It's the last night of our trip, and I am typing this at 1130PM on the balcony of our little apartment in Lisbon. The weather is perfect, it's quiet but the lights are twinkling and the sounds of the city sneak in every now and then. This is a magical city! It is so much like San Francisco. I really want to come back here. Sigh.

I am not going to do a travelogue starting in Ronda – too long and tedious and I will end up falling asleep. Since I last typed, we went to Ronda, explored the town a little, admired the ravine, drove to Sagres, had 2 windy days there where we played a little tennis and hit the beach briefly and saw the sunset, and then drove to Lisbon along the coast. Yesterday wasn't the best – Sintra was a bit of a disaster and we had a short and somewhat unsatisfying visit to Cascais (which seems very charming), but Lisbon has been great. We rented a tuktuk today to drive us on a tour, and then we walked around afterwards and did some shopping and touring. For me, Lisbon has been the highlight of the trip.

At dinner tonight and last night, we looked back on things we liked and remembered from the trip.

Dinners:

2 dinners at the Parador in Granada, including one at midnight; serve yourself tapas in Valencia; 2 amazing restaurants in Lisbon recommended by the former Ambassador; the TIME OUT MARKET IN LISBON!, weird tapas in Madrid (parmesan ice cream!), 2 local restaurants in Sagres.

Things we loved:

The Oceanografic in Valencia – a serious highlight for all of us!; the Alhambra; seeing Tia and Amaia; Ronda and the huge ravine; Lisbon and how great it is. 

Memorable people: our tuktuk driver today with the cool sunglasses; the funny tour guide at the Alhambra who learned English listening to The Who;  our kind and patient Uber driver who took us up the hill in Sintra; the nice guy at the hotel in Granada who brought N 2 chocolates when there weren't any in our room (but there were in the girls' room); kind Uber drivers in Lisbon who made it through narrow streets and turns.

Other memorable things:

• Daddy maneuvering the car into tiny spaces and narrow garages. No scrapes!
• N playing catch with Chicky – his favorite game
• N's constant baseball banter – stats, games, schedules, predictions, outcomes, questions, etc and on and on
• Girls and their video creations
• Brandy Melville and three people in the family at opposite ends of the spectrum in that store
• Desserts, gelato, fro yo
• Breakfast buffet at Parador in Granada and Rondo
• Gorgeous views up the coast of Portugal
• The fog in Sagres
• The windy but amazing sunset in Sagres

Ok, I am beat. We leave tomorrow and I am packed. Trying to get girls packed. N is finally asleep after a major burst of energy in the last 2 hours of the day. Nats game in 10 minutes. I've slept like crap the last two weeks – waking up to do the crossword and check Nats scores at all hours of the night. Only read 3 books – that kind of vacation. But we've had a great time. We're sort of ready to come home.

Will post pics this weekend. There are so many!