Lisboa, Portugal and beyond

Okay, one of the not-so-obvious benefits of working in Europe is that work trips tend to sound more exotic.

For instance, if we were still in Seattle and we mentioned that Expedia was sending us to Missoula, MT for the weekend, we might be able to plan a side trip to Big Sky Brewery or the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.    Most of you would sleep through our email, or at least yawn through it.  (In full disclosure I love Missoula, Big Sky and the RM Elk Foundation).

But, when the call came to go to Portugal for the week for work?  Um, excuse the Portuguese, but hell yeah.

So, we boarded the plane for Lisbon on Tuesday.  We stayed in a cool place downtown, at the heart of the sights, smells and the architecture of the city.  Such vibrant public art and culture in that city!

I worked most of Wed, Thursday and part of Friday while the girls tackled the town, so they got to see much more of the city than I did.  I'd like to get back there soon to see more of it for sure.  I found out that I did get promoted at work while we were there, so that was an added bonus!

We left Lisbon after my conference was over at noon on Friday, me stripping my socks and slacks in a cab, and headed for anywhere that was not the inside of a hotel conference room where I'd spent the majority of the week.

Sarah hit the nail on the head when she picked our destination outside the city for our weekend:  Nazare.  Nazare is a small, coastal town in Portugal she had been to a decade ago and loved it, and she made plans for us to go there to get a taste of the Portuguese life outside the city.

Oh, where to start.

The town was stunning.  It's this little fishing village that still rolls out wooden fishing boats each morning with men and women at the oars, and handmade nets in their hands to fish with.  Along the streets there are Portuguese widows dressed in black offering their ancient, vacated rooms for rent for the night at discounted prices.  Girls sell peanuts and fava beans out of sacks and satchels.  People hand stitch shirts and dish cloths in the doorways of shops.  Again, stunning.

Here is a picture of the girls on a hill above the town. Nope, that's not a postcard.  It is that beautiful.

We played and played, per usual.  Lots of water and sun.  We buried some good friends in the sand:

Then we gave the lady a taste of her own medicine:

We found swings and playgrounds of course:  (notice Lucia with her new skinny jeans..watch out Europe!)

We had dinner looking out over the Atlantic:

Then, our consensus feeling when we headed for home on Sunday:

We had a wonderful trip.  Sometimes we pinch ourselves.  I'll look at Sarah and say, "Really, this is our life?"  So lucky too that we have our friends and families back home to hear our stories and to come home to when we are finished with this wonderful ride we are on.

Until the next round, be well,

The gang