Tourists

September 21, 2016 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

We took Friday and Saturday to be tourists. We spent Friday wandering around Pepé beach and walked up the coast to Barra beach. We stumbled upon a farmers market serving fruit, fish, cheese and freshly made pastels.

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The weather threatened to dribble on us and although the sun was hiding the weather was still enjoyable.

We tucked into a kiosk by the beach for some drinks and a snack. fullsizerender-3 The views and the waves were hard to beat.

We picked to end our day at the Windsor hotel for a last adult beverage. They had a rooftop pool and bar and since the weather wasn’t perfect for sunning we had the place to ourselves.

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We planned a dinner with Wags, his mom and Patti. I really wanted us to try Porcao a local Churrascaria but the one in Barra was closed for renovations. Instead we went to Fogo de Chao, which we have been to in San Diego…so much for branching out.

The food was fine but again we were disappointed in the salad bar offerings. Dessert was and has always been the best part of the meals here.

Saturday morning while lounging around our place I was trying to find something new for us to check out. I came across a TripAdvisor forum talking about a little island right by Pepe beach. They have a water taxi that will take you across the lagoon for 1 Real$ and once there we could eat and drink at some of the local restaurants and bars. Shane did the legwork to figure out where we find this ferry taxi and then we called an Uber and set out.

We were let off on the road and told to walk down an alley way and the ferry was waiting for us.

Once we were on the small island we tried to map our way to one of the restaurants but the island is so small that even google maps was confused. So we just wandered around.

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Finally we found one of the places that we were looking for. Clearly it was well marked, amazing anyone can find it.

fullsizerender-8 This is when we really felt like we were in Brazil. It was low key, tropical and scenic.

We sat along the water and took in the sights while we waited for our order of pastel de carne.

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We spent a few hours on the island and then left for the beach to meet Wags for a last hurrah. We met some very nice and interesting people, did some dancing and enjoyed the night with the cariocas. It was a great finale to our trip, now it’s time to get ready for closing ceremonies. I can’t believe the two weeks is almost up.

Cristo Redentor

September 17, 2016September 17, 2016 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

Our plan for Thursday was to meet up with everyone first thing in the morning to go see Christ the Redeemer. Patti was great enough to do all the leg work on the arrangements. She got us a van to take us all out there which was nice. The only problem is the traffic here is absurd and it took about an hour and half to go 24 miles. We were dropped off at Copacabana beach to pick up our ticket to head up to Corcovado. The lady at the ticket counter told us that the visibility at that moment was very bad and might not be worth the trek up so see clouds.

After some discussion, we agreed that we would eat something on the beach and then go back and get tickets.

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Once we got our tickets we were put into another van and settled back into more traffic. It’s like there are only two roads in this enormous city and everyone is on them.

Once you reach the top and climb up to statue the views are incredible.

You can see full panoramic view of Rio, from Maracana stadium to Impanema beach.

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We really lucked out with the weather. We had 100% visibility and once we saw what we wanted the clouds rolled in and took over the entire place. The weather turned chilly and that was our queue to head back. None of us were looking forward to getting back in that van but I guess the one road back into the city is a faster route because we were back at Copacabana in minutes.

Our driver and I were communicating via WhatsApp which has been a great tool here. He was back to pick us up and ready to take us home. Again the drive was incredibly long and once we returned the day was practically over.

Shane Wags and i went to dinner with Wags’ dad at a churrascaria that was recommended to him. We had a decent dinner although the meat here just isn’t the same as at home, and the vegetables leave little to be desired. At least that is what we have found so far. Once we all consumed way too much food we made our way home for the night. Now, what do we do tomorrow?

Wrapping up Tennis

September 16, 2016September 16, 2016 ~ Girlmom ~ Leave a comment

I really want to skip a few days, would you mind? No, okay so let’s bullet point or else I will never get this all written.

Tuesday morning we took the gals to the Barra shopping mall and went back to that Italian restaurant I bragged about and I’m confident everyone enjoyed it.
Tuesday night tennis, OY! Gold medal match. I hope most of you were able to watch and if you weren’t, the USA played some brilliant tennis, only problem….their opponents weren’t Quadriplegics…..
USA took silver medal and that’s not a sad story to tell.

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I think we got some decent sleep that night although we have been waking up at the same time we do at home, which really isn’t cool. I’m sure come the weekend we will be pros at sleeping in, just in time to go home to the girls.

Wednesday Wags had his bronze medal match. We sat in the hot sun and watched what we thought was going to be a hard loss. Somewhere he found the strength to dig deep and he won 5 straight games in the third set to win the medal. It was very stressful but pure greatness to watch.

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The medal ceremony wasn’t going to be held until after the last match of the day. That gave us a few hours to hang around, which we weren’t strangers at doing.

We grabbed some lunch and sat around chatting over beers until the time came.

Brazilian fans are some of the best fans

We wrapped up the night with watching Wags receive his 8th medal, which is the most of any male tennis player …ever. You guys, that is pretty fucking awesome!

Pepé Beach

September 14, 2016 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

Im not getting these posts out very fast, we have closed down the Olympic venue two nights in a row and aren’t getting to bed until after midnight…yawn.

Monday morning we met the ladies out on the street, grabbed two cabs and headed down to Pepe beach. The sidewalks are sprinkled with Kiosks serving beer and snacks. One in particular, an Argentina place serving fresh fish was supposed to be really good. But once we got down there we realized it was closed, probably for the winter. Plan B. We walked, up and down the beach, planning our next visit. Maybe we will paddle board, definitely take a dip in the ocean and rent a beach chair to sit and soak up some rays.

There were benches lining the pier and under each one was a cat along with a bowl of water and kibble.

We wandered into a seafood restaurant and was greeted by a very humorous and kind Mâitre D. Sharing a couple of mediocre dishes, seafood paella and fish stew we watched the palm trees sway in the tropical breeze.

Once our bellies were full we took advantage of one of the kiosks. Kicked our feet up and sipped on a cold drink.

After lapping up the sights we jumped in taxis and went back to our condos to prep for tennis. On our way home, our taxi was hit by another car, we were fine. The drivers got out, yelled at each other for a few minutes and then we were back on our way.

The tennis part of the day wasn’t as good as the beach. Wags had a tough match against GB and lost his chance at the gold medal. It was a long night and hit on our emotions a tad too hard. We didn’t get back until very late and we were out once our heads hit the pillow.

Not Bad

September 12, 2016 ~ Girlmom ~ 1 Comment

We took full advantage of our Sunday, starting with checking out that shopping center I mentioned a few days ago. It’s got everything, restaurants, a grocery store, hardware store, a dentist and even a Subway.

We chose to eat an early lunch at the place where the locals were. Some grilled meat, fries and cold cerveja.

It was a pretty decent meal. After lunch we took full advantage of our pool, it was very cold but still very nice.

And then we did the worst thing possible. We FaceTimed the girls, it was rough as Kaili was upset and trying to hold back tears. It really put a damper on my day. I tried to shake it off and we got dressed to head out for some tennis. Wags got us all passes to hang out in the family lounge…

It was really nice to sit in the air conditioning with free beer, I mean who would complain about that? We got to really enjoy each others company for a few hours before the match started.