Faro, Portugal

We flew into Faro, but did not spend as much time there as we did in Albufeira. There was a lot we could have done with more time in the city, but alas, we had just one day to explore. 

I did not see as much street art as I thought I would in either Albufeira or Faro, but I spied this mural near where we parked. 

The Faro harbor was a nice place for a stroll. There was a little market set up across the street with about ten vendors. We laughed about if we could hear the ocean if we put our ear to this giant shell (hint: we did not).

We walked by this statue of a woman with a shell head later in the day and it was almost fully submerged in the water due to high tide.

We had originally booked a dolphin watching tour out of Faro, but due to rough seas it was cancelled. (We also had a cancelled boat cave tour from Albufeira the day before for the same reason). We booked a bird watching tour in the natural park instead. We know almost nothing about birds and ended up on a tour with some bird enthusiasts. While we did not get as excited as they did about all the birds we saw, it was still a relaxing and peaceful tour on the solar boat through the channels of the park. In the picture below I am looking at flamingos in flight (that made me happy).

After our bird watching tour, Charles found a pizza place for lunch. We drank some Portuguese wine and ate an amazingly delicious pizza. It was probably one of the best pizzas I have had in a while.

We totally lost track of time during lunch and missed our walking tour that we booked through Airbnb. We felt HORRIBLE! We are not usually "those" people. But what can you do??? To walk off the bottle of wine we enjoyed at lunch (we're light weights), we walked around town on our own to enjoy the colorful buildings, tile work and views of the ocean.

The Holy City: Magnolia Plantation

Another attraction I have never visited while living in the Charleston area is one of the many plantations in the area. We found a Groupon for Magnolia Plantation and decided to check it out. I did not realize that several of the plantations were close to my in-law's house. Convenient!

When we first arrived, we encountered a peacock in the parking lot. They are such beautiful creatures! Later, while walking around the gardens, we came across his counterpart--a pea hen. We recently learned that is the name for a female. We have been watching 72 Cutest Animals on Netflix. Together they are called pea fowl.

The garden was lovely. They are lots of paths to walk down and wonderful views overlooking the water.

We saw sooooo many of these guys throughout the gardens. Must be a nice place to live!

These flowers reminded me of the flowers in Alice in Wonderland. One of my favorite movies!

We did not tour the house on this visit, but the lower level consists of the gift shop. It was a lot larger than I expected and filled with lots of neat items.

The bamboo garden. It was neat to walk among such large bamboo plants.

Cypress "knees"

Hummingbirds galore!

A few months ago we were picking up some bird food at Lowe's and saw all the hummingbird feeders. We thought we would take a chance, buy one, and see if we could attract a hummingbird or two.

Apparently the hummingbirds here are numerous and very hungry! We go through hummingbird food like crazy. When we purchased the feeder we also bought some nectar. But after seeing how fast they drink it up, I looked into making my own. It couldn't be any easier. Thank you Pinterest! All you do is heat up some water and sugar until the sugar is combined...one cup of water with 1/4 cup sugar.

A few times at the new house we have seen 6+ hummingbirds buzzing around the feeder at the same time. They are really fun to watch. Hummingbirds are very territorial and will fight in mid-air. We are always worried about being smacked in the face by one whenever we are outside.