Shortly after we started napping, it started raining.
This was somewhat surprising for us, as generally reliable websites like weather.com refuse to acknowledge that the Azores have weather. It will typically give us the temperature, with no indication of possible precipitation or wind. As such, we had assumed that it would be largely good (packing is way, way easier if you assume generally good weather).
When we got up and moving, we tried the hotel restaurant, not wanting to walk too far in the rain. It was booked until after 8:30, so we retraced our steps and found an open restaurant within a mile or so.
Overall, it was a pretty good dining experience. Jenn had a vegetable soup, which we're now pretty sure had meat products in it as well, despite our having asked about it specifically, and a vegetable omelet. I had tuna steaks, which were local, and good, but a little bland. They gave us each a glass of champagne for toasting, and we had a local white wine with dinner.
It was a little funny, but literally every guest in the restaurant except Jenn was from Massachusetts. See, about a week and a half after we booked our trip, there was a Groupon for the Azores, with SATA flights direct to the island leaving out of Boston-Logan (Mom, Dad, you guys should watch for that - you would love this place). Wade and Katie from our earlier adventure had also done the Groupon, though they had flown Dallas to Boston before getting here. So, this was the last night of the Groupon, and there were a lot of people out and about.
One of them kept going outside to report on the status of the rain. Every time he came back, he reported that it was raining buckets out there. By the time we were ready to go, I was 100% convinced that he just wanted to stay and drink longer, because every time he came back, he stopped at the bar for brandy. When we actually stepped outside, the rain had mostly tapered off, and we were able to get back to the hotel in a mostly dry fashion.
It's interesting how they've done the sidewalks here. Everything in town is cobblestone, including the sidewalks, which are smaller, flatter cobblestones. The sidewalk for each street has a different pattern of light and dark cobble stones, so we know that when the cobblestone patterns go from squares to stripes or waves, the road names have changed as well.
Our plan for tomorrow is to rent a car and explore. Wade and Katie spoke very highly of the tea plantations and several very scenic lakes, etc., which will be much more accessible if we strike off and explore on our own. Smartcar, here we come!
This was somewhat surprising for us, as generally reliable websites like weather.com refuse to acknowledge that the Azores have weather. It will typically give us the temperature, with no indication of possible precipitation or wind. As such, we had assumed that it would be largely good (packing is way, way easier if you assume generally good weather).
When we got up and moving, we tried the hotel restaurant, not wanting to walk too far in the rain. It was booked until after 8:30, so we retraced our steps and found an open restaurant within a mile or so.
Overall, it was a pretty good dining experience. Jenn had a vegetable soup, which we're now pretty sure had meat products in it as well, despite our having asked about it specifically, and a vegetable omelet. I had tuna steaks, which were local, and good, but a little bland. They gave us each a glass of champagne for toasting, and we had a local white wine with dinner.
It was a little funny, but literally every guest in the restaurant except Jenn was from Massachusetts. See, about a week and a half after we booked our trip, there was a Groupon for the Azores, with SATA flights direct to the island leaving out of Boston-Logan (Mom, Dad, you guys should watch for that - you would love this place). Wade and Katie from our earlier adventure had also done the Groupon, though they had flown Dallas to Boston before getting here. So, this was the last night of the Groupon, and there were a lot of people out and about.
One of them kept going outside to report on the status of the rain. Every time he came back, he reported that it was raining buckets out there. By the time we were ready to go, I was 100% convinced that he just wanted to stay and drink longer, because every time he came back, he stopped at the bar for brandy. When we actually stepped outside, the rain had mostly tapered off, and we were able to get back to the hotel in a mostly dry fashion.
It's interesting how they've done the sidewalks here. Everything in town is cobblestone, including the sidewalks, which are smaller, flatter cobblestones. The sidewalk for each street has a different pattern of light and dark cobble stones, so we know that when the cobblestone patterns go from squares to stripes or waves, the road names have changed as well.
Our plan for tomorrow is to rent a car and explore. Wade and Katie spoke very highly of the tea plantations and several very scenic lakes, etc., which will be much more accessible if we strike off and explore on our own. Smartcar, here we come!
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