Exploring Maceio

Maceio is in the state of Alagoas, and is about a 5 or 6 hour drive from Joao Pessoa. We probably might not have known about this beautiful beach town if not for our wonderful friends Andrea and Fred Pacheco. They have been some great neighbors and friends as we have adjusted to our neighborhood. Andrea grew up in Maceio and invited us to visit her hometown over a weekend during the school break. And we are so glad that we did. We didn't have a lot of extra days so we left after Jake's workon friday and enjoyed the beutiful drive all the way there. I have never seen so many rolling hills of sugar cane. We also saw many cattle ranches, and colorful little towns. The cliffs and palm trees made it even more beautiful. And our kids were angels on this drive. I'm not sure we have ever had such a peaceful, and enjoyable drive that lasted that long. My kids are amazing! We didn't make it into Maceio until it was getting dark so we ate some dinner and then got our wiggles out at the cool playground nearby. It had a cool "mountain" that you could rock clib up and slide down, swings, a giant skateboard, jungle gym, and lots of kids to play with. On Saturday we started our going directly to the beach. The water there was so clear and clean, much more so than Joao Pessoa (I think because we have a big river outlet near us and no coral reef). The water was also a bit colder. But we could walk out really far, becuase it stayed shallow for quite a ways. It was high tide, so the tide pools were all covered. We got some delicious acai and went back to Andrea's Family home for lunch. We ate, chatted and then relaxed and let the kids play for the afternoon. Later we went out to walk along the coast. It was now low tide, so we could see everyone walking out to the tidepools and how different it was from the morning. We could see the coral reef (it's very big there), wish we would have had time to go snorkeling there. I also got a local snack: acaraje. It was delicious, a deep fried bun made of black eyed peas, and then filled with yummy sauce and I had shrimp. I got it spicy and it was so yummy that I ate two. Jake and the kids went with mini churrasco (of the chicken bacon variety).

On Sunday morning we woke up to rain, but we went back to the beach walk. We enjoyed that they closed the main road...so the kids even layed down on it. Then I took Kai and Jane to the kids inflatable playground area while Jake and the boys explored the board walk we hadn't seen the night before. We ate at a really yummy self service restaurant and then we had to start our drive home. The kids were so tired that Jane and Kai fell asleep almost immediately and our older kids weren't in quite as good spirits as the drive out. But we did stop at the Coxina King on the way home, which most of us love, so that lifted our spirits (coxinas are deep fried dough with chicken, cheese, or both inside).

I know I didn't take too many pictures, but after visiting I would totally recommend a visit for a fun place to relax, snorkle, and swim. Such a fun place with crystal clear water. After we got back from Maceio we still had a few weeks to play before we headed to Ohio. We were a little under the weather, but we had to get some fresh air so we went to the beach here at least 2 or 3 times a week. One day we even discovered how many sand dollars were burried in the shallow water.

I also took the kids to our local aquarium and it was pretty neat. They had sea turtles, fish, eels, and more.

We also finally got a chance to go to the Recife temple. I went on Friday night and Jake went Saturday morning. Thanks to our lovely friends Kate and Sherman we had a beachfront apartment to stay in. It was lovely. And we even got to take the kids to the temple grounds to see it for themselves.

Jane also discovered that she could open bananas by herself...which meant banana free for all. I discovered this lovely surprise in the toy room.

Jane, Kai, Louis and I got to play at the park during Grant and Pace's tennis class. They are getting pretty good at tennis.

And one day Louis took a nap on his own. Pretty unheard of around here, but happy he got some extra rest.

And lastly (but not least) Pace turned 11! He requested we visit a fantasy themed restaurant together and it was a lot of fun. We especially loved the dragons and the Harry Potter themed room. They also had a room with ents from LOTRs, a viking room, and a castle/medival room (with a dragon and throne). We ate at the royal table in the medival room, right next to the dragon.