Sunday in Rio

After our disappointing trip up to the Corcovado yesterday, we abandoned our plans to visit the Pão de Açúcar today, and just spent the day wandering around Zona Sul and through the Hippie Fair. It was still great to be out of the equatorial heat and to have some nice fall weather while strolling around town.

 Kylie and I at the Hippie Fair

 Paintings around the fountain

 A much needed gelato break!

Chocolate-rum-orange needs to go into our recipe database!

 Another cloudy day on Impanema

 Still having fun!

 Distinctive Portuguese stonework

Potty...
lol

Night-time view over Copacabana

See you again soon!

Saturday in Rio

In order to maximize time between baby naps on this trip, we pre-planned and pre-purchased everything that we wanted to do including our visits to the big Christ statue and Sugarloaf mountain. Unfortunately, it is fall here, and it RAINED ALL WEEKEND!! Oh well, we made the best of it, and had a very relaxing vacation. Less beaches, swimming and touristing than planned, and much more relaxing, strolling, reading and gaming.

 Kylie's "picture face"...

...yeah, we're trying to stop this ASAP!

 Rio breakfast clockwise from top:  

strawberry, passion fruit and pineapple juices, a cheese pastel and a cafe-zinho!

 Autumn never gets her name right on the cup at Starbucks, but mine is accurate 99% of the time in every country! (Sometimes, I get and extra 'k' at the end, but that's understandable!)

#starbucksnames

 All aboard!

 Look! We're on a train!

 Fogged in at the top!

 Uh oh! Headless Cristo!

 Cheese!

 Beautiful views of Rio from the Corcovado!

 Picture-perfect day

 CHINESE FOOOOOD!

...and den....

 Family photo

 Overcast skies at Copacabana

 Empty beaches

 Run! Run! Run!

 A caipirinha and a kiwi juice

 Cheers!

 One more view of the stormy day

 Familia-zinha

Goodnight!

To Rio!

For Memorial Day weekend / my birthday, we finally flew down to Rio!! We stayed in Copacabana, ate at some really great restaurants, and had a wonderful time! Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our plans, but we improvised and decided that we would just HAVE to make a second trip later this year!

 Do you like Dora? - Kylie:  "I love it!"

(yes that is a folded up shopping back propping up the baby earphones!)

 Trying again with the cell phone cover!

Parenting success!

 A cloudy stroll down Impanema

"Late night" Starbucks!

(it's about 6:45pm)

Rio Getaway Part II

This morning we had a nice walk on the beach, then continued what became our trip's mission: locate Team USA World Cup Havaiana flip flops in sizes 8, 9 (x2) and 11.  It seems they only have this item in size 8.  And, boy do they have lots of those.  The rest of us will just have to order online I guess.  Anyway, after the flip flop debacle, we went onward to an adventure in Rio's Santa Tereza neighborhood in search of interesting things to see, and some fancy stairs.  We ended the day with an amazing Italian dinner on the covered patio of a great restaurant while it poured down rain.  Another fun day!

Another original Starbucks name to start the day.

Bom dia from Ipanema beach!

Ipenema's signature Portuguese tile pattern.

Colorful buildings in the Santa Tereza neighborhood.

After this, we began our search for the fanciest stairs in Brazil, the Escadaria Selarón.  We found out later that we approached it from the wrong side.  Clues were there, as passersby told us to take off our watches and put our phones away.  Then there was the tell tale warnings spray-painted in Portuguese ("Cuidado!  Area de assaultos!") with fun spray-painted English translations ("Watch out!  Area of steals!!").  Anyway, we almost turned back, but I just had a nagging feeling we were almost there...and I was right.  Note to self, next time approach from Lapa at the bottom.

Mosaic celebrating Brazil in 2010.

My friend and I in the only photo taken of us together on our whole trip.

The view down into Centro.

The house of the stairs!

Even a tile from the NW.  You can bring tiles for the artist to add from all over the world.  There were tiles dated all the way back to the 50s!  It was really a gorgeous and interesting place.

This shot was a miracle, as there were about 50 people clammering to have their picture taken right here, and there's not even an errant foot to be seen!

 This photo, though full of randos, does give a pretty good perspective on the scale of this pretty cool place.

 We attempted to watch the sunset from this cool vantage point in Ipanema, but we were rained out.  We had a really fun weekend in Rio, and I am looking forward to going back in a few weeks with Eric and Kylie!

Rio Getaway!

To celebrate my friend's birthday, we spent a long weekend in Rio de Janeiro!  It was my second trip, but my first as a tourist.  I visited before in December for my job, and I worked the whole time.  I saw the Christo from a taxi, and that was about it.  This time my friend and I set out to see things that we couldn't bring our kids to, since it was a rare trip without them.

Starting the day off right at Stabucks.  Olin?  That would be me.

Fresh produce in a street market.

This is the Metropolitan Cathedral downtown.  Very modern.

Stained glass inside.

The top.

Next we found this Presbyterian church, so we had a look there too. 

Beautiful and peaceful.

Following this we proceeded to get pretty lost.  Getting lost can be fun too, though.  :)

After getting our bearings and grabbing some lunch, we had a tour of the Municipal Theater.

Stained glass inside.

The ornate interior.

 Dinner brought us to Via Sete, where I had this burger with pesto, cherry tomatoes and burrata.  What a day!