Getting back into the routine

The plan was to get back into the normal routine, but Ryan was off Monday for Colombus Day, so it really felt like a Sunday. I am hoping this week is not too much since I think I am up late every night, either to teach my own courses (12 am and 2 am), substitute for a course, or attend a meeting (which is at 1 am my time, really 9 pm EST).

But we did have a nice weekend to spend time together before the week started. I arrived late Saturday night, so Sunday we did a few things, but nothing major. The main thing was to pick up mail and packages and drop bagels off to one of my friends. Since we were on base we decided to try A Porta for lunch. This place sits right at the gate to enter the base.

This pizza sounded really interesting so we gave it a try. This is the garlic and olive oil pizza. I believe it was labelled as the fried garlic pizza. Almost like garlic bread, but this had cheese. There were also olives on here. The server did not speak much English, but he kept coming over and asking if we wanted this as half, and we kept saying on all, but now we know why...it was very rich from the olive oil.

We ended the meal with some coffee drinks. I think these are much better than those served back home in the States.

Our next stop was Modelo, which is a large chain grocery store. Really?!?!? Regular Pringles and get a 1L of DIET COKE (coke zero) free. I suppose it is better than 2 Pringles light with a REGULAR coke!

Afterwards we went for ice cream at the little shop I went to before my vacation. I really wanted to take Ryan here. The weather was bad, but we went anyway. I had a little of the caramel flavor again.

Ryan had a really pretty sundae!

It came with a cute little sail for garnish.

The weather was CRAZY (seriously I could not sleep that night because it was so windy). There are not usually waves so this was excitement for us. I thought a hurricane was coming. Everyone was walking around like it was no big deal, so I didn't worry too much.

There was actually someone winsurfing. Great day for windsurfing, and they were going really fast. It looked like fun, but I am guessing that it was a big risk as the storm was still on it's way in.

The windsurfer is harder to see in this pic, but he is there.

The rain did not let up, but that did not stop us from enjoying Ryan's day off in Angra. We went back to 1516 for lunch. they were offering a lunch special for 6 euro, so we went with that since it included a drink, bread and coffee.

Ryan had the chicken soup, but of course I passed. He said it was really good. It seemed as though it had rice in it.

We both had the fried fish fillet (didn't realize it was fried when we ordered it) with some crazy hollandaise type sauce. We scrapped most of this sauce off. It was served with potatoes and salad. This is a traditional island meal.

I really had no intention of doing sweets a second time this weekend, but with the storm and soaking wet clothes we opted for a second coffee. O Forno is my favorite pasteleria on the island, so we stopped as we walked by. This is the sweets case.

They do fancy cakes in the back.

This is my favorite sweet on the island. Good thing the lunch meal and this dessert was really all I ate for the day. I was still full at dinner time so I had only a veggie patty with no bun. This cupcake did me in! It is not that big in size, but it is rich.

The inside is buttercream.

Ryan picked this dessert.

Now I think I am finally ready to get back to my normal routine. No more vacation (ok, ok life is a vacation!) for me. Time to get back to work, normal eating patterns and the gym. My vacation was great and I was happy to see my family. I can't wait to do it again, but for now I am happy to get some rest.

QUESTION: What is your favorite part of vacation?