Back to Normal?

Fingers Crossed...It Won't be Long Now

One year ago this week, the world began to shutdown. However yesterday, I saw something in my email that made me smile! The email announced the rescheduling of Coachella and the opening of the Vintage Market in Palm Springs.

Return to Normal

While we no longer live in Rancho Mirage, we can fully appreciate this sign that someday soon things will return to normal. From afar, I must say I am impressed with the vaccine rollout in the states. Maybe it is because most of our friends are old…but it seems that they are all being vaccinated. (Note: I am not saying it is perfect. I am certain there are many instances where vaccines intended for brown and black Americans were instead placed in the arms of wealthier, white Americans that could afford to spend hours hitting refresh. And I’m certain the queue jumping scandals that appeared on the front page of Portuguese newspapers were available to well-connected Americans as well.)

However, it would seem American adults will be vaccinated by summer. If this is fast enough to ward off emerging variants, life outside our homes (albeit with masks) will return this year!

String Quartet

Also in my email this week was the photo above, advertising the first Candlelight musical event to take place in Cascais. Now I’ll grant you 4 people playing violins and cello are not exactly the same as 3 days and nights of ear-piercing music on multiple stages and headliners the likes of Lady Gaga and Beyonce…but I’ll take it!

From what I can understand this is a group of classical musicians that provide intimate candlelit concerts in unique locations (palaces, museums, etc) throughout Lisbon. The group is scheduled to play Vivaldi, The Four Season at the Lake House of the Onyria Quinta da Marinha Hotel, in Cascais on 17 April 2021. Let’s hope this is permitted as we bought two tickets last night.

Planning for Travel

We just hope that the vaccine rollout in Portugal, and around the world, is fast enough and vast enough to allow unfettered travel before the end of the year. We are looking forward to friends and family visiting us this fall. (Note: if you consider yourselves either friend or family, get your reservations in early. We only have 2 guest rooms!) And we long to begin our travels as well. This year we plan to begin our exploration of Portugal! Just imagine, we have been here over 2 months and still have not stepped foot in Lisbon. We have hopes of visiting Porto, Aveiro, and the Douro Valley in the summer … the Algarve in the fall…it won’t be long now.

Where are you planning to travel? Let us know below…