Family Trip-Avenida Atlântica

Bronwyn,

You know we were thinking of you as we were eating on your favorite street in Camboriu.

Here's a little tour of what you missed:

We found a place that claimed to have "The best burger in the world."

I don't know about the world, but me and mom decided they were the best burgers in Brasil so we went back. Your brothers and sisters, however, thought McDonald's was better. They didn't go back. They are weird.

We found this little fish place.

We went mainly because Quigs was starving and we needed some beans and rice.

While he ate his beans and rice the rest of us waited for our food.

Some waited at the table...

....Garrett waited on the beach and took in a pick up game.

It was good food. Giovanni gave the beans and rice two thumbs up.

One night we went off the beach and ate in town. We were celebrating mom's birthday again with just our family after her real birth day birthday party in Tatui.

We had seen signs about a "Real American Steakhouse" and since we had picked right on the burgers we thought we'd try our luck with the steakhouse.

We got to eat in a teepee....

The food was "average"......

........which got downgraded to "never going there again" when me and mom suffered through the night with stomach pains.

But we were there mainly for the birthday and mom had a good night.

The American Steakhouse experience and our trip to a "Mexican" restaurant were our only misses of the week.  The "mexican" restaurant was in the same place as the one we had liked last time we went there, but it is different now - very average and too expensive.

So we went back to the beach and to what Camboriu does best.....seafood.

We went back to where we had Carys' birthday supper on your graduation trip. Do you remember the place?

Everyone ate enough shrimp for you (even though, as you know, they are poop eaters/bottom feeders but whatever).

Hope you enjoyed your photo tour of what you missed.

Family Trip-The Pousada

Bronwyn,

We stayed at a pousada in Itajaí called Villa Balangan.

Since you are weird and like to see stuff like this I took some pictures of the place for you.

Our place (the yellow/orangish section).

Café da manhã.....

 .....where we spent some time writing in our diary......

 ......and hanging out with friends.......

 ......and doing both.

Where Garrett and Ansley slept. They alternated who slept on the floor.

Kitchen.

Where me and mom slept.

Same room but other side where Carys, Anderson and Giovanni slept.

The stairs that freaked mom out. She thought Quigs might try to go up and down by himself (he did) or that he might get up during the night and try to go downstairs (he didn't because we put all the luggage around the rails). It was, as you can tell, a bit of a steep incline.

Window view.

Bathroom/shower for seven people. Surprisingly there were no fighting over bathroom time.  It was a miracle.

These are our new buddies. It's Glaúcio, Tatiana and their daughter Luana. They are the owners.

In the picture, Luana is sitting in Sandra's lap. Tatiana told us that Sandra came to work for her mom when Tati was 3 years old and that she's been part of the family ever since. Sandra cleaned the rooms and was in charge at breakfast among other things. She always had a smile on her face. Always. They were all very nice. You would've liked them.

Carys hung out with Luana one night in their house playing board games.

The kids also made another new friend. This is Parafina. Glaúcio, Tati and Luana's dog.

One day we came back to the pousada and Parafina had a mohawk and stickers all over her body. Definitely a surfer dog.

Every time we got back to our room she would come in and with us and just hang out. You know Carys and Anderson loved that.

Glaúcio told me he would teach me how to surf the next time we go there. I'm sure I'll break something but it should be fun.

They asked us to come back soon.

It would be nice to be able to go back someday. If we get to, who knows, maybe you can go with us.

Family Trip-Mornings

Carys continued being my early morning beach walking buddy.

She, of course found lots of animals to hang out with. Okay, some were dead but you know Carys.

This year we were also able to get some other people out of bed early to go to the beach with us.

Anderson even hung out with some new animal friends.

Here is your personal beach video made by Carys as only Carys could make it.