Portugal Days 7-10

Day seven we just relaxed! We slept in, did some shopping, tried to spend some time by the pool, but it started to rain, so we went to the indoor "heated" pool. I don't know what their definition of heated is, but it's not even close to mine. Both the outdoor and indoor pools were said to be heated, but let me tell you, they were NOT!!! The indoor pool was bearable, but not for long! So we warmed up in the sauna.

When we wanted to go to dinner it started to downpour. We waited it out for about 30 mins, and then I was starving, so we got an umbrella from the hotel and headed out. Even with a HUGE umbrella we were very wet (esp. Jared...oops. I admit, I'm a terrible umbrella holder!). After walking around for half hour, we ended up at the restaurant closest to our hotel. It was the best Italian food I've had in a LONG time.

Day eight - Porto Moniz Tour

Our hotel was on the southern end of the island and Porto Moniz is on the Northern end. Our bus took us up and over the mountains (absolutely gorgeous!) to this little town. We made many stops along the way (of course)

First we stopped at Cape Girao, the 2nd highest lookout/viewpoint in the WORLD! And it was HIGH! I think what amazed me the most is there was only a "guard" rail about waist high - that's it.

Then we headed to the top of the mountain and stopped to enjoy these breathtaking views


As we headed to Porto Moniz, we stopped at a few more "scenic viewpoints"

Porto Moniz was beautiful.

One of the coolest things was this public swimming pool. It looks like a fresh, clorinated pool, but it's salt water from the ocean. We wished we had our suits and the time to hang out here!

On our way back to the hotel we ate at QuebraMar. It was very seafood-y, including rice with limpets (a small shellfish) in it (which I gracefully pushed aside) and this fish they eat a ton of there that looks kind of like an eel. Thankfully, it actually tastes ok :)

The top floor of the restaurant rotates around, so we enjoyed different views as we ate.

Jared was thrilled when they served flan for dessert. Since most people don't enjoy flan like Jared does, everyone at the table gave him their piece. And they were all amazed when he ate all 6 pieces!

After lunch, Jared found this...not sure what it is...and decided to play around on it

Day 9 - LAST DAY OF VACATION :(

Of course we hadn't finished all our shopping, so we started the day with that, until the rains came...
After the rain stopped, we walked about 30 mins. with Jason and Colleen (from Hurricane, UT) to find one of those public ocean pools nearby. We thought this one looked alright, so we stopped there. Maybe we should have thought twice when we there practically the ONLY ONES!

Jared and I both swam in the Ocean. It wasn't too cold!

Jamie's turn (notice the dark, STORM clouds in the top right corner!!!)After only being there an hour (with beautiful, warm sunny weather) the winds and rain came and we decided to head home. No umbrella, but we were already wet from swimming, so we just took off. By the time we got back to the hotel it had stopped and was sunny again. We wish the weather hadn't turned on us, but it was still way fun!

Check out the trees and flags blowing away!

One last "farewell" dinner, and our vacation was over. We had a fabulous time!!!!!