But wait, there’s more…

This must mean we are up to day 5.  This is the day we took a tour around the island.  Here I am with one of my favorite views behind me.

 

Here is that same view, only better, because I am not blocking it.

As we headed up and around the northern coast, we stopped off in Biscoitos.  Here I am with my MIL at the natural swimming hole.

Note to self, careful on anything green like this near water…you will probably slip!

As we continued our drive we mentioned how we had not been stopped by any “cow parades” yet.  Ah, we spoke to soon.  We were greeted with this.  Yes, we had to stop, and not just to let them by, but because pictures were really necessary.  Trust me, you would stop too for the photo op.

We had some cows…

a donkey…

a baby cow…

and a goat!

Once we were able to press on we kept heading around the outside of the island.  We stopped at a few more look out points for great ocean views.

Next stop: cheese factory.  Here you can see they are making cheese.  There is milk dripping out and being collected below.

Since it was almost time for lunch, we didn’t want to eat too much, but we did get 2 yogurts that are made right there at the factory.  I should mention this is not what you would think of when you hear factory because it is very small and mostly a cafe/bar, but they do make cheese and yogurt here.

At the end of the road with the cheese factory is another natural swimming hole.  Ryan and the guys once spear fished here, and I snorkeled.

Here I am again with that amazing looking ocean behind me.

 

After that we headed around to lunch on the south side of the island.  As we were driving we tried out a new direction and found this insanely old church building.  It is no longer in use because it is sort of falling apart.

Too bad the place we wanted to take them to for lunch was closed.  At least there was another place nearby that I had been wanting to try.

I thought there menus were nice with the backs of the pages information on the fish they carried on their menu.

 

This was a traditional meal with bread and cheese to start.

 

Ryan’s mom and aunt both had an omelet for lunch.

 

Ryan had a Portuguese steak.

I had salad with the boca negra.

 

We wanted to have lunch in Sao Mateus because there is a locally made ice cream shop there.  As I was waiting for everyone else to come out from the restaurant, I stood outside to enjoy the weather, and Ryan and I spotted this emblem on the church.  Since this is a major fishing town, I liked that this had an anchor on it.

 

Ah, there’s the ice cream.  To me it is a little more like sherbet.

 

We drove home by completing the circle around the island.  This allowed for us to show them Split Rock.  Isn’t that crazy?  It is just a split rock hanging out off the coast of the island.

After a long day of sightseeing, and driving for me, Ryan’s mom and aunt prepared us dinner.  They made a homemade tomato sauce and served it with pasta.  It was a nice and relaxing way to end the day.

The next day was their last day visiting.  We decided to do last minute shopping.  This meant we were headed to Praia, so Make Me Nuts made sense for breakfast.  It looks like a Dunkin Donuts that serves McDonald’s style breakfasts too.

These cupcakes looked good, but it was TOO early for that kind of thing.

However, apparently not to early for this (which was Ryan’s but he was nice enough to share).

Ryan’s mom and aunt both had the veggie omelet on a roll.  They never cease to amaze me on this island.  This veggie omelet was not even remotely close to what you would expect in a veggie omelet.  It was a frozen veggie mix with green beans, carrots, peas, and maybe broccoli.

Ryan and I both ordered the pancake and egg breakfast combo.

Although I did not take any pictures while we were shopping, I assure you we did.  It’s just that food pictures are easier to take and more exciting most of the time.  So, here is lunch, which we had at the soup and salad place.  This is one of the best places on the island.

Here is my small salad plate and then Ryan’s small salad plate.  Basically with a small plate you can pick out any 3 of the 8 salads she has made for the day.  Everything is made fresh in the morning, and when it is gone, it’s gone.  My salad had a tomato and mozzarella salad, pears and blue cheese salad with balsamic, and a lettuce with feta cheese salad.  Ryan had the same lettuce salad, but then added a bean salad and a pasta and (?) chicken salad.

Now you really aren’t going to believe, but we did rest some before dinner.

 

I wasn’t going to take any pictures at all because Ryan and I ate here the week before, but I went with the special, which included the couvert (bread and butter), entree and a dessert, all for 10 euro (about $13-14).  All 3 of us ladies ordered the abrotea (breaded and fried white fish fillet) with a side of shrimp rice.  So beautiful looking!

 

Here was the standard dessert they give for this special.  While it is not their best dessert, it was still good.

 

Can you believe we got all that food for 10 euro?  I think it was a good deal.  Plus, if there are leftovers, the abrotea reheats really well.

ATTENTION: I am still looking for guest bloggers for the month of May as I will be traveling for most of the month.

QUESTIONS:  Do you have a local dairy?  What’s your favorite kind of salad?

More Family and Food

I may have grouped a few days into the last post, so I think we are up to day 4 of their visit.

We started out by taking advantage if the nice weather and heading up to a high point on the island where there is a lookout spot.  This was helpful because it put us headed in the right direction towards Angra, in what we call the long way.  Apparently what we consider the long way is not the long way according to the Garmin.  Don't ask, but we actually used the Gamin once to see what it would tell us.  There is actually very little chance of ever getting lost on this island (it's 12x18 for heaven's sake!), but we have the Europe maps, and this has maps for the island.  Too bad the Garmin does not account for the shorter way having a much slower speed limit, and being made of almost all cobblestones, hence making it the bumpiest ride on the planet.

But, this is a fun way to go, especially if you are heading to the Serra do Cume, which is an awesome lookout point not too far from our house.  On the way we stopped to look at the altar looking place that is carved on the side on the mountain.

I posed with the waterfall.

Here is the view of the island from the top.  Doesn't this look fake?  It's not!

All the little squares are made of lava rocks piled up to make walls, and this sections off the farmer's land.

Here I am at the lookout point observation deck.

They built it off the edge so it is like you are dangling.  Almost like the one at the Grand Canyon, but no where near as big or over anything as deep.

Here is Ryan's mom and Aunt, trying to hang on tight as the wind picked up.

I love that the altitude sign is in meters.

This is the view off the other side.  See, this spot is like the ridge of the hill, so you can see off in both directions.  The other pictures look out over the interior of the island, but this side overlooks the ocean towards Praia da Vitoria.

Not sure, but we think there is a rock out there because there is always a wave patch off the rocky cliff in that direction.  You can see it is the random white patch out in the water.

Then we got back in the car to continue our trip in the direction of Angra.  We stopped in the industrial zone to look for a toilet seat.  We really needed one after our cracked.  Since the furniture store is always so much fun to look around in, we took them inside.

Can you believe this couch has a built in fish tank?

Look at this crazy couch.  Those are pictures of people.

What about this chair?

Here is a dining room to show you that not everything inside this store is crazy.

 
This is Ryan's aunt trying out this children's desk.

 
While driving we had that all too familiar conversation of what to do for dinner, which would determine what to do for lunch.  We wanted a small snack, and the restaurant for dinner would open at 7 pm, so we knew we had to eat.  We stopped in at a little cafe and snack shop that we have wanted to try for some time.

Both Ryan's mom and I ordered a veggie burger with a fried egg on top.

 
Ryan had a tosta mista, which is the equivalent of a hot ham and cheese.  It is a standard snack food here.

 
His Aunt ordered a tosta queijo, which is just a grilled cheese sandwich, and she added tomato to this.  that's how I would have done it too!  I also could not resist an order of fries for those of us not eating off Ryan's plate (as in everyone other than Ryan).

The next stop was the museum in Angra.  It is the perfect place for a Sunday because nothing else is open.  I know this is a World War I display, but I would really like some transportation like this.  The ammo is in the back here and you can load it up and shoot it out behind you.  Obviously not how things would be done these days.

Since we had some time before dinner we walked through the gardens.  We found this really need, extremely large leaf.

 
After killing as much time as we could there, we stopped in to a cafe for a coffee (this one here is known as a galao) and a little snack while we chatted.  This is at O Central, which is my sister's favorite cafe on the island, mostly because of the location and the relaxed atmosphere.

I know what you are thinking, we went from a snack right to dinner.  If you are familiar with European dining you will know that we had some time before we actually ate our meal.  Plus, we had the snack and then chatted before heading to the Whale restaurant.  Yes, we are on vacation and wanted them to try all the yummy foods they have to offer here.  Oh, if you want to know why we call this the whale, it is because it is called O Cachalote, which means sperm whale in Portuguese, and the building has a whale sculpture coming out of it.

Dinner started with some tasty items, including fried shrimp and olives, and of course bread and cheese.

Ryan and his Aunt both ordered steaks, which are cooked table side.

The steaks were served with rice and fries.

Ryans mom ordered the salmon with an orange sauce.

I ordered the squid and jumbo prawn skewer.  This prawn was HUGE!

Then it was off to get some rest after a long day, and way too much food...but it was worth it!

QUESTIONS: Have you ever had a shrimp that big?  Have you ever had the shrimp with the head still on (obviously common on the island)?  Do you have any places with higher elevation near you that you can visit for a great view of your town?  What's your favorite part of vacation?