Our last port!

We spent the day today on "The Scenic French Riviera" tour. We drove from our port to Monoco and ended up in Nice. The views were beautiful, the architecture was amazing and the climate was perfect (finally- why is it when we go on a trip; the place we're visiting has a unprecedented heat wave)?

This will be my last post from the cruise ship - we get into Paris about 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon and the hotel is supposed to have internet capabilities so I should be able to post again once we check in.

We have reservations in the Italian restaurant on board for dinner and I think it will be our big "dress up" night.

Miss you all!

Florence

Ok, first of all I have to admit - we blew off going to Rome yesterday. Something about the looks in my achy Mom and my sleep-deprived son made me tell them at breakfast (after I got them up at 6:15 - I'm mean aren't I?) that we could skip it if they felt like it. So we spent a day on board relaxing; we went bowling and played cards. I think it was just what the doctor ordered. We're all a little disappointed that we missed seeing the sites in Rome, but decided that it would make for a perfect reason to come back again. Anyone know where I can get a severance package from? :-)

So we spent the day in Florence today, we didn't really get to see too many of the sights because it was all walking and Mom isn't up to it; but what we did see was gorgeous! The tour director recommended a restaurant for us for lunch and I think we had the world's greatest pizza. YUMMY!!!

The drive to Florence from where we were ported (Livornio) took us through Tuscany - absolutely breathtaking.

We caught the show after dinner tonight and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I know when we sailed on Norwegian before that the entertainment was a little lame and this was a well thought out production.

We're in France tomorrow - Viva La France?

Naples

WOW!

I honestly didn't expect to be so impressed by our tour today; we did the Sorrento & Amalfi drive. It was absolutely gorgeous - the kinds of scenes that postcards are made for! The bay on the drive to Sorrento was blue and the landscape was lush and we thought the views of the cliffs were perfect... until we left Sorrento and headed to Amalfi! Dramatic cliffs and buildings built directly into the cliffs made for some pretty impressive pictures. The drive between Sorrento and Amalfi has more than 1200 turns - now imagine with me... a single land road winding through the cliffs but put two lanes of traffic (and us in a tour bus) PLUS cars parked to the side and you can imagine that I felt we were lucky to be sitting in the back of the bus where we couldn't see the oncoming traffic - only the extreme drop offs! :-)

We stopped for lunch just outside of Amalfi at a quaint little hotel and were treated to some local fare as we were perched high up on a cliff overlooking Sophia Loren's Villa!

Tomorrow is Rome; we've changed our tour for tomorrow to a unguided one that way we can take things as slow as we need to for Mom.

Miss you all!

Absolutely Amazing!

Mom saw the most amazing sunset tonight (Travis & I were in the Stardust watching the night's entertainment). When we got back to our stateroom I sat out on the balcony for a while watching Sicily as we passed off her east side. Then I figured out why Mom was able to see the phenomenal sunset - Mt. Etna was erupting! We saw the lava flow down the mountain.

How cool is that????!!!!

Malta - the Desert in the Mediterranean!

We docked in Malta today and spent several hours touring the Duomo, visiting a glass blower, seeing how they make filigree jewelry, and a botanical garden. The Duomo (church) was phenomenal - it is the 3rd largest dome in the world; the largest being St. Peter's at the Vatican and the 2nd being in London - this come in right behind it. There were statues and artwork all over the church. We saw a replica of a bomb that hit the church but didn't detonate; which is classified as a miracle by the locals.

The botanical gardens were a little anti-climatic - who would have thought that an island in the Mediterranean would have a lot of the same plant life that we have at home? There were jacaranda trees, bougainvillea, oleander bushes... even prickly pear cacti!!

Ok, now that I've told you a little about the plant life - I can tell you about the climate. Would you think that Malta would rival the temperatures in Phoenix? Neither would we!!! We were a little surprised to find that the temperature was over 90 today! Add the humidity and it felt worse that our 122 we hit a few years ago.

When we got back on the ship, we "HAD" to hit the pool; it was so refreshing - not to mention relaxing! Tonight is the formal night for dinner so I will get pictures of Travis in his suit.

We miss you all!

Onboard

We got on board yesterday and spent hours exploring our ship. Travis spotted a giant chess board that is painted onto the deck with chess pieces that are about 3 feet tall (so guess what I get to do today). The ship also has a bowling alley! We have been very pleasantly surprised by the amenities since the NCL ship we cruised on in Hawaii was a little lack-luster. We ate in the Italian restaurant last night and the Chicken Parmigiana was probably the best I've ever had in my life. We have a day at sea today so we're going to hit the pool & the bowling alley. Our room is beautiful; very large for a stateroom and the balcony is nice and relaxing - which probably explains why we can't seem to get out of bed! Oops! :-)

Gaudi, Gaudi and more Gaudi!

Ok, so I have to confess... we didn´t quite make it out of our hotel as early as we would have liked to - but it was earlier than yesterday (ok, I confess it was only by about an hour) but we´re making progress, right? We got out and about slightly before noon today and spent the early afternoon at Park Guell. The pictures I´ve seen online and in text books don´t do it justice. It is absolutely breathtaking and remarkable to think that these ideas all spilled out of one person´s brain. The meandering park bench was beautiful, so many different colors and the intricacy of the mosiac work was remarkable.

Next we spent several hours at La Sagrada Familia - The Church of the Holy Family. The construction on this church has been ongoing for over 100 years and you would think that it would be nearing completion - not so... but breathtaking nonetheless. The interior was filled with scaffolding but portions were complete or near complete and the intricacy and attention to detail are fabulous.

We´re off to catch dinner now and then we´ll be hitting the cruise ship tomorrow.

Barcelona... off to a slightly ¨wobbly¨start

We arrived in Barcelona yesterday and we had to wait for our hotel room for several hours. None of us were able to sleep on the plane ride over so once we got into our room, we decided that ¨When in Rome...¨and we took a five hour siesta! In the early evening we went for a walk near the hotel ~ the weather is beautiful, 68 or so, but with at least 90% humidity. Unfortunately Mom was busy gawking at the beautiful buildings and didn´t see this tiny marble step and took a tumble. She´s alright, a little banged up and sore, but we aren´t giving her a chance to cramp up!

This morning after getting up at 11:00 (I guess I´m really getting into this unemployed thingie aren´t I?) We grabbed a absultely wonderful pastry and headed off in search of the hop on\hop off bus tour. Unfortunately, the hotel staff sent us on a wild goose chase and we ended up having to take a taxi (see aforementioned ¨tumble¨ for clarification) in a totally different direction. After exchanging our voucher for the actual tickets, we boarded the bus and sat back and enjoyed the ride. Travis was totally in awe of the La Sagrada Familia and some of the other Gaudi architural marvels we passed really want me to return. Our plan is to get up a little earlier than 11 tomorrow morning and take a taxi to Park Guell since the bus stop is still several uphill blocks away (see aforementioned ¨tumble¨ if you still need clarification) and then after catching all of the sights at the park, we are going to catch the bus back to the Church of the Holy Family and do a tour there.

We miss everyone...

I'll miss you most of all....

This will make sense to a couple of people... everyone else will think I'm off my rocker! I guess there is nothing new there :-)

8th Grade Graduation

I find it so hard to believe that my "baby" had his 8th grade graduation this morning. Shhh... don't tell him because he will blush, but I think he looked very handsome!

All of the graduates that were members of Junior National Honor Society got to wear the awesome medal.



























Travis with his sister, Robin, her fiancé - Sisco & his daughter Andi




























Travis with Aunt Suzette, Grandma & his cousins, Shannon & Nic!




























Travis with his favorite teacher, Ms. Goding (aka - Aunt Martha!)