Friday, June 19

Happy birthday Grandpa Jim!  We miss you!

Most of the morning I spent packing for Portugal and decluttering the house in preparation for our upcoming visit from our neighbors and dear friends from Denver the Graeber's.  I did find time to walk around and buy some trinkets for our Irish nieces who we'll see in July (and August).

For lunch we did the now usual routine of eating lunch at the Italian restaurant under the mushrooms and next to the school.

As we were leaving, Rosa received huge hugs from Mar and Fabiola tried to join in.  

As we walked home, we noticed this moving truck in front of an apartment building by Plaza de la Gavidia.

This temporary lift was put in place to move furniture out of the 1st floor (Spain) 2nd floor (US) apartment.  

Scott arrived home early from work (usual for a Friday) and we hit the road towards Portugal.  Portugal is about 1.5 hours away to the border from our apartment.  We had NO traffic the entire trip.  It was wonderful!

We crossed a river on this bridge to reach Portugal.

Another bridge view.

Portugal and Algarve region welcome signs.

It was a mystery ride.  The kids new that we had a suitcase which to them meant we'd be spending the night somewhere.  They assumed we'd be staying at a hotel.  And they assumed that the hotel would have a pool.  Beyond that, they didn't have a clue.  They were right about those things.  But after we crossed the border and saw the welcome sign we asked them where we were being welcomed.  And then we told them Portugal.  Here are the looks on Cody and Rosa's faces.  They were a bit shocked and happily surprised.

Shortly after crossing the border, I noticed a car stopped on the overpass.

When we got closer, I realized it was because a goat herder was crossing goats across the bridge.  Love it!

We arrived at our beautiful hotel (found on Booking.Es) and checked into our super spacious apartment.

Formosa Park Apartment Hotel

Then we checked out the grounds and the kids and Scott had a swim in the pool.  At that point it was time to get clean.  We had 2 bathrooms both with large tubs.  The kids were thrilled to take a rare bath.  Then we went to have dinner at the hotel restaurant.  It opened at 7:30pm for dinner and we arrived at what we thought was 8pm.  It was 8 in Spain, but 7 in Portugal.  Luckily, they were nice enough to seat us early and serve good food.