It has been a BIG weekend and October 23 (C’s birthday). We met our good friends who just moved from Miami at Herdade da Malhadinha Nova for lunch and a wine tasting. Fabulous! Then, we headed over to Herdade dos Grous for a tour, wine tasting, dinner, and a night full of laughter and games, followed by a day full of more laughter and games. Thank you so much, Freemans! We enjoyed every minute of it.

Here’s the crew at Herded dos Grous in the middle of the wine tasting with our wonderful and super knowledgeable wine maker Inês:

So much fun food to talk about. We had black pork from these cute piggies on Saturday and then we went to our favorite brunch spot today near our house for C’s bday called Oak Café & Brunch in Terrugem.

We also had some super tasty olives and olive tapenade when we were at Herdade dos Grous from these incredibly old olive trees. Some can be several hundred years old we were told. We also had a discussion about how they are chopped horizontally in half and they regrow. Something to contemplate. There was some serious mana or Eywa (yes, we recently watched Avatar) or whatever one wants to call it emitting from these beauties.

Finally, tonight a vegan dinner of red lentils, sautéed spinach in garlic and a salad to help balance the ridiculous amount of rich eating and drinking we’ve been doing.

There is a lot of rain expected again tomorrow but it’s not going to stop us. We’re headed to Lisbon to an Asian grocery store and a Middle Eastern one to see what we can find!

One final shot of the birthday boy at sunset. Cheers my love! Thank you for this ridiculous life we lead.