Happy Thanksgiving, 2008!

And a good feast was had by all, including Jane11's "office gerbils" who enjoyed tiny slices of pumpkin pie...

Labor Day Weekend, 2008

Sabbath afternoon some friends of ours called and asked if we wanted to go wakesurfing near Harrison Bay. I had heard about their earlier wakesurfing adventures and wanted to try it myself, so we got changed into our swim gear and headed over to the boat dock. Once on the boat Russel (the owner of the boat) showed us how it was done and then it was our turns! Getting up was quite awkward and yet surprisingly easy, while finding that illusive "sweet spot" in the wave took a bit more effort.

On Monday (Labor Day) Jane11 and Er!c decided to take the boat out on the lake and explore some of the islands around Harrison Bay. This time we had a newly designed sail and a new electric trolling motor which we wanted to try out. There was a slight breeze so we used a combination of both. We also went swimming, explored a couple quiet coves and got sunburned!

4th of July Celebrations

To celebrate Independence Day this year we invited Todd over for an afternoon backyard BBQ of veggie burgers, roasted corn on the cob, grilled yellow squash, and watermelon. We then took a walk around the neighborhood with our cups of frozen Italian Ice (or perhaps we should call it, "Freedom Ice"?)

Once it had gotten dark we set off the rest of last year's leftover fireworks and enjoyed watching all the other backyard neighborhood fireworks shows happening all around us. :)

We also started our latest home improvement project... Stay tuned for more info!

Photos of Italy

I have finally posted photos from our recent trip to Italy. Listed below are the days of our vacation for your ease & convenience. You can also view all of the posts at once, however you'll have to read them bottom to top (or in reverse order). Enjoy!

• (1) Welcome to Rome!
• (2) Strolling Around Rome
• (3) Day at the Vatican
• (4) The Leaning Tower & The Great Wall
• (5) Anniversary in Lucca, Italy
• (6) Finally in Florence
• (7) Second Day in Florence
• (8) A Fabulous Day in Florence
• (9) Last Day in Florence
• (10) From Florence to Venice
• (11) Ahhh, Venice!
• (12) Driving to Rimini
• (13) San Marino to Assisi
• (14) Assisi to Rome
• (15) Goodbye Italy

...and here are Jane11's photos from the trip

Goodbye Italy

We started our day at 2:15 this morning. The airport shuttle arrived at 2:50 and we raced around downtown Rome to pick up several other riders from another hotel. Then we made a mad dash to the airport. I never knew a shuttle bus could drive that fast, and on those rough & bumpy roads with tight corners too!

We made it to the airport on time and without any mishaps and then stood around for about 40 minutes waiting to for the KLM check-in counter to open. We finally got our boarding passes, went through security (which compared to U.S. airport security this is pretty much a joke), and then waited for a couple hours to board our flight. Ours was the very first flight leaving Rome this morning! :)

We left Rome and were able to snooze a bit on the flight to Amsterdam where we had a 5 hour layover. We found some comfie lounge chairs and Er!c continued napping while Jane11 found an interesting book to read at a nearby book store. We finally decided to find our gate and were one of the first in line to pass security for our flight and then sat another hour before boarding.

The flight from Amsterdam to Memphis was relatively uneventful and we actually made it ahead of schedule. Our original itinerary had us flying all the way back to Chattanooga, but thanks to KLM/Northwest the last leg of our journey was rescheduled for a day later... so we canceled our last flight and got a rental car instead and made the long 6 hour drive home last night arriving home at midnight (6:00 a.m. to our poor little biological clocks).

We had a wonderful time in Italy, but it's so good to be home again! Our kitties were SO happy to see us again! Many, many thanks to Todd, and Gil & Jen for checking up on them for us while we were away. They look like they were well taken care of! :)

Now I will start the long process of choosing which photos to post on our blog.

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Assisi to Rome

We awoke this morning to a group of noisy tourists outside our door in the hallway as they hauled their bags down the stairs to check out, followed by the usual ringing of bells...

After getting up and ready we ran down to the little cafe next door, enjoyed hot cappuccinos & pastries and then made our way back down the hill through town to the St. Francis Basilica to go to church (it IS Sabbath after all!). We entered through the downstairs chapel (taking Rick Steves' self-guided tour) and enjoyed the beautiful frescoes covering the walls & ceilings. Then we took the stairs up to the main level where we saw more frescoes depicting the life and fables of St. Francis of Assisi. A fairly severe earthquake back in 1997 caused quite a bit of damage to the church which has since undergone quite a bit of restoration and looks very good today.

Finally leaving Assisi we headed towards Rome, again taking the scenic and less expensive rout (avoiding toll roads) through the country and little towns. Italy is so incredibly picturesque. The cities, the country and everywhere in between. We have literally taken thousands of pictures on this trip. It's going to be difficult weeding out the best ones.

Along the way we eventually had to stop for gas and ended up spending 52 Euros for only 3/4th of a tank (€1.47 per liter)! That's somewhere around $70-80! Yikes! I can't wait to get back home where the prices are a much more reasonable $3.70+. Ha! :)
You can compare average prices here. Scroll to the bottom for current rates.

Finally we entered the outskirts of Rome and we hadn't purchased a detailed driving map of the city yet, so we pulled off onto a small side road and got funneled into a jam-packed little one way street. Then Jane11 remembered that we had a walking map from the first leg of our Italy trip which she retrieved it from her luggage.

It took us 10 or 15 minutes to finally figure out exactly where we were and which direction we were headed, but we eventually found the train station where we dropped off the car. I've driven in Paris before and that was pretty crazy, but I'm pretty sure Rome is crazier! Basically no road rules, pedestrians crossing the street when & wherever they choose, mopeds & motorcycles splitting lanes and swerving right in front of you. Not being able to understand their road signs most of the time... It was all quite stressful, but we managed to make it without a single scratch!

Once we had dropped off the car we found our hotel and dropped our bags off since we weren't able to check in for another several hours. After dropping off our luggage and using the much-appreciated free bathroom facilities we hit the familiar streets of Rome again to find a spot to sit down and make some sandwiches. A few blocks away we found a grassy spot under some trees out in front of the National Museum of Rome and enjoyed our lunch.

We then spent the next couple hours wandering around town, checking out cathedrals, water fountains, parks and tourist shops, and enjoyed some real Italian gelato one last time before checking back into our hotel for a short night. Our flight didn't leave until 6:something the next morning so we had to catch the airport shuttle at 2:50 in the morning. Yuck.

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San Marino to Assisi

Today we drove from Rimini to the small Republic of San Marino (map) a few miles up the road, walked around the walled city, climbed a couple towers for a GREAT view of the countryside far below, and browsed through their pretty impressive museum of old weaponry (crossbows, bows & arrows, daggers, swords, cannons, guns, etc.) .

Then drove through beautiful Tuscany to our final destination of the day, Assisi.

We checked into our hotel inside the walls of old Assisi and then took Rick Steve's "welcome to Assisi tour" checking out all the unique points of interest along the way, finally ending up down at the St. Francis Basilica where we arrived just as it was closing.

We then ate supper at a very nice little restaurant with fairly reasonable prices (for a tourist town) and then took an evening stroll back up to our hotel room (at the top of the hill), picked up our little travel computer and then found a little cafe nearby where we enjoyed pistachios ice cream and free wifi. :)

Assisi is a very cute little town with lots of very old history all around. Perched on the hillside Assisi has very picturesque views overlooking the countryside below. Many parts of this city date back to the first century BC! Very cool stuff. :)

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