therealjrart

JR begun posting his art on Instagram earlier this year - you can find him here Some wanted to know where else his art can be found. We decided to provide another location. We've added a Blog page just for his art.  You can find that at therealjrart. We will be building that out in the coming days.

No Instagram Required! There is also no commenting allowed on the therealjrart blog unless you subscribe, so if you want to ask questions or comment, either subscribe or you can contact him directly on one of his other channels.

Enjoy!

2026-01 San Francisco Visa Submittal Part III

 

I (Stacey) have known Eva and her brother Evan since I was in the 6th grade. We went to the same church and the same private school. Her mother and my mother were Besties. Eva and her husband John live in Sacramento and offered for us to come stay with them for a few days while we were in town. As a matter of fact, they live in the same house I stayed in when I was going to high school for a few weeks. It was so nice going 'home' and also wonderful visiting with someone who remembers your parents and vice versa.

Friday started out with them picking us up at our hotel in Oakland and the four of us going to the Legion of Honor museum to enjoy the Manet & Morisot exhibit. It was so fun! The Docent who led our tour was knowledgeable and the curation was spot on.

I, Stacey, loved these two Morisot paintings. From the colors to the light and shadows, 

Fiona had mentioned we should go to Golden Gate Park and see the serpent named Naga, so we went on an adventure. After circling the block a few times, we finally found a parking lot and set out on foot. We found her without too much trouble.  She is MAGNIFICENT! A quote from San Francisco Parks & Recs doesn't begin to do her justice, "Towering 25 feet high and stretching over 100 feet long, Naga is a majestic metal serpent composed of five glowing segments installed at the base of the waterfall. Lit from within and occasionally exhaling gentle bubbles from its nose, Naga comes alive at night when its shimmering scales ripple with pulsing rainbow lights."

For scale (no pun intended):

She must be beautiful at night when she is all lit up. She also blows bubbles out her nose.

Full of art and inspiration, we started the car ride home. For reference, it can take between 2 and 4 hours to get from San Fran to Sacramento. We forgot that it was a 3 day weekend, and were stuck in an overabundance of traffic. Before we got too far, we stopped on the North side of the Golden Gate; always stunning. and the bridge looks good too ;)  We decided to stop midway home for dinner as it was starting to get late. In total, it took A LONG TIME to get home.  Kudos to John for doing all the driving.

Saturday was spent sitting around the house, drinking coffee & tea and sharing stories, laughter and intellectual conversation (more so for John and JR). Eva and I left the house briefly to go grocery shopping for dinner. We made Cherry Pork Loin, accented by cherry balsamic vinegar, brown rice, a salad composed for radishes, cucumbers, grape tomatoes and mozzarella cheese balls, served with the mozz marinade and the cherry balsamic vinegar. YUMMY. We supplemented with the sour dough bread from Aimee from the bar and topped it off with a cherry pie. The boys went to bed at a 'reasonable' hour and Eva and I stayed up talking for 'a while'.

While we had a REAL Rugby player at our disposal, we MADE John teach us about rugby; ok, maybe there was less 'made' and more 'OMG YES' involved ;) We spent a nice part of the afternoon viewing a rugby 15 match and getting the skinny on rules and strategy. I think I may have acquired a new sport...

Sunday dawned foggy and chilly - like it does this time of year. After a light repast, we headed out to downtown Sacramento. We stopped at the Capital and the fountain was running and provided a stunning backdrop for a picture. John and JR went back out to catch it lit at night.

We ventured further to the The Crocker Art Museum, where Eva has been a Docent for more than a few years and now is President of said Docents. Getting a private, guided tour from a Docent is a real treat. The Crocker has a superb art collection considering where it is located. Yes, it's in the Capital, but San Fran has a plethora of museums besides the Legion of Honor. 

They recently finished a renovation/addition and the building as well as the spaces are beautiful and really showcase the art. We asked John and Eva to show us their favorite items and they did not disappoint. We had some coffee and sourdough cookies (again, from Aimee the bartender) and renewed, set out to see more art.

One of Frida Khalo's 66 Self Portraits

We, too, have a Garza at the Denver Museum

It was so fun to see art in which you recognize the artists from your various forays into museums in the US and around the world. It's such a privilege.

We decided to get hamburgers for lunch so we did that on the way home and settled in to watch some American Football, namely the Bears.  Well, that was disappointing in the end, and a heart attack inducing game the entire time.

Life imitates Art

Sadly, on Monday, our time in Sacramento and with the Fabulous Lisles came to an end. With vows of doing this again soon, promises of visits in Portugal and a few leaking eyeballs, we took a very early trip to the airport and returned home. Some airport art to close out this fabulous trip.

2026-01 San Francisco Visa Submittal Part II

 

Now for the fun part of the trip. San Francisco is a great town and we both enjoy it here.  We are also taking time not only to see all the street art, enjoy the coast and eat all the good food, but to see friends.

First up, Fiona Ruddy. We've known Fiona for decades. She and JR worked together when we lived in Houston. Fiona is a mental health clinician with an emphasis on art therapy now and we couldn't be prouder of her. Here we are enjoying a wonderful dinner of pizza, beer and stories.

After this, we went to Clio's which is a bookstore and bar and continued our sharing. What a phenomenal evening.We stayed out well past our bedtime!  Thanks again to Fiona and Kevin for a wonderful evening. Can't wait until you come visit us in Portugal.

Here's some lovely public art and buildings we saw in the last two days:

And as you know, we're fans of the street art as well:

We also stopped by Candlestick Park - yes, we know it has a new name IDNC - and saw this statue of Willie Mays

 

We also found a great bar (the Candlestick Pub wasn't open) called Local Tap. The food was phenomenal, they had sports on the TVs and the owner and staff were incredibly delightful

Although they are predominantly a Niners bar, they purchased from Green Bay owners and pay homage to my Pack as well.  Enjoy rule #9.

We loved the food/staff so much, we went back after our appointment and ate there again.  This time, we also met  the bartender Aimee who makes sourdough.  DELISH. We immediately bought bread and cookies for our next adventure visiting our friends Eva and John Lisle.

2026-01 San Francisco Visa Submittal Part I

 

Whelp, we did it. We got to San Francisco and submitted our paperwork for the Visa we need to move to Portugal. The picture of us above is post submittal celebration. It warranted Glenfiddich 12 and Kona Big Wave.  We are so happy to have this part complete. Now the waiting begins. As most of you know, patience is a virtue, it's just not my virtue ;) They told us 6-8 weeks, but empirical evidence shows it's about 16 weeks.

Let's back up and talk about process.

Each country's process varies - see Jeri Sisco's posts regarding France. Portugal uses VFS Global as  a processing center, so you have to go the processing center for your state; Colorado is San Francisco. Portugal requirements for a 'retirement visa' - they call is a D7 Passive Income Visa - for 2026 for US Citizens is as follows:

• Passive Income of 920 Euro/month - this can be rental income, SSI or other ways of earning that are not job related.  That is a different Visa. If you are applying as a couple or with children, you also need 1/2 again as much monthly passive income for spouse and a little less for each child.
• You need a Portuguese Tax ID number called a NIF
• A Portuguese bank account
• A US Passport with 2 clean blank pages and more than 6 months before expiration
• Proof of Passive Income
• US Bank Balances for the last 3 months
• Portuguese Bank account showing the annual amount of each person applying in the account.  For us, that was 11,040 Euro per person; I applied on my own assets rather than as a dependent
• A 1 Year lease that has been registered with the Portugues Financial Office
• 1 Year of Travel Insurance that includes certain medical and repatriation requirements
• Sometimes they ask for 1 year health insurance in addition to the travel
• A copy of your travel plans to arrive in Portugal
• Apostilled copy of your Passport
• Copy of your Driver's License to prove residency
• FBI background check including a Hauge Apostille
• Personal Statement of why you want to go to Portugal
• SSI Benefit Letter
• First two pages of your most recent Tax Return
• If you want to see the checklist, look here - https://www.vfsglobal.com/one-pager/portugal/usa/english/

It's not dissimilar to a mortgage loan package.

Getting an appointment at VFS Global San Francisco - or any office - is an effort in patience (arrrgh). They only release them in chunks of dates. We think we know the schedule but just when you do, you don't. We started looking in September of 2025 and were fortunate enough to get on January 15, 2026 (first available).

Some paperwork need to be within 90 days of the appointment - most notably the FBI report/apostille - so you can't start too soon or too late. Case in point, they generally don't ask for an apostilled marriage certificate when you are applying together but showing your own income.  As most of you know we both are firm believers in belt and suspenders so we ordered the paperwork we needed including the marriage cert even tho we shouldn't need it. I had to get new ones from the State of Texas because the ones we had in the file were from 2021 and Portugal requires not only the apostille be within 90 days, but the document as well; Texas doesn't care if they are old as long as they have the raised seal and are still stapled. So, we received the marriage cert in about 2 weeks from Houston. We then turned around and requested they be apostilled by the State of Texas. They were received on October 21. This is important because to date - Jan 16, 2026 - we have yet to receive them.  This is why Stacey flew to Austin last week on a overnight trip to get $30 worth of apostilled marriage certs (2) which took 5 minutes but required an overnight stay.  Props to Angela Mercurio Standridge for picking me up and taking me back to the airport.

We are working with a relocation specialist that has a hybrid type package.  We did all the paperwork for our Visa and they helped us with the NIF, bank account, insurance, lease, etc.  Completely worth it.  It's called Portugal the Place and they have been great.

So basically, every day since September, we have been acquiring paperwork, monitoring progress and answering questions. Since there is a 7 hour time difference, they send emails/texts to us around 4am our time and when we get up, we answer them.  It's been wonderful and stressful all at the same time.

We are very happy to have submitted our paperwork. Now we can turn our attention to Portuguese language learning, packing things to go to storage and those items that will go in our checked luggage.  That's a process/story for another day.

New News! (IYKYk)

We were going to write about the Visa process, but, as Hamilton tells Burr, things are happening over there. We have a signed lease for an apartment in Portugal.  It's in the neighborhood we wanted, on one of the streets we wanted with an outstanding location/view.  Our apartment is on the 1st floor, the balcony with the brown french doors. Those who are eagle eyed will note we will live above a coffee/pastry shop. Pastel de Nata (the official custard tart of Portugal) for everyone - well, only if you visit! Yeah, I'm talking to you David M!

It's a one bedroom, one bath and appx 750sf. We are looking forward to living in a smaller space (really our square footage at the condo minus the 2nd BR/BA and laundry. It comes with a fully equipped kitchen, which in Europe means oven, hob (stove top), dishwasher and if they mention it, a washing machine. It also comes fully furnished including a bed, sofa, wardrobes/built ins, and dining room table and chairs. The view is of the absolutely gorgeous Chapel of Santa Catarina, also known as the Chapel of Souls. The Chapel is particularly noted for the over 15,000 blue (azulejo) tiles on its exterior walls that tell stories of Saint Catherine and Saint Francis of Assisi.

Here is a convenient map:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/ppCwiW6YkWtj5pmx5

It's about a 20 min walk to Old Town and the Duoro River (downhill). There's a funicular we can take part of the way back up. There are numerous grocery - both specialized and regular - as well as markets, gyms, pharmacies, and no shortage of restaurants and shopping. JR should be able to sit on the balcony and sketch to his heart's content, or go downstairs and sit at the coffee shop and draw from ground level.

Here's an overall view of the Dining/Living Room. The front door is to the right and the kitchen is behind. The bathroom is on the other side of the dresser (you can see a bathrobe hanging there) and the bedroom is just beyond that to the right of the living area.

Typical European Kitchen - Washer IN the kitchen; Fridge OUTSIDE the kitchen.

We will have just enough room for two small desks so we can continue our Portuguese lessons and perform all those other computer-related tasks. I suspect we will need to get ourselves some noise cancelling headphones.

We are quite excited to live in this new environment while simultaneously anxiety ridden 😉  OK, maybe that last part is just me.

We will write about the Visa process soon.

Boas Festas!

2025 Travel Stats

 You know I love some stats. Tripit - the program we use to store our itineraries and supporting documents - helpfully provides year end as well as all time stats.   Now if only the stats were interactive so one could click on the info and see a list.  Anyways, enjoy!

Welcome to Porto - Results Please!

 And the winner is:

CEDOFEITA/SANTA CATARINA Neighborhoods

They are a little trendy, bohemian neighborhoods known for their art galleries, independent shops, and diverse dining options. Both of these streets have pedestrian only areas and that is where we are aiming. They have residential over retail with mostly 3-4 story buildings. They are close to, well, everything. The Old Town on the Duoro River is a 20ish minute walk. Museums, activities, parks, and the beach are all within reach. The public transportation system is plentiful. Buses, trams, funicular and metro are all within a few minutes walk. Trains to access most of Portugal are available through one of two major stations: São Bento and Campahna.

The cons are: It's rainy season is a bit unicloudesque. It's pricier but not as pricey as Lisbon. It is somewhat touristy.

Here are some videos to show you the charm of these neighborhoods

Rua de Santa Caterina                               Rua de Cedofeita

Why we didn't choose:

BRAGA - We actually liked Braga quite a bit. If there comes a time where we are not as active as we are now, we would consider it. The lack of ability to walk out your door and go 'do' something is pretty limited.  It's lovely and we can take day trips there.

COIMBRA - JR described it best - the neighborhoods we would want to live in don't align with the services for which we are looking. There are very few flat areas and for the most part, the streets are pretty steep. The Old Town was lovely and again, we will probably visit there to hear some Fado and enjoy the touristy part of Coimbra.

SÃO MARTINHO DE PORTO - This lovely beach town would be great if you one was looking for a super quiet place that was mostly flat. In order to take part in most larger services - grocery, etc. - one would need to go to Caldas da Rainha (many do) or one of the other larger cities adjacent. Like the Portuguese, I would also vacation here for a few days.

CALDAS DA RAINHA - We had high hopes for this artsy town. Like Braga, it's just a little too small for us. It is lovely tho. Also, there was not a lot of apartment inventory and most don't have any type of heat exchange system other than open windows. It doesn't get as hot here, but since I'm allergic to the heat, we can't take a chance that it will be cool enough in addition to the size of the town.

For our VISA appointment, we must have a 1 year lease with a registered property/owner. That appointment is January 15th. Chances are our lease will probably start before we are able to go,but that's part of the process.

Next:  Obtaining a D7 (passive income) VISA and learning Portuguese