Dad's Day to Shine

On October 18th we headed down to Chehalis to celebrate an early 60th Birthday with dad and to attend the grand opening ceremony of the new Vernetta Smith Chehalis Timberland Library. Dad was the Project Manager for the library and he received many many thanks and "job well done" praises throughout the day!  We couldn't have been more proud.  The new library was jump started by a huge donation from Orin Smith the former Starbucks CEO and a Chehalis alumni.  Way to go Dad!

Dad opening his present before heading out to the library

People starting to gather for the ceremony. The high school jazz bland playing on the steps

Grandma, Amy, and I claimed our seats on the fountain early

Vernetta Smith cutting the ribbon 

Family photo inside the library

Beautiful ceilings! The library even has the first drive up window in the state

Recapping Portugal and Spain

Dear Friends and Family:

Happy Autumn!!! We hope you had a wonderful summer and are off to a great start to the school year.  We started Fall in high gear with Dan starting back to school in his second year of the UW MBA program.  We were so blessed to have two amazing weeks together in Europe before the quarter started.  I'm finally getting around to posting a recap of our Europe trip on the blog.  I took over 1,200 pictures, so to say the least it was difficult narrowing them down for the blog. We started our trip in Lisbon and ended in Barcelona.  Each city was unique and amazing in its own way.  I hope you will enjoy a small snapshot of each city.

Love, Dan and Mandy

LISBON

Lisbon is what Rick Steve's describes as a ramshackle but charming mix of now and then.  The city has vintage trolleys, grand squares, and well worn people.  The highlight of Lisbon for us was a guided walking tour that took us through each of the different neighborhoods within Lisbon, on the #28 Trolley, and to several spectacular viewpoints over the city.  We also had a couple of our best meals in Lisbon.

Our hotel on the "eating lane"

Breakfast provided by our hotel...voted the best by us on our vacation

Rossio Square...the main square of the city

Monastery of Jeronimos...Vasco da Gama's tomb is inside

Cloisters at the Monastery

Pastel de nata...famous custard tart at Casa Pasteis de Belem

The "eating lane" where our hotel was

The "Elevator," Lisbon's version of the space needle

Cafe where famous poets used to hang out. We wrote postcards here

Heading towards Praca Do Comercio Square

We joined a Lisbon Walking Tour one day...our guide has the orange backpack

Our matching shoes. All of the streets are tiled like this

View of Rossio Square from the "Elevator"

We rode the trolley nicknames "The American" after the San Francisco trolley

Sao Jorge Castle...we hiked to the castle after our walking tour

More views of Lisbon

At the castle

Night view of Rossio square

SALEMA PORTUGAL

From Lisbon we took a bus to the southern coast of Portugal known as the Algarve. Within the Algarve our destination was the small whitewashed old fishing village of Salema.  Salema was absolutely gorgeous (white sandy beaches) and felt like a little hidden gem far away from the rest of the world.  Our time here was spent in total relaxation mode.  We hit the beach daily relaxing in the sun reading books and playing games.  It was just what we needed to gear up for Spain.

On the bus from Lisbon to Salema

Our hotel

The view from our hotel room balcony

Breakfast room at our hotel

The beach

We rented an umbrella and chairs daily

Dan eating traditional Cataplana...seafood and potatoes cooked in a copper clamshell dish

Views of the small town of Salema from the beach

Dan playing Staggers



Out hotel sitting atop of the hill

We had this lunch every day...tosta mistas (ham and cheese), fries, and salad

More Seafood and Spaghetti Carbonara