Then we walked around the little city.

 

 

Then this picture is how we would find the little ones almost every evening...

 

Day 3 ended up being very rainy most of the day. It did clear up and we found a cool beach, Rafael. This is the beach where we went exploring through some rocks and on the way out I timed the waves completely wrong (although they were very sporadic) and got trapped against a rock with the waves crashing into me.....up to my neck! I had my good camera with me too but held it up above my head and it didn't get too wet. So thankful the waves weren't any higher or I probably would have been swept under the water! Definitely scary but my adrenaline was rushing!!!

 

View of the beach from above

 

On the beach

Abe walking the girls to the hidden beach/waterfall area (this is where I got caught in the water!)

Derek taking Blake back

Avery & Norah by the hidden waterfall

And more pictures back in the rocks

 

looking out at the beach from the rocks. To the left is where I got trapped.

Allie & Adeline

 

 

Day four was beautiful! We had a boat trip planned but it was still too choppy out to go so they canceled on us. We were a little bummed about it but we had a great day at a breathtaking beach! {Praia de Marinha}

 

Walking down to beach

 

There was another secluded beach we could get to from the main beach here as well. We just had to go under the arch and we were there. Much safer than the other one too.

Girls putting on a show

SUCH a BOY!!

 

View of beach from above (this was probably my favorite beach....Allie said it was hers too)

 

 

Day 5 - Our last full day. :( It was another gorgeous day and the ocean had calmed down enough for us to go on a boat ride. Not the original one we had planned but I think this one was much more adventurous than the other would have been. VERY fun, a little scary at times, so glad we were able to do it!!!

 

How was it adventurous and a little scary......see that hole in the rock wall in front of the boat? We drove through that, into the cave!! The driver had to time it just perfectly with the waves or we would have hit our heads.......and there wasn't much room on either side of the boat. So crazy! We went through several like this.

 

View from inside cave

 

 

And the famous Benagil Sea Cave. We had hoped to be able to get out and take some pictures. We had seen some where others have but this guy wouldn't let us out. I suppose a lot of it probably had to do with the young kids and the high tide.

 

 

Yep, we went in this one too!

 

Wasn't sure if we were going to make it out.

 

 

After the boat ride we went into the town of Lagos for lunch. Snapped this cute pic of Avery & Norah at the marina

Afterwards we stopped off at Ponte de Piedade for a quick look

 

 

Next stop was the beach Dona Ana (Avery said this was her favorite beach)

 

 

 

 

I WANT TO GO BACK!!!

Actually, as I was putting this post together Allie was watching me and looking at the pictures.......she said the same thing! Can't wait to see our friends again in a few weeks! :)

 

More Random Pics

 

Blake and Meika hanging out and playing on the iPad

 

Date Night -- We went to a restaurant where we cooked our own steak on a hot stone. We had to wear aprons!

 

Our attempt at a selfie

 

Girls "swimming" at the Villa. This place was great...more pics of the place on the rental site.

 

 

A few other highlights of the trip:

Playing Settlers of Catan

Eating Patisseries just about every morning (yummy!)

Hearing about the funny things Allie would tell Nicole -- one such thing was when Nicole asked her if they put themselves to bed. Allie said something along the lines of --well, sometimes we do if my Mom and Dad are watching Purdue.

Also, on our date night, Allie was so excited to be having Derek and I going on a date (it rarely happens). She was almost pushing us out the door! I thought it was because she wanted to be with her friends and just not have us around. Derek told me it was because she thought it was cool we were going on a date. She told Adeline, very proudly, "My Mom and Dad are going on a date tonight. It's still fun to go on dates even when you're married."