The Time has Come...

There's always new art in the Terminals

For inquiring minds, the Uber did come at 12:30pm and Kat and Cleo came over earlier and we visited and said our 'goodbye for now'. They ensured all our things made it into the Uber and then final hugs and tears (well not final tears) and we were on our way.  Our driver was fantastic and got us right in front of the outside check in for United.  Bags checked - check. 

At this time, there had been a government shutdown and tales of hours long security lines were being reported. Two days before, "extra personel" (trying not to get flagged here) had been sent to major airports. We had the usual angst turned up a notch so had gotten to the airport 4 hours before our flight.  We have Clear+ and TSAPre and boy were those handy. From what we could see, the wait for all the other lines was appx 15 minutes. We walked over to Clear+TSA Precheck - which is its own line separate from TSAPRE and CLEAR - and five minutes later were through and walking to Terminal A.

Since it was lunchtime, we sat and had a leisurely lunch, read our books and checked about 500 times to ensure we had our Passports with the Visas. Then it was time to board. we had chosen the last row near the galley as there were only 2 seats instead of 3 and we could sit together and not have to worry about other people in the row.  It was the right move.  The plane left on time and arrived at our first stop - FRANKFURT GERMANY. We read and did something we rarely do, sleep on the plane.  Made the time fly right by (see what I did there). 

None the worse for wear, we followed the signs - well, the few we could find. Frankfurt doesn't have the best signage sometimes. Border Control wasn't very busy and we passed through in about 15 minutes, without issue and received our stamps on the page adjacent to our fresh new Visas indicating our Visa time had been begun along with our 4 hour layover. Planes like to serve either egg and cheese or some other unsatisfying breakfast, so as soon as we could we hit the coffee & pastry near our gate. Freshly caffeinated JR decided to do some sketching.

 

We moseyed over to the gate and realized that while our boarding passes had seats on them, they didn't have a boarding group.  No problem. Waited for the gate attendant and asked for paper boarding passes and she happily printed them out.  She also offered to gate check our Rick Steve's bags, so that was super helpful...right up until JRs bag started to vibrate. I should have known - my waterpic buttons were prone to be triggered when the bag got jostled, so the bag would start buzzing. FINALLY, I opened the bag, pulled half my stuff out, found the waterpic and stuffed it in a shoe. 

The flight was quick - 2 hours - and we landed in Porto where it was 60 degrees and sunny.  The baggage claim wasn't too far and we waited with our newest, best friends to see who won the lottery.  Well, apparently, we did. All 4 blue bags, the pink and black roller bags and both Rick Steve's bags came off the belt pretty quickly. Dig the yellow Aussie bag tags provided by our friends over at Outback Solutions - our friends Eva and John Lisle; for all your web design and internet solution needs.

We took the elevator up and waited near where our driver - the Fabulous Flavio - at North Travel Solutions met us and gave us the royal treatment. He was joyful and welcoming and reasonably priced ;)   The street on which we live is pedestrian only, so parking on adjacent streets is..challenging. Not for Flavio - zipped right into a space at the corner and unloaded what we could all comfortably carry. He also called our Portugal the Place contact, Francisco, who also came to help. Flavio took two of the 45lb bags, Francisco took one and JR and I navigated with our backpacks and a blue bag between us. They then went back to get the rolling bags.

Flavio said his goodbyes and Francisco showed us how everything worked, handed us the keys, and all of a sudden, we were alone - in our apartment!

Immediately after this picture, we did a 360 around the apartment and high-fived each other - WE MADE IT.

Take the last train from Denver and we'll meet you at the station

A few days before we left for Portugal, our friends Scott & Alyssa Bryans gave us a very small gathering for our departure. The food was good, the wine(s) flowed freely - along with some tears - and the company was outstanding. Thanks again for that great send off.

In preparation for the flight, we packed and repacked the bags we took with us. Yes, we packed them back in January. No, we did not recall all the things in the bags.  Each bag has to meet both linear as well as weight restrictions. We chose to use the bags recommended by the group of like-minded travelers. We had also used an app called 'Smart Label' wherein you can list everything in every box/bag along with pictures and descriptions; it's free and the pay to play version allows downloading to spreadsheets - and you know how much Stacey LOOOOOOOOOVES a spreadsheet. We used it to pack the boxes of items we did not take to Portugal - too heavy gear/clothing, a few pieces of furniture, golf clubs, bikes etc. We also used it to list and document everything in the bags (just in case they were lost or ???). We took 2 large rolling suitcases, 4 blue bags, each of our Rick Steve's Convertible Carryon and a personal item each.  The rolling bags were free with our ticket and we paid $200/bag we checked and of course, carry ons were free. If you know us, we travel pretty light and this was way more than we are used to schlepping around. However, there were things we wanted from our Denver home, so...

This is what you can fit in one blue bag and have it weigh 45lbs.

We had decided pretty early on that if it didn't fit, it didn't go and we did stick to that. I will say the Rick Steve's bags did very heavy duty 🤣

Having packed what Kat and Cleo were not going to use out of the Condo and what we were taking, we had a pretty chill last couple of days in Denver.  Tuesday night before our trip on Wednesday, we had ticket to see Darcy Michael and Jeremy Baer and they did not disappoint. We laughed the entire 90 minute show, most of the intermission as well as the ride home.  They really are a treat.

The show was in Boulder, and was a reschedule from last year when they had to cancel their shows as Jeremy and Darcy's Mom both had cancer treatments. We talked about not going since our flight was the next day, but honestly, the Uber wasn't coming until 12:30pm and YOLO, right?!

We arrived safely back home by 10:30pm and promptly fell asleep.

 

Oh My Goodness - it's almost time to go!

 

Sorry we've been a bit silent. Multiple family emergencies - JR and I are fine - collided with preparation for our Portugal Visas.

Here's the timeline:

September 2025 - decided on Portugal and got an appointment with VFS San Francisco for January. We had heard that is was taking a long time to obtain them and we didn't want to dilly-dally.

November 2025 - Familiarization Trip - previously written about on the blog

January 15, 2026 - We had our VFS SF appointment for D7 visas; I did not apply as a dependent, I applied on my own. They took us together. They DID ask for our apostilled Marriage Certificate, which we had. It's not supposed to be a requirement, but we were adequately prepared. We were told 6-8 weeks. Empirical evidence suggested 117 calendar days, but we crossed our fingers.

March 12 - Contacted the consulate via email for an update. 

March 16 - They responded that our applications were approved on Friday, March 13 and were in the queue for visas and mailing.

March 20 - FedEx delivered my passport with approved visa and AIMA appt. FedEx tracking was the same number as given by VFS SF in January. When mine arrived, I looked on the FEDEX website to see when James Ronczy would come using the original number provided by VFS SF and it showed 'duplicate entry - select one' so I selected the most current date and it showed it was at FEDEX SF. My AIMA appt is Dec 3 in Vila Real at 9am.

March 21 - James Ronczy Visa arrived with AIMA appt of Dec 2 in Braga at 14:30.

Visas timeframe for entry begin on March 25 which is our original purchased ticket date provided at our VFS SF appt. We did get secondary passports, but now we won't need them which is OK.

We are absolutely stunned that it all worked out at lightning speed. We were prepared to not have the Visas until May/June. We had even obtained a second passport so we were going on March 25 regardless (more on that later).

Anywhore, we are repacking everything that we are taking to ensure fit/weight restrictions. We are not shipping anything (more on that later).

We'll try and catch up some blog stuff before we leave, but I suspect it will be once we get there on Thursday, March 26th.

Toodles!

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!