How Was Your Week(s)? Family Vacation at Alfagar

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that we’ve had a fantastic couple of weeks! The vacation I’d planned over the last year to bring the whole family together to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary and joint 70th birthday year at the Alfagar Resort in Portugal proved to be a great success. Phew!! The only downside for me was that it was too much of a palarva to access Praia de Santa Eulalia beach. Although the hotel had direct beach access via about 75 steps, I realised I had a greater chance of flying to the moon.

My stubborn optimism, as I continue to discover, often does not align with reality. I considered hitching a ride with an UBER but decided it was too much of a hassle, with beach chairs, sun parasols, etc. Not to worry, there were about six swimming pools at the resort, which we made good use of.

With our family living in three different countries, this was the first time we had managed to bring all the family together, so the six grandkids, whose ages range from four to fourteen, got to spend time together with their grandparents at the same time. I loved it. BUT I did become frustrated as it magnified my disability and lack of free movement, like playing in the pool or chasing them around the playparks, etc. But life is what it is, and we make the most of it, yes?

I confess that I did pig out on the delicious food at the buffet-style restaurant for breakfast and dinner and was often tempted to try more than one dessert and overindulged with cocktails and wine. But why not? I reasoned. Live in the moment.

One of the key takeaways from spending significant time with my tech-savvy family was gaining a deeper understanding of ChatGPT. Sophia, just 12 years old, quizzed us every morning. What does it stand for? After a few days, we finally shifted the brain cell up a gear, ‘generative pre-trained transformer’ GOT IT! Sigh! And putting my creative head on, I designed a couple of pictures. The featured image on this post is a selfie of me floating on a lilo, sipping on a cocktail. While it was fun, I still prefer the craft of painting and connecting with paint on canvas. Let’s just say it opened up an alternative source of creativity.

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When we left the resort, our French family stayed with us for a few extra days, and we went to our local beach to enjoy picnic lunches and watch as the grandchildren played in the waves. I also love to people-watch as they set up their beach camp and guess their different nationalities.

My thoughts turned to all the wonderful holidays we had enjoyed together on that beach. I used to love bodyboarding, digging holes, building sandcastles and lying in the sand. Treasured memories!

Me bodyboarding in Aug 2012!

My advice … make the most of your grandkids while you can. Time passes in the blink of an eye!

That’s my coffee share for this week, folks! Do pop over to Natalie’s blog where she shares lots of interesting pictures from Kew Gardens to enjoy more #weekendcoffeeshare