Friday, November 15, 2019

Celebrating My Princess's Birthday in Paris!

I love to give my children experiences as gifts and what better experience than exploring the City of Lights for your birthday.  Recently, we visited France to celebrate my oldest daughter's birthday and it turned out to be a wonderful celebration of a beautiful soul as well as an amazing trip for the family.






Celebrating Our Princess:


We celebrated our daughter with a delicious birthday lunch at La Terresse restaurant near the Eiffel Tower. We enjoyed shrimp ravioli, salads and sandwiches. The staff was so nice to surprise our daughter with a treat and serenade her with happy birthday. After lunch we did some sightseeing and walked down to the Eiffel Tower.











Sunday, October 27, 2019

Pena Palace - Sintra Portugal







In Sintra, located north west of Lisbon, you will find the awe-inspiring Pena Palace. The dazzling structure is perched high atop a mountain, as if it were being presented to the heavens above. The palace was once home to creative, artsy King Ferdinand II. His multi-colored, whimsical creation was influenced by Moorish styles and Romanticist architecture.  








We spent the morning at this real-life fairy tale palace, and of course it was a great deal! Not expensive at all. Don't you love an excursion that doesn't break the bank? I DO! Whenever we travel to new places, I like to find new experiences that are fun, educational, unique and inexpensive to explore as a family. The Pena Palace hit all four categories! Also, children ages 5-years-old and under are FREE, a huge deal for those of us with families. Go here to learn more about this deal.  

Prices for Pena Palace:


Park and palace adult 13,3 Euros
Park and palace youngster  (6-17) 11,88 Euros
Park and palace seniors (+65) 11,88 Euros
Park and palace child (<5) FREE
Pena park adult 7,13 Euros
Pena park youngster (6-17) 6,18  Euros
Pend park senior (+65) 6,18 Euros
Pena park child (<5) FREE 

Thursday, May 9, 2019

First Day in Lisbon, Portugal






First Meal:




After landing and dropping off our luggage at the apartment we were off to find lunch. We walked a short distance down the road to Avenida de Liberdade to find our first meal in Portugal. We chose a well-known seafood restaurant named Ribadouro, where you can pick your own live lobster right out of huge aquariums out front (see above).










We ordered a beef dish, garlic prawns and omelettes for our lunch and everything was a hit except the omelettes. Our girls were in the mood for breakfast foods, because their bodies were still on US time. The problem was, their taste buds were expecting a typical American style omelette, but the texture and taste of the eggs were not quite what the girls where accustomed to. This was a learning experience and a teaching moment for all involved. It was good for them to give it a try, but also to understand that things may taste very different than that we are use to at home. The kids are adventurous eaters, so they all did very good trying new things and finding foods they enjoyed during our time in Portugal.

Otherwise, the other two dishes were a big hit for the rest of us. We usually try a couple different dishes and share, but in this case honestly the prawns paired with rice and broccolini were the big crowd pleasers. The prawns were AMAZING, let me tell you! They were perfectly prepared in this robust  garlic and olive oil combination. You can't see from the pictures, but we would take the extra  and drizzle it over the rice then place the prawns on top. I couldn't see any seasoning on the prawn at all and it was baffling, so I have to guess that all the flavor came from how the prawns were cooked in the fresh garlic and flavorful olive oil. I didn't try the beef and vegetable dish, but my husband and son loved it.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Portugal Spring Break




What's good world! Life disappeared me from the blogophere last year due to a cross country move. Now I'm back! It's a brand new chapter in my life and I'm back on my bargainSwag thang; snagging great deals for my family around town, online and when it comes to travel.




One of my life goals is to give my kids the world via travel. So in pursuit of that dream the BargainSwag family traveled to Portugal and over the next couple of weeks we'll be posting about our experiences, deals and tips we used to make travel more affordable for our family.

Learning About Our Destination:





As soon as we decided on Portugal I picked up a book on Lisbon and one on Portugal to educate myself about our destination and plan as much of the trip as I could in advance. The books also came with maps, which came in handy during the trip as well.

Thursday, March 15, 2018

SLS Las Vegas



On this cold winter morning I woke up to school cancellations and a winter storm warning. As I snuggled back under the warm covers all I could think about was how much I wanted to have some fun in the sun. My mind went instantly to.....Vegas baby!