Italy and Croatia, part 2

The other two posts that I did two days ago will hopefully return to Blogger as they were accidentally deleted by Blogger - a maintenance problem. But for now, the above picture is taken from our balcony of our pensione about 12 km north of Dubrovnik. The Dalmatian Coast is lovely and there are hundreds of small islands off the coast. Two islands are shown behind Erin and Alana in the above picture.
Here we all are at a restaurant on the Adriatic Ocean. . .the scampi risotto was great but having the entire scampi staring at you from the risotto was a little scary.
The following morning, we got up and walked down the road and saw that bread is delivered to houses just like milk used to be delivered in our country. . .the bread man just hangs it on the wall before 6 a.m. - yes, the sun comes up about 5:30 a.m. here.
Here we are by one of the fountains in Dubrovnik.
Alana and Erin pose in one of the streets of old walled city of Dubrovnik.
A photo of the walled city.
A bridge going into Dubrovnik where the cruise boats park.
The village of Ston on our way north on the Dalmatian Coast. This is the longest wall of a walled city in Europe.
Happy Hour at my parent's room in the town of Tucepi.
We had an incredible dinner of gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce at this restaurant by the sea.
Our hotel was on the ocean with these high mountains as a backdrop.
Sunset from Tucepi in front of our hotel.

Italy and Croatia

We arrived on Monday in Verona and traveled to Ilenia's house. She served us a delicious dinner at the B and B. Her parents, Valter and Lucia, and her husband, Igor, joined us also.
The B and B San Biagio is located right on her parent's vineyard. The B and B is the white building and Ilenia and Igor's home is the wooden home behind it.
Having morning hot chocolate out on the balcony of one of the rooms.
Ilenia had breakfast for us in the kitchen of her home.
We spent the day in the town of Padova (Padua). Here we are at the Prato in the center of town.
Alana and Grampie are in the courtyard of the Basilica of St. Anthony.
Afterwards, we enjoyed gelato in Esde, just south of Ilenia's village of Valle San Giorgio.
In the afternoon, we hiked to the mountaintop to the former convent called Villa Beatrice.
Another view from the Villa Beatrice.
Lucia and Valter, Ilenia's parents, had all of us over for a wonderful dinner of homemade fettucine with ragu sauce, osso bucco, homemade bread, and wild boar. Incredible!
Ilenia, with her father, and her adopted "Grampie".
The view from our window at the B and B San Biagio.
Ilenia and her mother in front of the B and B.
After we left the B and B, we drove to Croatia and toured the Skogjan Caves. Alana is shown here at the end of the tour in the cave. They were huge caves with a river running through them.
Here we are at the end of the cave tour.
Finally, our first Magnum Bar at the end of the long hike on our cave tour.

Evan's Mother's Day Call

We had a great talk with Evan on Mother's Day. He pretty much looks and sounds the same. We can't wait for him to come home from his mission.
Everybody got to talk with him, including brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc. Keep warm in Tierra del Fuego, Evan.

Sister's Southern Road Trip

This past weekend Jeannie, Allison and Erin took a quick little road trip from Florida to Virginia.  Car rental companies have cheap one way car rentals to get all the cars out of Florida after spring break so we took this as the perfect opportunity to do some sister bonding, see some beautiful country and get some new states!  Some people thought we were  little crazy but we wanted to see the South before Jeannie moves back to California.

After driving up through Florida our first stop was in Savannah, Georgia.  It was a beautiful Southern town that we enjoyed shopping in and exploring.  This is Jeannie and Erin along the waterfront.

We then drove that night to Charleston, SC to meet up with some of Jeannie's Coastie friends.  We all enjoyed brunch on Saturday and then spent the day with Annette (a fellow Ragnar runner), Ryan and Matt.

We thought this sign was funny - "wade at your own risk"...

...so of course they did!

We spent the afternoon at the Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka Distillery.  This has become one of our favorite drinks over the years since Jeannie has lived in the South and sweet tea is so popular down there.  We had a great time tasting all the different varieties.

The distillery is located on a coastal island so it was fun for us Californians to see such different landscape with all the Spanish moss and magnolia trees.

We were also able to take in a different view of the city from the roof of Matt's apartment.  We spent most of our road trip in Charleston and absolutely fell in love with the city and its Southern charm.  It also has a lot of history and beautiful architecture.  Some people relate it to a Southern Nantucket.  We can't wait to go back!

All in all the trip was a success as Allison bagged three new states and Erin got one!

Ellie's Birthday and the Museum

We went to the Natural History Museum on the free day this past week. One of our favorite rooms is the gem room. One of the exhibits is a display of how crystals are found in nature. Ethan kept looking up the cave, thinking that there was more to it.
Ellie is pointing out the gigantic elephants to Ethan in the African Mammals room.
The Insect Room was not my favorite but it sure held the attention of the kids. They loved looking at the spiders (there were massive-sized tarantulas) and the biggest cockroaches I have ever seen.
After the museum, we met Steve for a picnic lunch on the grounds of the museum.
Jeannie said that the Cookies and Cream Shakes at Chick Filet were the best - so Grandma shared one with Ethan.
Ellie turned four and she had a Slip and Slide Party at our house. Fortunately, it was a hot day so the kids all had a lot of fun running around and getting wet. They didn't quite understand at the beginning that you were supposed to slide, not just run on the plastic.
Finally, they started to slide on their knees.
Ellie loves Angry Birds, so Ster, in her clever and imaginative ways, created Angry Birds balloons - they looked great!
Ellie is shown here blowing out her candles, as all of the other kids look on.
Look at the beautiful Angry Birds cupcakes that Ster made - and they tasted as good as they looked. Happy Birthday Ellie!

Basketball and Waterslides

Last night I played in a benefit basketball game on our Duarte Route 66'rs basketball team. We didn't really have a coach so one of the main sponsors was Sonic Drive-In so Cherry Limeade ended up coaching for us. Evan is shown here with the "coach".
Here is our rather "ragtag" team. We played against the Harlem Ambassadors from New York and they really beat us badly - they play like the Harlem Globetrotters but have a good message to the kids about staying in school and staying away from drugs.
Gavin enjoyed the game. . .more for the snacks than anything else.
The kids also came out to the desert for the day and went in the pool on the water slide.
Coco enjoyed the slide also with Mom.
Just a little something to snack on before heading home.