It is interesting telling people that Melody and I are headed to the Azores this summer. Most people either look at me quizzically and say “where?” or less often say some thing along the lines of “Wow, that’s a far from everything place.”

The Azores are a group of nine islands in the Mid-Atlantic. They lie approximately 2500 miles from Boston and 1000 miles from mainland Portugal. The Azores are part of Portugal and are considered the farthest flung outpost in Europe. We are headed for the largest of the islands, Sao Miguel where we’ve arranged to live in a farmhouse in the rural community of Lagoa for the next two months.

It is super exciting to be headed of to this really exotic and unknown to us place. It will be a real adventure! Our plan is to paraglide as much as possible while we are there. Sao Miguel, as with all the islands in the group, is volcanic and has a high mountain range running down the middle of it which affords some spectacular paragliding opportunities. The island also has high ridges along the coast that can make for some awesome ridge soaring. On an island small enough to drive around in a day, there are some 20+ paragliding sites!

In addition to all the flying, there should also be a fair amount of exploring and taking in the unusual to be done. The trails and hiking are supposed to be fantastic, the food, great and the wine better. The ocean is full of life. The Azores are said to be the single best place in the world to see Cetaceans. Most of all, I can’t wait to spend an evening in the orchard on our farm taking in the sunset, drinking port and eating chocolate.

This whole trip will be extra sweet in light of the fact that we are freshly coming off an adventure of another color. Yesterday, we completed a total remodel of our kitchen and dinning room! The results are really cool and we love it BUT it was not supposed to be finished two days before we are leaving on a two-month trip. Needless to say, things have been a bit hectic! But, tomorrow we are off first to Massachusetts to visit with Melody’s family and bare witness to the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup and then on to the Azores.

Let the adventure begin!