Cascais!

 7/20: We said goodbye to our central Toulouse apartment and took our Prius Plus to the airport (lessons learned: that car will indeed fit us and all our stuff, and probably better to take public transport when in cities with great public transport options and limited Ubers! Fortunately we were not in a rush, but we waited for close to 30 min for our driver).

The travel to Lisbon was easy (2 hr delay because of the cyber glitch). Paulo picked us up at the airport and took us back to his home in Cascais.

The kids made a new friend on the plane.

We settled into his homes basement apartment and enjoyed some white wine and cheese, while Quinn and Simone enjoyed hanging out with Paulo’s kids, Cecelia and Francisco. We ate delicious lasagna for dinner and then the kids headed to the neighborhood pool while Paulo, Bob and I drove to the beach to watch the sunset.

Home to play ping pong in the basement (we had to move our air mattresses:-) with all of us and one of Francisco’s friends. What a blast!

7/21: Awake at 0730 to join Paulo on his 5 mile run (he is training for a half Ironman in October) at the beach - a fantastic way to start the day! We stopped at the grocery store on the way home to get some final items for the bbq he had planned for that afternoon. 

Beef, chicken, and sausages

White port and tonic (a drink we were introduced to by Brandy Robinson recently - their family will be joining us soon for our trip to Porto and Madeira).

We wanted to play fresco ball (sort of beach tennis with a racquetball and wooden paddles) so Bob, Paulo, and I headed to a different beach with a nice hike down to the water. Unfortunately, the afternoon was super windy, and we decided to save it for another day. It was a gorgeous spot though!

On our way home we saw a fire that must’ve started not too long ago. It seemed to be growing fast - fortunately our route home was far enough away from the blaze. We heard and saw firefighting planes all afternoon bringing sea water to drop on the flames. We learned the next day that one of Paulo’s friends lived close enough to the fire that his house was covered in ash.

More ping pong to close out the day - very fun when all of us can play together!

7/22: Bob and I started the day with some Apple Fitness while Paulo was doing his swim workout day. We fed the kids and took them in Paulo’s car downtown to spend some time at the beach. There was a lot of traffic, and we made one wrong turn which put us in this matrix of narrow one way streets that was not easy to get out of. Bob eventually got us to the intended parking lot to find it full. We eventually found a spot on the street, but when I got out to head to the beach, I saw it was totally jammed with people. By this point we all decided to just skip the beach and head home to the lovely pool 🤷‍♀️

The early evening was gorgeous, and Bob and I still had not played fresco ball yet…so Paulo, Bob and I headed to the beach, hoping the wind wouldn’t prevent us from playing. We were pleasantly surprised that we could play!

Paulo and me

25 year friends! So fun that their chance meeting on a trail in the Grand Canyon has lead to so many lifelong memories together!

Home to make pizzas - a fun end to the day!

7/23: We took an Uber into Lisbon for a few hours and walked to a cathedral and the city fortress.

Pretty, narrow streets with laundry hanging out everywhere on sides of buildings.

We wanted to take a tram around the city to see some highlights, but the line was really really long, and it was a super hot day. The pool was sounding like a great idea, so we called it quits in Lisbon a bit earlier than we thought. We enjoyed a little pool time followed by an early chicken and potato dinner. Bob and I headed out to the beach for some fresco ball while the kids chilled at home (Paulo was gone for the night in Madrid). Bob and I just love fresco ball on the beach!

7/24: We took Quinn, Simone, and Cecelia to the beach hoping that it wouldn’t be too windy, as this particular beach is really windy most of the time (but way easier to park, and we didn’t want a repeat of the parking debacle from the other day!). The kids were not super excited to go, as they all said they prefer the pool to the beach, but we persevered - when you’re 10 minutes from gorgeous beaches, you’ve gotta go to the beach!

Bob and I were psyched to find there were few people and almost no wind when we arrived! The tide was out which revealed so much flat perfect sand to play fresco ball with the kids. I loved my walk up and down the beach and couldn’t believe there were no weeds and no shells - just perfect sand. Cecelia and Simone spent some time sunbathing, and Quinn loved playing in the water and sand. We all had fun! After 2 hours we came home and enjoyed a delicious lunch that their cook had prepared. What a treat!

Simone action shot!

Simone and Bob - 45 in a row!

Quinn and Bob - 42 in a row!

Simone and Cecelia

We had some pool time in the afternoon, and Paulo arrived home from Madrid with some of his favorite empanadas. We enjoyed that with fresh guac, and then the three adults headed out to the beach for Paulo to swim (too cold and windy for Bob and me at 8pm!) While Paulo took a dip, Bob and I enjoyed watching the kite surfers fly 30 feet into the air! Really fun to watch! :-)