Guymons around the Globe

Montreux, Switzerland

2011-06-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Well the first two days were a little rainy in Montreux. We stayed at the Fairmont Palace right across from lake Geneva. Everyone said the view was amazing the day before, but it took a while for the clouds and fog to clear. We were pretty wasted the first day and got in too late to go on our Chillon Castle tour, so we went to Rouvenaz for dinner just up the street. I can't tell you how long I anticipated a European meal. Everything tastes better, especially the cheese and gelato. I really love how mealtimes are an event not just a chore. I had Gnochetti with artichokes, cheese and the famous dried swiss ham. Chris had a calzone, and everything was delicious. A big group of us went together. Part of what I love on the trips is meeting up with old Horace Mann friends that we usually only see on the trips. Chris' close friend Joel and his wife Kara are so much fun to hang out with. We have so much in common, and they are a blast to hang out with. I hate that they live all the way out in Wisconsin. Hanging out with Kara is like hanging out with one of my sisters, she just gets me and my oddities. We were all falling asleep at dinner so we turned in early and then I woke up at 2:00 then 3:00 then finally just got up at 4:00. The time change really sucks, and exchange rate really sucked it took $1.20 american dollars to equal a swiss franc but also everything was priced much higher there. For instance a personal size pizza was about 30-35 francs, so about $35-$41. But that's Europe, you can count on paying about double what you would in the U.S. for something. but it seemed that Switzerland in general was especially expensive. I can't tell you how many Ferrari's, Bentley's, and even Rolls-Royces we saw, It was like a Mercedes or BMW were economy cars. Whatever the Swiss are doing, the U.S. should follow suit.

Switzerland here we come!

2011-05-17T01:00:00.001-07:00

Well it is literally 2:00 a.m. and I have been browsing hotels in france for about the past 4 hours. But I can't help it, I am soooo excited to get off this continent! It almost feels like I've already left. I really have started to check out a little bit. We are going to be staying a week in Montreux, Switzerland with the company and then we're striking out on our own and heading down to Genoa to take a Western Mediteranean Cruise. We'll hit Naples, Palermo, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and then Marseilles. Then after docking we're gonna spend a couple days in Genoa, and then a couple days in Nice, with maybe a half day in Monaco. We also just got our package from the company with our itinerary and some fun spiffs from the company. That always helps to get your anticipation revving! Well Bon Soir, I think I had better hit the sack! And no I have not brushed up on my french at all, I had grand hopes of ressurecting some semblance of my memoires of the language, but alas, we'll have to maintain the french's opinion that we are ignorant uncultured dopes. I hate to dissapoint after all, and I don't think that even Rosetta Stone could save me now.

Punta Mita, Mexico

2010-04-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately our trip coincided with spring break, so many areas were ridiculous. When we arrived there were a million people all trying to get through customs and there was no organization to anything, we were just herded into a giant room. I guess there was a mix-up due to the time change that occured during the night, so Mexico wasn't expecting some flights so early. Or so they said.

After two hours standing around we finally made it on our way. I was very impressed with our tour company who had buses with flowers and cool scented towels to cool ourselves off and freshen up a bit. I thought that was such a nice touch. The bus ride to Punta Mita was a little long (probably about 45 minutes), but after we arrived I would not have wanted to be anywhere else in the world. They had more fresh towels and juice in the lobby and even little gift packages for the kids with toy dolls and treats. Beyond the welcome, the resort was absoloutely breathtaking. Four Seasons owns about 18 miles (if my memory serves) of coastline on the peninsula of the Bay of Banderas near Puerto Vallarta. The grounds are pristine to say the least. They have falcons to keep the seagulls away, and iguanas to keep the bugs down. Every room has some kind of amazing view, and the resort is made of of many different smaller buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens and sculptures. There are golf carts buzzing around to take you anywhere you want to go, so you don't even have to walk if you don't want to. It is the definition of paradise. I have never in my life, been to a resort so incredible. Our room was huge and it had a huge patio with two lounge chairs and a table and chairs which was tucked behind tropical foliage that screened us from the 90 degree lazy river that surrounded our building (the oasis bldg.). The devil is in the details and they mastered every detail. There was probably over a hundred dollars worth of L'Occitane (french) soaps, lotions, bath fizzies, and after sun ointment in the bathroom. I heard they even stocked rooms for the children with tiny bathrobes and slippers. Seriously amazing! Unlike many high end resorts who discourage children, they totally embrace them! They had a kids for all seasons club, with activities going all day, the restaurants had special buffets designed just for kids and little boat seating areas. Our kids would have loved it. The pools were so warm and beautiful. They just melted into the ocean.

The only bad thing I could say about it was that the food was VERY expensive, but I guess considering the surroundings it was to be expected. The breakfast buffet was seriously $50 a person. Chris and I shared a salad with grilled fish for lunch with two diet cokes and that was also $50.

After a quick dip in the lazy river we got ready for the welcome reception down by the pool. And like everything else it was just gorgeous. There's an area they have set up between the beaches on the penninsula overlooking the ocean that is just breathtaking. They had a Mariachi band, japanese lanterns strung around and torches. And the food was unbelievable, seriously all you could eat grilled lobster tail, and desserts to die for. What a way to set the tone for Mexico! The staff even provided shawls during dinner for the evening breeze! We got to sit with the CEO and his wife for dinner, so it was fun to get to know them a little better. Then after dinner we got in our bathing suits to hit the hot tub. We went to the main pool by the beach and talked to a few of the other agents and their wives, but we didn't want to stay out too late since we had an early tour in the morning.

The second day we went to swim with the dolphins. I was totally unsure of what to expect, and thought I would be a little nervous swimming around such powerful creatures (especially after the killer whale incident at Seaworld). But I didn't get scared a bit, the dolphins are so gentle and obedient. The trainer even said that they stopped doing one trick with the dolphins and participants because it required a lot of strength for a person to accomplish it and if they couldn't do it the dolphins felt so badly for they person that it made them feel like they had failed. I thought that just really showed what sensitive animals they are. They felt so rubbery I was surprised, I just expected them to feel slimy like a fish, but they don't at all. We got to pet them, ride on their back, on their tummy, and then two of them would come up and give you a "kiss" on each cheek. It was really such an awesome experience, and easy to see how people can come to love those animals so much. We got some guacamole, salsa, and chips there that were to die for. I usually hate fresh salsa, but it was sooo good. It had alot of lime and cucumber in it, where usually fresh salsa is way to oniony for me.

We went back to the resort and decided to hang out at the beach and soak in some sun. The first day was kinda cloudy, so It was great to have a nice sunny day. We found some lounge chairs on the upper beach and considered going on one of the resorts complimentary sailing lessons, but our fish salad we had just ordered was taking too long, so we ended up staying. I was so glad that we didn't go. Because we could see the group that was leaving on boats and all of the sudden we heard screaming. Not oh crap screaming, but

blood curdling screams of terror. One boat was

trying to tow another off the beach and a big wave came up and capsized it about 20-30 ft. from shore. It had about 20 people in it 4 of which were children, and no-one was wearing life jackets. We were close by so Chris went running to go help (since he was a lifeguard and competitive swimmer). He actually ended up saving a young girl whose mother could not keep her daughter and herself afloat to save her daughter. I'm getting all emotional remembering it all. It was sooo scary. I was just standing on the beach watching as they got everyone up on the beach just praying that they managed to get everyone out from under the boat. One little boy was just in total shock. They helped him up on the beach and he walked for a few feet and then just collapsed on the beach sobbing. Oh my gosh it was so hard to watch. Just thinking about how I would feel as a mother. And to think that we were so close to actually having been on the boat. I was so proud of Chris for helping that little girl. It was really cute afterward they had a chance to get everyone calmed down the little girl and her mother came over to thank Chris, It just made me so proud of him. I mean there were tons of people there to help, and someone would have gotten her if Chris didn't but It was so cool to know he was there to help her when she needed it. Definitely will be a memory I will never forget. I can still remember those screams, that kind of terror just gets seared into your brain for good.

Another highlight of the trip was doing the zip lines through the jungle. It was such a blast. The guides were so helpful and professional, you didn't feel scared at all. Although they thought it was hilarious to dunk the girls in the river on rapelling descents. It is definitely a view of the jungle that can be achieved in no other way. We actually rode mules up to the top of the mountain, and then took the zip lines down. It was way fun.

After the company part of the trip, we decided to rent out a few rooms in a bed and breakfast in Boca de Tomatlan. It was farther from the touristy area of Puerto Vallarta, a much more authentic experience. Although "authentic" also means less shielded from the realities of life for many families in Mexico. Not far from our B&B there were trails leading into the jungle where families lived in home with bare dirt floors, with no indoor plumbing. Our hostess was so great, she has done so much to improve the lives of those in this little village, and offered excellent advice on the best places to eat, snorkel, and hike. The Casa La Ventana was perfect for us. It had two rooms with an adjoining kitchen and covered patio, that canbe combined into one space. We got to cook up some delicious breakfast burritos and take the very "authentic" bus into town. It could not have been a more dramatic change from the Punta Mita resort. About all the bus was lacking was live poultry to give the hollywood effect of such public transportation in south america. A far cry from the uniformed golf cart chauffers we had gotten accustomed to. The city was something we didn't want to miss, although I definitely preferred the outskirts. It was more crowded and dirty, but we did pick up some really great pewter pieces, and souveniers. There was some type of festival going on that night so we were able to see some neat costumes and bands.

The next day was heaven, Evette and I scheduled 1 hour full body masages. Our hostess set up the appointment with a wonderful masseuse from Holland. It was so relaxing, she set up the table on the outdoor patio. The beautiful view of the jungle and bay, with a warm breeze was the perfect setting for relaxation. The boys took a hike to a secret beach that was just amazing. We only saw pictures, but it seemed like something out of a fairytale. They said there was literally litte golden flecks in the sand that made the beach just sparkle, and they had the entire area to themselves to snorkel.

The next day we had arranged to have one of the tour guides who assisted us in Punta Mita take us to a little village in the mountains called San Sebastian. We toured the city parks, cathedral and the city jail and then went to a wonderful little restaurant for lunch. Very authentic mexican food that was wonderful. Homemade tortillas, who knew refried beans could be so good.

Dove Mountain: Tucson

2010-03-23T10:07:00.001-07:00

I know that I whined intensely over this part of the trip, but It did have plenty of highlights and I left with an new love of the desert! Who knew it could actually be very beautiful. I was a little bummed when I found out that this years leadership trip was actually supposed to be in Rio de Janeiro, before the disastrous market. But I can certainly see the wisdom of scaling back this year during such tumultous and uncertain times, as when they were announcing the trip over a year and a half ago. With all of the irresponsible actions of corporations, ridiculous bonuses, and corporate bailouts. We did not want to be under ridicule although the company DID NOT recieve a dime of bailout money. It does make me grateful that Chris works for such a financially conservative company even though underwriting can be exasperating at times.

Anyways moving right along, we took an arduous 2 hour bus ride to get to Dove Mountain I guess it is a popular PGA resort, but as we are not golfers we did not set foot on the course. The room was beautiful and the property was in such a beautiful area. Almost completely cocooned in a round little valley surrounded by hills covered in Suguaro cactus (the huge cylindrical type) and red rocks. Although I had never stayed in a Ritz Carlton some agents were a bit surprised that it wasn't fancier, but I thought it was very well done in a rustic sort of way. Their service, restaurants and pool were amazing! The had the infinity type pool and big huge fire bowls for the evenings. The shower had double shower heads and a huge deep tub with a flatscreen in the bathroom. The bed was so comfortable, I didn't even miss my bed at home (definitely a first for a hotel room). It had four huge down pillows, a down comforter and a down mattress topper, It felt like sleeping on a cloud!

It was freezing cold the first day and a half we were there. I was dying at the welcome reception, it was sooo cold. They had a poolside southwestern BBQ buffet. The food was to die for, but if you weren't sitting by a fire or a propane heater, it was freezing. Nevertheless, they had a great live band, and it was fun to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The next day was the business session so even though it was cold I guess it was good to get that part over with on a day you would rather not be outside anyways. Chris went to that, while I hung out in the hotel room reading a book. Then the formal night was the same evening, which was indoors thankfully. It's always fun to have an excuse to dress up in fancy clothes for a night. Motherhood is less than glamourous, and it helps you feel pretty again. The theme of the night was kind of hollywood, so we came in on a red carpet complete with Paparazzi (event staff with camera's) and formal portraits. Then we all went in for the awards ceremony. Chris didn't get an award this year, due to a high loss ratio. It's aways frustrating to see him go unrecognized for situations out of his control, esecially when agents writing half the business he had written got awards. Although it was kind of fun anyways, because the company had just announced that Chris was agent of the month (nationwide) for the month of February so he still got some recognition for his hard work. Dinner was fantastic: filet mignon with halibut, salad, and a fabulous warm chocolate cake, and salted gelato with a swirled toffee crisp on top, followed up by chocolate truffles and petit fours. It's amazing after all the food we ate I only gained a pound and a half, the whole trip. We always get our fill of diet soda on these trips while the alcohol is free flowing, so at least we save on calories there! It was so fun to catch up with people that we haven't seen since the previous year though and we stayed up till the wee hours of the morning talking.

The next day we went on a 4x4 desert jeep tour. Which was actually really great. Our driver George, was a true cowboy. It was pretty funny to see all the drivers with cowboy hats, wranglers, cowboy boots, holsters (with guns, or knives), and the whole 9. We learned a ton about the catus plants, and wildlife and got a lot of pictures of desert plants. One of the guides even gave us a cactus "skeleton" of the Cholla plant (found on private land, wo we couldn't get fined). So we brought it home for the boys who love that kind of stuff. The rest of the day it had finally warmed up, so we headed over to the pool to soak in the sun. I started reading "Wicked" which was pretty lame, the book is sooo vulgar, and slow moving with a horrible plot, I would never recommend it. Although I hear the play is wonderful. Chris had fun with the boys on the water slide, and we had a delicious lunch at the Turquesa pool restaurant, drunken chicken enchiladas.

The only down side of the whole things was the fact that we were so isolated. We couldn't really go anywhere since it was still about 45 miles from Tucson and when we tried to get a rental car it was $200 just for Enterprise to deliver the car to the hotel, so we opted to stay put, and save our money for Mexico. They ran a bus into Tuscon for dinner so we went to the Firebirds restaurant and to Frost for gelato afterwards. The shops at La Encantada mall were awesome, but 95% of them were closed by the time we finished dinner, so we just window shopped for a bit.

The next day was P1 circuit racing. It was pretty much glorified go-karts, but I guess it is the only one like it right now in the U.S. They were alot of fun, but the event staff forgot to mention that we all needed to wear long sleeved shirts and pants, so we all had to rotate using the tracks limited racing suits, which made a 2 hour activity more like 4 hours. I didn't break any records, but it still was pretty fun, you can go sooo fast around the corners it was crazy. Our friend Steve and his son go a bit too close and he rolled his cart, tearing his racing suit to shreds. but fortunately he only got minor road rash.

We headed back over to the pool afterwards and had some really yummy sandwiches and Yucca fries (real cactus roots fried like french fries). Then we got all dressed up for the Hoffman ranch. The company bought us all cowboy hats and bandanas. So believe it or not I actually wore western attire, and didn't melt into a puddle of shame and embarrasment. Although it will be the first and last time for such an event to occur! Hoffman ranch was amazing! It was an incredible Southwestern style catttle ranch that was on the market at the time for a cool $40 million. The property was amazing if you're into that type of motif. They had about 6 HUGE BBQ grills that grilled up steaks and ribs that would've impressed the flintstones. The amount of meat was just ridiculous. They had a western band and plenty of line dancing, which I managed to refrain from participating in. I do have some semblance of self-respect to maintain. (I don't mean to offend anyone with my aversion to all things western, I just have terrible, stressful memories of losing our farm as a child, and even worse memories of cruel, foul, prejudice, and proud to be ignorant "cowboys" in the small town I went to high school in. (So needless to say western anything makes my skin crawl.) But we did have fun just watching a big screen they set up of pictures the photographer had taken over the last couple of days. a truly awesome way to top off the Tucson trip!

Then we had to board the bus again at 5:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Puerto Vallarta. The hotel was so awesome though, they actually packed us a a breakfast to go in little coolers we got to keep. Talk about awesome service!

Then bright and early the next morning (5:30 a.m.) We were on the bus heading back to Phoenix to catch our flight to MEXICO!

Coming Soon

2010-01-05T14:05:00.000-08:00

Well I've been purposefully not writing about our upcoming trip because to be honest I'm facing my demons on this one. The southwest to be honest is not one of my favorite places to be, or think about. Cowboys and Indians is not my cup of tea. After trips like China, Italy, Greece, New Zealand, Bora Bora, Who on earth came up with Tuscon? Yes I said Tuscon. Supposedly they are spending more on this trip than last years, but seriously I'm not gettin it. It's supposed to be a great resort if you're golfers, but we are not. So I guess I'll try to give Tuscon a chance, they better have a great pool. Hopefuly they have good Mexican food. Fortunately the President's conference is in Punta Mita Mexico, so at least we're getting out of the country, and I've never been anywhere nice in Mexico. I'm just not even counting Tijiuana, . But it is very near Puerta Vallarta, so I am excited about that one.

What I am ecstatic about however, is that they just announced the 2011 trip! Watching the video about it almost had me in tears literally. I am that excited. The leadership conference is in Montreaux Switzerland, and the Presidents is by Lake Como in Italy! I now have an excuse to really work on my French, and get back to Italy! We didn't have time to get to Milan last time, and I really wanted to go. Lake Como isn't far from there so we will finally get the chance. Then before Switzerland, I have been dying to get back to Paris, and Chris has never been so we may stop there or Munich in Germany. Chris has already kicked off the year to a great start, so it should be pretty easy for him to make both trips next year! So wish us luck, I'll really cry if he doesn't make it!

Red Rock Fun!

2009-05-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Well Chris was turning 30, and we thought it would be fun to get out and do some camping. We wanted to go last summer, but with all the construction issues, it just didn't work out. So we wanted to jump right on it this spring. It was kind of a last minute thing, but they usually are with us! We met Chris in Salt Lake after his appointments and headed down as far as Price. We stayed at a hotel there so we could get a camping spot first thing in the morning in Moab. Then kids could swim and get to bed at a decent hour and then Moab was only another 2 hours away. It rained all night in Price, but it was supposed to be good in Moab. About 15 miles from Moab it cleared up and was beautiful. As soon as we arrived we went in to Arches and the campground there was full. We thought we would go over to Pasta Jay's for Chris' B-Day lunch (we were going to go for dinner but figured the kids would be pretty messy after playing around outside all day, so we would go while they were still clean.) Almost right after we got into the restraunt a huge storm blew in. The trees were practically blowing sideways, and the rain was coming down so hard it was making a river of the streets. We panicked and called around for hotels. Camping in the mud is no fun as an adult, but with kids it would have been ridiculous. Holiday Inn only had one room open with a king bed and La Quinta had three double queen rooms so we took one there. After finishing lunch we went across the street to the vistors center and by then the rain had stopped. We decided to head over to Arches and do some hiking.

We went around balanced rock. The kids thought that was way cool, and found a tree to perch in for a picture.

Then we headed over to the double windows section and hiked up to those, and then went over to the double arch.

Chris and Cole got ahead of us as Cai and I looked at the Microbiotic soil signs and tried to spot it on the trail. Cai is so into science, we talked about erosion and how the arches and mountains were formed, and how the puddles of water help the wildlife in the desert. Cole had climbed to the top of the double arch by the time we got there and Cai had to get up there too. It was pretty steep but they had the help of Daddy.

Then we went in search of a good camping spot to start a fire. A guy at the hotel said that there were always camping spots up HWY 128 along the Colorado River so we went in search of something. It was about 5:30 by now so we were not too surprised that things had filled up. We did find a little day use beach with sand and bathrooms and everything and the sign said they allowed fires so we set up camp there. We had pretty much swaped lunch for dinner so we just had chips and sandwiches for dinner and cooked Smores. We forgot lighter fluid for our charcoal briquettes but Chris built a great log cabin fire that got the charcoal started beautifully. We had dutch oven Chocolate Cherry Cobbler for dessert and Chris' mock B-Day cake (he is not too fond of cake). The kids were in heaven. There was tons of sand, water and a fire. What more could a kid want. They scouted around a bit and played in the sand and water. Everything worked out perfectly. We got everything packed up took the kids and changed them out of their sandy clothes right into P.J.'s and went back to the hotel. The room was awesome. They had just barely remodeled so everything was brand new with a fridge microwave and a little couch. Much more comfy than a tent I must say, a little less adventurous but hey there's plenty of time for roughing it when the kids are a bit older. We slept great and woke up to a light drizzle (so relieved I wasn't cooking breakfast in that). The hotel had a great continental breakfast with waffles, muffins, donuts, cereal, eggs, and biscuits with gravy. We arranged for a hummer tour with the Moab Touring Company at 10:30 so we checked out around 10:00 and went to a park for a bit to let the kids burn off some energy.

We had planned to have just Chris and the boys go on the Hummer ride, but Cate was not about to be left behind. She was adamant that she wouldn't be afraid and wanted to go. So her and I went too. The boys took the back seat while Cate and I took the middle. Cate was just giddy the whole time. She was fearless. She kept holding her hands up yelling whee! Then she kept turning around to ask "are you boys having fun?" She totally charmed our driver, I think he was about ready to adopt her by the end. How can girls be so ridiculously impossible to their parents, and so charming to everyone else?

We started out on the "Intimidator" a fin right at the entrance to Hells Revenge trails. I guess a fin means a huge rock sticking up that you drive over. It's just about a car's width with cliffs on BOTH sides. You can see how narrow the road is in front of the jeep, but the picture doesn't remotely do it justice! Your up a good hundred feet or more along the top. So yes it is a bit intimidating. Our driver showed the kids some of the Utahraptor tracks at the top and they got to see just how many of their steps it took to a Raptors step (8:1) Then he took us up what he calls the Hummer coaster which is just over some big petrified dunes that are pretty steep. It was really fun. He would start talking about something behind us halfway up and then put it in neutral while we rolled backward really fast. The kids were screaming and laughing it was pretty funny. We went down some really steep rocks and he would get the Hummer rocking a little. Those machines are seriously amazing It is just unreal the steep rocks they can climb and go down and remain perfectly stable. The guide was saying that a Hummer is more stable because of it's width and the shape of its axles, where a jeep would have flipped doing a few things we did. He also showed us a spot that has a great optical illusion in a photo. He had the kids lay down on a rock and hold on with one hand holding their feet up, and the way it looks is like they are hanging over a cliff. The rockface slopes off into a steep canyon about 50 feet from the rock the kids are laying on, but in the picture you can't see the rock face at all only the rock they are holding onto and the canyon below. It is a little freaky to see the photos.

We would highy recommend taking that tour, it was just awesome. I tend to be a safety freak and not exactly the thrill seeker type, but this was definitely a thrill, and the driver was totally in control so I didn't freak at all. We didn't want to get home too late so we headed out after the tour, we stopped in Price to visit the Dinosaur Museum there, which was really fun. It was big but not too big and very inexpensive. They even had a little area for the kids to really dig in and participate in the exhibits. We were the only ones there for about an

hour. I wouldn't recommend making a special trip just to see it. The Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum just blows it away obviously, but it was great for a pitstop to break up the long drive home. Cate took a good nap as you can see. She inherited her mother's habit of sleeping with her eyes half open. Chris claims I do it way worse and it's pretty creepy, but I guess I'll never know.

We stopped in American Fork and met My sister Kerrie and her family for dinner, and then headed home. It was such a fun weekend with the kids they have really gotten the short end of the stick with all our travels the past two years, so we're trying to make up for it a bit now. They have been dying to go to Disneyland so we'll probably do that this August or November depending on when their uncle gets deployed to Aphganistan. So until then, I don't think I'll be posting for a bit!

Our adventures in the land UNDER the "Down Under."

2009-03-30T14:47:00.000-07:00

Which is pretty far under if you ask me. In fact we lost an entire day getting there. It took 18 hours in the air not counting layovers. We left San Francisco Sunday night, and arrived in New Zealand on Tuesday. Because technically right now it is tomorrow there already, and not only is it tomorrow there right now but it is also autumn and all the leaves are changing. So in one month we have experienced Winter, Spring, and Fall.

I have to say I was a little dissappointed about the fall thing, I love fall. But I really wanted to get out of the cold, and the week before we left it was warmer in Utah When we checked the forecast it said it would be in the high 50's to low 60's with rain on a few days. But when we got there it is just soooo sunny. The way it faces the sun or their lack of ozone really made everything so bright and warm. If you have ever paid any attention to the bright beautiful sunlight just before sundown, where everything just glows, that is what New Zealand sun is like all day long. I think that Chris got a little tired of me ranting and raving about it, but for photographs it is amazing!

I wasn't too sure about what to expect when we got to Queenstown. It is on the south island, and flying in to it was just like we were flying into park city. Except for the fact that the mountains are taller, more jagged, and there is a beautiful, huge, crystal clear, blue lake ( Lake Wakatipu) that the city hugs up against. The trees are quite a bit taller too, they had my favorite evergreen variety in their botanical garden the Monkey Puzzle tree, it is really cool looking. When we landed they bussed us over to a little dock and we took a jet boat to our hotel. It was so cool. The jet boat sucks water up under a grill in the bottom and spits it out above the water line in the rear which they use to steer the boat. It can go on just a few inches of water and it makes crazy tight turns. The maneuverability is just insane. The driver whipped us around in circles, barely missed huge rocks and sand bars, and could go through tight rivers right inbeween rock cliffs, it was tons of fun, and really kicked things off. Queenstown is known as the extreme sports capital of the world. So our activities included things like bungy jumping, river rafting, helicopter rides, 4x4 jeep rides, Atv's, luge carts, and even skydiving if you wanted to (which I didn't, and wouldn't let Chris either). I even shot clay pigeons with a shot gun , and for anyone who knows me that is about as extreme as it gets for me, I absoloutely hate guns, and that was my first time shooting one, and I only missed 3! It also was a gold rush town, so on our jeep ride we even got to pan for gold. The guide said he has never panned and not gotten flakes of gold, and it's true I got three little flakes of gold in my pan. Nothing to shout Eureka over, but nonetheless it was pretty cool. So If that's all the info you care to read then that's the short of it. For my own journaling purposes I am going to break it down day to day with more pics.

Sunday:

Our flight wasn't scheduled to leave until about noon with a layover in San Francisco. But we figured we would sit there for 4 hours or we could fly in earlier, rent a car, and hit San Fran. which Chris has never seen. So we reserved a rental car. The P.T. Cruiser convertible was the same price as a economy car, so we reserved that one. When we got to the airport though they were out of P.T. cruisers so they upgraded us to a black Ford Mustang convertible for the same price. It was chilly there but we were excited about it anyways it took us back to the days when we first met. Chris drove a '73 Mach 1 Mustang in College. So he was a little giddy driving it. Despite the cold we had to put the top down so I could take pics as we drove under the Golden Gate bridge and down the crookedest street, so that was pretty fun. They were definitely shots you couldn't get any other way. We met another agent Chris is friends with at Fisherman's Wharf for lunch at Bubba Gumps Shrimp, then headed off to the airport to catch our flight to Auckland.

Monday:

Dissappeared somewhere over the Pacific in a time Warp.

Tuesday:

We arrived in Auckland, and then took another flight to Queenstown. The Queenstown airport is quite small so you take the stairs right off the plane. The first two things that hit me was the incredible pine smell, and the bright sunlight, It seemed like everything just glowed. The events staff took our bags to the hotel and we were bussed over to the jet boats. That was definitely a Queenstown welcome, and the best way to come into town. After flying all over Lake Wakatipu they took us over to the main pier. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon when we arrived and a little shuttle took us up to the Millenium Hotel so we could get some lunch and shower. The hotel had a great buffet lunch and breakfast which is largely responsible for my 5 lb. weight gain I suspect. I do hold out hope however that it was due partly to water weight though, because by the time we arrived home in SLC after that ridiculously long flight, my ankles had swollen into puffy cankles and it wasn't until this morning that I feel they are back to their almost normal size. Very weird side effect of long flights and pressure changes. Anyways after a nice long shower we hit town to do some shopping. I had packed very lightly as Air New Zealand is pretty Nazi about your luggage, checked bags can only be 50 lbs and your carryon's can only be 15 lbs. And of course when we arrived they announced a special regional dinner we were invited to where you needed to dress up, and I had not planned on this in my packing. So we hit the outdoor mall to find me a skirt and some jewelry as my jewelry case turned up missing in my luggage. A delightful thing about shopping in NZ is the exchange rate. Our dollar is about worth two of their dollars, so it is like everything in the country is 50% off! A welcome change after the opposite was true in Italy. I found a cute skirt and necklace for dinner and discovered "The Pumpkin Patch" a darling kids store a neighbor had warned me about. They had the cutest most unique clothes. I hit their clearance (summer clothes) which were 70% off and then with the exchange got another 50% off. What a find. Well after shopping we walked around town a bit and got some pics on the pier and in front of the giant Kiwi statue, then went back to the hotel to get ready to go to Gantley's. Gantley's is one of the oldest most well known restaurants in Queenstown. The building is really old, and all made of rock like many buildings there. They have a ton of beautiful grey slate like rock that they build tons of things out of, bridges, buildings, walls, etc. So the restaurant looks like this little stone cottage in the middle of huge trees and a big garden. They had cocktails in the garden for the first hour in front of this big stone outdoor fireplace with a fire going, it was really pretty. We drank tons of juice and coke during these "cocktail parties." But it really is a great way to start off an evening so you have a chance to talk to everyone. About the only time I see many of these people are on the trips once a year, so it is fun to catch up. They called us to our tables so we went inside. The inside was just as charming. It had old harwood floors and a big woodburning fireplace with a cat curled up asleep on the rug! Talk about atmosphere. It felt like you were in some kind of fairytale and needed to leave a bread crumb trail to find your way back to the bus. The food was great though. I had wild mushroom soup and blue cod. There is a lot of blue cod around Queenstown but it is excellent! It all had a really nice presentation and the dessert was awesome. They served a trio of homemade ice creams in a tulle ring with berry sauce. It was the only time ever I loved the chocolate and strawberry ice creams better than the vanilla. I usually won't even eat chocolate or strawberry, but it was divine! We were pretty exhausted after so much travel so we went straight back to the hotel to SLEEP!

Wednesday:

We started our morning with a gynormous breakfast of course. How can you turn down fresh pastries and croissants and vegetarian omelets with fresh squeezed juice every morning. We then reserved Segways to tour Queenstown on. This was one of my favorite activities. We were laughing so hard just thinking about it, we just had to do it. I am so glad we did. They were so much fun to ride. All you had to do was barely lean forward and it went forward then you leaned back to go back and straight up to stop. there was a little lever on the handle to turn right or left. We went with a couple Chris had become friends with from Madison, Wisconsin and they were so much fun! They have the exact same sense of humor as Chris and I, and we really hit it off. Just goofy and sarcastic. Not everyone can pull off a Segway, without looking like "Mr. Bean tours Queenstown." They took a bit of getting used to, but you just glide everywhere. Up hills, down hills, over dirt, gravel rocks, and curbs it was awesome. The guide led us all over so it was pretty funny to watch the look on people's faces as five Segways went by. We had so much fun!

If that tour wasn't enough the company took us up to Moonlight Farm. They told us there would be Horses, and ATV rentals up there so dress appropriately, but they didn't tell us they had prearranged a whole schedule of rotating activities. We pull up and there are two helicopters, about 75 four wheelers, a shooting range, a backhoe contest, archery, paintball, and crossbows. So we divided into 5 groups and rotated around to the different activities, it was so much fun, we totally weren't expecting all of that. We hit the helicopter ride first which was amazing while we waited they served english style scones, with raspberry jam and whipped butter. Then we went to the shooting range where I actually shot clay pigeons with a shootgun! A little unnerving but now I can say I shot a gun. Then we headed over to the four wheelers. Two people had already been sent to the hospital after the four wheelers so I played it pretty safe and just followed the guide. Chris took off with the more experienced riders. They actually had someone whose tire fell off. We are a rough bunch I guess, the guides said they had never seen anything like it in 16 years. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

After the activities we headed over to the farmhouse for dinner. They had beautifully set tables and a great Kiwi buffet (no we didn't eat Kiwi's they are endangered, that is just what they NZ people are called, kinda like Australians are Aussie's). However I made the mistake of trying their ribs which were a huge dissapointment and a waste of cheating with meat (besides fish of course). I have been cheating way too often lately. There have been too many "special occasions" or maybe I'm just a terrible justifier. Chris was awarded with a $1,000 gift card from a challenge the C.E.O made last year that if first time qualifiers for the trip last year qualified the following year they would give them $1,0000. So that was pretty sweet. We actually had kinda pre-planned to put that money towards a new wedding band for Chris since his has been lost for about 5 years, and to get me a black pearl ring. We thought it would be a cool thing since our ten year anniversary is coming up and we were near Tahiti where prices would be better on Tahitian black pearls. So it worked out great we found the perfect pieces, and we both really like them. I couldn't stop staring at my ring the entire rest of the trip, I absoloutley LOVE it! There is just something so organic and unusual about them. They change color all the time in different light. I would take a black pearl over a diamond any day!

Thursday:

Chris had to go to the business session, so I shopped for souveniers and such and we met at a Thai place for lunch. After lunch a group of us scheduled a 4x4 Jeep tour that took you to many of the sites they used in Lord of the Rings. That was really fun, I didn't get nervous at all, but I did get a little car sick or the Thai food didn't agree with me so I ended up puking at the bathroom stop. That was very fortunate timing. I thought I would end up puking off the side of the road. I also made the brilliant move of forgeting my medication for the trip. The first few days were way rough as I recently am having another active episode of the disease. Bad timing! But I managed to get through it with Ibuprofen and a bunch of NZ over the counter meds. The pharmacist had never even heard of my medication, so I knew I was screwed at getting a prescription called in. Oh well serves me right for getting cocky and stopping my meds for a month. Anyways then we stopped at a place outside of Arrowtown to do some more extreme jeeping through rivers and stuff then

we panned for gold had tea (hot cocoa). Then went up skippers canyon to see some amazing vistas and a freaky road perched on the side of cliffs. The landscape was amazing though it was worth powering through our fears of heights.

We had to book it back to the hotel to get ready for the formal night. There is always sooo much pressure. I swear it's worse than Prom. At least at Prom you can get away with teenage ignorance and cheap dresses. Oh well, it is fun to have an occasion to wear a formal dress once a year. Last year I made the mistake of going semi-formal with a 100 inch strand of cultured pearls to dress it up a bit more, I figured at least I would be able to wear the pearls again. The company literature indicates it is semi-formal to formal, but boy did I feel stupid. They also say that the farewell dinner is casual, which it wasn't last year and wasn't this year either. I guess there's what they say and what people do. This year I found a great dress at BCBG Max Azria at a decent price in Park City. It travelled well, and even survived a stupid waitress spilling coke all down it, my fur shrug, and Chris' suit. I just really hope it cleans up okay. It's hard enough getting some leather cleaned let alone fur. Not that I will likely ever have another occasion to wear it. Maybe an Opera or something. At least it happened after the awards were given so Chris didn't have to get up on stage with coke all over his suit. Chris had a tough year for auto's this year so he didn't get Leading Edge Award like last year, but they did surprise all the E.A. agents with a jade Maori medallions. They even had a traditional Maori performing group there who blessed the medallions and presented them to the agents on stage. They did their traditional Haka dance, and everything it was pretty cool. It was a fun night and the food was delicious. They had transformed the downstairs of the hotel into almost a night club type atmosphere where we had dessert and dancing. It was a great night, we had a lot of fun joking around with friends and catching up.

Friday:

We were so excited for this activity we had signed up to go see Milford Sound by bus with the company, but it was like a 12 hour tour, and we wanted to get back earlier so the boys could bungy jump so we signed up for the fly-in tour. Well unbeknownst to us if the flight gets cancelled due to weather you're pretty much out of luck. We thought they would just put you on a bus, but no it is just cancelled altogether. Which was a huge dissapointment! The tour was really going to be the highlight for me. Milford sound is more of a tropical environment with thousands of waterfalls, seals, penguins, and even dolphins. They fly you in and then put you on a day cruise over the water, then fly you out. With the pouring rain outside we knew it was a fat chance they would fly later so we signed up for Saturday, and then Sunday to no avail. I guess we will just have to make another trip down there to see it and the Fiordlands. maybe then we could hit Bora Bora on our own.

We decided to shop for the morning so wen went and picked up Chris' ring and finished up getting souveniers. We had the most amazing fish and chips I have EVER tasted, they were sooo light and crisp they just melted in your mouth. They were made from the blue cod which was incredible and absoloutely fresh. I have had Fish and Chips in London bloody England, Victoria Canada, Seattle and Portland and never come close to how good these were. Found at the little shack by the pier of course. We smelled them the day we came in by jet boat and were waiting for the hotel shuttle, and knew we had to try that place. We were not dissapointed. I also tried a NZ soda called "Lift" which was sooo good, I usually don't go for carbonation but wanted more than water and all the orange juice in leu of cocktails made me pretty tired of O.J. This soda was sooo lemony like real lemonade but lightly carbonated. Yum! Perfect combo with those heavenly fish and chips. We then also discovered the Patagonia chocolatier on the pier who had wonderful gelato. Even my favorite melon kind. So I had a scoop of Rock Melon and a scoop of hokey pokey (vanilla base with tiny little Manuka Honey candy crisps). Delicious! We met up with our friends from Wisconsin who just returned from their sheep farm tour off the Wakitipu steam boat and we made a reservation for the Minus 5 bar, and walked up to the Kiwi Reserve. The walk up was so beautiful the rain had brought misty clouds around the mountains and they had a cool old cemetary on the road up there. I caught a lot of crap for commenting on the cemetary. Our friends from Wisconsin were joking about how I must really be gothic and hang out in cemetaries. It was just really old with Lichens growing all over old headstones, and an old iron gate around it, right next to these huge forests full of mist. It kinda became a joke the rest of the trip. The Kiwi Reserve was cool. Kiwi are endangered, and their population is shrinking by 5-6% every year. Cats, Dogs, and Ferrets are responsible for killing the babies when they're tiny, so they don't have a chance to keep population numbers up. They are nocturnal and one of our guides said you would spend 4 hours sitting quitely in the middle of the night to even have the slightest chance of seeing one in the wild. The reserve had little houses with a few in there. They had the lights very dim, and you had to be really quiet. They were really cool to see. Much bigger than I expected, but just like the cartoony pictures you see of them all over T-shirts, bags and hats in Queenstown. We watched a nature show given by some guides in the reserve about indigenous species to NZ. Then we had to hurry back to the minus 5 bar for our reservation. The minus 5 bar is made completely out of ice, so you have to pay a hefty cover charge to get in. The walls, tables, floor, decor and even the glasses you drink out of are made entirely out of ice. They give you big parkas and gloves before you go in and even still you can't stand to be in there for very long before you are freezing! They had alot of ice sculptures and stuff in there so it was pretty unique. We had the evening to ourselves for dinner, so after the minus 5, we went over to "The Cow" for dinner. The Cow is a really old pizza place that has been in Queenstown forever. It is in an alley, and it is a really cool old building. It has a woodburning pizza oven and it is made of the stones like many other of the old buildings. It is just so unique. The pizza was amazing, and they brought out some great garlic bread. It is pretty much a loaf of wheat bread slathered in butter and minced garlic. It is so garlicy it almost makes your tongue burn, but it was really good. Just don't get to close to people afterward. After pizza we went over to the patagonia again for gelato and hot cocoa, for dessert. I had a cup of fresh ginger hot cocoa that was really yummy. We checked out the shops a bit more and then walked back to the hotel. The walk back was really nice. There's a pretty big hill you have to climb, but it is very near the botanical garden so it has pretty rock walls, tall trees and a little stream you pass on the way so it was really nice. We hung out in our room for a bit laughing and talking before hitting the hay.

Saturday:

We woke up early in case the flight opened up for Milford Sound. No such luck, so we got ready for the whitewater rafting instead. We were going to raft the Shotover river with alot of clas 3+ rapids. I'm not alll that much of an adrenaline junkie, but rafting I really love to do. I mostly wanted to see Milford Sound, but I really didn't want to miss rafting either. We had to drive through Skippers canyon again to get to the rafting spot, we took that same road on the jeeping tour. It was an entirely diferent experience in a little bus however. It is a dirt road with huge drop offs on the side. There is one spot where the front tire of the bus actually hangs over the edge as it corners! Then on anohter part of the road a wash took the road out about 80 years ago so they built it up again with dry stacked stones cemented with horse manure, and metal stakes, and it has not been improved upon since! The river was pretty full from all the rain we got the day before so it was sure to be a great time on the river. Some friends of ours went the day before during the rain and gave us some pointers for how to get the best guide. The head guide's name was Dave, so they said to hang towards the back until all the other groups are assigned a raft. So we did and sure enough we got Dave. I'm so glad because we hit every rapid exactly like he wanted, Dave said we definitely had a dream run that day, and It was so great. I didn't want to risk getting my camera wet, so we left it at the rafting shop, but the rafting company took a few, and a friend of our had a underwater camera, so I'll post some pics later, but I'll have to transfer them and scan them and stuff. About the first half of the run was pretty tame, and then in the middle there were about 4 rapids just one right after the other. You had about 10-20 feet inbetween to brace for the next, so it was perfect. The last one was the best. During the gold rush days they blasted a tunnel off to one side of the river, so that they could divert the water in the low season for better luck panning. So on the last rapid you go through that tunnel, and then right after you get out there is a huge drop off called champagne falls as the water switches back to the original river. That one was amazing. It nearly folds the boat in half as you go in and you come back up with a raft chuck full of water and sand from the bottom of the river in the bottom of the boat. It was so much fun!

Well I guess the rafting got the boys all pumped up to go Bungy jumping. So we met up at the Bungy shop to take the bus over to the Kwarau River Bridge. The bridge is about 120 feet above the water below, depending on the water level. They strap the bungy rope to your ankles and you dive off the bridge head first! You can request to stay dry or get dunked in the river up to your shoulders, waist or ankles. It was actually the very first commercial bungy site in the world, and they have never had a fatality. Which was such a relief to hear since my husband was about to dive off it. Our friend Steve and his son (13) jumped off first. Steve was a little hesitant since he was pushing the weight limits of the rope. I guess he ended up being the second heaviest guy to ever jump. I don't recall if we discovered that before or after. But he was so glad he did it anyways. Then Chris and our friend Joel went off. Chris got dunked to about his knees and Joel got it up to his ankles. I got some awesome pics of them as they fell. I got one of Chris just coming up out of the river and one of Joel with only his ankles showing out of the water. Then they all bought the DVD of their jump afterwards .They give them a free T-shirt to go, and they all had a great time. I was just relieved to see no one got hurt. The busdriver was kind enough to drop us off at our hotel which was on the way back to the bungy shop so we could shower before hitting Bob's Peak. It is a restaurant perched on top of a mountain overlooking Lake Wakatipu. You take a Gondola up the side of the mountain and then on top they have some Luge cart tracks. We had to take the easy track on the first one to acquaint ourselves with the feel of the cart and then we could hit the advanced track. Horace Mann actually ended up sendin another couple of people off to the hopital on that one too. Some guys were racing, and couldn't pull back on the brake because their legs got in the way. Oops, pretty ironic that an insurance company would condone such risky activities, but most everyone else had fun and were safe I guess. It's bound to happen. At least the injuries weren't as bad as they were on the four wheelers. We only got two runs in before the track closed down for the night, and then we went in to the restaurant for a performance of Maori dancers, cocktails and hor'deourves. The restaurant had the most unbelieveable views the entire area that overlooks the lake is just all glass. The building is kind of rounded so from 180 degrees all you see is misty mountains covered in pines overlooking that beautiful lake. It was so pretty. The dinner was a Kiwi buffet which was excellent. I had some awesome pumpkin soup (pumpkin is really big over there) oriental type noodles, pumpkin and cheese ravioli, smoked salmon and some great desserts. We were so stuffed. They ahad a big carving station with Lamb, and Prime Rib and stuff, but I didn't partake. The ribs cured me of meat on the hoof for a while. Speaking of lamb though, I got Chris a great T-shirt in town. Sheep are just everywhere in NZ and I found a T-shirt that said "Silence of the Lambs" and it had a picture of a BBQ grill with a bunch of lamb chops sizzling away on it. I knew Chris would love it, because that is his favorite movie of all time (twisted I know) and it was just sick and wrong with the lamb chops sizzling away. And supposedly I'm the morbid one just because I noticed a cool cemetary on the way up the hill. The company had a band there after dinner for dancing, but no one stayed too long afterwards. We took a bunch of pics with friends and then took the Gondola down. Kara and I thought it would be funny to not get out at the bottom and go around again. The boys didn't think so and got out. But we took the 10 min. ride again just laughing hysterically about doing it yet again just to see the look on the boys faces. It was pretty funny. The Gondola operator had a good laugh about it. And everyone else was just sitting on a half full bus waiting for it to fill up before they could even leave for the hotel, so who are the morons? At least we had a good view.

Sunday:

Well we had put our names down for the Milford Sound tour again that morning just in case. The weather was much, much clearer but we realized the night before that even if they could fly in to Milford Sound, there were not guarantees that they could fly out again. And if they couldn't fly out we would have to take the bus meaning we would miss our flight from Queenstown to Auckland, and Auckland to L.A. and L.A. to S.L.C. So we just didn't think it was worth the risk of jeapardizing all those connections if we missed one. So we just took the morning easy and looked around at some art galleries and souvenier shops. We met some friends early for lunch since their flight left earlier. We stopped at GUITLY, which was the old courthouse that they converted into a restaurant. It was a neat building and we had a great lunch. I guess they had Heineken on tap which is great if you are a beer drinker. Our group just took advantage of their Heineken beer battered fries. Chris and I had a GUILTY platter for two, which is a great sampling of some of the appetizers. It had shrimp scampi, assorted breads with oil and vinegar, hummus and yogurt dip and then crisp flour tortillas with a cheese and veggie dip. Sooo yummy. If you can't tell I love good food, and have to include every detail about it for others who may too. Anyways after saying farewell to our good friends Yvette and Steve (California), and Kara and Joel (Wisconsin). We decided to walk up to the botanical garden for the afternoon. It was windy, but sooo sunny and bright. I was really glad that we took a Sunday stroll through the gardens. It was the perfect day to go and drink in the beauty of our surroundings before we left. We had been so busy running from one adventure activity to the next, that we didn't take the time to just watch the world go by. The bright sun, fall colors, jagged green mountains, and crystal blue lake just looked gorgeous that day. The botanical garden overlooks the water in a few spots and some of the sail boats were heading out to take advantage of the wind. We sat in the sun, watched the ducks floating around in the lily pond and watched the darling NZ families taking their kids and dogs for a walk or just playing frisbee. Seeing all those darling little kids and hearing their little accents as they spoke, just really made me want to get home to squeeze my own little guys. Everything was picture perfect but we really were just ready to get home. It was the perfect end to a great vacation!

Our second Sunday

Coming Spring of '09: New Zealand

2008-12-07T21:05:00.000-08:00

It's official! We just signed the registration material for the 2009 Leadership Conference. We thought Chris made it to both conferences again this year, but apparently even though they let us register for the Presidents conference in Bora Bora, His life insurance sales weren't high enough and we missed it by one stinkin spot! They take the top 30 agents and Chris was 31! Oh well. New Zealand is going to be awesome all on it's own. Italy and Greece was awesome enough I can hardly believe we were actually there, and now less than a year later we get to see New Zealand. It just didn't seem real until we started reading the itinerary and looking at the pictures! What a beautiful place! We can hardly wait.

I don't think I'll ever get used to these trips, it just seems like too much. I think I am just too simple at heart to expect that much out of life. I thought going to Europe in college would be the trip of my lifetime, and now I've been there twice. I know I freak out like I won the lottery every time Chris qualifies, but I just get so excited. I hope I never get to the point that I stop appreciating these trips so much.

VENICE!

2008-07-20T18:56:00.001-07:00

Oh finally, I have been dying to get the Venice Post done, but I wanted to keep things in order. We arrived in Venice on Saturday and were so excited this part was the Presidents conference which was kind of the best of the best. I was so proud of Chris for making this part of the trip because only the top 30-40 agents in the nation qualified. Pretty awesome for the first trip he had made. We immediately boarded our water taxi and headed over to the costume shop for our final fitting for the masquerade ball. It was pouring rain and there were about 50 of us who descended upon one tiny costume shop. Half of us had to stand out in the rain outside the shop, and by this time the 5 Euro umbrella we had purchased in Florence was broken on one side, so we stood under an awning for a while until we got inside. I finally got fitted for my cloak. I have to admit I had fantasies about this masquerade ball and when they asked for our bust, chest, waist and height measurements I was certain we were going to get gowns, but no, all we got was a fancy cloak, satin gloves and a decorative mask (that we got to keep). The men on the other hand got the works. They had tights, knickers, buckles for their shoes, velvet vests, billowy satin shirts, a cape, and a hat. I still don't get why if they had to cut back on costumes why they cut back for the women. We LIVE for that stuff. But I have let it go, and we still had a ball (haha). It was pretty awesome to get Chris in a purple satin blouse and tights, I mean when do you see your husband with that on! I so should have gotten pics of Chris pulling those tights up.

While we waited for the rest of the group we found a little cafe and had some hot cocoa and freshly baked croissants with apricot jam baked inside. Oh my goodness they were fantastic. We stayed and chatted and then began the exodus to the Trattoria de la Madonna for lunch. My umbrella lost another support and was drooping terribly, so on the way we quickly purchased a 10 Euro umbrella. After quite a walk down winding alleys, and over many bridges we arrived. There are no cars allowed on the island by the way not even scooters. You are on foot or on boat.

Every restaurant offers bread, pasta, a vegetable dish or salad, main course, dessert and coffee. So you are stuffed completely for every meal. I have no idea how I managed to avoid gaining weight but I didn't gain a pound. If you have ever travelled and had one of those experiences were you eat something so amazing and delectable it practically haunts you forever because you know you may never have it again. This was one of those moments. They had a Lasagna that was about the most incredible thing I have ever tasted. If I ever discover the cheese that just oozed from that wonderful creation there will be no hope for me. It was made with a white sauce and had pieces of ham and peas inside. The pasta was so tender and fresh and that CHEESE! Oh my gosh. Someone asked what type of cheese was in it and all they could remember was that it started with a P. It was a melty soft cheese so it wasn't parmesan, and I searched every market. But someday I am telling you I will find it. The same thing happened to me in France. I had a almond croissant pastry that I still can't forget and a melon sorbet that tasted like the ripest sweetest canaloupe you have ever tasted that melted in your mouth with perfect texture. Italy's melon gelato was very close but not quite, it was too creamy. Sorry I am obviously obsessed with food, but at least only excellent food. Thanks heavens I have tolerated dairy very well for having U.C. it usually is a taboo for some people with the disease, but frankly even if my system couldn't tolerate it, nothing could keep me from gelato and cheese in ITALY! Ramble, Ramble, Ramble.

Ok I'm back on track. We then took another water taxi over to the Molino Stucky Hotel. It was a new Hilton that they had just converted from an old flour mill and turned it into a huge Hotel. It actually had a POOL (not too common especially in Venice)! The rooms were big and just beautiful. Every inch of the bathroom was marble. Our other hotels didn't hold a candle to it and they were supposedly at least 4 star. We had the night to ourselves (no Horace Mann activites). We found a nearby laundromat and watched some interesting italian TV while our clothes were washing. On the walk back we passed our exact cruise ship heading down the canal on it's way out to the mediteranean again. It was hard to believe it had only been a week since we had been the ones leaving. We were getting hungry so we took a water taxi with friends over to St. Marks square and wandered around to find a restaurant off the beaten path. We had some great pizza, and then took in the square and the shopping surrounding it. We decided to wait to go on a Gondola ride for a night we could be alone.

The next day we had an awesome breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was so good they had every type of fruit you could imagine, different cereals and granolas, one whole wall was different types of cheeses, another table was different types of cut meats another table had bacon, sausages, potatoes, eggs, and waffles, a juice bar, and a whole table of different breads, pastries and croissants, and a juice bar. They even had the different foods color coded into low fat, low carb, high energy, etc. After that massive breakfast we then went on a tour of the Murano and Burano islands. Murano is famous for their glass making. We got to see a demonstration of a glassmaker, and tour their gallery. They were so amazing if you were loaded you could pick up chandeliers, stemware, vases, sculptures etc. There were a few things under a hundred Euros but most of the stuff was over 2,500 Euros ($4375). Even the stemware was still over $80 for a wine glass. Their chandeliers were all over $10,000 it was just scary to walk through some rooms.
Then we went over to Burano island. They are famous for their lacemaking. As we were pulling around to the dock all of the houses were painted very bright colors. It is a local legend that the wives of the fishermen painted their houses all different colors because when the men came back from the pubs they were a little inebriated and the island can get quite foggy. So with all of the houses different colors it helped their husbands find their way home. It was a very clean and charming island we headed over to a restaurant for lunch where we had bread, spaghetti with clams, salad, a variety of breaded and fried seafood (the tiny little calamari had eyes) that was very good (apart from the eyeballs). The shopping was great we found glass WAY cheaper than the gallery had it. Chris' mom had really wanted some venetian glass so we got her a dolphin and a big angel fish. We found Cate a Burano Lace umbrella and a decorated mask for her room and were running back to the boat to get back over to the hotel. That night was the masquerade ball! When we got back to our rooms they had already delivered the costumes so we showered and got ready in our costumes. We headed down stairs to catch the taxi's over to the Hotel Monaco where the ball was being held. I guess it was a famous spot that Cassanova had frequent rendevouz at. I will never forget the looks on people's faces when they saw 80 people dressed up like us getting off the boats near St. Marks square. Even the locals were stopping to take pictures. We all stopped and got individual pictures on the bridge in front of the bridge of sighs. While we were waiting for our turns there were a few couples who had lines that had formed to get their pictures taken with them, it was pretty funny. We were sure we were going to end up on You Tube somewhere. We all walked a short distance the the Hotel Monaco. It was a neat hotel. The bottom floor was ultra modern in it's decor and then through a doorway and up some marble stairs you felt like you were going back in time. They claim that everything was as it was in Cassanova's time. They served cocktails and hors'deouvres while we mingled and talked. They had a String Orchestra playing, and you felt like you were in some kind of fairytale. Then we all went into the dining room for dinner. They had a live band in there too, and after a few announcements from Corporate we had dinner: Rissoto, a beef filet encrusted with olives and herbs, and a crispy merengue dessert it was all amazing! We ate and danced and socialized, and then took tzxi's back to the hotel. Everyone thought it would be hilarious to stay in costume and head up to the hotel sky bar for drinks. We went up and talked while everyone drank, fortunately by this time people had stopped offering us drinks because they knew better. It was areally fun group and we made a lot of friends. After a while the jokes were only funny if you were drunk so we went back downstairs to our room to catch some sleep.

The next day we had the whole day to ourselves besides the farewell dinner so we took a taxi to St. Marks square again and got right in line to tour the Doges palace(pronounced DOH-jay). The Doge was an elected sort of king who served until death. The architecture was incredible. When the palace was at it's peak (the 1300's) it was a place that struck every visitor with a sense of their power and prestige. It was built to intimidate. You could not take pictures inside, but even outside on the balconies the ceilings were covered in 24 k. gold leaf. The inside had amazing tile work and oil paintings by Tintoretto everywhere. The largest oil painting in the world was in the room where the Venetian senate met. We then were able to cross the bridge of sighs over to the prison. The bridge between the two buildings was called the bridge of sighs because after their trial prisoners let out their last sigh before being put to death or imprisoned. It was so crazy to walk through that prison where you know thousands of people were tortured, died or lived out a miserable life. We went back across the bridge to the Doge palace and went under a large alcove from the palace to St. Mark Basilica (the private chapel of the Doge at the time). It was interesting to note that the long bridge /tunnel to the basilica from the palace was meant to symbolize the connection between the church and the government. The architecture of the basilica is unlike anything in the world. It is so ornate. It is a mixture of gothic, renaissance, and even middle eastern architecture, it was amazing. The campinella or belltower (the orange brick tower with the gold angel on top) is actually a reproduction. The original tower was leaning like many towers in Venice (as you probably noticed in the pictures) and actually toppled over in the 60's. It is said that the angel on top landed right in front of the basilica entrance standing upright.

After touring the basilica we wandered through the streets heading over to the Rialto Bridge (one of only two bridges that cross the grand canal). We found some interesting sights along the way. A gondolier patiently waiting on a bridge for the next passenger, a large building with an exterior winding staircase similar to the tower of pisa (this was tucked away in some winding alleys, what a discovery). We took some pictures of the Rialto but it was COVERED in people. I couldn't get over how crowded it was. St. Marks square wasn't that bad. We did some shopping and toured some really neat churches and opera houses along the way. We found a great variety of decorative pastas for family, I found my dad some Italian Pepperocinni peppers, and got the kids some of the famous venetian "S" shaped cookies (shaped like the canal). I found a beautiful silk scarf, and we bought an oil painting by a local artist. We were hoping to hit the Peggy Gugenheim museum at the end of our tour that day, but didn't make it. We were pretty pooped out by the end, and took the taxi back to the hotel. We took a little nap and then went to the farewell dinner. The dinner was a bit of a dissapointment. It was a buffet, and our table was called second to last so pretty much all of the good food was gone, and there was no real organization to any of it. I think the event coordinators wanted a buffet, which Europeans just don't do. They do everything in courses. So they tried to put all the plates in different spots on the buffet tables to accomodate some kind of course menu, but with the American mentality it was a disaster. We were most excited for the lasagna as it was so spectacular at the restaurant the first day, but it was gone. The waiters kept saying they were bringing more out in ten minutes, then twenty minutes, and then they brought out a tray of french fries, which didn't sit well with anyone and was frankly insulting. Finally after everyone had just finished dessert they brought out a tray of lasagna that was obviously a last ditch effort and still cold in the middle. We were pretty ticked about the whole thing. I mean everyone talks up the presidents conference like crazy saying how they treat you like royalty and it is so extravagant. It was for the most part, but some things like that dinner just should not have happened. When the event staff came to our table to tell us the order of the tables they assured us that they would not run out of food, and when they did the event staff was nowhere to be found to patch things up. After the dinner, everyone felt pretty down and underappreciated and we really did not want it to put a damper on the whole evening especially the last night. So we decided to head back to St. Marks square even though it was like 11:00p.m. and go on our gondola ride. We found a gondolier right off the taxi and he offered us a tour for 80 Euros which was pretty standard. I think he was the last one out there because the canals were empty. We only ran into one other boat on the entire tour. It was so awesome. To see Venice at night from a Gondola, when it feels like you have the whole city to yourself was indescribable. It was so romantic. It left all the negative feelings we had earlier in the dust. We were so glad that we waited to go alone at night. After the tour we went to St. Mark's Square to see the dueling orchestras. There are two restaurants that have their own orchestras outside that "duel" for applause and the crowds it was pretty funny to watch. Most of the square was empty also. There were only a few other couples out. A man came up to offer me roses, which is usually a scam, (beware of the rose guys) we had experienced this many times in Rome. But with an assertive "we are not interested in anything but the rose" Chris bought me one, and we sat down to listen to the music. The rose guy even started dancing, it was pretty funny. We took some pictures and headed back to the hotel completely enchanted by Venice.

Corfu, Greece

2008-07-20T06:35:00.000-07:00

Yikes, sorry it has taken me so long to finish this up. So Corfu was kind of a whirlwind tour. We had pretty limited time and we really wished we had time for the beach here. It was so beautiful. The first place we stopped was at a palace. It was built by a woman named Elizabeth I think in the 1700's. Funny that that seems so recent compared to the other places we have been. The 1700's is practically as old as it gets in U.S. history. Anyways Elizabeth was fleeing her mother-in-law from Italy and loved Greece and traveling. Apparently she was very adventerous and her mother and law and her differed in the way they wanted the 2 grandchildren raised.So she decided she would take the children and build a new palace on the island of Corfu. One of the two children died in an accident while they were traveling which devastated her. The mother-in-law insisted that the other son come to live with her. She didn't see much of her son after that but he did go on to inherit the palace after she died. She was kind of a Princess Diana type to the people, as the mother-in-law didn't care for the bride her son chose. She had a taste for ancient greek mythology so the house and gardens are full of greek gods and goddess statues. Everything was very beautiful.

From there we went to a monastery on one of the peaks of the island. It was a greek orthodox monastery and the grounds were amazing. When we entered the church one of the monks got very upset that some of the visitors were not dressed appropriately. Bare shoulders and knees are taboo. I could definitely understand his point. The church was a sacred place and is very much in use and should be respected. We were racing for time, due to traffic and had to travel quite a ways back to the port. Our tour guide let us stop in town for about 30 min. and insisted that everyone had to board the bus back to the boat together, even though we still had two hours before we were due back at the boat. She got a bit upset when we wanted to take a cab back to the boat, for some reason she felt like she picked us up at the boat and had to return us to the boat. Although some friends we had who took other tours said their guide encouraged them to stay. They are all so different. We told her we were staying and she could wash her hands of responsibility for us. I am so glad that we were assertive. Corfu was a very beautiful town. We had some great pork souvlaki and pitas and then wandered around the city and shopped. We found an awesome shop that had carvings made of olive wood. They had about everything you could dream of made out of wood. We bought a mask that made me think of primary. If you look at it one way it is frowning and if you turn it upside down it is smiling. We ended up just walking back to the boat we weren't far from the water, although you had to walk about a mile to get around to the dock our ship was on. We were so glad we took the extra time.
We really would have missed the feeling of the people and the flavor of the city.

Santorini, Greece

2008-07-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

By far one of my favorite places in the world. Santorini is exactly what I think of when I think of Greece. White washed houses with blue dome roofs lining the Adriatic Sea. As we approached the Greek Islands the tops of the mountains looked like they were snow capped, until you get closer and realize those are buildings. Santorini was so beautiful. We wore our bathing suits under our clothes hoping to sit on the black sand beaches for a while, but we just didn't have enough time. We were able to wander around Oia city for quite a while and take it all in. The shops had beautiful jewelry better quality by far than what we had seen anywhere. They also had great art, pottery, olive oil soap and olives of course. We spent quite a bit of time shopping. There were also an abundance of dogs everywhere. Just lying on the streets and in the squares. I'm pretty sure that they all had owners, they just wandered around without leashes. We then loaded back onto the tour buses and headed up to the tallest peak of Santorini to take in the view of the island.

From there we headed over to another winery for a "snack" of some of the most traditional dishes. If that was a snack, I can't imagine their idea of lunch. They had a buffet table loaded with a paste of beans (kind of like refried but I think it was made of garbanzo beans) topped with olives and cut tomatoes, some very uniquely shaped tomatoes, olives, pastries filled with different cheeses, grilled pork, a variety of different cheese slices, cherries, and grilled pita slices topped with olive oil. It was soooo good! I am drooling as I type just thinking about it. We totally gorged ourselves. During our meal they brought out dancers who showed us their traditional dresses and dances. It was a lot of fun. From the winery we went over to another area of the island I think it was Thira where we had a chance to shop and explore some more. There were fine jewelry shops all over the place and some great cafe's we stopped for some ice cream (which was amazing) I had a caramel and pistachio. We found some jewelry, pottery, a painted glass scene of Oia, some olive oil soap, and a pumice stone to remember the island (they have large pumice deposits and a mine). Then we had to decide if we wanted to take a donkey, or a cable car down the cliffs to reach the sea port below. We opted for the cable car. We heard the donkeys were pretty entertaining, but with glass and pottery we didn't want to chance it. The cable car was very scenic, it is amazing that those cities are perched up on cliffs like they are the views are just unbelievable. We definitely need to make a special trip back to Greece someday. We would really like to see Athens on the mainland and the island of Crete at least.

Kusadasi, Turkey

2008-07-05T22:23:00.000-07:00

Pronounced Kush-AH-dah-say, was interesting but probably my least favorite. We took a tour bus to Ephesus, which is an ancient city built by the Romans. It was found when some men where building a road and unearthed some of the ruins. Since then they have excavated a portion of the site, but there are huge mounds all over just waiting to be excavated. They say an estimated 14% of Ephesus has been uncovered. The large library is the largest piece they reconstructed over many years. The city was destroyed when earthquakes and mud slides caused the city to become uninhabitable, and it was relocated several times. We had to travel by bus quite a ways to get to it, and apparently at one time it was a sea port city, so the topography has changed significantly since then. The asterisk looking symbol is a secret symbol that early christians used to indicate their secret meeting places. You can see the symbol carved into stones in quite a few places around the ruins.

The woman flying above is the goddess "Nike" see the swoosh! Just behind us was a huge ampitheater that could hold approx. 20,000 people. Our tour guide was telling us that the romans had hot and cold running water of sorts with huge public baths and central heating. they used large terracotta pipes that ran through furnace rooms and then through their houses to heat the water and their homes. They used fountains to cool the air around the city during the hot summers. After wandering through the ruins for a few hours I really wished there were some fountains still in operation. We were sweltering.

After the tour of the ruins they took us to a Turkish rug shop where we got to see how they still remove the strands of silk from the cocoons and how the Turkish women make their silk rugs by hand tying each individual strand from very complicated designs. They go so fast you can hardly believe it. Then they use special scissors to trim the ends to form the desired length of pile. The rugs average 600 knots per square inch, although the finer silk rugs can have as many as 2,000 knots per square inch. They took us into a show room and brought in red wine, coke, tea, and turkish pastries to eat while we watched them roll out $40,000 rugs right in front of us. I never realized why their rugs were so expensive until I saw how they were made. The $40,000 rug took two girls four years to make. I still can't believe they let us breathe in there let alone eat about six inches away from them. Besides the rugs the shopping in Kusadasi was much less expensive than other places, but the shopowners were much more pushy and aggressive. They would literally call out to you on the street to come into their shops, and they loved to haggle. Our tour guide said it is practically insulting to them if you don't haggle. All the tags and signs show a much higher price because it is simply a starting point for bargaining. There were fake designer purses, belts, sunglasses, and t-shirts galore. So if you want Dolce and Gabbana, Prada, Fendi, and Louis Vuitton plastered all over yourself you'd be in heaven. Although the quality was not so great. And in my opinion if you have to wear Dolce and Gabba like it's a billboard, you're probably wearing it wrong. They had far more fakes on one street than in all of Italy and it is apparently legal there because unlike in Italy the vendors don't gather their stuff up and book it when they see a cop. Also the pharmacy will give you about anything you want prescription or not, even Viagra. Which was prominently displayed for 15 Euros. Not that we partook (although we had the whole next day at sea! (J.K.)).
Word to the wise however do not even bother with their ice cream, it was absoloutley terrible. It has probably ruined me forever on kiwi ice cream. Not that it is readily available anywhere, but still, YUCK! It had to have been made from goats milk or something funky. Also if your curious about Turkish Delights (referenced in Narnia) not too tasty either. It reminded me of some crap me and my sisters found in my grandma's closet when we were little, or a fruit cake that someone forgot about for a few years. Not to bash theTurks cuisine they have fabulous kabobs, and their apple tea is very good too if we had more time we probably would have found more yummy stuff.

Dubrovnik Croatia

2008-06-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

This was our first Port on the cruise and one of my favorites. We took a tour bus up from the bay to a small mountain village. We visited a winery and got a real taste for their culture (not a literal taste, we had water) we got to sample their local cheeses, figs, and smoked meats. There were waterfalls and little streams everywhere. There was a grain mill with a water wheel where a man in their traditional attire ran the mill, they also had live entertainment during our luncheon, which was fun to listen to (gotta love the accordian).

From the village we headed back down the mountain to "Old Town" in the port of Dubrovnik. It was a medieval city with a huge wall around it. There were a few towers they were reconstructing when they were bombed during their recent civil war in the 90's. Crazy to think about such recent violent events in some of those countries. The inside of Old Town was so charming. The entire street was paved with beautiful cream marble, and we are not talking cobblestones, they were cut fitted blocks that were smooth and shiny. No cars were allowed on the streets obviously, but the streets just glowed, and the entire city was so clean. Around every corner in Old Town was a postcard picture. It was so beautiful. There were traditional wooden boats in the harbor you could take tours in. I purchased some gorgeous photographs from a local photographer of the city and the boats. We met a lady from washington state while standing in line for the bathroom. She and 7 other people were sailing the mediteranean in 5 sailboats, what a life! The bathroom was my first expreience with an eastern toilet. Literally just a hole in the ground. It was clean and entirely made of marble and stainless steel but there were just two treaded spots for your feet, some railings to help you squat and a hole, that flushed. Come on people save the marble just give me a porcelain toilet bowl! What an experience. We didn't have long to tour the city (the only downfall of cruising is relatively short port o' calls) so we were busting butt to get back to the tour bus. I could have easily spent the entire day in Old Town. There were quite a few people who lived there and you could just wander the streets and get a taste for their daily life. Kids playing soccer in the squares, women making jewelry and lace. We even passed an old lady's house that had tons of cats. She was cursing her neighbor at the top of her lungs in Croatian. It was so funny! She had a scarf on her head, and an apron, it was like we were watching some old foreign film or something. So cute!

Cruisin through the Mediterranean

2008-06-30T09:09:00.001-07:00

The second leg of our trip was a Royal Carribean Cruise through the mediterranean. The picture is of our cruise ship in the harbor of Dubrovnik, Croatia. We also visited Kusadasi Turkey, and two Greek Islands: Santorini and Corfu. The ship was really fun. It was amazing how huge it was. It accomodated two thousand people, and there was plenty for everyone to do, and of course plenty to eat. We were so relieved to hit this part of the trip as everything was already paid for, we didn't have to worry about $100 dinners anymore. It was nice to have a buffet also, I'm personally not a buffet fan but with my dietary issues it was great to be able to pick and chose as many fruits and veggies as I wanted. The only ice cream they had was soft serve which I don't like all that well, so the gelato temptation was gone. The ship also had a gym so that was nice to get some workouts in. We played ping pong, swam, soaked in some sun, watched movies, and of course ate and ate. The ship has two formal nights so it was fun to play dress up a little. The first formal was Horace Mann's awards night and Chris was awarded the Leading Edge Award. He worked his butt-off last year and I was so proud of him. All his hard work really paid off. It was fun to mingle with his coworkers I had heard their names many times but never met most of them. Chris was the only agent from Utah to qualify for the trip. So I really didn't know any of them, but they were a great group. There were only about two other couples who were LDS so the booze was free flowing throughout the cruise. Can I say that not drinking can make life so much simpler and cheaper! Some people spent hundreds of dollars on alcohol. It's also a relief that we don't have to wonder what a fool we may have been the night before, or deal with the hangovers the next day. The cruise was also nice because we didn't feel guilty for relaxing. On land in Italy we toured the sites all day and half the night to fit in as much as possible which was great, but exhausting. The cruise forced us to chill out a little. It was nice to have the cruise part right in the middle of our other destinations, so we could recuperate before hitting Venice hard too.

Florence

2008-06-24T14:28:00.000-07:00

Florence got off to a shaky start since we lost our hotel information, and could not remember the name or address of it. We searched every scrap of paper in our bags for about 1/2 hr. we looked for wireless service for Chris' laptop and nothing. Finally I remembered searching out our hotel on yahoo maps and I thought I remembered writing the name on the back of the printout map. I found it The Fenice Palace on via de Martelli and we were saved. We took a 5 min. cab ride to the hotel. The first pic is the view of the Duomo just down the street from our hotel. The second is a closeup. It has amazing marble work on the exterior so many different colors. The next morning we headed out for the Galleria de Academia where Michaelangelo's David is kept. What an experience. To see things that you read about and see pictures of are so humbling to see in front of you. The level of work that

it would take to achieve something like that is amazing let alone the talent to pull it off in such a remarkable way. We weren't supposed to take pics there either, but I snuck one in.

We followed a walking tour through some other sites, but one of my favorites was the Museo Nazionale del Bargello. The museum was absoloutley amazing. It was mostly sculpture, but it was an incredible collection, it had Danti, Donatello (his David), Michaelangelo, Giambologna, and a few other lesser known sculptors. As an artist these works quickly make you feel very small, and insignificant. I can hardly express how amazing it is to see these masterpieces. To walk around them and really get a sense of their genius, it is inspiring. From there we went to the Santa Croce where Michaelangelo (below on the left) is buried along with Galileo, and many other influential people. They had incredible tombs right in the main chapel with spectacular sculptures around them to pay tribute to their life. We had to go to Vivoli’s for gelato, it really is the best is Florence. I had a green apple and hazelnut flavor (different in the same cup) strange but delicious. Chris had an incredibly rich Chocolate Mousse gelato I think we had gelato at least twice a day every day in Italy.

After Santa Croce we went to the Piazza della Signoria. This is where the Michaelangelo's "David" was originally and they have a replica there. The original“Rape of the Sabine Women” is in Vecchio on the side of the Piazza along with many other famous statues.

But then our trip went a little sour. We decided to head back to the hotel to meet up with the couple we came with and got pretty lost. It is easy to become disoriented on the winding streets and the tourist maps are not exactly complete. We mistook the placement of our hotel next to a few landmarks, and after searching for about an hour we finally found the restaurant where we ate the night before and could make our way from there. It was a bit stressful, and Chris was getting tired of my “checking down this street or that street” from the Duomo and talked to Alex our waiter from the night before who knew our hotel. Italy has the greatest people, and he saved us. We have meet the friendliest most helpful people, so genuine. We were thrilled to finally find our hotel room and relax. Getting lost was stressful and we were hesisitant to go out to dinner to a restaurant over the Ponte Vecchio that Dave and Jody had been referred to. But we went anyway. It turned out to be a great place, the owner treated us great and it was delicious. I had Strazzeleta or something like that. It was pretty much a ricotta and spinach dumpling covered in a butter sauce. Then we had some assorted bruschetta for an appetizer. The walk back was just magical. It had begun to get dark and the lights were coming up across the Ponte Vecchio (Florence’s most famous bridge). There we listened to street performers and saw couples holding hands, everything felt so romantic. We quickly forgot our previous experience and were able to relax again. We went back to the Piazza Della Signoria when we heard another street performer singing “With or Without You.” Of course we had to check it out as any good U2 fan would do and it was great, they were amazing performers. On the way back we could see something going on down a side street and we saw a great little chapel with an Orchestra playing, so we stopped and peeked inside the door for a few minutes. Then we decided we had better head over to the Reginnella for dessert to see Alex and thank him for saving us earlier that day, and then headed back to the hotel exhausted. A very long but memorable day.

The next day we decided to hit the Uffizi first thing in the morning. We didn’t have to wait in line for long, but we discovered the Rembrandt room was closed so that was a bit of a disappointment. Although you could peek your head in from another room and still see most of the collection. It was exciting to see many paintings I have only seen in books and my favorite Botticelli. We then went to the Pitti Palace to see the Boboli Garden. It was incredible the statues and the layout was amazing. Little buildings, towers, and fountains everywhere. On the end they were setting up seating and a stage for a huge concert. It was so nice to get off the crazy streets full of people and relax a little in the gardens alone. There were the neatest tunnels made out of tree branches that spanned a huge portion of the gardens. The garden was at least a mile long and half as wide.

We ate lunch and then headed over to the Duomo. We climbed to the top (literally at least 15 stories high and over 400 steps in a tiny little winding staircase) we were winded but we needed it after all the gelato we have been eating. The view on top was unbelievable. You could see every site in the city we had visited in the past two days it was the perfect last stop of our day.

We went in for dinner and they had saved us a table and our cake. Our waiter Alex is such a funny guy. He is from Albania, but lives in Italy, and lived in America for a few years as well in New York. He had a great Brooklyn accent, and would goof around like crazy mostly trying to get a date for the night, or teasing people as they walked by. We all hit it off pretty well the first night we came in to Florence and when we got lost he helped us get our bearings. We promised to go back that night for dessert and then after dessert last night we promised we would go back for dinner tonight (our last night in Florence.) Well we all got a bit silly and started taking pictures. Alex had been heckling the owner of the restaurant next door so he had come over a few times, and while we were taking pictures of the waiters we had become friends with and the owner of the Reginella, the other owner came and got in on the picture too. Well then he came back with a trick camera which squirted water and got the owner of the Reginella. So he got a bucket of water and they kept trying to get the other guy to come back over. Then the other guy started dressing up in goofy wigs and coming over to tease them, and brought a horned hat for the owner of the Reginella. Meanwhile we are snapping pictures of all this, then the other owner grabbed the camera and started taking pictures of the waiters, us, girls off the street, other customers, his crotch. It was pretty funny, we were just rolling. I can’t believe how many friends we have made on this trip. The people of Italy are just awesome.

Rome

2008-06-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

I already gave a partial update on Rome in my first post. But the pics were pretty terrible, I was trying to hurry pretty fast and they took forever to load and we were on a major time crunch. So here are some better pictures. The first one is somewhere Maurizio took us. It is hard to tell from the picture but it is looking through the keyhole of these huge wooden doors that the Roman cavalry used to pass through from their stables. There is a long shrub tunnel that perfectly frames the dome of Constantine's Basilica. Unfortunately the dome would not show up in the photo.
We stayed at the Hotel Condotti by the Spanish Steps. Our room was very tiny but good by European Standards we even had a towel warmer, which knocked out the power to our room leaving me in the shower after just barely getting wet with no lights and no water. I was pretty miffed after dropping $350 for the room. Sorry, Sorry I will stop complaining about how ridiculously expensive everything was. I am just a deal hunter by nature and it was pretty painful (but still worth it.) After finally showering for the first time in nearly 3 days we felt reborn and hit the town for dinner and to see the colosseum and and the Trevi fountain. Our cab driver recommended a great restraunt just up from the colosseum. I had some of the best gnocchi of my life, it was soo fresh and soo cheesy. Even though the waiter ripped us off, it was a great dinner (he just kept bringing out things we didn't order, including cocktails, then charged us for it, then added it wrong, and said to leave him a cash tip after gratuity was already included on the bill). Our cab driver warned us that there was a price for tourists and a price for locals, we just didn't expect it to be that bad.

This photo is our cab driver he was so hilarious. and the photo below is Dave, Jody, Chris and me on a road above the Roman forum (ancient Rome). We were trying to find our way to the restaraunt, and got a bit lost. Although you can make some awesome discoveries just getting lost. The next photo is of the colosseum at night as we were walking down the street from the restaraunt.

The next day we went to Vatican City. The first pic is Maurizio showing us the spot from where all of the coloumns were positioned(what a goof, it was like having Mr. Bean as your tour guide). If you look from that spot it looks like there is only one row of colomns but there are actually two. The second pic is when we went on our own to tour St. Peters Basilica. However the Pope was addressing the crowd on the steps so we couldn't go in. But we were pretty satisfied to see the Pope instead. You can just make out his picture on the screen to the right. While the whole world was listening to the Pope we went over the the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. No lines! It is usually a several hour wait. The Sistine Chapel was a surprise I had envisioned a beautiful church with a grand entrance but not so. It was a very simple building that you could only access through a maze of other rooms. The painting is one of three rooms prior to the chapel that had frescoes painted by Raphael, Michaelangelo's rival. Then you enter the Sistine Chapel where you cannot take any pictures. There are security guards all over inside yelling "silence, no photo!" If they see you taking a picture they take your film or make you delete it. That has the famous frescos by Michaelangelo, so sorry read a book.
We left the Vatican Museum and hit their cafeteria. We were thrilled to have a meal that we chose what we payed for and were happy to pay about $35. Much less than the night before. Leaving the museum we went down the coolest staircase. I just had to get a photo of that. I have a thing for swirly pictures, so sorry it's not exactly historical. The next photo is us inside the colosseum the second day. Hard to believe what went on there for entertainment, and harder to believe it is still standing.