Suntanned Spaniard: Sunburned Spaniard.

VAMOS A LA PLAYA

Lagos, Portugal was so much fun this weekend - so relaxing, and not to mention beautiful. As soon as we got there, we jumped out and took pictures. Note, these pictures have not been altered in any way. In fact, they don't capture half the beauty of this beach town one country over. How lucky we are that Portugal is just a two-hour bus ride away!

Kari, myself, Janie, and Paige atop the stairs that led down to the beach right outside our cliffside hotel.

After unpacking, we took a 20ish minute bus ride to the most southwest point of Portugal. This is probably one of my favorite pictures from "the end of the world" point - where the europeans of the dark ages believed the world ended because the Americas had yet to be discovered.

Morgan, Taylor, and Jimmy infront of the setting sun.

Those cliffs! How gorgeous. Their sheer size and beauty speaks (without speaking) of the wonder and power of God and His creation.

Benni, one of our guides from Sevilla, with Paige and Janie making cameos in the back.

Jimmy, the mountain goat.

I don't know that I've ever been to a place so thought-invoking. I rarely spoke while we were here.

Pat and I after the magnificent light show had ended.

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Sangria Sailboat Saturday!

Taylor and Pat soaking it up on our rockin' ship.

Seriously, Atlantic Ocean? Could you be more majestic?

And don't think I forgot about you, natural caves - "picturesque" doesn't even cut it.

Here's my Sangria Sass with Rohan, Cayla, Summer, and Pat.

Sunbathing beauties, Kari, Paige, and Janie.

I'm pretty sure Thomas got mistaken for local the whole time we were there.

After our sailboat tour and docked atlantic-swimming, we went to a local beach. I got burned, burned bad, and that's all you need to know. That night, we bar-hopped and this place was my favorite, if only because of the ridiculous high-backed, one-armed chair that made the perfect background for my striped ensemble.

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Sunday, we hung out at our beach (which was 10 times prettier, anyway). You can't tell, but the next 2 pictures are taken from the shady spot I made by the cliff...by myself because no one else suffers from lack-of-reapplication-memory when it comes to sunscreen. My lobster shell was in no shape for Lagos sun round 2.

Atop this large rock, a mutant seagull had made its nest and its 2 nugget babies came out to say hello. We later saw the Papa (or is it Mama? I don't remember science classes anymore) gull come back and regurgitate its yummy seafood finds. Besides wanting to yak at the sight of yaking-with-a-purpose, it was kind of cool to see mother nature at work.

Unfortunately I've started smoking. JOKE, Mom, calm down. But I found this carton on the beach and thought it was interesting that other countries require large slogans on the front of their packages about how bad smoking is for you. Here, "fumar mata" means "smoking kills," and my friend Rohan said that in India, they have graphic images of people with lung/throat/mouth cancer on their packages. Too bad cigarette empires in the US would never do this sort of thing and perhaps save someone's life for once.