Day 11: Shopping in Madalena

A big shopping day for the girls! We headed into Madelena for the day to checkout the shops! Madalena is the island’s largest town but still tiny compared to anything we are used to back in the states. But have no fear - we found a few bathingsuits, new backpack, clothes and sunglasses. It was a successful venture!

 

At one point we convinced Ashley to try on the wildest pair of pants she could find. I’d say she did pretty good with these!

The boys headed out looking for a surf spot today and what are they odds - they wandered into the same café we were eating at for lunch!

Ashley downtown and directly behind her you can see the island of Faial. It’s a short ferry ride (8km) to their capital (Horta) and where we will be spending the weekend to celebrate their annual Festa.

The day ended with a trip to the island’s largest supermarket (hipermercados). It was the Azorean style Super Target. Everything you could possibly want – and you can't beat the price of wine over here!

Day 10: Church

Our big outing for the day was 12:30 p.m. mass – entirely in Portugese! We headed up to Mother Church, which was only about a half mile from our house. The church was rebuilt in 1776 over an older church and the kids were amazed by all the intricate gold detail inside.

 

We also spent some time at the local park – yet another destination about a 5 min walk from our house (we really need to thank the Alkers for finding us such a great spot to rent this month!).

 

 

 

Just don’t take any tips from Luke on how to drink out of the water fountain. Here the water shoots straight up with a lot of force. He had just figured out how to turn it on as he was looking straight down on the fountain. So yes… a big stream of water straight in his face! He wasn’t too pleased.

A lazy afternoon – the girls read at the house while Jim took the boys down to the swimming hole (the ‘cold one’). Andrew was on dish duty after dinner – lucky kid! And then we wrapped up with the usual card games and more reading time.

Day 8-9: Some Downtime & Back to Prainha

We seem to be in a great schedule with some downtime at the house and then a big group outing with our friends. Yesterday was one of those chill days with a long quiet morning and late breakfast. Even though Festa is long behind us it seems we can’t get the kids out of bed before 10am (and typical Ashley is later than that!). It might have something to do with the 10pm sunset and late bedtime hour! But no complaints from Mom & Dad… this actually gives us a couple quiet hours to check in with work and read.

We have 3 ‘swimming pools’ within a 5 minute walk which we have appropriately named – Cais (near the commercial port Cais do Pico), Hidden One (to find the path, look for the gap in the wall) and Cold One (a bit chillier than the others because of an underwater stream). So depending on temperature, tides and winds we pick the best one. It’s oceanography 101 for the kids. Although we are still learning which is best in each of the various conditions and with the big swell and high winds yesterday, we made a trip to all 3 at some point during the day!

 

 

Last night we welcomed our second group of friends to the island, all the way from Balboa Island (Newport Beach). Griff’s sister Ginger and her boyfriend Todd, who happens to be a paddle board and surf instructor (lucky us!!)! So we were quick to try out the new paddleboard they brought along and did a late afternoon trip to the boat ramp for a few laps on the paddle boards around the boats anchored off shore.

Last night was family style dinner up at the Alkers house… pasta and red wine. Yum! We even got a visit from a local horse that happened to wander into the backyard during dinner (definitely not something we see in CO every day). Doesn’t seem to be too unusual around here - I guess we better keep some carrots handy!

A great night sleep and we were up and ready for another ‘rough’ day with the family. We ventured back to Prainha - definitely a favorite spot for our group! Here’s some favorite memories from today:

Tyler – spent almost the entire day in the water. He got some surfing lessons from Todd and was quick to try them out on the paddleboard and the small break near the rocks. Next time – sand beach (does that exist here?) and a nice swell and we’ll see how he does!

Drew – our ‘mountain goat’ finally decided to venture into the water. Life jacket on… and a nice doggie paddle swim all the way across the pool. Yay!

 

Ashley – getting the hang of her underwater camera. Snapping lot’s of pictures of the local fish, urchins, starfish and anyone else that’s willing to swim around with her! She also got another day of volleyball in – sand doubles with Jim as her partner.

 

Luke – “all of it” he says. He can’t decide what he likes best.

 

Jim – a nice long trip on the paddleboard with Tyler as stowaway. He also got his snorkeling gear out today and ventured into the ocean to see what he could find (no urchin appetizer for us today though).

 

Jen – what’s not too like?! Downtime in the hot sun, sipping a beer (Sarges), reading a book, hearing the laughter of the kids and enjoying these amazing views. Although loving the paddle boards and the ocean swims too!

Our beach day wrapped up at a local pizzeria. It’s the tiny white house on the left with the red/white curtains in the pic below. We had the entire back room to ourselves – with an amazing view of the water below and Sao Jorge island across the way.
 

 

Hard to believe we are already one week into our month here in the Azores. Many more adventures to come – we are making plans for the rest of our stay… a shopping trip to Madalena, possibly a wicked tuna fishing trip and a weekend excursion to Horta (on Faial Island) for their annual Festa. Stay tuned!!

Day 7: Beach Day - Calheta

Griff: “You can always find an off-shore breeze when you live on an island.”

So true! It was quite breezy when we woke up this morning. But we were told by our friends if we drove around the point we would have great conditions at the swimming pool on the south east side of the island. Lucky for us this island is small enough we could circle the entire island in only 2 hours. So to get to the suggested swimming pool – only 30 minutes.

A beautiful drive through the island. The towns are so small, sometimes you think you are turning into someone’s driveway when actually you are turning onto the main road! The main road (at its fastest points) actually looks more like a forest – a bit of a surprise on this small tropical island.

 

We were rocking out to latin music… and then suddenly a hip hop rendition of Staying Alive – just as we passed some large hay bales. So we stopped the car, climbed under some barbed wire, and had the kids strike their best 70’s pose on top of the hay bales!

The swimming pool we visited today was near Calheta. Another treat for the kids – lot’s of fish, SO MUCH lava rock to climb on, big rocks to jump off of, a slide and even a little restaurant for a late day dinner. The kids have each found their own ways to keep themselves entertained:

ASHLEY – her favorite pool activity is searching for fish. She purchased an underwater camera specifically for this trip and spends many hours in the water (snorkeling gear on!) hunting for critters. Today’s swimming pool she discovered sea urchins (which we caught and munched on for a late afternoon snack), star fish and (almost) an octopus.

Ashley did ask me a question today - "how do you sunbathe? Is it like cooking a pancake? Do you lie on one side until you're brown and then flip over?"
My answer - "Exactly."

TYLER – can’t sit still! He discovered the best cliff jump today (at least 25 ft up) and must have jumped from the cliff over 20 times throughout the day. I’m not sure he spent any time out of the water… downtime was on the cliff thinking about what kind of jump he would do next!

LUKE – can’t quite decide which sibling he wants to hang with. He hunted fish with Ashley. He jumped the cliff with Tyler. He climbed the lava rocks with Andrew. He’s like a kid in a candy store – he just can’t get enough of the ocean.

ANDREW – no interest in the water today. He was in his shorts/tshirt and sneakers all day. There was endless amounts of lava rock today and Andrew spent the entire day climbing around on the rocks.

JIM – ventured into the water to catch the urchins for our afternoon snack and otherwise spends his day trying to keep an eye on the kids climbing around on the rocks (because he doesn’t really know how to sit still either)

JEN – official family photographer and happy sunbather! Sunbathing is not something you get to do with four kids (usually) so I have no problem catching a nice long nap on my beach towel! Although the kids surely talked up the fish in the pool today, so I did venture in a few times with my snorkeling mask (pretty cool!). Sorry... no pictures of Jen sunbathing (ha ha!).

And everyone thinks they are a fisherman! Griff picked up a couple small fish free diving off the shore (proudly held by Andrew). Tyler and the rest of the kids gave it their best shot too!

We finally wrapped up at the pool around 7pm and did a short walk up the hill to the restaurant for dinner. Food, drinks and more lava rock for the kids to climb on. Perfect entertainment! The sun started to set, a couple whaling boats were visible on the water… another beautiful day on Pico Island!

 

Home from the ‘beach’ at 10pm… for another family night of UNO and War (card games have become our pre-bedtime activity). Loving all this family time together!