June 23rd - June 29th

Well, I left you all when I was telling about Dad and my road trip around the north of Spain; now we will pick up on the day back to Lisbon to pick up the rest of the family.

Wednesday we were up at a decent hour and back on the road from Braganza to get to Lisbon. We stopped in Guarda for lunch, and it was UNBELIEVABLE! Dad and I had Fejuada (a bean and meat dish), half a liter of wine, desert, coffee, and aguardiente for a grand total of 13 Euros! Jajaja, now that is what I call ridiculous! Once arriving back in Lisbon, dad and I checked into the hotel we would be staying at for the next few nights and met up with John. It was great to see him finally after so long. He seemed excited to have graduated and is stoked for the summer. Later that night we went to the airport and picked up mom and Andrew. After 10 short months the whole family was reunited! Andrew has grown quite a bit since I last saw him, and is really starting to grow up. It was great to see him and mom again. We all went to dinner and then called it an early night.

Thursday we went as a family to go see Felicia at the house that she is staying at. She still seems to be doing really well, and I know mom was really excited to see her after this last stressful winter with Felicia's health. Later in the afternoon we went with Tia Pepa to lunch and met up with Tia Bia for an ice cream later in the afternoon. Thursday night was Maria's 10th Birthday party so Andrew, David, John and I all went over after ice cream to help Tia Nicha get ready for a house full of little kids. The party was a lot of fun, it was a Hawaiian themed party and we helped the kids play a bunch of different games around the back yard. John and I grilled up a bunch of chicken drumsticks and the kids had a blast. The big surprise of the whole party was when I came out dressed in just a hoolah skirt and a lay and out on a show for all of the little kids. they were all gathered around and we all danced some made up hoolah! That was first and possibly the last time I will ever dance hoolah seeing as I had to make it all up! Later in the evening John and I met up with a couple of his friends from high school when he studied in Lisbon. We went up to Bairro Alto for a couple of drinks and for them to catch up. It was cool to get to meet a couple of the guys and hang out.

Friday John and I slept in late, then met up with mom and dad to go run a few errands with Avo. We all had lunch at Avo's house and then ended up going over to Tia Nicha and Tio Quim's to watch Portugal in the world cup. Well, I guess it is a little bit sad, but I am not sure what we did that night, actually I think we met up with Domingo's, Francisco and Pedro and went to hang out.

Saturday went to visit with Felicia and then made our way out of town towards Porto. We stopped along the way to eat a Portuguese delicacy called Leitao, which is a baby pig that only eats milk. It was a nice meal and then we continued north until we reached Caminha which is a town right on the boarder of Spain and Portugal. Mom has a first cousin Joao who lives there with his wife, Lola. The piece of property they live on is really nice, and they were great hosts. The first night we had a really tasty shrimp rice for dinner that Lola made and talked for hours as we had never met them before.

Sunday Mom, Dad, and John went into town with joao to see Caminha and Andrew and I slept in until lunch time! Lola made a Cozido for lunch that was OUT OF THIS WORLD! Cozido, is a Portuguese dish made up of smoked meats and sausages boiled together with all sorts of vegetables and served with rice. In the North of Portugal they are known for their Smoked meats and sausages and the meal was crazy good. Sunday evening we continued up into Galicia Spain and went to Santiago de Compostela. In Santiago de Compostela John, Andrew and I watched some world cup soccer and Mom and Dad toured the town. For the night we ended up staying in some little village about 45 min to the north outside of town.

Monday morning we headed further north towards A Coruna and had lunch right on the boarder of Galicia and Asturias. We had a fabulous lunch of Octopus and other sorts of fresh fish. After lunch it was up into the Picos de Europa national park for the next day or two. We stayed at this little rural hotel in the mountains and had a great time relaxing.

Tuesday we went all the way up into one of the canyons to a cable car that took you to the top of the mountains. It was the longest free running cable in Europe, meaning that there were no supports or poles holding the cable up, it dangled from the bottom station all the way to the top. It was quite the view from the top and we even saw some mountain goats! After the cable car ride we went to this bar called Los Llanos for a Spanish Cozido, made with garbanzo beans, meats and sausages, it was recommended to us by the guy at the hotel and was really tasty. After lunch we began to make our way down to Madrid. We passed through Burgos and continued to a small village outside of town for the night. We watched the Portugal vs. Spain, and there was some tension because I was the only one in the family rooting for Spain who won 1-0.

Well, another week in the books, still a bit more to catch up on seeing as it is already July 21st!

Much Love Always,

Phil