The Birthday Day!

Although our weather remains somewhat unpredictable this past couple of days, yesterday, and all the celebration was quite enjoyable and we did not literally get rained on despite several heavy showers.

I took over the role of breakfast maker for the day while Marc was fêted.  He delighted in all the messages, cards, presents and overall good wishes.

We headed off to the square for a cafe and a visit then onward for a little road trip to Pinherio, just to check out the sea and the lovely views, then to Santa Luzia where he had requested to have lunch at one of our favourites.

Pinherio was quiet and quite lovely at this time of the day.  We parked a couple of times and got out to check out a few things that demanded to be seen closer.

This lovely little place, with a full view of the sea, is for rent. The phone number is 962381060…just in the event somebody is interested. The property around it is quite lovely and Pinheiro is ideally located for exploring east and west in the Algarve.

The birthday boy enjoying checking out this massive hedge of lantana…..in my favourite colours.

This is the lantana up close. I am very partial to the white and yellow. I love how they tend to reverse colour.

I wish I could find out the name of these. Here they are, a huge bed of them in pink and blue. Last week I saw a bed of orange ones but couldn’t stop to take a photo.

I would love to grow these.

As we arrived closer to Santa Luzia, the skies behind us kept getting darker and darker.  We could hear some thunder in the distance and thought for certain we were going to get doused.

The tide was rising as we walked along the boulevard and I noticed that some of the boats were returning to the safety of the harbour.

This small ferry boat was moving at quite a clip. I think they were trying to get to land before the skies opened up.

Here you can see some of the dark clouds that were getting closer to us

A look down the main drag as we headed into the restaurant.

We were settled in the restaurant for about 10 minutes when the skies broke loose!!!  It poured and we even saw lightning.  We didn’t care.  A wonderful window seat, good company, some vino and then came our food!!!!!   What a feast.

Marc devoured his octopus fricassee, the combination of mustard and cream was perfect!!

Patricia ordered oven roasted octopus with baked sweet potatoes. Lots of happy sounds coming from that side of the table.

I ate a huge pot of feijoada, white beans, succulent tender octopus, cilantro, carrots and white turnip. I am salivating as I mention it again!!

We sat nursing the last of our vino and chatting about life in general when suddenly we realized the sky was starting to brighten and the rain letting up.  As luck would have it, by the time we finished our cafe, rain was done and the sun back out.  Propitious??

We stopped in Olhão to pickup a few supplies and get some copies printed off then home for a relaxing afternoon before heading out for dinner at 19h00.  Marc had chosen Vila Monte,near Moncarapacho and we met up with Ana, Simão, Miguel, Joanna, Andreanne and Sophie for what turned out to be a delightful evening.

https://www.vilamonte.com/vilamonte

And as the night wound down, we got ready to head home having enjoyed a full day of birthday celebrations.  And so begins another cycle of 365 days around the sun for my Marc.   Happy Birthday mon amour.