Touring Brazil: Day 7 and 8

Day 7:




Ahhhh, back to the beach today. Got up early and Meggan and I drove 4 hours for another cool and rainy day. I am learning to never trust weather.com. On the bright side, the waves were pretty big and amazing! Got to spend some time snuggled up with a book too! This evening I did get to experience a group of teenagers participating in a Capoeira at the skate park. It was very cool. The Capoeria is a traditional form of martial arts. Apparently the slaves had created it. It appears as a dance, it was a way to train for battle or to protect themselves, etc. It's performed to music and two teens dance/perform martial arts movements together. It was fun to watch them 'tag' in and make up the movements with each other as they went. Some of them were very strong, spending a lot of time on their hands in handstands or doing 'thomas flair' type movements.




Day 8:


Woke up early to hit the road back home assuming the beach trip was a bust. Thought we'd try to get back for the white water rafting trip Josh had coordinated with his friends as another Brazilian excursion to experience. When we went outside, it was beautiful. The noise that sounded like rain was the wind going through the leaves of the palm trees. So, we were able to spend a beautiful sunny day at the beach - finally. We went to three different beaches, two of which were new to Meggan too. I enjoyed watching the surfers surf, there are some pretty big waves here. the largest I've seen in person anyway. I spent some time boogie boarding (on the wimpier waves), and the rest of the day trying to get the sand out of my suit. ;) On our way home, we were finally able to drive through the mountains and see the beautiful lush rain forest (of course, I was still holding on tight) instead of clouds and rain.

.....As I'm writing this I'm listening to fireworks or gun shots (guess they fire blanks) go off in our neighborhood. Apparently it's the thing to do if your team scores a goal in a 'futball' (soccor) game. ....

Day 9:


This will be my last day in Brazil. We'll hang out in Campinas by the pool, hen head in to the airport. I've enjoyed my visit to this beautiful country, very nice people. I feel very fortunate to have been able to come and had excellent hosts - thanks Josh and Meggan! I've really enjoyed myself, despite the weather. In fact the raining weather probably made me appreciate the beauty even more. I'm not looking forward to my long flight, but am looking forward to being back home with Jeff and Julia. Chow, Chow!

Touring Brazil: Day 4, 5 and 6

Day 4:

Today we spent the day in Campinas where Josh and Meggan live. We hung out and walked around the area they live in. They're in a beautiful apartment within walking distance of most everything they'd need. We visited their supermarket which is fairly small with much more limited varieties of foods. As a cereal addict their cereal selection is quite disappointing. Most items are packaged much smaller. We also visited a beauty store, it was quite amazing how this store was about as big as the supermarket. Here, they have quite a few options, including many of which you'd find in the US. I guess that's why you always think of Brazilians as beautiful people.

Most of their stores are small boutique-type specialty stores - Target does not exist. They do however, have an abundiance of pet specialty stores and plastic surgery clinics.

Since I am visiting a "foodie" I have been trying many of their traditional foods. Today I enjoyed eating a traditional Brazilian snack/hors d'ouvre, a pastel. It is a pastry filled food, many times served with souki (a type of beer), which I also had. The pastel is good but pretty greasy for me. Our varieties were filled with either meat, cheese or heart of palm.

Day 5:
Today we spent the day in the huge city of Sao Paulo. We met some of Meggan's international friends at a trendy restaurant in the City, then walked around Ibirapuera Park, which is similar to Central Park in NY, but not quite as large. It was a nice area and thankfully the rain held off during our park walk. Here again, driving can be a bit crazy. It's very common to see people turn left from the right lane, etc. You start to get some used to it and it seems to work here, but I still wouldn't want to be driving. We plan to come back again Sunday before I fly out.

Day 6:
Today we were back in Campinas and experienced more of the day-to-day life here. I got to join Josh and Meggan at their ultrasound visit (Meggan's 27 weeks pregnant), this was fun. They had a 4-D ultrasound done which is pretty cool, you can actually see the facial features, etc. of the baby with this. Also every Thursday morning, just outside of their apartment building there is a farmer's market so I was able to wander through this as well. Next I got to drive with their vet to bring their cat in for a needed x-ray to help hold her in place. I got to brave this alone, thankfully the vet spoke fairly decent English. Of course Meggan couldn't do it since she is pregnant and shouldn't be exposed to the x-ray. Finally, we spent a couple hours in a town near by that sells arts/crafts, etc. We saw a lot of junk, but found a few cool items as well. And I forgot to mention the best part of the day - I finally saw some blue sky here and there!

Tomorrow we're heading back to the beaches. It's the first day predicted to be at least partly sunny, so we're going to try it again!

Below: In Camprinas



Below: the park in Sao Paulo - the trees have whiskers.

Below: more park pictures.

Below: the sky on our way back to Campinas from Sao Paulo. They say it's usually always sunny and beautiful in Campinas. It was quite amazing that the only small spot of blue sky was directly over Campinas.

Touring Brazil: Day 2 and 3

Day 2:

The rain is here, and here to stay. We were supposed to spend the next few days visiting many different beautiful beaches, but now have to change our plans. I'm very bummed, but we're making the best of it. Josh and Meggan (6 months pregnant) are very good sports and pushing through the rain with me.

This morning Josh and I explored the beach in Cambury (in the rain) and hiked out on the small rocky penninsula and back through the rain forest-like trees. We also spent a little time playing in the ocean waves.

Later we skipped one of our planned beach over-night stops and began our drive to Paraty, a couple hours south of Jio De Janerio. I was very excited to arrive alive, as Brazil driving is crazy! Especially on switch-back mountain roads with Josh as your driver. Josh does not believe in the word slow. Passing is allowed and expected pretty much anywhere. It's also amazing how many people you see walking and biking along the highway. We even saw a man on a bike towing his boat - wish I could have gotten a picture of that! So, with the winding roads, rain (that was almost like a white-out snow storm), crazy drivers, the couple accidents we passed, sneaky motorcycles, and people - I was praying and stressed!

Paraty is a colonial town that used to be a main shipping port for gold. It is a very old city with cobble stone streets and old unique buildings. It was practically deserted while we were there with few stores and shops open, but apparently it is usually very busy on nice days. It seemed a bit creapy at night too me, very quiet - I felt very American. Again, they tell me it's not been like that other times they've visited.

Day 3:
The next day we were off on a rain forest tour where we stopped at two distilleries that make cachaca the liquir in their famous (and in case you missed it earlier - yummy) caipirinhas. We got to sample a few varieties and am bringing some home for Jeff to try.

Also while viewing the beautiful waterfalls I decided to be a little adventurous and jump off a rock into a large pool area and slide down a large rock-type waterfall. Here's a video of me sliding down the rock....

After our rain forest tour we walked around Paraty a little more - still in the rain and headed on to Camprinas to Josh and Meggan's house. This was another 4 1/2 hour drive full of adventure. To start with we use 2 GPS's to help navagate, of course, we don't actually follow their route because they still aren't right. Then we got behind someone who really wasn't driving up the mountainous roads well, but I didn't want to pass him because that would mean we'd be back to driving at mock speed again. Well, soon enough our first very tight U-turn type of switch back and they guy just drove right off the road into the cliff face. Wish I had taken a picture. .... So we stopped and soon another car did as well and we were able to help push him back on the road. It was pretty unbelievable. Needless to say, we got ahead of them and didn't look back at that point.

Now we'll just have to wait and see how many speeding tickets Josh gets, they control speeds through lumbada's (huge speed bumps sparatically placed on most roads, even small highways) and through electronic cameras. We couldn't just drive the speed limit, we had to try to scout out the camera and quick slam on our breaks when we saw one - can't explain how fun this was. While I'm talking about driving, I'll point out that I'm also learning that most stop signs are just "optional" in fact, after 7pm they say you can even legally go through stop lights. I guess the main reason is that at night people may try to come up to your car and rob you at stop lights. Nice huh? Makes you appreciate the US police department and our legal sysem. That's why we drive around in an armoured car down here. I'll have to take some pictures of it and post them.

Well, that should sum up Day 2 and 3, below are some more pictures. I have a ton more from these days on Shuttefly at: http://touringbrazilwithshawna.shutterfly.com/

Above: a bird eating breakfast with us on Day 2.
Below: Exploring the rocky small peninsula at the beach in Cambury.

Above: Monkeys eating bananas at our pausada.

Below: The rain forest.

Below: A distillery.

Below: In the city of Paraty.

Touring Brazil: Day 1

It's been a while since my last blog update, I hate to skip occasions, especially such adoring occasions as Julia's 2nd birthday and our trip with family to Wisconsin, but I will post these soon.
I am now in Campinas, Brazil! Our friends (Josh and Meggan) are living here in Brazil for a few years and I've been very anxious to be able to come our the country and visit them. We've talked about coming here for the past couple of years and I finally took the plunge. Unfortunately Jeff and Julia are not with, as Jeff didn't have vacation. Our friends suggested that I should just come down to visit. ..... and here I am!

Day 1: The flight went well, took a red-eye flight. Left home at 6pm and got here at 9am the next morning. Luckily I got some sleep on the plane. Customs was a breeze, however, I was initially in the wrong line, but the native Brazilians recognized immediately that I was not a Brazilian and helped me to the correct line.

From the airport, we went straight to the beach town of Juquehy and enjoyed lunch at a beach restaurant - Bodeauha? - it' sounds like "by-de-way." I tried a very popular food, their delicious grilled cheese on a stick - Queijo de Coalho - I fell in love immediately. Even better than the cheese is the Brazilian national drink, a Caipirinha. It's fabulous! The dear chef I work with back home, Chef Paul, warned me to stand up between each drink - he wasn't kidding. I didn't get 1/2 way through my glass before the tipsy's were setting in. The cerveja (beer - pronounced similar to servaca) is also very good here - even for a non-traditional beer drinker. It's very light.
It was a beautiful day, some clouds and not too hot. Was thankful for this - didn't want to fry on the first day. However, had I known the weather we had just looked up in the States on my "seat-mates" iPhone was wrong (it said mostly sunny most of the week) I would have been soaking up every second of sun I could get.

Later we checked into our Pousada (hotel) and enjoyed a really cool bar on the beach in Cambury. A friend of theirs had brought them there another time. The bar was an outdoor bar up in the trees overlooking the ocean. The only marker for the bar was a yellow umbrella placed at the entrance at the end of the beach. If the umbrella wasn't up, it was closed, if the umbrella was there, it was open.

We spent the evening playing cards with Josh, Meggan, and their friends Bruce and Kathy that had joined us for the day. After the long plane ride and the fact that it gets dark here at 6pm, I was tired. We went to bed about 9:00 - felt like 2am!

Below are quite a few picts of the day... Also, I'm adding picts to Shutterfly, for tons of picts go to: http://touringbrazilwithshawna.shutterfly.com/

Above: Waterfall along the road.
Below: Picts at the beach in Juquehy.
Thought you'd enjoy participating in our game of "Rate that *ss" .... Only in Brazil.


The beach in Cambury.
Below: The unbrella at the entrance to the "hidden" outdoor bar.


Walking up to the bar.

View from the "hidden" outdoor bar.

4th of July Weekend

My "birth bud," Carrie, and her family FINALLY came to visit over the 4th of July weekend. We were very happy to have them here and had a great time. We began our weekend with a day at Greenfield Village, an old fashion village that's part of the Henry Ford Museum. We watched the big steam engine and just about scared James out of his pants when it's whistle blew, and later took a ride on it (after Jeff and Julia went home, she wanted a nap so badly). I enjoyed a very messy custard cone - very worth it.

That evening we went to the fireworks. For some reason it is next to impossible to find fireworks on the actual 4th, but we enjoyed them on the 3rd instead. All the kids (and adults) enjoyed them. Julia was hesitant, but mesmerized. Almost a month later she's still asking to "Go see fireworks" and saying "Fireworks pretty loud - boom, boom."

James, Ella, Claranna, and Julia posing in their 4th of July outfits.

We also enjoyed an afternoon at a local waterpark. Julia even went down a water slide all by herself!

Mark, James and Ella - Jeff and Julia are in the background.Finally we visited a children's museum. You can see in the picture Julia looks as though she's reaching for Jeff, but in reality she's pushing him away and telling him one of her newer phrases "go play daddy" .... The first time I was told to "go play" I felt a bit dejected, but soon realized she's copying what she hears - from me. I realized I suggest that she "go play" with her toys, etc. while I'm making dinner some nights. My baby is growing up and beginning to express her independence.

Inaugural Camping Trip Father's Day Weekend

June 21, 2009

Over Father's Day weekend we took our inaugural "real" (non race track) camping trip. We went for just one night an hour away but had a great time. It was a quiet, nice campground with a small lake. As always it was quite amusing driving in in our fabulous 1979 motor home. We were a bit nervous that they may not let us in (some campground have rules on how old your camper is), but we rolled in without a problem. But it did include a few head turns and 'whoa, that's an oldie' and 'Dad look at that motor home' comments. .... better than a tent though - it has air, a bed, fridge, etc. and Julia loves 'the bus,' as she calls it. Here's a few pictures of us enjoying the weekend.

Jeff found a frog, Julia enjoyed petting it and thought I should hold it.... I just let dad hold it.

And here it is... the fabulous motor home, Jeff's uncle picked it up for us from the east coast and drove it back for us.

Como Zoo

The day after Megan's wedding, Mom, Michelle, Julia and I went to Como Zoo and the boys went on the river. Julia still talks about the giraffe and sleeping lion. Below is a picture of Julia watchin a train you could ride with Grandma and Michelle. Michelle and Julia were going to ride it, but Julia began to have second thoughts, so I went on it with her. We sat down, but she was immediately on my lap and wouldn't sit down, so off we went before it even started. Maybe next time.

Megan's Wedding

The weekend after Memorial Day, one of my best friends Megan got married. We are so happy for her and had a great time at her wedding. We were home for 10 days so had a good visit with the grandparents, Michelle, and were able to come up for the wedding. What a beautiful setting!

Meg, Polly, and I posing it up. It was great to see the 'clan' - Megan, Polly and Carrie and Laura (not in picture).

Us on our carriage ride after the wedding ceremony!

Trying to get a good picture of Ella, James and Julia.

A couple more of James and Julia flirting!

Me and Polly enjoying Julia's goodie bag! Each of the kids got a bag of goodies, candy crayons, and glow bracelets. Very good idea Meg!