Ponte na boca do Rio Potengi

This is a photo I took in August, 2006 in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. I just found out the name of the bridge, Ponte de Todos - Newton Navarro. The party inaugurating its usage was 20 November, 2007. Traffic opened the next day.The bridge, which is pretty cool all lit up, connects the northern part of Natal to the southern part.
Ponte Newton Navarro is actually right at the mouth of the Potenji River as it flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Just east of the bridge stands the Fort of the Magi Kings. I was standing near its entrance when I took this photo. This is an area where the Dutch attacked and invaded Brazil around the beginning of the 1600s (they stayed for about 40 years). The Dutch incursion in northern Brazil is the reason why some Brazilians have reddish hair. It's also interesting to note that a lot of the Dutch invaders were descendants of Portuguese Sephardi Jews who had been kicked out of Portugal a hundred years earlier (1497 edict). It's fascinating how things cycle, no? I believe this is also part of the reason why there are Church members from the tribe of Judah in northern Brazil.

Fátima

Today (13 July) is Our Lady of Fátima Day, even though her first apparition was on 13 May, 1917. When my dad and I were in Portugal and Spain last year we went on a few mini-pilgrimages. One was sort of accidental in Fátima. My dad and I wanted to go to Fátima to see the cathedral. They happened to be having a ceremony that day for healing the sick, so they had brought the Fátima icon out.

There were lots of people there that day:

But this gathering of people is nothing compared to one on the 13th day of the month.

Chance in the Alfama

So my dad and I are wandering the Alfama in Lisbon on our second day in the city, right? What you need to understand about the Alfama is that it was built by the Moors who had invaded from Northern Africa. The Moors had developed an architectural style of winding, narrow streets with taller building walls creating the shade that protected them from the heat of the African sun. This type of protection wasn't necessary in Lisbon, but the Moors built what they were used to after they conquered the area.

Now that I've explained the Alfama and its winding, crazy streets, you'll understand why this photo is all the more amazing. Like I said, my dad and I were wandering around the Alfama, doing our best not to get lost. We exited one street and ended up on another. My dad looks over and sees a couple of guys in white shirts and jokingly says, "Hey, look: missionaries." He didn't think they were, but I could tell by their bag that they were. I thought, wouldn't it be funny if one of them were Chance (my cousin)? But I thought he was in the Algarve or something, so I didn't think anything of it until one of the elders turned his head and it was my cousin Chance. So I screamed out his first name--which he probably hadn't heard face-to-face in nearly 24 months.
Talk about a shock. It was seriously the coolest thing, though. Chance is a great guy and running into him was a blast. It actually happened twice that night. He was right at the end of his mission--about 2 weeks away from being done--and he totally contacted my dad right there, smoothly working in the idea of his going to church the next day. It was great.

The whole trip was like this, things serendipitously working out to perfection.
This is one of my favorite pictures because of what it stands for to me. I felt the whole two weeks that we were in Iberia that we were being watched over and protected. But even more than that, I felt like Someone was making sure that it'd be a wonderful trip. How cool is that, that He would care enough about our trip to Iberia that He'd make sure that it all ran even better than we planned. Seriously.

Jerónimos

Across the street from the Monument to the Discoveries you find, O Mosteiro dos Jerónimos:
*Picture take from atop the Monument to the Discoveries.
This monastery, AKA Hieronymites Monastery, is the epitome of the Manueline architectural style. It's in the part of Lisbon call Santa Maria de Belém. A good portion of the important personalities in Portuguese history are buried here: Camões, Vasco de Gama, Sebastião isn't buried here--which is the important part--but has an empty tomb marking his death (grand return in hazy morning fog).
This monastery is also important to me for another reason much more sporty and pop culture-y. This is where I saw footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. Well he looked more like this when I saw him. He walked in with an entourage of publicists, a cameraman ready to film and who knows who else. The first thing I thought? "Huh, that's Cristiano Ronaldo." Second thing? "Wow, he has really ugly hair." It was a sort of faux-hawk in the front, shaved on the side, and a mini mullet in the back. None of these pictures do justice to the length and haphazard nature of the mullet. But it was sure something.

Discoveries Monument

In Portuguese they call it the Padrão dos Descobrimentos, or the Monument to the Discoveries. It was build in Lisbon in 1960. Some of the better known people of the Age of Discoveries are Henry the Navigator (Henrique o Navegador), Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães), and Luís Vaz de Camões.
Portugal was the country of the discoveries--save for letting Columbus slip thru their fingers. But then they got greedy and it all got away from them.
Link to the key of who's who on the Monument.

Duck Cake

Betsy's 19th birthday had one of Gretchen's best cakes ever. Isn't it amazing?

We love Betsy!

Archway to Praça do Comércio

This archway opens the Pombaline Downtown and Augusta Street in Lisbon. I took this shot from the Praça do Comércio which looks out on the Tagus River.
When the Great Earthquake of 1755 hit Lisbon on November 1, it destroyed large portions of the city either directly from the earthquake or the fires and tsunamis afterward. The Tagus River actually totally receded and the Lisboetas were able to see the river bed, ships that had sunk, treasures and goods lost and whatever else the bottom of a river bed has. Then the waves came crashing in causing more destruction. Here's a satellite shot, the Praça do Comércio is at the point of the land mass on the left. If you look at this map, it's sort of shocking that the water receded because of how far inland the city is.

The archway was built as the Marquês de Pombal took over the city practically as a dictator in an effort to reign in on the post-earthquake problems.