I think I have finally, safely reached the point where I feel comfortable giving travel advice to other mom’s. I’ve got enough “skin in the game,” as it were, when people ask for my advice and expect that I will have a reasonably quick answer. Depending on the asker, I usually have something valuable to say on any subject from jet lag to diaper changing in mid-air and everything in between.
When I really think about it, though, I am trying to STOP THE NEGATIVE COMMENTS of traveling with a family. I’ll be your light. I’ll tell you that you can do it.
It just needs to come down to some really simple, totally obvious things that are the best advice I can give to any traveling family.
Plan Well. The success (or failure) of any trip happens way before the plane takes off. All of the success lies in the planning, and that sometimes happens months before the trip. You need to choose the right destination, make a solid itinerary and take care of the details. Put the time into that and you will truly enjoy every moment of your trip.
Wake Up Early. Maybe you’ve always thought of vacation as a chance to be lazy, but you are doing it wrong. Especially with kids because we all know they wake up at the crack of dawn. Getting up with the sun is the best way to get to know a new locale and feel like a local all at the same time. The early morning hours are an extra special treasure for the traveler. Our favorite thing to do is have a relaxing breakfast soaking up the sun and then be first in line to one of the main attractions. What’s more, the light is beautiful in the morning for photographs, and getting up early and out in the sun is the fastest way to overcome jetlag.
Just do it. We are so quick to analyze and over think every decision and every detail of our lives. When it comes to traveling with kids or taking a vacation from work, there are a lot of good excuses that we can rattle off to keep us at home.
It’s too hard.
We’re too busy.
The kids are too young.
While those are all probably true, they are still just excuses that hold us back from something great. The best part of life is seizing the moment, and those moments happen every minute when you have the courage to pack your bags and and hit the road.
Don’t miss those moments waiting for ‘someday.’ Do it today.
Oh, and bring wipes. Lots of wipes. OVER PACK wipes. You will thank me.
Terceira was the third island of the Azores to be discovered in the 15th century, hence its name, which means third. It is the third biggest island of the Azores and the second most populated, after São Miguel. Terceira is known for its natural scenery and rich cultural, as well as for its party and laid-back atmosphere. Terceira Island remains a hidden gem in the middle of the Atlantic. And we are SO very grateful to be assigned to live here for a year with the US Air Force.
Things to do on the Third Island
#1 Explore Angra do Heroismo
Angra (Like the word Angry but Angr-Uh) is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. It’s Terceira’s capital city and one of its main attractions.
We love to wander through the cobbled streets of the historic city center and admire the white houses with colorful windows and brightly painted balconies.
Then we love to head to Angra’s picture-perfect bay and stroll along its marina or relax on the nearby bench watching people of the island.
#2 Enjoy the views from Monte Brasil
Monte Brasil is an extinct volcano overlooking Angra do Heroísmo from the south.
Just a short walking distance from the city center, even though I recommend driving up the mountain. It has nice views of Angra and the island.
It’s also a great place for hiking or to relax and have a picnic. There are birds and deer to see, and places for kids to play at.
#3 Swim in the Biscoitos Natural Lava Pools
Swimming here is one of the mandatory things to do in the Azores during the summer months.
The black volcanic stone that you can see in many places around Terceira Island is show in its most beautiful form in Biscoitos, where it created natural swimming pools.
Biscoitos (Portuguese for cookies) is a small village in the northern coast of the island.
#4 Relax on the beaches of Praia da Vitoria
In the city of Praia da Vitória, you can find the only sandy beaches in Terceira.
These black sand beaches surround the beautiful bay of Praia da Vitória, on the east coast of the island.
Its calm waves are perfect for swimming, kayaking or stand up paddling and for kids to not be knocked over. Before you go to the beach, go to the clean outdoor market to get fresh fruit for snacks at the beach.
#5 Spectacular views from Serra do Cume
The Belvedere of Serra do Cume is my absolute favorite of all Terceira’s viewpoints.
It offers the most spectacular view of the island’s patchwork of fields and volcanic stone walls.
#6 Feel the warmth at Furnas do Enxofre
Right in the center of Terceira Island, Furnas do Enxofre are a geothermal site where you can observe another testimony of the island’s volcanic origin.
Follow the visitors’ path to see these Sulphur fumaroles, as well as the untouched landscape of the interior of the island.
#7 Go inside the extinct volcano of Algar Do Carvao
Did you know Terceira island is one of the few places on the planet where you can actually go inside a volcano?
Classified as a natural monument, Algar do Carvão is a lava tube from an extinct volcano.
Today this spectacular place is covered by lush vegetation and rare stalactites with a lot of steps to get to the bottom. Be ready for the leg burn.
There is also a small lagoon at the bottom, as well as a wider area called Cathedral.
Classical music concerts are sometimes held here, due to the good acoustics of this natural structure…. Let me report back to you on the concert. We will NOT MISS ONE.
#8 Party with the Locals
Terceira is Azores’ amusement park, as locals like to call it!!!!!
The island is home to the biggest popular festivity, the Sanjoaninas, a 10-day festival dedicated to São João that takes place every year in June in Angra do Heroísmo.
In August, Praia da Vitória hosts its own summer festival, a week-long event including musical concerts and parade. Best of all, food trucks! Don’t forget to order your SANGRIA. They make red and white sangria. I prefer white.
#9 Watch a Bull Fight
Bull fights happen nearly every single night on the island. People get off work, pick up their families and head to bull fights. People line the street to watch the entertainment of the bull fighters.
#10 Drive the Whole Island
Rent a car, just go and explore. You will probably need to know how to drive a stick shift car however! The island is very safe and there hasn’t been one area that I have felt hostility being an outsider. The island speaks Portuguese however 90% of the people do speak English. No matter where you stop you will always be able to strike up conversation and learn about the area. It is a perfect island for a family trip!
You do not need google maps to drive around the island. There are brightly colored, unique to the island signs that have arrows on how to drive around the island. #JUSTGO
There you have it. All the best things to do in Terceira, Azores to experience the island like a local and make the best of your time in one of the most beautiful kept secrets in the ocean.
Next up, We have reservations at the Caprica Eco-Lodge in Algave. They are giving us 50% off to blog and post pictures about them. I found them on Instagram and fell in love with the little cabins they offer in the mountains. I am over the moon excited for our family of 4 stay with them and excited to offer their perks to people who come to Terceira!
Just Go… Even if you are not allowed to. Just Go… Even if you have never been there before. Just Go… Even if you are already settled in life. Just Go… even though there is a long list of things to get done before you leave. Just Go… when your mom and mother in law say so. (They always know best)
“Just Go” has been my go-to saying for the past two months.
Our Wedding in Montana.
My husband, Del, is in the United States Air Force. He has been in since December of 2014. We were married in June of 2014. We had our first baby June of 2015 and our second baby August of 2017. Being in the Air Force, we have been apart a lot. We have only celebrated 1 out of 5 wedding anniversaries together. He has missed birthdays, holidays, recitals, concerts, moments I needed to celebrate for my career. Simply put, we have been apart a lot. This comes with the commitment to military.
In November of 2018, Del was told that he would be leaving on a short tour. The words short tour is totally opposite of what it means. It is not short, and it is not a wonderful “tour” of somewhere you have never been. It is a yearlong assignment of working full time in a foreign land.
In this case, the foreign land Lajes Air Base. In the Azores. In Portugal.
Praia de Vitoria, Terceira, Azores, Portugal. Where he was going.
Where the hell is Lajes. What are the Azores? And how do you even pronounce “Lajes”?
(It took me a week to get the word out fluently)
When he received this assignment, I kept it to myself for about a month. Being in the Air Force, you learn that nothing is real until it happens. Not to get your hopes up or hopes down. He was excited (of course- men don’t understand a woman’s emotions). Everyone told him this place was a once in a lifetime place to live. I was dying inside though.
It finally became “orders”. Official orders. We were really
going to go through with this job assignment. His follow on, where we will meet
up after the short tour, was also attached to the orders. We would be meeting
up in Kaiserslautern, Germany after the year being apart.
The official orders broke me down to tears. HUGE CHANGE is
coming.
I haven’t mentioned that I am a teacher. No matter what, I show up to work with a smile and excited to turn on lightbulbs with 5-6 year old kindergarteners. I was energetic, happy, reading books with so much character, making the kids laugh and giving them as much love as I could… But deep down I was depressed. I would put my face in front of my air vents in my car to dry my wet eyes before walking into work about 3 out of 5 days a week.
How am I supposed to live a year without my best friend, my lover, my protector. How was I supposed to work full time, get the kids to two separate daycares every morning, pick them up after a long days work, get them fed, bathed, asleep WHILE taking care of my self. How was I supposed to stay home and keep to my introverted self when I have fall of my in-laws 5 minutes away and I desperately needed loving interaction. I was depressed thinking about it and it hadn’t even started yet. I didn’t want the day of him leaving to come so I ignored everything about the Short Tour. I refused to google Lajes. I refused to google the island. I refused to bring it up on my own to anyone asking how I was.
But the week of him coming eventually came.
I was depressed and panicked about “when am I going to see him again”. People would ask me that question, which is not easy to answer being a Military Wife. The answer was I DON’T KNOW WHEN. Which people would look at me like… How do you not know…
So being panicked, I booked a flight to see him a few days before he left. It was my first moment of Just Go. I booked it for the end of July. A month before I had to go back to work. I would be there for a week while my amazing In-Laws would be watching out 2 kids. I am more than lucky to have them 5 minutes from me. No one had to travel to me to help me out. I literally dropped the kids off at their house the night before my flight. Which made my decision of “Just Go” more simple.
But there is more to this blog post than “Just Going” for a
week.
Like I said, I was depressed. I love Del more than myself. I
love him unconditionally. I love him in my dreams and when I am awake. I cannot
say it enough. I love him. I was depressed that I would be going 52 weeks without
him.
He left for Lajes when I was in my last week of teaching for the school year.
Norfolk, Virginia. Tough to smile when he is leaving for a year.
That week went very smooth being alone. My mom came the day school was out for the summer. Long story short with my mom- She was battling a blood infection when she came to visit me and the kids. We didn’t want to go out a lot because she needed to stay healthy and let the antibiotics work their magic. So I stayed home all day with her. The kids loved having Gaga there, I loved having my momma there, but it wasn’t my husband. She saw that I was depressed.
There was one particular night that I was trying to cry myself to sleep but I couldn’t gather myself. I went to our spare bedroom where my mother was. She saw how BIG OF A MESS I was, and it was only week two. I laid it all on her. I laid all of my pros being alone and all of my cons being alone. She sat and listened. She’s honestly one of the only people I know who sits backs and listens. Awkward silence doesn’t exist with her. She lets me talk. She knows when I am done and them speaks up. This night, when she spoke up she said….
Just go.
Move to Lajes. Who cares if it is unaccompanied orders. If
you can move there, Just go. Pay for it. Leave your job to be with him. Just go
and be happy. Just go and be with your family of 4.
That was the beginning of this story.
I CHOSE TO GO. I CHOSE TO UPROOT MY LIFE AND MOVE TO PORTUGAL. WHY NOT?!!
Last hugs in the home I brought them to as itty bitty newborns.
I put the house up for sale with a realtor on a Friday morning. By Friday night, my house was under contract. HOLY MOLY- What a sign from God. We agreed to close in a month. Houses usually close around 60-90 days. Mine was 30 days. Perfect. What did I need to deal with next?
When I found out the house was under contract that Friday night, I had a garage sale that Saturday and Sunday. JUST GO for it. I didn’t hold back. I thought about shipping everything to Germany when the time came. I thought about possibly having damaged goods, broken goods, stolen/lost goods, and I realized I didn’t want to have to deal with filing claims and not getting the money we deserved back. So, I sold everything up front. I made enough money to buy 3 international one-way flights to the Azores. I made enough money to even pay off a little bit of debt.
All we packed for the year. Hint: ALWAYS get a luggage cart. Don’t “Tough It” through an airport. ALWAYS make things easier.
I got rid of everything. Everything but our items that we are emotionally attached to. Our storage unit only has 2 mattresses, 2 bed frames, and some memorabilia that I won’t ever hand off. I legitimately sold everything and then took a couple car full of items to the storage unit.
I went into my school district office and turned in my badge
and computer and then went into my school and said an emotional goodbye to my
amazing principal and my amazing teacher’s aide who became my best friend over
the years.
As far as selling the house, it was not easy and was not completely
smooth. I had to sign everything with a Power of Attorney since Del was not
present. Furthermore, the buyers wanted to fix dumb little things. I don’t have
time for little things. I don’t have time for contractors to work on the house
we aren’t going to be living in anymore. So, I used the excuse “Alone with two
kids” and “Time crunched to move to Portugal” and the buyers agreed to by as
is. I even sold the house without front door keys. Who knew where they went? Not
me. We never locked our door. All I turned over was the one garage door opener!
I got last appointments scheduled and taken care of for
myself and the kids. Shots were all up to date. Medications were picked up for
the year. And any important medical paperwork was in my hand.
I went to the local library and got passports for myself and
the two kids. I expedited the process, paid extra to receive them faster, and
prayed they would get here in time for our flights.
The worst part of this story. Our dogs. Our two black labs
that we have had for 8 and 6 years. Our two dogs that we bought with they were
8 weeks old. Our two dogs that my kids love so much. My kids lay on them, pull
their ears and tails, kiss them, play with them. What was I going to do with my
dogs?
This is a part of this story I have failed to mention to anyone because I still cry over what I have gone through. I feel like less than a person but hey, now that I know it worked out I’m opening up about it. I asked everyone in my family to take them. No one would. Everyone already has dogs. My two dogs would be too much for anyone to take on at a spur of the moment.
We could take the dogs to Germany after the year short tour
but finding a house to rent in Germany was near impossible with two big dogs.
Also, we are travelers. We are planning to travel every weekend while we are overseas.
Who is going to dog sit? Would the dogs be okay on a 10-hour flight? What about
being in confinement in Germany- the German vet withholds them to make sure
they aren’t bringing any diseases into their country. What about the cost of
having the dogs fly? Is this a little too much for a dog to be put through? I
made this decision with Del over the phone. They simply had to be adopted by
someone who will love them in the US. I was going to have to do this alone.
So, I bawled my eyes out filling out Lab Rescue forms to
surrender them to new owners. I COULD NOT drop them off at the pound. I had to
have them in good hands. I had to choose who took them. I had to give the
people their dog food bowls, their balls and beanie babies, their kennels,
their leases and collars. I had to find someone fast to help me out.
The Lab Rescue of Greater Richmond contacted me through the forms I filled out and set up an in-home visit. A lady came to see our puppies at home and how they were behaved. She said she never has seen Labs be more impeccably behaved. They sat, they kissed, they high-fived and shook, they layed down, they showed the lady that they go outside to go potty. Made me cry because the pups didn’t know why the lady was there. I felt so guilty. When she left, I laid on the floor hugging them.
They were put up on the lab adoption pages on social media
and emails. There were over 100 likes on social media of strangers loving my
dogs, and over 40 comments of mostly women begging their significant other to
let them get the dogs. No one came through, however.
We were down to my last week of being home. I had an empty house, I had my passports, I was about to close the house at the lawyer’s office to hand over our 1 garage door opener, our suitcases were packed, yet I still had the dogs. What was I going to do?!
God came through for me. A girl named Haley was so very kind enough to Foster my dogs when I left. When I met her, I had such a good vibe with her that I 100% trusted her. She took the dogs to her home a few days before our flights. A few days after our flights, the dogs were adopted into a forever home.
I keep telling myself, people who adopt old dogs have the biggest hearts. People who want someone else’s dogs rather than puppies truly are special people in this world. Our dogs went to a Navy couple who were expecting their first baby and wanted trustworthy dogs. My dogs couldn’t have been a more perfect puzzle piece. I PRAY that the new baby loves on them like my babies did.
I feel less of a human being after that situation. I never in a million years thought I would be able to do this to my dogs. I am in contact with the new family and they send me pictures. I cry. I dry my tears. I will always think of them as MY dogs and get choked up. They are my fur-babies, but my husband and my own kids mean more. The dogs will be okay. As long as I keep getting pictures of them laying in these people’s beds and on their couches! They definitely are well taken care of.
So I sold the house, paid off twenty thousand dollars in debt, resigned from teaching, surrendered the dogs, booked international flights, and now here we are…
First day back with Del. Standing on our new house’s beautiful patio.
You think the kids are happy?!
A family of 4 in Azores, Portugal. I have never been so happy in my heart with this huge decision.
I texted my mom and mother in law a few days after I got here:
“I truly am proud of myself for doing this all by myself. I have been though a lot the past month, and I feel like I deserve this piece of paradise. I have felt myself transform as a woman. Other than my wedding day, my two children’s births, this has been one of the happiest moments of my life. I am so in love with Del and I am so happy to be back with him, with the kids, in a once of a lifetime location.”
We will be here until June 2020, and in Germany July 2020.
Just Go… Even if you are not allowed to. Just Go… Even if you have never been there before. Just Go… Even if you are already settled in life. Just Go… even though there is a long list of things to get done before you leave. Just Go… when your mom and mother in law say so.
Keep an eye on our travels! Now that we are in Europe, our goal is to save save save and travel travel travel. I will teach you my ins and outs of making it to new countries within budget- EH- A little bit over budget!
Rocking Bryces 