Visitors!

Tuesday morning, so early, oh so early, my mom and step dad (who I will just call Joe for the rest of this trip) arrived from Boston on a direct flight to the island.  Just a short 4 hour and a few minute flight from Boston, where they spent a few days sightseeing to kick off this trip, and they were here and, um, ready to go.

 

Since it was early, we decided to grab some pastries for breakfast.  Their hotel room wasn't even ready (because check in was 2 pm and this was 8:30 am...but in the end they did check in early!). 

 

I actually got the guy to understand I wanted an egg and cheese sandwich.  I even got this on a nice fresh baked onion roll.

 

Then we went to check out their room.  There are only a few hotels on the island.  They are staying at one located in Praia and it is right on the beach.  They managed to get a room with 2 separate beds, which is the norm here.  They had asked for the queen sized bed, but this was fine because they got a perfect room with the perfect location.  This was one of their suites here and it comes complete with kitchen.

 

 

 

We did lunch at the soup and salad place in town.  This is a giant plate of salad that my mom and Joe shared.  There was an apple salad, cucumber salad, greek salad and a crab pasta salad.

 

I had a carrot and spinach soup.  This was so good, but the portion was huge.

 

Then we went to my house for a little.  They had picked us up some tequila at the duty free store.  Thanks mom!

 

Also, while we were down in Praia we did a little shoe shopping.  I love these shoes.  In fact, I have already worn them 2 nights out to dinner.

 

Speaking of dinner...

On the first night, we went to O Cacholote.  This is the whale restaurant.  That is what cacholote translates too and they have a giant whale coming out of their building.

Here are the starters...

 

 

 

Ryan ordered a steak, and they prepared this tableside.

 

The steak came with french fries and salad, and then some rice.

 

 

 

This was served with bacon on top.

My mom and I ordered lobster and grouper in the clay tile.  Well, it would have been perfect, but there was bacon on the grouper.  So I pull my lobster out and ate this without the sauce since it was only the shell that was touching what may have had bacon.  But my mom and Ryan had some of the fish.

 

Here is the beautiful looking lobster.

 

This is the fish portion.

 

It even came with some boiled potatoes.

 

Joe ordered the grilled cod with onions and chick peas.  This dish is good, but there is so much olive oil.

 

For dessert we were told to get the house specialty.  This was a chocolate cake with creamy icing and strawberry sauce.  This was delicious!

 

 

Of course, a round of coffee drinks to end the meal.

 

They had little sweet-n-low tablets, so I thought I would give those a try.

 

There you have it, our first day together.

QUESTIONS:  What is the long flight you have ever taken?  Do you like to take red-eye flights?