Bienvenudo a Italia!  We arrived safely in Venice after waking up at 3:30am to catch a 6am flight out of Sevilla, Spain.  The city of Venice is all that it promises……magic!  You can not help but feel the romance in the air.  After not sleeping at all the night before in Sevilla (great tapas and sangria might have had something to do with that), we flopped onto our bed the minute we arrived.  The room we had in Venice was an oasis.  It was away from the touristy crowds and tucked back in a residential part of the canalled city, not to mention cheaper than anything else we could find. The tourism in Venice is insane……picture Disneyland in the summer and then add a few dozen different languages.  The escape from the crowds was a huge blessing…..not to mention our bed was comfy and we had our own pillows (a luxury that Spain does not provide).

After a nap, we set out to conquer the city which included exploring the area away from tourism and off the beaten track.  The nooks and crannies of the 2000 year old city really allow you to get the feel of Venice when it was at its thriving peak in the Renaissance.

After two days of fighting the crowds and battling the heat, we decided to spend our last night on Venice’s only beach, Lido. It took a 30 minute ride on a boat to arrive, but the break from the tourism and our picnic dinner of wine, bread, cheese, salami, and olives was well worth it. Plus, we got to swim in the Adriatic Sea!  A scoup of gelati on the ride back made for a perfect evening.

Since Venice’s street are made of water, the best way to get around is by Vaporetto – water bus.  It’s not cheap, but worth the money to ride through the endless canals.  Gondolla rides start at $60 for 15 minutes and water taxis are not much cheaper.  Walking gets tiring in the heat of the day, so we bought Vaporetto cards for unlimited rides!  We took the boat down the grand canal in the evening under the moon light…..it was incredible.  We road boats everywhere…..which is what you do in Venice!  We even rode the Vaporetto to the island of Murano where they do nothing but blow Venitian glass…..it’s quite an art.

Today we left Venice and arrived in Florence.  Riding the bullet train only took 2 hours and rode us through the Tuscan region.  Upon arrival in Florence, we found our hostel to be without air conditioning and without a lot of other things……we’ll just keep it at that.  The hostel bathrooms were broken and they put us in a friend’s place which was less than desirable (not even 1 star). A quick change of plans and we bailed on our hostel to book another.  We are now enjoying the benefits of air conditioning for the first time in a week!!!!  It was well worth it!

We visited the Accademia today and lingered at Michelangelo’s David this afternoon.  Words cannot describe this incredible work of art.  After a long trek in the sun and battling the crowds, we managed to escape the tourism for dinner via recommendation from our new hostel owner, Ester.  We ate an authentic Italian dinner complete with gnocci, roasted tomato, meat, and red wine.  Dave stuffed himself….as usual, and then finished of mine what I couldn’t.  It was some of the most incredible food I have ever eaten.  How Italians are not incredibly obese is beyond me!

Tomorrow we head to the Uffizi (museum of the finest art in the world) and then the following day down to the quaint town of Siena for a night.  Our journey continues along with the fun!!  Dave and I have found our favorite traveling partners in each other and the trip couldn’t be more romantic.

Ciao!!!

Dave and I arrived safely in Spain after sleepless nights, red-eyes, and time zone changes.  We were exhausted but couldn’t wait to check out Madrid.  We took the subway from the airport to our hostel and didn’t see any of Madrid until we stepped out of the subway.  The view was one I will never forget.  Historic buildings lined the streets – it was magical.  It was hot in the city and our air conditioning didn’t work (which we asked for a discount and didn’t get one), so we slept the first two nights with wet towels over our bodies.

We explored the city including an old cathedral we stumbled upon as well as the royal palace.  The royal palace had over 2000 rooms with crystal chandeliers and spectacular architecture.

The third night, we ventured to Toledo which is the historic capital of Spain.  The city is absolutely gorgeous!  It looks like a medieval castle up on a hill.  The streets are quaint and the cathedral was considered one of the best in Europe. So far, Toledo is our favorite city.

Last night we were in Morocco.  What a change.  Our hostel/total dive was 2 blocks from the beach.  Morocco is a dirty third-world Islamic country where the women are covered head to toe and the men can be seen attending to the mosques as the call to prayer is announced in loud speakers throughout the city.  We loved Morocco for the complete change of scenery, but after a rocking boat ride across the Strait of Gibraltar, we are glad to be back in Spain.

We are spending tonight in the sleepy town of Jerez de la Frontera, famous for the origination of Sherry.  We sampled some of the city’s prized Sherry and stumbled back to our hostel afterwards.  The town is quaint and the people are incredibly friendly.  Tomorrow we venture to Sevilla and then on to Venice.

Interesting travel fact #1: there are barely any tourists in Spain right now – the only ones are Spaniards touring their own country…..and no one speaks English.  Thank goodness I speak a bit of the language.

Travel fact #2: Dave is a giant.  He fits no where and stands out like a sore thumb.  He has yet to fit in any bed or shower….it is hilarious.

Travel Fact #3: Spaniards eat a TON of ham which they call jamon.  We are very sick of jamon since we’ve eaten SO MUCH of it.

Travel fact #4: Siestas actually do occur – the entire town shuts down in the afternoon because it is so hot!  Everyone comes out again around 9pm and it stays light until about 10:30pm. The entire town comes alive in the evening and the young and old are out and about until midnight.

Travel fact #5: Alcohol is cheaper than water.  Sodas are expensive, but beer and wine are cheap….and colder than water.  We are fully taking advantage =)

See you all in Italy!!!

We leave Sunday, June 26th.  Follow us through our journey as we post our adventures.  Our itinerary is as follows:



June 26^th – June 27^th Fly from SFO to Toronto and on to Madrid, arrive at 11am – United Airlines

June 27^th-July 1^st – Madrid, Spain (with a day trip to Toledo, Spain)

July 1^st – July 2^nd – Tangier, Morocco

July 2^nd – July 3^rd – Jerez de la Frontera, Spain

July 3^rd – July 6^th – Sevilla, Spain

July 6^th – July 8^th – Venice, Italy

July 8^th – July 10^th – Florence, Italy

July 10^th – July 11^th – Siena, Italy

July 11^th – July 13^th – Cinque Terre, Italy (staying in Vernazza)

July 13^th – July 16^th – Torino, Italy

July 16^th – July 17^th – Milan, Italy

July 17^th – July 20^th – Thun, Switzerland

July 20^th – Fly from Zurich, Switzerland to Chicago and back to SFO. Arrive at 9pm – Swiss Air

As many of you know, this summer we will be taking a 25 day trip through Europe.  This trip is a dream for us!  Will will visit 5 countries, and 3 continents with nothing but our backpacking backpacks on our backs.  As we journey, we will be documenting our adventures.  We plan to ride camels, dance the Flamenco, eat lots of gelato, drink lots of wine, climb through the Swiss Alps, kayak along the Italian Riviera, and repel down waterfalls in glacier water, and much much more!

Stay posted for our updates as we travel as well as a video documenting our journey when we return.

Our route of travel is as follows:

Fly out of San Francisco to Toronto Canada (7 hour lay over)…

Fly from Toronto to Madrid, Spain.  While in Madrid, we plan on taking a day trip to the historic city of Toledo.

From Madrid, we are flying to Tangier, Morocco. Flying in Europe is surprisingly cheaper than taking a train!

From Tangier, we are taking a boat across the Strait of Gibraltar back into Spain. We plan on visiting the small town of Jerez de la Frontera. Jerez is where sherry originates from.  It got its name from foreigners who couldn’t say jerez, and instead pronounced it phonetically as “sherry”. We plan to tour these sherry-making facilities and of course, taste test as we go =)

From Jerez, our travels will take us to Sevilla, Spain, home of the Flamenco dance and extravagant culture.

From Sevilla, we fly to Venice, Italy, the city of romance.

From Venice, we will take a train through the Tuscan region to the city of Florence where all of the most famous art in the world lies.

The town of Siena is only an hour from Florence and is the essence of Italian culture.  We will spend 2 days in Siena.

From Siena, a train will take us to the Italian Riviera towns of Cinque Terre.  The Cinque Terre towns can only be hiked through and are worth every step.

From Cinque Terre, we will take a train to Torino, the home of the 2006 Olympics.  Dave lived in Torino for a year and we will be staying with his former Italian family.  All the extended relatives with be joining us for a true Italian family experience.

From Torino, we head to Milan, the hub of Europe’s fashion.

From Milan, our journey will take us into the Swiss Alps where we will be staying with a Swiss engineer and his wife in Thun.  Staying in the middle of the Swiss Alps, the landscape will allow for hiking and canyoning, and of course, fondue.

From Thun we will fly out of Zurich Switzerland and head back to the States.  Bon Voyage!!!

This weekend we wanted to go camping.  It was our only weekend to go this summer since next week I go away to school and then we are off to Europe.

At first we decided to go to Bucks Lake,

But then we found out it was raining up there…….

Then we decided to go North of Nevada City,

But then we found out it was raining up there…….

Then we decided to go to the Burney area

But then we found out it was raining up there…….

So then we decided to go to Whiskeytown

But then we found out it was raining up there…….

So then we decided to go to Lake Shasta,

and guess what…….

We found out it was raining up there……..are you seeing a pattern?

We finally found the only place in Northern California that WASN’T raining……Southern Mendicino National Forest. So we researched some campgrounds and came up with Letts Lake.

The forecast said it was going to be sunny and beautiful, but we called the ranger station just to make sure.  The ranger said we were in for some great weather, so we headed out. Upon arrival, we noticed the skies were quite gray. The closer and closer we got to the campground, the sprinkles started to fall.  By the time we reached the site, it was pouring down rain/snow.  Did I mention the temperature was dropping significantly?  Oh yeah, it was about 39 degrees.

It pretty much looked like this:

But it felt like this:

The boys decided to fashion a tarp to keep us dry.  They did a marvelous job and kept us dry while it rained for the next 4 hours.

While sitting in a tent for 4 hours, what left is there to do but drink beer and play cards…..so we did!  Finally, it stopped raining.  We were able to make a fire and cook dinner. That night it dropped to 20 degrees and we froze our @#$% off. The following day was gorgeous with weather like we had originally anticipated. The boys went on some epic bike rides while us ladies sat by the fire and read.  The rest of the trip was a blast!!

Dave and I are on a co-ed soccer team together this spring.  It is a blast!  The team consists of all young married in a few Bible studies at the church.  Needless to say, there are a lot of “babes” on the field.  “Hey babe”….and everyone turns their head.  It’s great.

So, our team deliberated over the perfect name and we came up with…………drum roll please…..

The FIRE BREATHING RUBBER DUCKIES!!!

Fierce, I know.

Yes, this is our team logo which appears on our bright yellow shirts.

We’ve been enjoying the exercise and the teamwork a lot.  This week we played a difficult game.  The other team was Very agressive.

Emphasis on VERY.

They also kick really Hard.

Emphasis on HARD.

Below is the lovely ball mark I received from the game.  Hey, at least I blocked a goal!!

I am proud of my battle wound.  It’s not every day you take one for the team…….literally.

So, What do you think???

Ok, ok, call us techies, call us nerds…..we admit it.  I am working for a web development company and felt, well,  inspired. Not that either of us have time to take on the new endeavor of programming a website, but this provided a better way to share our adventures with you.

So, we built a site….amidst all the other things we have going on, like……

Being a big shot VP

Going to graduate school

Working for a web development company

Attending regular Bible study once a week

Volunteering at Chapman Elementary School

Helping my dad start a school (website coming soon….that I am helping with)

Helping my mom start a business (check her out on the web www.englishservicesonline.com)

Mountain biking…..essential component to life right now.

Spending quality time with our mutt

Oh, and hiking to random cabins in the middle of Nevada

See, how did we come up with time to develop a website?  Regardless, let us know what you think of the site.

~T

I had been planning for months to wisk Dave a way for a Valentine’s Day surprise.  I booked a cabin outside of Tahoe that is accessible only by snowshoes. To split the cost of the cabin, my sister Cassie and I went in together to spoil our men.  We informed them the night before we left to pack for a snow adventure!  They were left in total suspense. Of course, it didn’t help that I took a few wrong turns on the way up.  I really had them lost (and me too!)

We planned all the food for the trip and left the next morning.  Our first stop was Cabelas in Reno, NV…..a outdoorsman’s dream!

Lunch at Cabelas consisted of Bison wraps and buffalo burgers.  We told the boys we would follow them around and show genuine interest a whatever they wanted to try on or play with (this is more of an effort than it seems). After Cabelas we drove the to entrance of the park where we strapped on our snowshoes, threw on our packs, and began the 3 mile hike (all uphill might I add) to our cabin in the woods. Once the boys knew what we were doing, they were as giddy as little kids at Disneyland.  We knew this surprise would tap into their love language.

We arrived at the cabin just as the sun was setting.  We made sure to snap a few quick photos before we lost daylight.

The cabin was perfect. Small. Cozy. Warm.  It came stocked with wood and a wood burning stove.  Downstairs was a futon that turned into a bed, and upstairs in the loft was a queen bed.  We cooked up some dinner over the stove and spent the rest of the evening drinking wine and playing board games.  It was awesome!

The next morning we made breakfast and packed our bags for the hike out. Snow flurries dusted our heads as we hiked back.  The cabin in the woods was the perfect Valentine’s adventure.

My brother David just joined the Navy. We dropped him off at the recruiting station yesterday with many tearful goodbyes and watched him drive away with nothing on him but the clothes on his back.  Can you believe they even issue him underwear?  Yep, they own him. He got driven to Sacramento last night for paperwork processing and is on a plane this morning to Great Lakes Illinois (about 45 mins north of Chicago) where he will spend 8 weeks in boot camp.  Our whole family will be flying out to see him graduate late March. After graduation he goes right into “A” school.  He schooling is somewhat unknown, but it is in the field of computers. Possibly ballistics, possibly radar. If it were his choice, he’d be on a submarine. Given that he scored so high on his tests and that his schooling is more intensive than most, his enlistment was a required 6 years.

Feelings of giddiness mixed with nostalgia flooded him over the last few days as he said his final goodbyes.  I can’t wait to see him proudly in his uniform in a few short months.  I am sure going to miss my goofy younger brother.