Mediterranean Cruise Day 2 August 11, 2019

Sunday August 11,
We had a great breakfast on the boat.  There were so many choices.  American, Asian, English breakfast styles.  Lots of muffins, bagels, pastries, fruit, oatmeal, and cold cuts.  In the back I didn't even discover until the 3rd day you could could order eggs, omelets, waffles, and pancakes.

Since it was Sunday and we didn't have anything booked we called a taxi to take us to church.  It was about a 15 min drive onto the mainland.  It was a nice church, though the A/C wasn't turned on much in the chapel.  They gave us some headsets and a missionary translated for us.  I could feel the spirit, especially when we sang.  It was fun to try and sing in Italian.  The slower songs were easier.  We had the taxi driver come back when church was over and we went back to the boat for lunch and to change our clothes.  I'm glad we went to church.

The rest of the day we just wandered around Venice.  We went to a famous bridge and saw the Grand Canal.  It was all so beautiful! 

There were water fountains throughout the city so you could fill your water bottles.

The glass in Venice was exquisite.  I could have spent hours looking at all of the things in the shops.  I finally decided on buying two cute lady bugs for the girls and a necklace for myself.  It was so hard to choose. We also bought a fan - we had brought our cardboard 4th of July one, but it was getting beat up.  

On our way to the boat there were about 8 of these panels on the fence.  It is chewing gum! 

We got back to the boat in time to shower and get ready for our dinner reservation in the restaurant on the boat.  It was called the Trellis.  Our waiter was Fabian from Jamaica and Balsa from Montenegro helped.  The food was so good.  I tried to keep track of all of the things I ordered, but I've already forgotten most of them.  I'm pretty sure I ordered some shrimp on the first night!

 We watched the tow boat coming to take us out, but we had to leave to catch the first show. 

I enjoyed all of the shows.  There was a cast that toured with the boat that did 3 shows.  This night was the first, called Broken Strings.  The plot wasn't terribly clear because they told the story all through songs - modern and musicals.  The dancing was great, the vocals were decent.  So fun!

Sunsets on the ocean are beautiful!

After the show we played Exploding Kittens with the younger group in the therapeutic pool area.  Richard and Tannie had never played and Marcus and Annie commented that it was much more fun to play with adults than with their kids. :)  

I had a terrible night's sleep.  My pillow was way too big and I tossed and turned all night.  

Mediterranean Cruise Day 1 Aug 9-10 , 2019

Alright let's get back to blogging.  And what better way to start then to write about our amazing trip to Italy.  Our journey starts months prior with lots of planning, shopping, coordinating stuff for the kids etc.  We were gone for the first few days of school so I had to make sure I had everything lined up for them (outfits, backpacks, carpools).  Doug's sister Amy came out to watch our kids which was such a lifesaver.  I was able to enjoy the trip and not worry about what was going on at home.

But our official journey started on Friday August 9th (our 18th anniversary).  We left for the airport around 10:00 and got there plenty early.  The playing cards and air fresheners didn't go through security well and my bag was thoroughly searched.  Our first flight went to Toronto, Canada.  The conveyor belt for the luggage was broken, so not all of the bags made it onto the flight.  That made a quite a few people upset.  We were very very glad that we only had carry ons.

We had a few hours in Toronto.  We walked around the terminal and ate dinner then got on our flight to Venice around 8:30.  It was a 9 hour flight.  It was so hard to try and sleep.  It was a long flight.  The plane was older and not very big.  They didn't even had screens in the seat, you had to use our own device and hook up to their App.  Anyway, we tried to sleep, without much success.

Saturday August 10
 We arrived in Venice at 9:00 local time, which was 2:00am Houston time.  We waited for a bit in the baggage area, then went out the transportation area and I happened to see my mom and the rest of their group.  It was a tender mercy that we met up.  We bought a bus ticket to get us into the city to get to the boat.

There were lots of people, and our whole trip was full of smoke, lots of people in Europe smoke!  We got on a "People Mover" to take us to the port.  We had to wait in line to check in, it wasn't too bad.  At first they told us that we had to wait to leave our bags, but then Doug asked someone else and they said we could drop them off in our rooms, even though our rooms weren't ready yet.  We went to our rooms, through blocked off doors and dropped them off.  Then we met up with Marcus and Annie, ate lunch on the boat, and found a water taxi to our first tour.  We made it just in time.

This tour was of St. Mark's Basilica, the Dodge's Palace and the Bridge of Sighs.  It was a great tour.  Our guide was very knowledgeable.  She didn't think much of Italians though, it was pretty funny to hear her talk about their lack of planning and construction plans.  It was a great tour, though after 3 hours of standing and walking our feet were getting tired.

Mom and Evelyn went back to the boat after that.  The rest of us walked around Venice. It was so pretty.  Every alleyway looked like a postcard.  We took lots of pictures.  We found a little restaurant: Bar Academia.  I had Chicken Carbonara.  It was very good. It had been sooo hot all day.  It was much better in the evening when the sun we down.  We were tired and walked back to the boat.  I think I slept pretty soundly because I was so tired!

We saw a museum for Vivaldi, there were lots of old violins and other instruments. 

We bought our first gelato of the trip.  It was so good.  This time it was cherry and mango.