Portugal Trip - Cascais

We watched the first session of General Conference at home with the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Walton. It was nice to have no soccer games. I made waffles for breakfast which is a rare occurrence these days. In-between sessions my Mom came with me to the doctor’s office because of a sinus infection that was getting worse and worse. Then we headed to Target to pick up the prescription and had fun wandering the isles together while we waited. We went home and watched the second session and I then I finished packing. We said a prayer with the whole family and then Chris and I headed to the airport, checked in and waited in the USO until we boarded our flight. We flew to London — I watched one movie, Chris watched three. I must have slept some but I sure felt uncomfortable and I think I muttered something to Chris about it being the worst flight ever. That happens sometimes when I’m sleep deprived and it’s not pretty. … super grumpy. When we landed in London and got into the airport I was filled with excitement and nostalgia and had a little skip in my step. “That’s who I like to travel with!” Chris said as I turned to him and smiled. We had a four hour layover and I was excited to do a little London shopping. Chris found a good bench with our things while I wandered from Harrods to the Harry Potter store to Cath Kidston. I had to really hold back from purchasing everything Harry Potter, some fun English lego and playmobil and just about everything in Cath Kidston but I did walk about with a cute little London bag — one for me and one for Katie. She’ll love it just as much as I do. Pretty soon my European euphoria was overtaken by complete exhaustion and I took up a couple seats by Chris and fell asleep. We had a two and a half hour flight from London to Lisbon. We picked up our bags, rented a little volkswagen and drove to Cascais for the night.

Our hotel was adorable and it made me so happy to be back in Europe. Chris and I dropped our bags in our room and then decided to go out for a walk. We even found a Paul’s Bakery and Chris grabbed a tart to eat as dinner — or maybe lunch — or maybe a midnight snack.

Our hotel was adorable and it made me so happy to be back in Europe. Chris and I dropped our bags in our room and then decided to go out for a walk. We stumbled upon a Paul’s Bakery and Chris grabbed a tart to eat as dinner — or maybe lunch — or maybe a midnight snack.

The Albatroz Hotel was super cute. I loved all the blue and yellow decor.

The view from our little balcony was this cute yellow building — and then to the right, the beach.

Breakfast at the Albatroz was pretty fantastic. We got our food and then sat in a little octagonal room by a window that looked out onto the water. We watched a few older Portuguese men walk up and down the beach talking to each other. Otherwise it was fairly quiet. It’s pretty exciting to be on the front end of a European vacation. We ate our perfect croissants and couldn’t help but smile. Chris grabbed another plate and I took a few pictures.

The hotel’s hallways, archways and stairs were covered in blue and white and yellow wall paper and tile and I loved it all!

From the pool area we could hear the waves crashing on the rocks below us. Sitting by the pool was suddenly taking first priority.

We decided to take another walk through the city and found great cute side streets, unique tiled squares and beautiful rocky shoreline. Love the pictures of our hotel perched on the rock right up against the water.

By noon the temperature was hot and the beach was filling up with sunbathers. We decided to check out of the hotel but changed first into our bathing suits. We found chairs in a corner of the pool and pulled a big umbrella over to shade us from the sun. The temperature was just perfect enough that we both drifted off to sleep for a little bit. What a perfect way to manage our jet-lag. When we woke up we video chatted with Katie who was so excited for us to be in Europe!