Portugal to Tenerife

 Portugal and arrival to Tenerife

After Seville Jacob and Shiloh joined us after skiing for 3 days and we all crossed the border to portugal where we spent a week with my family.  For a week we relaxed in the beautiful portugese spring.  The weather was pretty rainy which we are told is uncommon for this time of year, but my kids were on cloud 9 seeing their cousins and reuniting with my parents and sisters.  We spent 5 days in algarve and mostly just hung out with a hike and horseback ride thrown in there- and then went olive oil tasting as we headed up to Lisbon.  In algarve we did a seder all together, and the kids frolicked in the plazas.  Still in costa rica mode, we picked the most delicious oranges off the trees that sprouted from the sidewalks in the nearest town.  Jacob and I decided to rent an electric car because this trip is all about exploring and living differently, and well we learned that it isn't the best idea to rent a car for long trips that requires electric only power- and ended up at a gas station charging our car for 2 hours midway to Lisbon.  Luckily, portugal is extremely kid friendly and the gas station had a play area for kids and even mini kid potties in the bathroom! it was literally a better kids bathroom than disney- and this was just the gas station!.  In Lisbon we had one full day to explore, where we ate some pretty awesome cheesecake, took a tuk tuk tour of the city and got a family foot massage!  All in all it was just some pretty relaxed family time.

From Lisbon we said goodbye to everyone- this would be our longest stretch without seeing them- about 4 months for my sisters and the cousins- which is the longest the kids have gone in their lives and the first time in about 20 years that i have gone that long!

 Our trip this year has made me reflect a lot on my past travels and time living in other countries.  I've told the kids lots of stories on our car rides or walks about my prior adventures abroad- and it has made me think a lot about all of you that have been with me on some of these adventures (Israel, Argentina, Uganda, Ecuador, South Africa, Croatia- to name a few!)

Jacob and Shiloh flew to London to meet up with his Brother and our Nephew for a long weekend where they would watch a soccer match and see Wicked in theatre, and I flew with adira and my parents to south Tenerife.  Arriving in tenerife there were some butterflies in my stomach- would i like it here? do i really want to go back to first world living? We stayed with my parents at a beautiful hotel- overlooking a dramatic coast line, with mountains behind us.  It felt like a movie set.  But i recognized that this wouldnt be our day to day.

The sunsets here were a 10!

We were moving to the city- to Santa Cruz-