Our last day in Cascais, so sad to not have more time. John and I went on a very slow run this morning....technically we lost time but that's too depressing to announce a "-45 seconds" so I'll just suffice to say, it was slow. It was a beautiful path right along the ocean that reminded us a bit of the days when we lived in La Jolla, CA. We strolled thru a park on our way back and I came eye to eye with a wandering peacock. It was probably no more than 10" from me, and he was staring me down sideways, trying to figure out if I was going to thwart his mission to eat a green caterpillar on the ground just beside me. His hunger won out. The park was filled with chickens and roosters just wandering about. It was a beautiful park too, because I know when I say there were chickens in the park you wonder if was just a few blades of scrappy grass on a dusty turf in-between some rundown houses. No, tt was a real park, with huge trees, playgrounds, a shallow pool with loads of turtles, at least one hungry peacock, and countless chickens and roosters roaming free.
After the run we rallied the troops and headed to the beach, but by this time it was probably 12:30-1:00 p.m., which is late when you are trying to claim your square of sand. It's a lovely beach, but what I couldn't deal with is how crowded it was. Wall to wall people. No shade, full sun (although we were lucky that it wasn't hotter than 80 degrees but it's surprising how hot that feels in the sun). We didn't get there early enough to reserve an umbrella and lawn chairs, which would have helped but still, being sandwiched in a sea of people just stresses me out. John and are complete opposites this way. He gets a jolt of energy from being out there with all those people, I almost instantly get drained. He'd prefer a crowded beach, and I would prefer a deserted beach.
No matter, he hung out with the kids, and I strolled back to the mothership just down the road which was a café called Root that was everything I love and more. I immediately texted John and told him I was going to live in this café. I had a shady comfortable seat under a big tree, and they had a huge selection of vegan and gluten free dishes and desserts. I had a tumeric soy milk with cinnamon, and a piece of sweet potato pie with coconut on top. It was out of this world. I will be dreaming of that pie for a long time. I sat for at least an hour and a half reading the rest of the American Marriage (very interesting book), and it was super relaxing and there was hardly anyone around, my dream come true.
Things turned when Ava showed up in a flurry of energy, rockin' her tiny bikini and marching into the café to order. One lemonade and one veggie humus dish later she was back outside, and all would have perhaps gone along fine, but about 10 minutes later Lucia showed up. Another lemonade got ordered and once we were all three situated outside, and I was preparing to go back into "chill" mode, Lucia sees a bee flying around, literally flips out, jumps up knocking over Ava's lemonade which went all over Ava and her purse, and then essentially a cat fight ensued as they argued over the lemonade spill and who was replacing it. After voices got raised past the "crazy American level" I declared that I was done and I left saying farewell to my favorite little place in Cascais and farewell to the crazies in a catfight. The last words I heard were from Ava who, mad at my lack of motherly intervention on her behalf, said, "you are a terrible mother." And by "said" I mean "shouted." Does it make me a terrible mother that all I wanted to do in that moment was get another piece of the sweet potato pie in a to-go bag and head back to a quiet apartment and read some more? Getting in between two skimpy-bikini-wearing-teens about to pull each other's hair just wasn't in my bandwidth at the moment. I do realize that this all sounds like very bad reality t.v., but I can't sugar coat it like a posting on Facebook. Well, I could, but I won't.
I spotted John and the littles on their way down the block and we took the them home to put away all their beach equipment. By this time it was very late afternoon, and John was ready to sit at a little bar/café, enjoy a glass of wine and relaxed. Gia heard this proposition and declared that she was NOT doing that, it was boring. We then spent entirely too long trying to plead with her and Romeo, trying to get them on board with our plan to do something(and this was mostly because we felt like bad parents leaving them in the apartment on their iPads....we use that tactic a fair amount, but sometimes we feel guilty). Anyway, it was a huge pain, and annoying, and eventually we left without anyone. Three minutes into our walk Gia machine gun texted us (hence the picture of John's Applewatch, doing overtime buzzing as her texts appeared). She probably texted 20 times, all the word "MEAN". Then she texted, "fine, I'll come."
So, one trip back to pick up a disgruntled 11 year old, and then out again. We strolled around and found a crepe restaurant that also had wine, and Gia got a delicious looking Nutella and fresh strawberry crepe and I ate an amazing cassava flour (gluten free) crepe with goat cheese and guava jam. Yep, it was as good as it sounds. Lesson learned Gia, you never know what might happen if you are flexible and go with the flow....you might just have the best crepe of your life. That life lesson might be lost on her at the moment.
Dinner was no easier, we waited until 8:30 and had no reservations (and 6 is a huge party in most of these small places). Romeo was in pain because of some strange (and huge) water blister on the inside of his mouth. It's like a bad Saturday Night skit. Everyone wants something different, Ava is freaking out over finding a Mexican restaurant, Lucia refuses to eat at another restaurant we find because it's too hot (but when we ask her to take off her huge sweatshirt she can't manage that.). Everyone is loud and complaining nonstop of hunger pains. You would think the grownups could just declare "this is what is going to happen so suck it up kiddos"....but somehow it never quite works that way.
Eventually, after no one could take the complaining anymore. We parted ways. John took three kids to an Italian restaurant they had passed, and about half of them didn't want to go to. I took Romeo to Cereal No More for a smoothie, and some overpriced cereal to go, and then we went home to nurse his mouth. Maybe this concept is all over and I've just managed to miss it (not being a cereal fan myself), but essentially it's a little shop that carries a huge variety of cereal, and you can either order it with milk, and toppings (almost as if you were in a frozen yogurt place), OR you can actually have it swirled with soft ice cream. Romeo picked a mix of three cereals that were 90% sugar, 8% air and 2% weird chemical binders, with a topping of M & M's and marshmallows. Patently disgusting, but he loved it and claimed it helped his water blister (which by the way was gone within 2 or 3 hours....magic cereal? Maybe. My guess is that the sugars and chemicals formed a supersonic paste that sealed the blister closed).
That was the day, and it's going to be a lot of work to pack up in the morning and head out because for some reason we've managed to explode into every corner of this not-so-small apartment. We look a little like hobos right now too because in addition to our suitcases and backpacks, we have about 4 big sturdy shopping bags filled with everything and anything.... laundry detergent, baby wipes, beach blankets and shoes that won't fit anywhere else even though they must have fit in someone's suitcase to begin with--things are falling out everywhere. The landlords of these Airbnb's that we are staying at must see us coming with our insane amount of "stuff" and literally get scared.
Today was about a 6 on the fatigue scale--- 1 being easy and 10 being a marathon in a hale storm......maybe a 6.5 actually. That speaks to my stamina I think, to only rank it as a 6.
Signed, ME {lv}
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