Lagoa

On Saturday, we flew from the small airport in Madeira to the even smaller airport of Sao Miguel in the Azores. Our plane was a prop plane and the flight took 2 hours. But the time moves back an hour, so we actually arrived one hour earlier.

São Miguel is the biggest of the nine major islands in the Azores which are a 1,000 miles from anywhere. It’s known for its volcanic scenery, flora and rich marine life, including whales, dolphins and sea turtles. Even though it is the biggest island, it is only 62 km in length and 15.8 km at its maximum width. Ponta Delgada, the capital city, has a population of 45,000 people and is located on the south shore.

Our family was arriving early in the morning on Sunday, after a 5 hour overnight flight from Toronto, so we stayed in a hotel in Ponta Delgada fairly close to the airport for a night before going to the 4 bedroom house we had booked in Lagoa.

We rented two small cars for a great price - €11.50/day for a 4 person car and €14.50/day for a 5 seater with a baby seat for Nathan. The two older kids brought their small travelling car seats. Since our families were coming on Sunday early in the morning, we picked up both cars the afternoon before. Autokunha was very accommodating. They told us that parking is free on the streets in Ponta Delgada on weekends.

Well, they arrived, pretty exhausted after a night of little to no sleep. The kids were so excited that sleep was a no go on the plane for everyone. Haha. It will pass.

Amy, Matt and Nathy took a nap in our room while Caitlin, Tim, Cal, Audrey and the two of us did a little exploring. Of course, the black sand beach and the old fort was the first place that we went to!

It was great for all of us to be together again! The house on the ocean was the perfect place for us.

Note: The footprints for the coming week will be based on the best experiences that each person in our family had during the day. Audrey reminded everyone at dinner time to tell about their favourite part of the day. She started and then everyone else shared a moment that they enjoyed. Then quickly I jotted down notes!Read more