The direct flight from Boston to Ponta Delgada on the island of Sao Miguel was a bit under 5 hours; very reasonable time for a flight to Europe! It was the usual overnight flight that accompanies a Europe trip so we left at 9:15pm and arrived on the island around 6am. The flight would have been just a normal good flight with a few bumps here and there, but it became more interesting when my boyfriend and I started discussing the mile high club. Neither of us had every joined but it is always fun to joke about it! I had to pee so we decided that I would check out the lavatory situation and report back. It was actually quite large and would be decent, minus that fact that it was a bit dirty and gross. I reported my findings and then tried to fall asleep, as it was the middle of the night! About an hour later, just as i'm finally falling asleep, my boyfriend says, "I think we should try it." Ha, I said i'm so tired, go to sleep! He started to get a little nervous and kept looking back to see if anyone was standing by the bathrooms. Eventually, no one was there and he says, ok, meet me back there in two minutes! I was exhausted but a few minutes later, I said to myself what the heck, you only live once and I started to venture to the back of the plane. As I was walking back, he stepped out of the bathroom and when I arrived, I asked why he came out of the bathroom, as I was going to knock on the door, because it would make it harder now to be discrete! Well he kissed me and then turned us around and got down on one knee and proposed. I was surprised and said of course, yes! He then said he had a ring and pulled out a necklace he was wearing that he had attached the ring to. He took it off and put it on my finger! There were a few stewards and stewardesses around us who saw and heard the whole thing happen and all said Congratulations and brought us a bottle of champagne, a chocolate gateau and some grapes. We were so excited we couldn't sleep the rest of the flight!
That was only the middle of the night on our first day and with no sleep, we arrived in Ponta Delgada, go through passport control and got our rental car! I thought that we could try to check into our hotel, even though at this point it was 7am and not in a million years did we think they would have our room available, but as luck had it, they did and we were able to drop our stuff off, freshen up and walk around downtown for a bit to find some breakfast and espresso. The city of Ponta Delgada is beautiful, Portuguese inspired black and white stone walkways and streets, old churches, a marina and lots of cafes and places to explore.
After exploring for a couple of hours, we got on the road to try to visit Sete Citades and the viewpoint from Vista do Rei. We also explored a famous abandoned hotel along the way where the views would have been magnificent if it weren't completely socked in with fog! We drove along the curvy, twisty, race course roads in our tiny vehicle, which was fun and car sickening, stopped along the ocean and had lunch in Mosterios (on the western coast). We also tried to visit a viewpoint that I really wanted to hike to, but the fog made it not a viewpoint! Still fun though! After a long day of driving and exploring, we got back to our hotel and then walked around to find a spot to have a quick bite to eat for dinner. We found a great spot and had some wine and a cheese plate for dinner! The perfect end to a super long, but wonderful day!
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