HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween from SpongeBob, Iron Man, Aphrodite and Boots the Monkey!

Don't stop reading

So one of my best friends (jokingly, I hope) said that she was going to stop reading the blog. She was tired of all the good islandy stuff. Anyway, I started to tell her that even though I liked living here there are things that are not so great. So, this is for her and for anyone else getting tired of islandy good stuff.




1. Food-
I love food, and the food here is good, but I'm getting very tired of boiled potatoes, and lettuce salad. Everything you order comes with a couple boiled potatoes and a pile of lettuce with some shredded carrots. The picture is a step up because it also has onions and some parsley on the potatoes. Then, there isn't a choice of dressing for your "salad" either. There are bottles of oil and vinegar on your table. They do have other options at other restaurants, like french fries or carrots, but they don't use as much salt as Americans are used to so everything seems very bland.

Besides the sides you can get, most restaurants have a couple different kinds of fish (a lot served as a whole fish), maybe one chicken dish and a couple steak. The catch, is that it is cooked the same and served the same way at each of the those restaurants. They have a specialty steak that is served with a fried egg on top. I don't know about you but that's not a favorite of mine.



So in an attempt not to be too negative I'll keep posting good stuff, but every now and then throw in something irksome.

On another note we are going to our branch Halloween or Harvest or whatever, party tonight so I hope to put up some costume pictures soon. Hope everyone has an enjoyable, candy-filled weekend.

Birthday getaway

For my birthday, back in September, Rob and I got to stay at a hotel for the night. Thanks to Levi and Kim for watching our kids for two days.


We we able to stay a this four star hotel called the Terceira Mar. It's also known as "the pink hotel" because right next door there is another four star hotel known as "the blue hotel"

For the front it looks pretty small, but the lobby isn't on the first floor it's actually on the top floor. It's built right on the cliff side so all the floors are on the backside.

This is a split picture of the whole hotel. It's way bigger than it seemed from the front.




Alright so the rest of this post will be a little out of order but it doesn't really matter. The hotel has been introduced, you are now at least acquaintances and now we can go on to more personal details and you'll become such good friends that you might want to meet in person some day.


We had to wait for the dinner buffet to start (7 pm!) so we went walking around the grounds and found a walking path. This path started to go down and even had a sign posted to continue at your own risk. Who would turn away from that, we didn't.
At the end of the path was a door and on the other side was the water. Just right there. We walked around on the rocks, I fell and then took some pictures. It wasn't a pretty fall either, it was the kind of fall that you just keep slipping and can't get a foot hold, oh, like on ice. The rocks were really slick with algae and other slick aquatic stuff.


It had to have been low tide because there were a lot of little tide pools and wet rocks



My fingers got all scratched up from the fall, those lava rocks are not smooth at all.


I'm laughing pretty hard in this one. It was right after I couldn't not fall. Rob couldn't get the camera to flash so I was sitting on the rock, with my fingers burning and just laughing.





We went back up top to wait for the sunset and continue to walk to path around the grounds



This is the outdoor pool, which was freezing. It was cool because the sunset kept changing the colors. I took this picture two or three times and they each look really different. The other two are on Facebook, one in my pictures and the other as my profile picture.





Now to the inside. There was an indoor pool and spa. We enjoyed the hot tub for a while and then tried the Turkish spa. It was pretty much a big steam room with, guessing here, eucalyptus leaves on the floor to scent the room. You were supposed to steam for ten minutes and then take a cool shower for five and then back again until you were down. Then finish off with a longer shower. I really liked the steam, it felt so good to just breathe it in. They also had other spa services that we didn't do, like different facial treatments and massages.



This was the main stairwell. The windows went the whole length of the stairs.

Just the view of the outdoor pool area, with a closer view of the castle. It was totally a real castle too. You can take a tour and walk in the old moat and go in a secret door. I definitely want to take the tour another time. Now it's a training facility for their military.



Our room had some neat things I HAD to take pictures of.

A little hotel trash can, set up for recycling. It cut down on how much garbage you could actually fit into the can but it's still a good idea.




I thought this was genius. In order for you lights and air conditioning to work, your key had to be in this slot. So, when you leave the room all your lights and air shut off while you're out of the room. Smart!



Of course there was a bidet. I love me a nice bidet. Most of the homes off base have them also.



We got a romantic package deal, so the room was all decked out with red hearts and candles. Also, while we were at dinner they delivered a fruit basket to our room



This is the view our room had. We were as far down and as far out as possible.



Little table was set up for us, there is a couch sitting there too, so I don't know if the table is usually there because what's the logic in the placement.



Towel swans, bathrobes and more red hearts. The bed looks huge, it was a kind but the pillows were mini. I mean look at them compared to the robes or the phone even. Tiny.



Rob checking out dinner choices. We were the very first ones there and starving at 7.




This is passion fruit jello which was so yummy. My goal is to try and make some myself, we'll see if that ever happens, but if it does I will post it on here.



The next morning we got a continental breakfast in bed. Bread basket, ham and cheese, and orange juice. Yummy!


After we checked out we spent the day in Angra, but I'll save those pictures for later.

I hope you two get along and decide to take it to the next step and meet. If you do, make sure you thank us for introducing the two of you and stop by to tell us all about your date.

Buzius

This is an Italian restaurant that we went to a couple weeks ago. It's called Buzius, which I think is seashell in Portuguese? anyway, It has an amazing view. It's in a town called Porto Martins. It is definitely a fan favorite for the Americans.



This is right outside the building. It's another group of swimming holes. I like these ones, we will have to come swimming here next summer.






Savanna was enjoying a little wind after we ate a yummy dinner. I had some chicken pasta in a red sauce. The kids wanted spaghetti, but they ended up eating Rob's, which was a seafood pasta that included shrimp, squid, octopus, and mussels.





This is inside the restaurant. I don't think it's usually set up this way though. They were getting ready for a large bachelorette party.


We will go back here, I need to try their Eggplant Parmesan. MMmm!

Soccer

This was Kaelin's first game. They are the blue dragons. In later games she has scored a few goals and is really having fun. The soccer season here is really short because of weather restrictions. Her last game was rained out after about 10 min. Everyone was soaked but we had fun.




She was very excited to get a jersey and wanted me to take a picture of her number.



Savanna does really well at the games and practices. We got her, her own ball (not the one in the picture) that she takes with her and kicks on the sidelines



At one of Kaelin's practices Sean and Grant wanted to wear their jammas.



So at Sean's practice Kaelin wanted to wear hers



Doing some stretches with their coach, who Sean says, lives at the soccer field.



More stretching, this is his favorite part of soccer



One of her first practices
Kaelin stretches. Its a lot of fun to watch kids stretch because of their lack of coordination. We have really enjoyed going to practices and games. It'll be over really soon and next the kids want to sign up for Flag Football and Cheerleading


On a side note my spell check tells me that cheerleading is not correct BUT cheerleader is. Why is that? Katie or Keri maybe you have some insight?

Our island photo tour

Alright Rob and I signed up for a 4x4 island photo tour a little while ago. There are tons of our pictures and I only posted a few, but there are still a lot. So much that I don't feel putting the in "real" order or making any major captions. So you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. So there!


If you really care about the proper order, start from the end and work your way up.
This is our tour guide, and his fancy shmancy camera. The pictures he took of us turned out great! I hope we can frame one or a few but we see.





This is our tour vehicle it got a little over heated at the very end.





Parts of the tour looked like we were in the jungle but most just looked like farm land.




This is on the highest point of the island and the ground was so weird. It looks like Rob is going to fall on a mound of dirt or a rock, but it was completely soft like a pillow. You would step and sink in at least 2 inches and sometimes up to your shins.




Here's the view from the highest point. Usually it's not clear from up here but we got lucky. By the way, any and all "hills" you see are actually volcanoes.





We stopped for lunch in Angra (largest city on our island)

I just love the logo of Casa do Peixe.



Pensively waiting for lunch




You would have that relaxed look too if this was your view while waiting.


This is the interior view of the restaurant





At one point we stopped to see a group of cows right the side of the road. They came right up to me.



Only because they were waiting for this guy. They followed him everywhere as he dumped piles of feed around the field.



This is actually the beach right outside the restaurant. The only sandy beach in Angra.




You take the stairs down from the road to get to the sand.





Along the road they have these cute viewing seats.



Getting to continue our tour
A view of Angra, you can see the beach.



We off-roaded it up to this point and Rob went for a little adventure to see what was on the other side.


This mountain is protected land, but the companies would rather pay the fines than not use it for construction. There is SO much volcanic rock around I can understand why this dirt and sand is so valuable to them.



Lighthouse











Alright, so these pictures are great because we have been to this place before, we referred to it as Cloudy Mountain where we swam in the clouds. Click here to see the old post.
Anyway this is the same place on a clearer day. We didn't even know there were windmills right next to us until later on.
This is the view we would have had. And this large valley is actually a volcano. We are standing on the rim. Crazy huh?

Alright, That is a summary of our photo tour. Hope you liked it!