Weekly Update for January 19, 2025

Welcome to my weekly update for January 19, 2025!

My husband worked last weekend so we didn’t do any touristy stuff. I’ve gone back in time to October to share some pictures I took while I was on a blogging break.

We flew to São Miguel, the largest island in the Azores, for a week in early October for our 20th wedding anniversary. If you aren’t familiar with them, they’re a collection of nine volcanic islands that are part of Portugal but they’re kind of in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The weather was moody but the islands are temperate and they are absolutely gorgeous. São Miguel is known for beautiful flowers, especially hydrangeas, that bloom pretty much everywhere. I love hydrangeas but thought we would miss them and most other flowers by visiting in October. I was wrong! There were so many flowers blooming!

It wasn’t the most relaxing vacation since Hurricane Helene had just destroyed a lot of western North Carolina, where my home and heart are. Luckily, I was able to talk to my mom on the phone just before they lost electricity, landline, and cell phone service on the Friday of the storm so I knew they (my parents, two uncles, an aunt, my grandmother, and spouses) were all okay. But I had other concerns about drinking water and their access to the outside world. Luckily, my dad was able to do some off-roading and get out to a cell phone signal to let my sister and me know that they were all still good just as I was about to board the plane for the Azores on Sunday. That relieved a lot of anxiety but I have to admit that when we were in our hotel, I was obsessively checking my phone for updates and sharing any reliable information I could find on Facebook.

Anyway, here are some of our pictures from São Miguel! They really don’t do it justice.

Slideshow:

All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2025

1. Santa Idria viewpoint overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I believe those pink flowers are amaryllis lilies. We hired a local photographer to take some 20th anniversary portraits for us at this overlook and they are magical.
2. Lagoa das Sete Cidades–This lake is inside an old volcanic crater. When the weather is truly sunny, one half of the lake is bright blue and the other half is bright green. There’s a better viewpoint but fog completely obscured it when we went there. This was the best view we could get but it still took our breaths away.
3. Ground level at Lagoa das Sete Cidades.
4. This little chapel was in the small town of Sete Cidades.
5. Ribeira dos Caldeirões Natural Park. I think this is a man-made waterfall but it’s so gorgeous!
6. We enjoyed walking around the coastal streets in the small town of Vila Franca do Campo. This beautiful spot really caught our eye. In the distance is Ilheu de Vila Franca do Campo, an island formed from another dormant volcanic crater. One wall has collapsed a bit so there’s a lagoon inside where people like to go snorkeling.
7. Nossa Senhora da Paz. We probably could have spent a day just taking pictures from this chapel. It overlooked Vila Franca do Campo. We weren’t able to go inside but we definitely climbed those stairs to take in the view.

Posted:

March: Book Three by John Lewis with Andrew Aydin, illustrated by Nate Powell: Book Review–4.5 Stars

2024 Reading by the Numbers–A long post about the number of books, pages read, hours listened, and my favorite books from many genres in 2024

Run: Book One by John Lewis with Andrew Aydin, illustrated by L. Fury and Nate Powell: Book Review–4 Stars

Read:

What You Are Looking for is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts, illustrated by Rohan Eason–4.5 Stars (link to my GoodReads review)

Currently Reading:

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

Euphoria by Lily King, read by Simon Vance and Xe Sands

Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs, and the Curious Forces That Make Us Who We Are by Bill Sullivan

Noir (Noir Chronicles #1) by Christopher Moore, read by Johnny Heller (My husband and I listen to this together on road trips so it’s on hold until our next foray.)

Up Next:

I checked out another armful of picture books and graphic novels from the library so I’ll start working on those.

What did your week look like?

Hosts:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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