Today was a blast! The girls and I went on a scooter ride down the Amalfi Coast to Vietri. Nicole clung to me like the little monkey she can be and Lisette followed beautifully on her pink scooter like the goddess she can be. It was a long ride, over an hour, but we arrived unscathed...John's heart could rest awhile while we shopped. Besides, the view was worth his angina. :-)
The bad news from Vietri - the shop where I bought all my dishes seven years ago was closed while the owners on vacation! AHHHH! Bad timing! Oh, well, I found some other things I wanted. Just have to come back I suppose!
The ride back was a little more interesting. Lisette got bitten by something but kept the scooter under control. She's got about six bites on her back and she was near tears, poor baby! We arrived in the town of Amalfi just in time. The threatening clouds simply burst for about an hour. We had a snack and then did a tiny bit of shopping (honest, John!) and stayed dry. Nicole bought a towel for our scooter seats and we got back on the road.
We pulled in with about five minutes to spare, the scooters were due back at six. Whew! It was a beautiful and fun day!
One other close call, I had talked to Nicole about leaning into a curve with me...we were approaching a turn and I had my eye on a van that was approaching from the other direction. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching the turn close enough and almost hit the wall. While I was saying, "#%$#&^!!!" in my head, Nicole told me later she was just screaming "LEAN!" in hers. LOL
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Pompei is Simply Incredible
I finally went. After living in Naples for two years, I kept missing the opportunity to go or just put it off too many times. Now I can't wait to go back again. My family is tired of me saying "that was so awesome!" It was though. We spent about three hours there and I could have stayed for three days. I know people had said how big it was but I just never imagined it was THAT big. Wow.
That was yesterday. We moved into a new hotel, just slightly more expensive but tons nicer. Then we had lunch at the new hotel. It was delicious but brutally expensive. Off to Pompei after lunch at Lisette's urging. We're all still fighting the time change so not much energy. I'm so glad we went!
Dinner last night was at an old haunt. It was closed on Wednesday and we were worried it wasn't still running. It was and the same waiter was there too! The food was incredible - just like we remembered. The name of the place was Cerberos - it's on a hill overlooking the bay of Naples...we watched the sunset. Sigh.
Today we were up a little earlier. We had a day planned around the Navy base. John was the only one who hadn't seen "Up" so we went to see that. Then we bought some groceries before heading to Carney Park (the US sports complex) where John, Nicole and Jake went to the pool (Lisette had stayed at the hotel when we dropped off groceries) and I went to the Laundromat. Not too exotic but necessary! :-)
We grabbed some pizza at Carney Park for dinner then when all the clothes were dry, we came back here to the hotel. I submitted my final essay for my English Composition II class. Not sure if I'll make an A on this class - too much going on this last month.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Maybe we'll finally be up in time for breakfast here. We should - it's free and food has gotten expensive here!!! It's still worth it though! Ha!
That was yesterday. We moved into a new hotel, just slightly more expensive but tons nicer. Then we had lunch at the new hotel. It was delicious but brutally expensive. Off to Pompei after lunch at Lisette's urging. We're all still fighting the time change so not much energy. I'm so glad we went!
Dinner last night was at an old haunt. It was closed on Wednesday and we were worried it wasn't still running. It was and the same waiter was there too! The food was incredible - just like we remembered. The name of the place was Cerberos - it's on a hill overlooking the bay of Naples...we watched the sunset. Sigh.
Today we were up a little earlier. We had a day planned around the Navy base. John was the only one who hadn't seen "Up" so we went to see that. Then we bought some groceries before heading to Carney Park (the US sports complex) where John, Nicole and Jake went to the pool (Lisette had stayed at the hotel when we dropped off groceries) and I went to the Laundromat. Not too exotic but necessary! :-)
We grabbed some pizza at Carney Park for dinner then when all the clothes were dry, we came back here to the hotel. I submitted my final essay for my English Composition II class. Not sure if I'll make an A on this class - too much going on this last month.
Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Maybe we'll finally be up in time for breakfast here. We should - it's free and food has gotten expensive here!!! It's still worth it though! Ha!
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Bella Napoli
Wow! It's been forever since I blogged - I had a hard time remembering my login info!
We're in ITALY! Staying in a less than ideal hotel but moving to a beautiful place tomorrow. We arrived on Tuesday morning (yesterday) and fought to stay awake all day. We drove by a few places from times past then visited the Navy base to pick up some "essentials"...funny how we actually spent time on an American base while here in Naples but we miss that kind of stuff too!
Jake was especially miserable yesterday but woke up all smiles this morning. A good night sleep does wonders. Meanwhile I froze last night and woke up with a nasty sore throat. Much better by mid-day.
We went to the Cuma ruins today. It's my favourite place in the Naples area. We took some pictures of the kids posed the same way/same place as in 2002. My camera battery is dead so I'll post pics when I can. The Cuma ruins is a former Greek altar to Apollo. There's also Sybil's cave there...I need to look that lady up, Lisette knew all about her. Smart girl.
We tried to go to three different restaurants that were our faves when we lived here. None of them were still there. Sad, this place is a ghost-town in some areas. I guess the recession has been hitting here pretty hard. We ended up having dinner near our old house, in a restaurant that was there but we only used to pick up pizza there. It was a delicious dinner! I just hope we all don't weigh a thousand pounds before we leave!!
I'll try to keep up the blog while I'm here. Ciao!
We're in ITALY! Staying in a less than ideal hotel but moving to a beautiful place tomorrow. We arrived on Tuesday morning (yesterday) and fought to stay awake all day. We drove by a few places from times past then visited the Navy base to pick up some "essentials"...funny how we actually spent time on an American base while here in Naples but we miss that kind of stuff too!
Jake was especially miserable yesterday but woke up all smiles this morning. A good night sleep does wonders. Meanwhile I froze last night and woke up with a nasty sore throat. Much better by mid-day.
We went to the Cuma ruins today. It's my favourite place in the Naples area. We took some pictures of the kids posed the same way/same place as in 2002. My camera battery is dead so I'll post pics when I can. The Cuma ruins is a former Greek altar to Apollo. There's also Sybil's cave there...I need to look that lady up, Lisette knew all about her. Smart girl.
We tried to go to three different restaurants that were our faves when we lived here. None of them were still there. Sad, this place is a ghost-town in some areas. I guess the recession has been hitting here pretty hard. We ended up having dinner near our old house, in a restaurant that was there but we only used to pick up pizza there. It was a delicious dinner! I just hope we all don't weigh a thousand pounds before we leave!!
I'll try to keep up the blog while I'm here. Ciao!
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