Sister's Visit and Final Road Trip....

I've been really busy with visitors the last couple weeks! Jenny arrived and overlapped with my mom so we had a fun few days all together. We went to the beach and into Lisbon for dinner on the water. After mom left, Jenny, Lisa and I hit the road for our final road trip :( We decided to go to Tavira in the Algarve for a night and then onto Seville for a couple nights. Tavira was adorable - of course it rained a little on the first day (it never rains in the Algarve!!), but we managed to squeeze in a little pool time. After that, we made our way into town and found an adorable restaurant. We met a super nice British girl who was on vacation alone and she joined us for dinner - we had a great time! The next day we took the ferry to the beach - you can't drive to the beaches at this particular town - and got a few hours in before hitting the road for Spain. Of course driving into Sevilla was not fun...after about an hour, we finally found the hotel and found out there was no way to drive to it...always and adventure driving in Europe! When we finally got there, it was adorable and in the best part of town. The first night we ventured out for tapas and sangria. Day 2 we did some sightseeing and of course found a nice place for dinner and red wine :) The next day was time to head home via a winery in the Alentejo - our favorite wines here. My friends Anne & Rudy met a couple in Napa before I left that own a winery here that looked amazing (and the wines are my favorites!) so we decided to go for lunch and a tour. The place is incredible!! And actually took us only one stop for directions to find :) Their "sign" was about 6 inches long and on a post. They have a winery, restaurant and incredible hotel. We originally wanted to stay, but they only book by the week - someday we will be going back! It was really one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen - and the food and wine is delicious! We thought it would be a nice hour long tour like we're used to, but we ended up being there for about 6 hours...very entertaining. They definitely don't shuttle you in and out like a tasting in Napa :) We finally made it back to the apartment at about 11 at night. It was such a great day and the perfect way to end my final road trip. My sister is still here, so I've been taking her to all of my favorite spots and restaurants. Tonight we decided to cook at home again (we already made one incredible dinner as you can see from the pictures!) so we can enjoy all of the wines we brought back. More stories later - off to the store and the beach!

Mom's visit!

I have been having a great time with Donna here! She got here last week and we spent the first couple days at the beach and then rented a car and headed to Porto up north. It's only about a two and a half hour drive. The first day we just cruised around and got to know the city - our hotel was in a perfect location and we could walk everywhere. The city is on the Douro River and all of the port cellars are across the river. They are gorgeous - and the port is soooo good. We definitely tasted a lot! After that, we drove east along the river to the Douro wine region. It was amazing - so many vineyards...it's crazy! We stayed at a gorgeous hotel in a little town called Pinhao - the room had a nice terrace and a view of the river and the hills. We had an amazing dinner at the hotel restaurant and of course a lot more Port :) We also brought a ton of bottles back here...I'll do my best to bring some home for everyone to try - I'm not sure if there is going to be any left though! Yesterday we went into Lisbon for some shopping and dinner at one of our favorite places in the Bairro Alto. Jenny gets here tomorrow so I will have a lot more stories and pictures to come! Off to the beach :) xo