Thats right, even the fat guys can do it

Last June while Pete & Bonnie were in town, Stacie & I headed over to celebrate our anniversary in London for the weekend. While there, we met up with our friends Bryan and Erica who convinced Tony to meet them in Lisbon at the end of September to run a half marathon. Having never run more than 7.5 miles, the idea seemed like a good one for two reasons, stay in shape over the summer & go see a new town while in the process.

So after a few months of getting ready to run 13.1 miles, the Q'z headed off to Lisbon on the last Friday in September. Unfortunately, Bryan & Erica didn't end up meeting us like they said, but we had a great time anyhow.

Upon arrival to the hotel, we enlisted our regular routine of heading to the grocery store down the road to stock up for the 4 day weekend. When done buying the fruit, Port & variety of treats, we took a few train connections down to the exposition center on the water front to pick up Tony's number & tracking chip.

Stacie was very excited to see all that the water front exposition center had to offer. Coming off the train we walked through a huge indoor mall that not only had almost any store one could ask for, but had a couple of HUGE grocery stores. Note: every time we see a huge grocery store, we get very excited as the stores in Holland pretty much suck (small, minimal variety, etc.) and are clearly the worst in Europe from our point of view. It would turn out that we would spend a lot of time in this area over the span of the 4 day weekend.

That evening we headed down the street to a white clothed local Portuguese restaurant. We ended up eating some great local cuisine at a fairly inexpensive price. In looking back, Lisbon has been the most affordable big city in Europe that we have visited so far (nice dinner for 4 with a couple bottles of wine ~60 euros, cups of coffee ~40 euro cents, etc.).

On our second day, we headed back down to the waterfront area to spend some time at the local aquarium. Before enjoying the aquarium, we stopped at a Brazilian bar-b-que restaurant which in itself was worth a trip to Lisbon. Great views of the ocean & endless cuts of great meat made for a fantastic meal. On our stroll back to the train from the aquarium, the kids played in the wave pool that lined the walking path.

Along comes Sunday morning, Tony has to get up early to head over to the race that starts out on the Vasco de Gama bridge. Leaving the hotel at around 7 am for a 10:30 start, it would be a few hours before the Q'z hooked back up again. The journey from the hotel took Tony back to the waterfront exposition area from where he caught a bus out to the center of the bridge. After standing in the cold wind for about an hour the race kicked off and 1 hour 58 minutes later Tony finished his run through the streets of Lisbon.

Once complete, Tony headed over to get the gift bags and most importantly, the popsicles that they were handing out. Even in the crowd of thousands, Tony spotted Stacie & the boys walking around thanks to the bright green Cal Poly shirt Stacie was proudly displaying. Immediately we ran off to McDonalds to get a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel yet again. The reason for bringing up McDonalds was that this was one of 4 meals at this establishment that the Q'z got to while on the trip. Sometimes going months without eating at the golden arches, we found ourselves stumbling upon this as our only option far too much (arrival to the hotel, mid day snack before the nap on the 2nd day, post run & dinner at the airport on the way out). Luckily, McDonalds in Portugal have the option of the local lager to accompany your meal deal.

Our last dinner in Portugal was at an old convent that had been converted into a beer hall (Cervejaria de Trindade). We had a great dinner and got a chance to take the train into a new part of town. Since the hills are so high, we ended up taking escalators up and out of the subway for at least 10 minutes.

Our last morning took us into the down town area of Baixa. The most memorable part of the downtown was the mosaic layout of the streets. Very pretty and at times somewhat psychedelic.

In general, the town reminded us of San Francisco. Lisbon has a very hilly layout, it is sitting right on the ocean with two bridges, one of which looks just like the Golden Gate. With all of the beautiful sites, good prices and welcoming locals, Lisbon and Portugal would definitely warrant a longer trip sometime in the future.