Oh Happy Day!

This morning was the start to a good day. I went to a local salon in Praia and had a long overdue pedicure. It was good, relaxing, and cheap! I am used to paying 25€ per pedicure in Germany and while they get the job done, they are more about purpose than pampering there. Here they indulged me a bit more than in Germany, so that was nice, and I got some fancy nail art (because the Portuguese ladies are all about being colorful) all for 13€! Deal! Here are my pretty tootsies in case you are interested...

While I was getting my toes done Colin and Shelby went down the road to the boardwalk area by the beach and Colin practiced riding his bike without training wheels. He's getting good! So proud of him, here are the videos Shelby took, look at him go! Later this afternoon we headed back to the house to let Colin nap and to wait for my car to arrive. Yay! The very nice owners were willing to just drive it to our house since we are right next to the base anyway. This car cracks me up. It's so tiny, but you see them everywhere, they really are one of the most popular cars on the island. We've already ordered all kinds of stuff to jazz it up and "pimp my ride" as Shelby says. I'll keep you in suspense on that one though, you'll have to wait impatiently on the mail just like we do. Here she is before her makeover.

My island bomb, a 1993 Nissan Micra, somewhere in size between a Smart Car and a Mini. I'm trying to think of names, but probably will wait until she's all done up. I originally thinking of something ironic like a big masculine sounding lady name. You know Bertha, Grisella, Helga (forgive me if I just made fun of your name...try to forgive your parents too!) something like that. A friend of mine had a good suggestion of a more island appropriate name like Ginger or MaryAnn. So now I'm torn. This afternoon we went and bought a geocaching GPS so we can give that hobby a try. If you don't know about geocaching click here. There are several caches hidden around the island and we figure it's a great way to discover every nook and cranny the island has to offer. I'm sure we'll end up seeing a lot of the great outdoors that we wouldn't end up seeing otherwise. Colin thinks it's great fun because we are hunting for treasure, what kid wouldn't love that?! We went (unexpectedly) to find a cache that is close to the base area. Shelby hadn't shared with me this little tidbit and I was not exactly wearing appropriate hiking shoes to be climbing up the side of a giant hill. So I gladly stayed behind with my Kindle and read while he and Colin set off up the mountain. They found the box and Colin was very excited. Here is a picture I snapped of him smelling flowers before he headed up the mountain.

Happy Friday!