Nicole's Adventures

It has been almost two months since we began our epic journey to the Kibo, the King of Kilimanjaro, and a life event that must be blogged about! Summit Selfie We landed in Kilimanjaro Airport where it was pouring out rain. The peak couldn't be seen from the plane because of all the clouds and it was so dreary and wet. Our driver from Popote was waiting for us at the airport and dropped us at our hotel where we organized all of our clothing and gear. The guides were going to meet us that evening to check our gear and then see if we needed anything else. We were given the super green light that we had everything very well prepared. We weren't sure about our sleeping bags as the recommended temp was lower than what we had, but our guide told us we could just rent the fleece liners and we would be fine. Everything else we had prepared well and were ready to go. We ate a super yummy dinner in the hotel because we didn't want to venture out in the rain. All of our...

October 5th is a public holiday (Republic Day) in Portugal which landed on a Friday this year! Finally a holiday that would land on a Friday to make a three day weekend! I had wanted to visit Geres for a long time and since we are always trying to get in our Kilimanjaro Training Hikes no better time to visit! We stayed at Ermida Geres campground and at first had a lot of area in the tent area to ourselves. By the time we came back from our walk the tent area was full. As an American who grew up camping, I am still in shock with our two Portuguese camp ground experiences. This one had baby trees dividing out the spots. You are to park your car and place your tent in the same little area. So cars, tents, cars, tents, are packed in literally like sardines.  In Figuiera da Foz campground we had a little more space but neighbors are still very close by! It isn't like in the US or in Australia where each car and spot has their own little driveway and plenty of space in between spo...

Ok onto the fun stuff! The travels of the year!  My mom came to visit for 5 weeks from the end of March until May. It was really nice to have her here to keep us company, do some gardening work, and we went on a little trip as well during her time here. In Portugal we went to Coimbra together for the day, Soito to enjoy the Senora da Granja festival, and Obidos. My mom also visited Lisbon on her own. In between her visits in Portugal we headed to Toulouse where we visited our great friends who are French but raised their girls, similar in age to myself in the Phoenix! One of their daughters lives in NY and Melissa was currently staying with her parents but kind of floating around working in sustainable fashion design. She was working on a project while we were there creating a dress from plastic bottles! I loved seeing some of her photos of her work!  Anyways, They moved back to France after Melissa graduated High School in AZ early. It was so much fun to catch ...