So long...

Our flight from Rome arrived too late for us to connect to Boise and Seattle so we stayed one night near Times Square. We couldn't find a cab large enough to fit all of our luggage. So we ended up walking the 3/4 mile from Grand Central Terminal (gorgeous!) to the hotel in the freezing cold. The boys were miserable. But our hotel was warm and comfy, so they recovered quickly. They have vowed never to do this again...the one night here, two nights there, carry our luggage everywhere.

On the shuttle from JFK to Manhattan last night we looked out the windows expecting to see ruins. It seemed that everywhere we went in Italy there was some building older than the discovery of America. But, alas, all we saw were buildings and more buildings. Then we came around a corner and there was the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. We decided NY was beautiful and historic in a different way.

Debbie and the boys are on a flight to Chicago then home. I'm at JFK waiting to board my flight to snowy Seattle. I'm wearing short sleeves and refusing to admit I am no longer in sunny Italy.

Good times!

And so it begins...

...the voyage home. 3 1/2 hours to Dublin. 7 1/2 hours to JFK. Overnight in NYC then home!

Musei Vaticani

We got up bright and early this morning, rode the super crowded Metro through Rome to Vatican City. It, like all of Rome, was lousy with people. We went on a tour with a very knowledeable guy...who, like the Vatican, was a bit overwhelming. He said that if you were to stand in front of each work of art in the Vatican Museum for one minute it would take three and a half years. There is SO much...art and sculptures and tapestries we could scarcely take it in.

Collin saw a guy that looked like Pele (Collin also thought Rome was a country and all the Italian flags confused him until he realized Rome is part of Italy).

Hunter saw a woman that looked like his Fine Arts teacher, except she had a bigger chin.

Karley said there were paintings everywhere and she and Gloria were blown away by the paintings on the ceilings of some of the halls that actually looked like sculptures.

A good time was had by all.

Colosseo

We arrived in Rome this morning. This is the view as we walk out the door of our apartment building.

Positano

We drove down to Positano today. It was a gorgeous drive (more on that later) and a beautiful day. We really lucked out as the weather has been a bit overcast (or raining) for most of our time here in Italy. However, in Positano it was in the mid-60's and clear. Some of us dipped our feet in the Mediterranean and walked on the rocky beach.

This is just before we arrived in Positano. The town is built into the side of a cliff, you can see the houses and buildings in the background.

However, before our arrival, we were following Steven who was following his GPS to Positano. It took us on roads that were obviously built prior to motorized vehicles. Our poor little borrowed Ford Focus barely made it through. Debbie's constant exclamation was: Steven James Wagstaff! There were times when we had only inches of clearance on either side of the car. Shortly after this photo we suffered a minor scraping on the front passenger fender. As Debbie said, the car was not made to bend in the same way the road bends. It was my favorite part of the trip to Italy, until we actually saw Positano.

And THEN Positano became my favorite part of the trip to Italy so far. We all enjoyed the sun and the time to just walk lazily along the beach.

Ercolano

On Friday we drove from Naples to Ercolano to see the ruins there. Since there are seven of us (Hunter, Collin, Gloria - Karley's friend, Karley, Steven, Ranee and Debbie) we borrowed a friend of Steven's car and drove 2 cars there. AND since Debbie LOVES to drive in unfamiliar places and in strange traffic (HA!). She did a fantastic job and mostly kept up with Steven.

And since Erolano was out of English guides we relied on Steven and Wikipedia to fill us in about what we were looking at. Though I think some of the stories we came up with were much better than the actual truth. Isn't that always the way?

I don't know what they used for paint back in 79 A.D. but it's still pretty vibrant...especially considering all of the ash and lava.

Some of the ruins...terracotta pots.

All in all it was more interesting than I thought it would be, but the boys were a bit disappointed we didn't see any mummies. Darn.

Not quite a convoy

We woke up to this site yesterday morning. A semi-truck on the Guidecca Canal with Venice in the background (behind the boat with a crane on it).

Venice - Part One

Steven, Karley and Karley's friend Gloria met up with us here, at the Hilton Molino Stucky.

The interior is just as beautiful, if not more, as the exterior.

The hotel provided a free shuttle to the docks which gave us access to some beautiful sites.

Here we are, all on the shuttle. Gloria (Karley's friend from Nampa, ID) Karley, Collin, Steven, Hunter, Ranee and Debbie. Notice the umbrellas in hand. It poured rain the night before. The rain didn't stop us from site seeing for a couple of hours and going out to eat though!

The buildings are so colorful!

This is the Accademia bridge. It's one of only four bridges that span the Grand Canal.

Raindrops keep falling on my head...

...after what seemed like an eternity of flying (3 flights...one from JFK to Dublin - a pretty darn cool airport, one from Dublin to Rome - a pretty old and grungy airport and finally from Rome to Venice - which Ranee and Hunter thought was better than the Rome airport) we finally made it to Venezia! And is it gorgeous! We met Elana and Ann from Florida-by-way-of-NYC at the airport and shared a water taxi to our hotel. It was raining so much we couldn't see out the windows of th'e water taxi. But once we got off the taxi and on land, we were able to see exactly why Venice is so talked about. It's just beautiful. We'll post more photos soon...we hope the rain will stop a bit so we can get some good ones without rain spots on the lens.

La Liberté éclairant le monde

We headed over to Liberty Island and Ellis Island this morning. We thought it would be pretty empty on a Monday morning in February. We were wrong. The lines were long, there was more security there than at the airport, we had to remove coats and belts multiple times. We got pedestal access and went on a great tour with a Park Ranger. We learned that the Statue of Liberty is only 2 pennies thick AND that the great advantage of having a replica of her face means you can stick your ENTIRE hand up her nose (if you're an 11 year old boy). We also learned a great many interesting things, climbed up (and down) a bunch of steps and got whipped around by the wind - A LOT.

After the ferry depsosited us back in Battery Park, we hoofed it through the Financial District over to Ground Zero. They are busy building the 9/11 Memorial and the new WTC buildings. We got to see a bit of what the Memorial will look like when completed at the viewing room and got a bit emotional at the stories they had posted and showed on the video screens.

While on the search through WINDY NYC (it was amazingly windy and annoyingly so) and the Financial District for some New York style pizza, we happened upon this very odd building. No windows. Just a bunch of vents. If memory serves, I saw this building in MiB. We were a bit enthralled by the building and wanted to know what kind of building it is. We decided it was a top secret facility as there is no name on the building or any writing around it, actually. Just the address: 33 Thomas Street. A phone switch building isn't nearly as exciting as a secret government facility, but a pretty cool building nonetheless.

We finally found some NY-style pizza at some random place. We settled on it mostly just to escape the freaking wind! It was just around the corner from the Brooklyn Bridge. After we ate pizza we thought we'd walk over to see the bridge, but then the wind picked up again and we retreated to the safety of the dark and dank subway system.

We rode the subway up to Union Square and visited a super cool independent bookstore where we all got some books. Then on the subway again and a walk down Broadway to Mood.

It was a long day of standing in line then walking and walking some more (add to that trying to keep our balance on a crowded subway train when we weren't close enough to a railing to hang on). Tomorrow we're off to Italy!

Brighter, Warmer, Cleaner

We rode the NYC subway to Church this morning. We had to change trains because of construction on one of the lines. I almost fell when the train started to move, even though I was holding on - because Mom fell into Collin (Mom falling again!) Using the subway was very quick to go 2 miles.

Church was in the same building as the Manhattan NY temple. Even though it looked quite different it was the same in some ways (It was long and pretty much half the time I didn't understand what they were saying). The chapel was on the third floor and the temple is on all the other floors. It was awesome having the temple in the same place the church is. And then it also felt weird walking outside the church to a busy city.

I like Uptown better than Midtown (where our hotel is). It felt good having the temple in Uptown because in Uptown it is brighter, warmer, cleaner and I didn't see anybody smoke.

Look who we saw outside the Hasbro store near Times Square.

(Uncle Bobby was jealous.) I'm pretty sure it was the original.

We saw Mary Poppins on 42nd Street in the Theater District (2nd row Mezzanine). It felt like I was watching a live TV show. My favorite parts were when the building pieces would move around - the roof moved to stage level and then up again to reveal Jane and Michael's room upstairs or the main house. When Mary Poppins flew away for the last time I thought about how scary it would be if she was outside my house.

THE END

NYC

Top of the Rock. Nothin'...just the Top...with the Empire State Building behind us.

Ice Skating - Bryant Park. It was hard to ice skate. Um...um...um...I fell on my second time around the rink because I didn't know how to do diddly squat and then Mom landed on me (she considers that not falling) and squashed me.

The only gross thing at Shake Shack. Gross! Grotesque. Disgusting, revolting, unlawful and lethal. Yeah, that seems about right. (Ranee would like to point out that Collin did not taset this hot dog and she thinks Grandpa Bob would really like it, she did.) I would like to start a fundraiser to open a Shake Shack in Boise...and to discard the hot dog above from the face of the Earth.

Collin: What park was that?
Ranee: Central Park
Collin: Yeah, put that. And Top of the Rock again.

Conversation at Top of the Rock when Collin and Ranee were discussing the surroudings.

Collin: I've been to that park before.
Ranee: Really?! When?
Collin: In Spider-Man 3. I really don't like that park cause there's nothing to swing on with your webs and you have actually walk through the park like a normal person. Not the kind of thing you'd find Spider-Man doing...actually walking. I try to avoid that park often.

Start spreading the news...

Grandpa Bob picked up Debbie, Collin and Hunter in Fruitland and dropped them off at the Boise (not SLC) airport. Then it was off to NYC to hook up with Ranee.

We ended up in a TINY hotel room. The boys had enough of sitting all day in planes and airports so they did what all boys do.... wrestle with blindfolds on.

Seriously the LONGEST stretch Hummer we've ever seen! And it was even Bronco orange!

We went inside the Empire State Building but we didn't go up to the top. We're going to the Top of the Rock (Rockefeller Center) tomorrow. We hear the people are super nice and you have a nice view of the ESB. Also on tab for tomorrow: ice skating at Bryant Park. It's free, as compared to NOT free at Rockefeller Center. And speaking of Bryant Park, I wonder if Project Runway is taping episodes right now. I'm in the mood for MOOD now! So much for bringing souvenirs home! My extra suitcase might just be filled with fabric!