February 4th 2024
The family was happy when we decided last night that today was a day to sleep in. After going nonstop everyday we’ve been here so far, it was nice to have a little rest. Sleeping in looked a little different for some people. For some it looked like waking up at 7:30(Mom), for some it was 8:00 (Dad), for some it was 10:30 (Kayla and Connor) and others woke up after 12:00 (Gage and Griff). Despite Sleeping for half the day, we still seemed to get a lot done. During the morning when a few slept, Mom and Dad headed out early to go to the visitor center, to get information of what we could plan to do today and the rest of the week. After they got back, they waited for everyone else to get up. When everyone got up, we got breakfast or lunch, depending on when you got up, and headed to meet the day.
We started by taking a trip to ALDI which is mom's favorite store by far. We got a lot of groceries so that we wouldn’t have to spend a bunch of money on restaurants that cost 10 euros for a bite of food. After we put our groceries away, we headed back out to explore the amazing city of Lisbon. We walked about a total of 12 miles, mostly in Alfama, where we saw many cool monuments such as the Igreja de Santa Engracia the Nationial Pantheon, which fun fact, used to be a church and is now a place where important people of Portugal are buried. During our outing, we also walked under the Sao Jorge Castle to see if it would be something we would like to do tomorrow or a following day (we will definitely be going). Fun fact, it was damaged in the earthquake of 1765 and rebuilt in the 20th century. Along the way we stopped at a few very cool churches and many gorgeous sightseeing stops, that overlooked the entire city. We then parted ways as Dad, Mom, and Gage went back to the room while Griff, Connor, and Kayla went down to the river that leaded flows into the ocean to enjoy the amazing sunset with what seemed like the whole town. When the sun went down and the night life was just starting up, Connor, Kayla, and Griff went back up to the room to make some dinner. As they got there, Mom and Dad were just leaving to find the train station that we will be taking tomorrow morning which you will hear about in tomorrow’s blog. While they were gone, Connor, Kayla, and Griff (Moral support) made dinner. It was pasta (surprise, surprise) and it was delicious. Mom and dad got home soon after the pasta was ready, and Mom then made shrimp to go along with the pasta (Kayla also made a great snack tray to eat before dinner). We then all ate the delicious dinner and enjoyed each other’s company as well as being able to be apart of this wonderful experience. (Parent note - the shrimp we bought came heads and legs and all, which took a little getting used to for some folks. Jen cut off the heads and sautéed them in butter, but left everyone to peel their own. Enjoying the shrimp was further delayed for some because they were not used to shrimp with the back vein still inside; Connor learned that with a knife and running water you can make them not seem gross - with an unfortunate side effect of rinsing off the butter!)
After dinner we switched the Laundry for the millionth time and since we didn’t have a dryer, we set up a clothing line in Griff's room where clothes could dry there (Thanks Nana). Everyone then went back to ALDI after we ate more than expected and needed things for tomorrow’s day trip. Griff stayed back to wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen and dirty tables. After everyone got home, people started going to bed but Griff, Kayla, Connor, and Dad stayed up a little later playing cards. We first played Hearts and dad won (Big surprise) and Griff lost (another big surprise). After that rigged game Kayla and Connor taught Dad and Griff how to play 500. Or so they tried. Griff and Dad were very unimpressed as you would think if you graduated college, you could explain a card game but that obviously isn’t true. Anyway, they eventually got a handle on it (kind of) and Griff and Connor ended up destroying Dad and Kayla. I mean It really is a game of genius and strategy, so no wonder Connor and Griff won. After that great game of cards, everyone went to bed to get a good night’s sleep.
See You tomorrow!!
Griffin
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