the Algarve

Parenthood these days feels like an escort mission, mostly, with a few side quests along the way. While the boys each tend to choose much of their own activities now, it still seems like our job to stretch their sense of the world. They found passports in their stockings at Christmas, and we headed to Portugal just before the new year. We spent the first several days of the trip in a village near the southeast border, sleeping in what had been a 16th century convent. We chose this area for the predictably sunny January weather, and with hopes to explore the Ria Formosa, a series of barrier islands with marshes, lagoons, sandbars and tide pools. A haven for migratory birds, we saw a flock of flamingos from our breakfast chairs one morning!

The old town of Tavira felt sleepy in the winter as we wandered cobbled streets admiring Moorish remnants and brilliant tile facades, ornate churches and charming plazas. We were surprised, and thrilled, to discover an impressive fireworks show right outside our front door on New Year's Eve! We walked to the Mercado for local figs and mangos and fresh pastries, and ventured to nearby towns like Olhao to explore the Ria Formosa Natural Park where we observed cork oak and prickly pear, fiddler crabs and various bivalves, an old tide mill and ancient Roman salt tank ruins. And from Santa Luzia we rode a tuna train to the anchor cemetery at Praia do Barril, where the boys dug holes and built structures with reeds and collected plastic barrels to be recycled.