This morning started out like any other morning. The alarm went off at 6:15 so that we could get up and get on our way to the everglades. We left the Embassy Suites and walked down 17th Avenue toward the intercostal waterway where we were picking up our rental car. On the way we split our forces with half of us going to Einstein’s Bagel Shop and half to Starbucks for Tea, Chai Latte and Cocoa.

We beat the traffic heading out of town easily on our way to the Sawgrass recreation park. It is part of the Everglades national park. We had an appointment with Captain Randy and his airboat at 8:00. Our instructions were to meet him 1/2 mile past mile marker 38 on highway 27. We got there early, the sun was still pretty low in the sky and finished our breakfast in the small parking lot. A few minutes later a pickup truck pulling an airboat with seating for nine pulled into the lot. We watched as the captain fired up the 500 horsepower Corvette engine hooked up to a four blade airline propellor. After the short checkout period he backed the boat and trailor into the water and brought the boat around to the ground.

We greeted Captain Randy, who showed us onto the boat and gave us a short intro to our safety equipment, which consisted of headphones to protect our eardrums from the sound of the engine and airplane prop. He invited one of us to join him in the topmost pair of seats as the co-pilot. We took off, and after a short lesson in steering the airboat, push forward for right and pull back for left, he turned the steering over to me. Driving an airboat takes a lot more anticipation than driving a ski boat. When you want to turn a corner on one of the trails in the everglades you need to start doing so a few seconds in advance. Luckily if you cut the corner to sharp, or too late you really don’t run into any problems. You make the trail a little wider as you mow down the Sawgrass and cattail, but there seems to be enough of both to go around.

Taking the early morning trip was a great idea as the angle of the sun was just beautiful, and we saw hundreds of birds as we cruised through the trails. We saw hawks, and herons, and vultures and birds of all different colors and varieties. In addition to the birds we were always on the lookout for gators.

Captain Randy seems to have come from a long line of Everglades boat captains that have been involved with all kinds of dubious activities. Pappy was an alligator poacher, and Randy and his brother kept small alligators as pets when they were younger. As Captain Randy fed one of the gators along the way hotdogs and marshmallows he informed us that feeding the gators was strictly against the law. That didn’t stop him, and we got some great pictures of Randy feeding his Mi Amoure Catalyna.

Shortly after our gator feeding experience, we reached the farthest point on our tour. By this point we were all pretty comfortable with the boat and so I was sitting in the bow taking pictures and the rest of the family was comfortably spread around. Randy headed the boat down a narrow trail and suddenly I noticed that we were boating in mud instead of water. As the mud got thicker and drier the boat went slower and slower until we finally came to a halt. Stuck in the mud!

After trying to gun the giant engine on our airboat for many minutes Randy finally admitted that we were stuck and going to need some help getting out. At this point we learned a couple of things about Randy’s friend Lyle. First, Lyle had an extremely long message on his business phone, and his cell phone. Second we learned that Randy had helped Lyle out of a similar situation just a couple of days ago. After failing to reach Lyle by phone we resorted to the old fashioned VHF radio. “Laxahatchie, Laxahatcie, Laxahatchie, Lyle this is Randy are you there, over….” With those words our 3-hour tour became a rescue mission.

Our airboat was partway down a trail that had been drained of water. We were about 150 feet onto the mud and it looked like the mud continued for another 300 before it rounded a bend. The trick was to turn the airboat around and pull it out the short way. Unfortunately in the Everglades walking on mud is not so easy. When Randy got out of the boat to try and use a rope to turn us around he sunk up nearly to his waist. To get back to the edge of the water required him to crawl on hands and knees to distribute his weight.

The four of us stayed in the boat feeling somewhat amused at our situation. Clearly we were not in any sort of life threatening emergency but for Randy this was clearly a pain in the butt and probably somewhat of an embarrasment. We were not dressed to jump in the mud and help him, although Kaia seemed very willing to do so. Josh was protecting his new green and white Nikes that Grandpa Miller bought him for Christmas but other than that I think he would have helped too. I had on a brand new pair of Tommy Bahama shorts that I was definitely not interested in getting covered in Everglades mud.

The rescuue mission was long and tedious as Lyle’s big boat could not turn around at the end of our trail. This required the help of a third airboat driven by a kind stranger. The third boat acted as a tug boat getting Lyle in the proper position and ferrying the rope into Randy when necessary.

The procedure that Randy and Lyle determined for getting us out involved tieing a line to the bow of the boat and then pulling with Lyle’s larger airboat. To a physicist this seemed like a dumb idea as the angles involved were all wrong, but neither Randy or Lyle were physicists so this was not an issue. After breaking Randy’s bowline there was some thought that the way to resolve the issue would be to bring a couple of pieces of plywood so that the tourists would be able to walk out of the trail but going from plank to plank and moving the planks as we made progress.

Walking the tourists out was not an acceptable plan to Captain Randy. It was clear that Lyle’s larger rope needed to be connected directly to the bow of our airboat and then threaded through the side of the boat about halfway back. Randy decided that he would get to the side with a second rope and pull to try and provide the needed force vector to get the boat to turn to the side. After several long pulls we finally had the boat turned at a ninty degree angle to our original course. (This only took about three hours to get us to this position).

We repositioned the rope to the bow of Randy’s ship and he got in his captains chair. At this point the plan was to have one last pull by Lyle with Randy ready to “Give her Hell” as soon as we were headed in roughly the right direction. With this plan in mind and one last pull we were finally free!

Once free of the mud we followed Lyle back to his docking area where hugs were exchanged and many thumbs up were given to our kind helpers. By this time Captain Randy had completely missed his 11:30 trip and was wanting to make sure we got back to the landing in time to meet his 2:30. So we took off for home base at high speed. After a while he slowed down so that Jane or Josh could drive. Josh wanted to have nothing to do with driving as by this time he was convinced that he would do something even worse than get us stuck in the mud. So Jane took her turn and did a great job of driving the boat.

Just before we got back to the landing we made one last stop with captain Randy to make sure that we had our stories straight. Clearly he was a little nervous that his muddy appearance might be offputting to his next group. Particularly if we were unhappy and complaining about the trip. He really had no reason to worry, all of us thought the trip was a great adventure.

After our exciting airboat trip we planned to stop at the Sawgrass Mill, an enormous shopping center. It took us almost a half hour of driving around to find the Ron Jon outlet store. Even after we found it it took forever to get in because the parking lot was so busy and full. The plan was for us to stop there to get Kaia a swimming suit. Since I had discovered that my old suit was too big for me I decided to get one too. Josh also found himself a nice suit and a football for using in the water.

The next big surprise of the night came when we walked over to Pazzo’s for an italian dinner. We walked in the door and talked to the hostess who told us to wait just a minute as she checked the tables. As we stood waiting for a minute a familiar figure came across the bar headed toward us. Sasan Mokhtari and his family were in the restaurant! they were in town for the soccer tournament. It was really fun to reconnect with Sasan after several years. We had a great talk with Sasan and Mary and their kids Tara, Eva, and Daniel. Tara is a first year at MIT and Eva and Daniel have transferred to Breck. It took Sasan only about 3 minutes to ask me if I would be interested in doing some consulting for him!

We had a great meal, although Josh was feeling a little sick and didn’t eat very much.

After all of our hiking and rafting adventure we are ending the trip with 3 days of rest and relaxation in Sedona. Our major activities here are a Pink Jeep tour, Golfing, and a massage for the women in the family. Otherwise we are doing lots of pool time and have even played a hand or two of 500. Sedona is known for its red rock and beautiful scenery, along with crystal shops and the Ye Olde UFO Shoppe.

We did the Broken Arrow tour with Pink Jeep, which was fun. I think we would have appreciated it even more if we had not already done all the hiking through Zion, Bryce, and the Grand Canyon. Nevertheless it was a good excursion. While we were out there the kids decided to do some rock climbing. Don’t let the pictures fool you this was dangerous stuff:





This morning Josh and I played a round of golf at the Sedona Country Club which is part of the Hilton complex. It was a very nice course and Josh and I both played well. It was a great morning to go as there was nobody in front of us and we were able to play at our own pace and move around the course pretty quickly.

Josh got a new shirt and hat out of the deal as the club had a dress code and Josh did not have any clean shirts that would get him on the tee. I played so well that I had to buy a new shirt to commemorate the occasion. It was 25% off for fathers day so happy fathers day to me.

Jane and Kaia both had facials and hot stone massages. I can’t go into any more detail about that. :-) But they were both glowing and relaxed when they got back.

Tonight we are going to go out for some barbeque and then come back to the room and get packed for the final leg of our journey. Its been a great trip!

The call for “Hooaaahhht Coffeeeeee” went out at 4:30AM. It was already twilight in the East and it was time to pack up camp and get on the rafts for the final 3/4 mile of our journey. We had all come a long way on this trip. From the first night where everyone managed to find a place to sleep in private, this last night looked like a refugee camp. We didn’t have much room and everyone slept right next to everyone else. Here you can see everyone’s gear and a corner of what we at first called the “Miller plot” and then renamed to Miller Estate.

Here you can see the bridge that connects the Kaibab trail from the North to the South wall. We went a little further downstream to Phantom Ranch and crossed our own bridge.



The facts of the Phantom Ranch trail are as follows: Its a 10 mile hike from the river to the rim. It is a 1 mile vertical difference from the river to the rim. Now the mathematically inclined will say that is only a 10% grade. Not a problem… It was a challenge. They tell you to have two one liter water bottles and to fill them full at the bottom. there is a halfway stop called Indian Gardens with a water station and a 3 mile (from the top) stop with a water station and a 1.5 mile stop with a water station. We filled our water at every stop. You do drink a LOT of water on this hike. You are also advised to rest for 30 minutes at each stop if you are having difficulty.

We left the river at 7AM and were to Indian Gardens by 10:30. This is going well we thought. Unfortunately when you get to Indian Gardens you have only gone 1/4 of the vertical distance. We finally arrived at the rim at 3:30. We made a lot of extra stops on the last half of the hike. Jane did not drink enough water during the first half and was struggling a bit during the second part of the hike.



In fact with half a mile remaining she was completely pooped. We asked one of our fellow hikers to send Josh back to carry Jane’s pack the last half mile. Josh wins the good sport award for the day.



Now you might wonder is the hike worth it for all that work? Yes, absolutely you get to see the Canyon in a way that you just can’t imagine by looking down from the rim. Here you can see some of the trail we came up. But not all the way to the river that is hidden in the distance.




Pictures don’t do justice to the amazing beauty of this corner of the world. We are all really glad we did this trip. As I’m writing this from the comfort of the Sedona Hilton, I’m inspired by the message on my plastic Gin and Tonic glass which says that “Travel is not about getting from point A to B, Travel should renew your zest for life.” This trip has certainly done that.

For three days we had a great raft trip with Wilderness River Adventures. The trip was amazing! For three days we saw the Grand Canyon in a way that few are lucky enough to see, from the bottom up. As we rafted along we literally saw the history of the world from today to 2 billion years ago. The beauty of this place is just awe inspiring.

We began our trip at Lee’s Ferry, just south of Page Arizona and ended up at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We shared the trip with another small group (Rocky, Joe, and Denise) and one large group from Lafayette College.

The Lafeyette group really made the trip for us. The group of Geology students was led by Dr. Larry Malinconico (Dr. M) and Dr. Dave Sunderlin. In my slightly biased opinion I thought that Luther students were the friendliest students anywhere. The group from Lafeyette taught me that there are other colleges with really great students. Not only did we learn a lot from lurking in the back of the impromptu lectures but we had a great time getting to know them all.

Here are a couple of examples of how beautiful the canyon is. Here we are in calm water:

Here was one of our short day hikes. You can see our rafts to the right.



Of course no rafting trip would be complete without the opportunity to get wet, which we are about to do here:




And no trip report from me would be complete without a review of the food. In a word, awesome. Here are the two swampers (Kari and Everett) preparing our last dinner. Spaghetti and meatballs, or Alfredo Sauce. We had Salmon and rice one night, grilled New York Strips and Baby Red Potatoes another night. It was all “good eats”.



The leaders of the trip were Richard and Matt. Two excellent raft drivers. Not sure what the proper term is for the captain of a giant rubber raft. But they got us safely through some really “fun” rapids. At one point the Miller family did experience a collective flashback to being stranded in the Everglades when our raft got hung up on Whale Rock. This was right in the middle of the biggest rapids of the trip and we were just starting to wonder how we were going to get rescued when the raft freed itself and we were on our way.

The sleeping accomodations were better than expected by my standards. For three nights we just slept on our mats under the stars. No tents, just sleeping bags, tarps and mats. It was great. Since Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, it was dark by 8:30PM and light by 5:00 AM. So it was an early to bed early to rise kind of trip. One night I woke up at midnight and got out the camera. This picture doesn’t really do justice to the beauty of the night sky in Arizona but it gives you some idea of what we saw from our sleeping bags:



The last day of our trip we got up at 4:30AM and went about half a mile downstream to Phantom Ranch. From there we hiked 10 miles linearly and 1 mile vertically to get out of the Grand Canyon. I’ll cover that experience in another post.

It was an early morning today. The alarm went off at 5:30 and we were out of the hotel by 5:43. We made a short drive up to Bryce Point in twilight. The temperature was only 37 degrees but it did not seem too cold. We waited a few minutes for the sun to come up over the distant horizon. When it did we were rewarded with some amazing colors in the canyon:

After sunrise we had breakfast at the hotel and then headed south toward Page. We had a slot canyon tour booked for 10:30 Arizona time so we thought we had plenty of time. Unfortunately we ran into an accident that closed highway 89. We had a nice chat with an over-the-road truck driver as we waited for the ambulance and fire crew to clear the road.

We still made it in time for our Antelope Canyon tour. This was an amazing photographic experience. I took way to many pictures but I’m going to have a hard time picking out 10 favorites from the 200 I took. Here’s one as a sample.


After checking out the view of the Colorado River we relaxed at the hotel around the pool. We just got back from our orientation meeting tonight. We got our waterproof bags to pack all our luggage in. We are all looking forward to the raft trip starting at 8:15 tomorrow morning. This will be my last entry until we hike out of the Grand Canyon four days from now.

Our first day of hiking in Zion National Park was great! Here is our goal for the day:

From the bus stop known as “The Grotto” we hiked 2 miles and 1,800 feet up to the top of Angel’s Landing. The hike to the saddle point in the middle of the picture was a fairly easy hike on nice wide switchbacks. The rest of the hike was more exciting. The park service has helpfully installed chain handrails to help you climb over any rough spots or to help pull yourself up the steep bits.

Here’s a picture of the Miller’s at the saddle point:


Here you can see an example of what the last part of Angel’s landing hike looks like:



Here’s a picture of Kaia and I at the top

Long day of traveling today. Left Minneapolis at 9:05 this morning and just got into our room in Springdale UT at 11:00 Mountain time, or midnight back home. Actually we checked in a while ago but went straight to the Bit and Spur to have some dinner since our last meal was at Schlotzky’s in Phoenix.

The GPS said it would be a 7 hour drive. it turned out to be longer than that because we took a side trip to the Desert View overlook in the Grand Canyon. Here is a view from the Desert View of the Colorado River. We’ll be rafting down that river and into the canyon in just a few days. We will be able to see the watchtower from the river on our way into the canyon!

It was still quite a drive from the Grand Canyon to Springdale UT. Along the way we crossed the colorado river just south of where we will get on the raft.



We drove through Zion National Park in the dark. We are all looking forward to a great day of hiking in Zion tomorrow.

A Long Long Day

Not much to report today. We got up and rode the shuttle to the airport, we checked in, our flight was on time, we sat on the plane for 8 hours. Now we are sitting in the O’hare terminal hoping that everything will continue to be on-time for today.

We told the kids this morning that they were essentially getting up at midnight back in Iowa. So by the time we get hope tonight (hopefully by 7pm) they will have been up 19 hours. Josh of course immediately volunteered to stay up until midnight just so he could say he had stayed up 24 hours.

Summary Report:

Favorite City of the Trip:

Zermatt and the Matterhorn - Dad Venice - Mom Rome - Josh Rome - Kaia

Favorite Meal

Casa Masi -- Dad The Pici pasta really did it for me. breakfasts and fruit in Paris -- Kaia Pesto Ravioli at Grampis -- Kaia Barbeque night in Zermatt -- Josh

Worst Meal

The venice meal with Ulrings -- Dad

Souveniers Purchased:

Josh:

• Totti Shirt
• Roma baseball hat
• Italia Sweatshirt
• Swiss army knife

Kaia:

• Swatch
• Mirror
• New dress
• Ciao Bella shirt
• Shirt
• purse
• necklace

Mom:

• purse
• necklace
• swatch

Dad:

• Italia warmup suit
• Capri pants

A Day in Brussels

We got up early this morning so we could have our breakfast and catch a cab to the Leonardo DaVinci airport. We had ordered a cab the night before so it was waiting for us right at 7:30. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time and got our first taste of how they allocate checkin space in a european airport. The trick is that all the checkin desks are common and the airlines are just assigned a desk or two for their flights for the day. After some looking we finally figured this out and found a display board that told us the number of the desk that Brussels Airline was working from.

After some initial difficulties with their computers we finally moved to a new desk and got checked in. Three security checkpoints later we were waiting at our gate for our flight to be called. The Brussels Air plane was an old 737 that was a 3 and 3 configuration with about 6 inches of legroom.

We arrived at the Brussels airport and were reminded how nice and new and clean it seems. After all the initial security in rome we were surprised that we did not need to go through customs or passport control after arriving in Brussels. In order to get our luggage we had to walk a very long way, after getting our luggage it was a very short walk to the hotel shuttles and our holiday inn van had just arrived.

The Holiday Inn was quite nice. The lobby was clean and nice and they had Internet! We were initially disappointed with our non-smoking room that smelled like an all night poker game had just wrapped up, but after opening the window and putting the air conditioner on vent it didn’t take very long to get things aired out to the point where it was OK.

In addition to the swimming pool the pool area also had a hot tub. This was a great way to relax a bit and any thoughts of catching a train to downtown for more site seeing vanished. We ate at the hotel bar for supper as we didn’t really feel like paying 40 euros for the evening buffet. Josh and I had a bacon cheeseburger, Kaia had pureed vegetable soup and pasta, Jane had shrimp skewers. The kids were very excited because they could get chocolate milk! Their first milk in many days. Jane and I had draft beers of the local Leffe variety. I had ‘Leffe brune’ and Jane had ‘Leffe Blonde.’

After dinner we retired to the room for a final night of 500. Josh and I were victorious again! We won two games quite convincingly with Josh carrying me on his back most of the way.

Ancient Rome

We could subtitle today Information Overload. We spent today with our guide Tony and learned so much it is almost impossible to describe.

The major sites on our itinerary for today included: - Church of San Clemente - Flavian Amphitheater (Colloseum) - Roman Forum - Lunch on the Apian Antica - The Catacombes

Things we learned today:

• Christmas and the Saturnalia. At the temple of Saturn we learned that christmas
• Spaghetti Westerns
• San Clemente
• San Lorenzo (patron saint of cooks)
• The founding of Rome and the vestal virgins
• Story of San Sebastian

After our long day of touring we finally walked next door to the hotel to see the pantheon. It was cool but after a full day of interesting stories and explanations from tony it was a bit of a letdown. Kaia really wanted to visit some of the exclusive shops along the street near the Spanish Steps. We had also decided that Kaia needed something to replace the green duffle that had been causing troubles the whole trip. So we found a relatively inexpensive piece that was larger than her carryon size at a shop along the way.

Josh and I were charged with bringing the luggage back to the hotel while Jane and Kaia continued on their shopping quest. I told Jane to buy me a new pen at the Mont Blanc store, but with prices starting at over 300 euros she and Kaia were too intimidated to even go in the store!

After our day of touring and shopping we headed for our dinner reservation at Alfredos Originale. The home of Fettucine Alfredo! Kaia was so excited she could hardly stand it, for her it was like a religious pilgrimage. I was also excited to see how my recipe compared with Alfredo’s. Alfredo’s was good but very different from mine. It was very light on the cream, but heavier on the butter and Parmiagano Reggiano.

Touring the Vatican

The day started out on a bad note when Tony called to tell us that our guide for the day was sick. So, instead of touring the ancient roman ruins we decided to tour the vatican museum on our own. We decided that would be the easiest place to do an audio tour to get the most out of the day without a guide.

Before leaving the hotel we asked the concierge for dinner recommendations for someplace indian or Thai. We are so burned out on pasta that we are delaying our long anticipated trip to Alfredo’s (home of fettucine alfredo) until tomorrow night. We have a recommendation for an Indian restaurant called Maharajah. The concierge will make reservations while we are touring today.

The Vatican and St. Peters are within pretty easy walking distance of our hotel so we have a quick breakfast in the hotel breakfast salon and then head out. Even though it is just 9:00 the crowds are 2/3 of the way around the outer ring of statues at St. Peters when we get there. Not being very prepared we just get in back of the line and prepare ourselves for a wait.

After about 2 minutes in line we hear an english voice asking people near us if they would like to avoid the long lines and get a tour of the vatican in english. The 10:00 tour is just starting he said. We knew this was a bit of a risk, but since we had already committed to pay for a guide today we figured this would be better than standing in line all day and trying to follow an audio tour through the vatican museum.

It turned out to be a reasonably good decision. Our guide was a young women from Canada named Sandra who graduated with an art history degree from Queens college in Canada. The tour only cost 13 euros per person plus entry into the museum. In the end Josh did not cost anything and kaia was reduced price.

We started the tour in front of the Obelisk in St. Peters square. This obelisk came from Egypt as a gift many years ago. The egyptions asked for it back and rome refused. Unfortunately the the obelisk was not centered properly in front of St. Peters and so the pope decided it must be moved. The obelisk weighed 300 metric tons and 500 romans showed up to help move the obelisk. thousands of romans showed up to watch and the pope swore everyone to silence under pain of death so that the workmen could concentrate. (the only time that many romans have ever been quiet) After they had moved the obelisk, but just as they were raising it into its new position the ropes started to fray. everyone was absolutely silent until one man broke his vow to yell out that they should put water on the ropes to lubricate them. This saved the day and the man was not beheaded but was given a yearly salary in gratitude from the pope.

After that short story we walked around and away from St. Peters to the American Bar where we paid our guide and she told us that once we had paid here she would go stand in the security line to hold our places for approximately 40 minutes, after which time we could join her in the line. This was the point where more than one person in the group became a little suspicious that we might never find her in the line once we handed over the cash. 30 gullible tourists at 38 dollars a pop would be a pretty good mornings work!

Nevertheless Sandra was there in line or us 40 minutes later and even a bit longer than that as the security line was moving slowly this morning. After getting into the museum we realized that the really long line we were in this morning was only for the free visit to St. Peters and we could have come over here ourselves. Nevertheless Having Sandra as our guide turned out to be great. We learned a lot from her about the things that we stopped to see. She explained to us right away that this was just going to be the highlights and we would not stop to see everything. In fact to see everything in the museum for 45 seconds would take 10 years.

• pine cone garden
• the body statue -- inspiration for Rodin’s The Thinker
• Nero’s bathtub
• The Rafael rooms - Michaelangelos rival that painted the scholars
• The Sistine Chapel

By the time we got out of the Sistine chapel it was 3:30 and our two hour tour had lasted four and a half hours. We came right out of the chapel by the line to take the elevator up to the stairs leading up the cupola. Another 320 stairs to climb to the very top. the view from the top of St. Peter’s was spectacular.

After the climb and the view and the heat we were all more than a little dehydrated and hungry, luckily there was a (rather expensive) snack bar part of the way down. we bought some pop and water and then took some pictures by the statues of the apostles. when we got to the bottom of the stairs we came right out into the basilica so we looked around for a while but decided to pass on the trip through the crypt. We headed back towards our hotel with the idea of getting a snack along the way.

For dinner tonight we had a reservation at Maharajah, an Indian Restaurant. It was such a nice change of pace that everyone thought the food was delicious. Josh and Kaia had Chicken Shahi Korma. I had the Madras chicken curry. I was going to order the vindaloo chicken again but the manager told me that vindaloo was the hottest, 80% chili peppers and 20% tomatoe. The Madras was second hottest and was hot enough for me. Jane had a dish caled ‘Murg Peshwari’ a Kashmiri style curry with oriental herbs, capsicum, onion and tomato. Josh seemed to like that one even more than the chicken Korma. We are making a curry lover out of him yet.

The restaurant was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel so we had time to stop for a gelato on the way home. We had a chance to see the Tivoli fountain just as it was getting dark. We were all very tired after a long hot day of walking so we were ready for bed by 10:00.

Mamma Mia We are in Pompei

This morning dawned bright and sunny. Once again the view of the Bay of Naples from our deck was spectacular. As we were eating breakfast we saw a cruise ship coming into the harboor. it looked like they would be tendering directly into Sorrento.

We got up early so we could meet our guide for a tour of Pompei. We arrived at Pompei right at 8:30, purchased our tickets, and looked for our guide. It turned out that we were looking for her in the wrong place. She was at the Camping Zeus parking lot (where we parked) and we were at the gate.

Our guides name was Patricia (Pah Tree tsee aah). She gave us a very good tour and turned out to be very quotable.

Moma Mia its hot! Moma Mia we must get away from the enemy (the other tourists)

Pompei was hot and busy even though we were some of the first people in line for tickets. But it was still very interesting and a fun tour again. It was even better after having read Harrison’s book about Pompei.

Highlights of Pompei

• theater
• the baths
• houses

After the tour Patricia gave us a lunch recommendation for a restaurant right near the Cameo factory we had visited five years ago. She introduced us as her friends to the Maitre De and told him to take good care of us. We got off to a very good start when Jane asked for a Coke Light and he responded that they had Pepsi! Our first Diet Pepsi in many days! After that the rest of the lunch, Napoli style pizza was really irrelevant.

We walked around a few of the shops and then headed for our car. We knew we were a little ahead of schedule but there really was not time for any additional touring if we wanted to be in Rome by 5:00.

Thankfully I had been able to follow the directions the guy at Renault gave me and programmed in the right location for the drop off. It was in the same area as the airport but was next to a cow pasture! The office seemed to be some kind of cheap warehouse space they had rented with a bit of covered parking for the returned vehicles. After we inspected our car and signed over the lease the attendant drove us to the airport and dropped us off near the taxi line.

We headed for the start of the taxi queue and were met by a driver who told us it would be 90 euros for a ride downtown for all four of us with our luggage. That was much higher than we expected so we went inside to regroup and try to learn about the Rome shuttle service we had read about. We finally gave up and decided to pay the 90 dollars to just get going. On our way to the line we ran into a driver who told us he would take us for 65 euros. He appeared to be wearing a taxi drivers license around his neck, but he took us to the parking lot rather than the taxi line. We were really wondering if this guy was legit but he got us downtown in just 35 minutes for the agreed on price.

Our hotel, Albergo Santa Chiara, is right behind the Pantheon. When we checked in, the two managers were looking at us and their list of customers and speaking angrily as if to say ‘what are we going to do with them?’ I think it worked in our favor as they gave us one of their three apartments. We have a main room with TV and two pull out beds, a middle room with another bed, bathroom, and kitchen. However the porter told us “chicken is locked.” Finally, we have a master bedroom. So we have a great room for our last three nights of touring.

We all agreed that we were really really tired of pasta and heavy italian food. Unfortunately we did not have our Rick Steve’s book nor had we asked at the front desk about alternative food sources. So we settled for walking to Piazza Navonna to see what they had. We found a restaurant that offered hamburgers and chicken along with traditional italian food.

As we were sitting at our table waiting for service Kaia noticed a man drawing caricatures in the middle of the piazza. She went to talk to the guy who told her he would draw both of them for 20 euros. So, while we waited for our food Josh and Kaia each had a caricature drawn. They are both very good. Josh is a soccer player and Kaia is a runner.

Since we were seated on the outside table right next the the main traffic around the Piazza we were inundated with sales people trying to sell us flowers, and all kinds of glowing and buzzing things. In addition we had fun watching the people selling scarves and fake Prada purses playing cat and mouse with the two police officers patrolling the piazza. Everytime they would get their bags arranged on the side walk we would suddenly see a wave of them scooping up bags and heading down the sidewalk. Followed by one of the officers. As quickly as the officer passed they were back putting their wares down again.

Road Trip to Sorrento or Happy Birthday to Dad

Today we had a very long drive. We left Tuscany and headed all the way south bypassing Rome and Naples to Sorrento. This is the small city that we stopped at on our cruise with Brian and Holly five years ago so we were excited to see the city again and try to find a few of the places we remembered.

Our hotel, Settimo Cielo, was nice and clean but not spectacular. The View from the deck off our hotel room WAS spectacular. The hotel is built right into the side of the cliff overlooking the Bay of Naples. Looking out at the ships and the lights along the bay was really nice.

The hotel also had a small pool which gave the kids a chance to cool off and burn off some of the energy they had accumulated over the long drive from Tuscany. They had the coolest lounge chairs by the pool. Each chair had its own little adjustable sun shade built into it so if you wanted to read and shade your face you could flip it up and adjust it accordingly.

After we had rested up we walked into the shopping district in search of a nice bottle of Limoncello. We actually found one in the shape of a cello and so we have that as a nice souvenir to bring home. The streets were as narrow as I remembered, but were much more crowded than I remembered from a few years ago.

We thought we had a good general idea of where the restaurant we had eaten at was but it took us a few false starts before we finally found the right place. The restaurant is called La Lanterna and they seemed very happy that we had come back to have dinner with them again after five years. The food was good, but not as good as our memories had created. But we have had some exceptional meals on this trip and I think pasta burnout was starting to set in. I had some really nice Cannelonni which could have and should have been enough. Instead I had some Red Snapper for my secondi which was a bit on the tough and fishy side.

After dinner we walked back to our hotel to get a good night sleep knowing that we had to get going early in the morning.

A Day of Rest

Today the sun was out and it looked like it was going to be our first beautiful dry clear day. A good day to hang around the apartment and do laundry. Maybe today we actually had a chance to get everything to dry for us!

After doing laundry and reading, I finished Three Cups of Tea this morning, we headed in to Monteone for some lunch and hoping to find an internet point. We arrived on an extremely slow day the weekly market was just closing down when we arrived but almost everything else in town was closed. No internet point, not public library. We had a small lunch at someplace fairly forgettable.

We had one of the nicest dinners of the trip tonight at Casa Masi just down the road from Il Lebbio. We definitely are getting the hang of european dinners and we had a little something from every course. For our antipasti we had some bruschetti for primi I had pici pasta with a beautiful meat sauce, and kaia and josh had pici with a sheep cheese and basil. Definitely worth trying to find some pici pasta to use at home! For the Secondi We had steak, Jane and I both had fillet with a porcini mushroom on top. Actually the mushroom was the only disappointment as it was a bit mushy. For dolci Kaia and I had an amazingly rich chocolate cake, and josh had a fruit pudding. I also ordered a little Grappa as a digestif. We could have and should have walked home after dinner to work off the calories!

Tonight Josh and I finally recorded our first victory in 500! After days of bad cards we were finally victorious.

Cinque Terre

The word for today is ‘Schiapito,’ which in english means strike. The strike I am talking about is a gas strike. Something I had never heard about before. But had the effect of putting damper on what was otherwise an absolutely beautiful day.

We took off by 8:00 this morning toward Cinque Terre which is an italian national park consisting of 5 small villages along the Mediterranean. To get there we drove two hours to La Spezia to take a short 10 minute train ride to Riomaggiore, the first of the cities. As we got into La Spezia it started to rain. We were also down to 1/8 of a tank of gas. As we drove through town I noticed that all the gas stations were closed. This was very curious to me until Jane said rather offhandedly ‘they do have gas strikes in Italy occasionally.’

As usual it was difficult to find parking around the train station, but after driving around for a while we found one relatively close. We got our tickets and hopped the first train to Riomaggiore. When we got there the clouds were at about 500 feet and we heard thunder. In Riomaggiore you walk through a short tunnel and then take an elevator to the top of the town. From the top there is a beautiful view of the ocean, mountains and vineyards surrounding this little town.

Our plan for the day was to hike the trails between the first 4 of the five cities and then take the train to the last city to avoid the most difficult part of the hike. Unfortunately it started to POUR as we were walking down main street. So, rather than stand in the middle of the road under our umbrellas we got a covered seat and bought some hot chocolate. While sitting at the table we heard a couple of guys from Virginia talking. They said they left Rome a day early to avoid the gas strike. When I asked them about the strike they said ‘didn’t you hear!?’ ‘You can’t buy any gas until tomorrow morning at 7AM.’ This didn’t do my worry gene any good at all so we started looking into getting a hotel room right there in Riomaggiore. No pajamas, no clean clothes, no toothbrush or anything. A real adventure. The first two places we checked were completely booked, but the third place had a small apartment available. When I inquired about the gas strike she told me that stations on the autostrada and some 24 hour stations would be open after 7:00 that night. So after some thought we decided to postpone our confirmation of the apartment. We confirmed her information about the gas strike and availability of gas at the national park office.

So, feeling as relieved as I could in a country where we don’t understand the news we set out on our hike in a very light drizzle. The first part of the hike, between Riomaggiore and Manarola is a very easy and short walk on a well paved trail. The best news was as we were hiking along we could see blue sky offshore headed our direction! There was not much to see in Manarola so we continued our hike toward Corniglia. This leg of the hike was only slightly more difficult and a little longer, until we arrived at the Corniglia train station. To get from the train station to the main part of town you could either walk a winding road or take 500 stairs!

Having hoped, but missing, the shuttle bus We opted for the road over the stairs. At the top of the stairs we found the pretty town square and the restaurant Cecio! Pesto was invented here in Cinque Terre so of course there were lots of pesto options on the menu. It was very good! Josh and Kaia had pesto spagetti; Jane and I had linguine with pesto. We ate outside under an awning and had a beautiful view down the valley to the ocean.

One of the most remarkable things is the walls in this area. There are literally thousands of walls built to make it possible to grow grapes and other fruits and vegetables. It would take Shane and his crew a hundred years to build all those walls. We also saw some cute little ‘roller coaster’ vehicles, single rail electric powered cars for getting the crops up and down the sides of the hills. We saw oranges and lemons and lots of other vegetation.

After lunch and some wine we headed off toward city number four, Vernazza. This was definitely the longest and most difficult part of the hike for the day. And the sun came out in full force just in time to get us all hot and steamy along the way. The hike was even slower and more difficult than usual because of the mud and slippery rocks. However, along the way we had some spectacular views!

The hike to Vernazza took us an hour and forty five minutes and we were all very glad to get to town to find some drinks and gelato. We also found two other fun items for purchase. At a gastronome we bought some pesto in a jar, along with some special noodles produced in Cinque Terre. These noodles resemble communion wafers more than anything else so it will be fun to cook them when we get home. Across the street in a clothing store I found a pair of Capri pants, so now I can look ‘tres european.’

Vernazza also has a small beach, so Jane and I sat on the bench while the kids waded in the water. We had fun watching the kids and a golden retriever who raced around the beach with the same enthusiasm as Alley races around the backyard. The golden seemed to think its job was to keep the beach free of Pigeons! It was great fun watching him chase from one side to the other leaping at the Pigeons just as they took off to get out of his way. Eventually the Pigeons gave up and found a quieter beach somewhere else. Kaia adopted the dog as her new friend and spent some time petting and talking to him.

Finally, we decided to catch the 6:28 train to Monterosso al Mare, the most touristy of the five cities. We only spent about 45 minutes in town walking around and looking at the beaches before we caught the 7:24 train back to La Spezia and our 1/4 tank of gas.

We headed out straight out of town for the Autostrasse hoping that the information we had received was correct. I was worried that La Spezia would not be a very nice place to spend the night. As we approached the entrance area to the highway the sign still showed that there was a strike and no gas was available on the way to Pisa. We kept going, hoping that maybe we would find something. The first station we saw did indeed look closed but the second station was an Agip and we saw cars by the pumps! We pulled in and saw two attendents standing out by the pumps. When the first asked if we wanted a fill up I answered ‘YES FULL’ the kids say it is difficult to capture the depth of the emotion and relief in my voice when I said that and dubbed that the quote of the day. I was indeed happy and very relieved to have a full tank of gas.

It was a good lesson. It is amazing how much we take the availability of gasoline for granted. I don’t think anything like a gas strike could happen in the USA and I’m interested to read more when we get home to understand the motivation and background behind these periodic strikes here in Italy.

Unfortunately the gas station did not have any snacks and everyone was looking forward to a bit of junk food at this point. We noticed along the way that several gas stations looked like the pumps were working even though the station houses themselves were closed up tight. So, we continued to our apartment and had a junk food supper of chips, salsa, cheese and crackers. Parmigiano Reggiano is very good on crackers and flat bread!

Lunch in Sienna

Today we planned to be a light day. We did not get up too early and our only goal was to drive to another hill town called Siena. Jane and I had watched a video about the town so we were excited to see the square in person. The square in Siena is the sight of an annual horse race where they clear out all the restaurant tables and fill the outer ring of the square with dirt for the race.

We arrived in time for a late lunch in the square. Rather than picking a more expensive restaurant somewhere in town we opted for sitting along the square and watching the people. It was fun, although the lunch was not all that exciting. Jane and I had Lasagne al Forno and Josh and Kaia each had a Salami and Fontina Panini.

After lunch it started to rain, so we lost our desire to wander around the hill towns of Tuscany. We wandered by a few shops on our way out of town but our hearts just were not in the shopping or sight seeing today.

We headed for our apartment hoping that maybe the weather there had been better. Unfortunately the puddles and gutters of rain told us differently. So we stayed around the apartment and read, Josh tried a Sudoku, then got Kaia to play Cribbage with him.

While we were waiting around, the gardener showed up with some Italian guy that we can only guess was the plumber, come to fix the hot water heater. neither of them spoke any english so there was really nothing to do but show them to the bathroom and see what happened. They left abut 10 minutes later, and miraculously the water heater seems to work 100% better.

For dinner tonight we wanted to try Casa Masi again. We arrived at a little before 7:30 but it was full so we made a reservation for friday night. We decided to give Il Lago a try. Il Lago means the lake and Il Lago was a restaurant built around a small lake. We quickly realized that this was not so much a restaurant as it was a place to hold a wedding and wedding reception if you come to Tuscany for that sort of thing. We were seated in a large glassed in room with many tables and only one overworked italian grandmother to wait on us.

Dinner was mostly forgettable. Kaia only ordered tagliatelli basilica which was pretty good. Josh ordered a steak, Jane ordered Gnudi, which was good, and misto of rabbit, chicken, lamb and vegetables. It all came deep fried which made it hard to figure out what was what. I ordered crostini to start followed by tagliatelli with mushroom pan sauce followed by steak. By the time I got my steak everyone else had finished all their courses. Maybe the best thing we had was an order of pommes frittes which we saw another table order. Thinking they would be good with steak I asked for some but they came before I even got my pasta so they were long gone by the time my steak showed up. We arrived home at 10:00 tired and ready for a day of hiking tomorrow.

Climbing Around Firenze

Since cars are not allowed in or around the central part of Firenzi the best way for us to go was to drive to a commuter town and take the train. So we got up and drove to the town of Empoli. It is definitely a commuter town as we had a heck of a time finding a parking spot since we got there about 9am. We got our ticket and took a slow roller into Firenze Santa Maria Novella station. This is the station where all the books warn you about pick pockets. Luckily we made it in and out unscathed.

When we got off the train we made straight for The science museum. Since it was Tuesday the museum was only open until 13:00. It was great, this will definitely be one of the highlights of the trip for me. Anyone who is interested in Physics would love this museum. There are exhibits of real early scientific instruments including astrolabes, Sextants, early batteries, Galileo’s first and second telescopes, early microscopes, the list goes on. Every one of them is a great example of early science and many of them are really illustrative of important discoveries in Physics.

We finished our tour of the science museum just in time for lunch. So we took another Rick Steve’s recommendation and went for a late lunch at the Golden Wall -- Open Bar. It was great. They gave us a table right on a corner window where we could look out at the Arno river and the Ponte Veccio. We watched several groups of rowers out for their daily exercise and enjoyed a good lunch. Kaia had a pear and cheese salad followed by Ravioli stuffed with Ricotta and Basil, I had Bruschetta con quattro formagio e Truffles for my first course followed by Gnocchi with Sausage and mushrooms. Josh had a Mezzaluna (part pizza part Calzone), and Jane had fresh Mozzarela with Basil and Tomatoes followed by a foccacia of Mozzarella and Tomatoes. It was a bit much of the same for Jane between the first and second courses. Overall a good meal.

After we were fortified with a good lunch we decided to find the Duomo. We lucked out and caught a relatively short line for climbing to the top. The line was much shorter than the climb to the top. 463 Stairs! The first part of the climb was pretty standard fair, some spiral staircases... We had a nice break in the middle where we could view the dome from the inside and look down into the sanctuary. As we got closer to the top the stairs got steeper and steeper and we lost the spiral approach and started spiraling around the dome itself. The rise was almost one foot by the time we got to the very where we were climbing along the very top of the dome itself.

Much of the climb followed the stairs between the two layers of the dome. The inner layer is very thick, and the outer layer is only 82 cm thick. You could see the herringbone pattern that the bricklayers used in laying the bricks for the dome itself. By the time we got to the top we were all hot and sweaty. Unfortunately Jane got stuck behind a very hot and sweaty German guy who forgot to use his deodorant!! Nobody was happier to get to the top and out into the fresh air than Jane.

The view from the top was amazing. We could see every direction, and looking down on the top of this ancient city was really beautiful.

After three days without internet contact, which seemed like much longer to all of us, we found a small Internet Cafe so we could check our email before we headed back to the train station and our journey back to our apartment.

Unfortunately we were sidetracked along the way by more shopping. Jane found a winter scarf, Kaia found T shirts for her friends back home, and Josh found a pair of Italian Nikes. Unfortunately for Josh they did not have the shoes in his size. In the meantime I found a soccer warmup set that seemed like it would make nice lounge wear.

The rain at Il Lebbio continued while we were gone and when we returned everything just felt damp. Jane made the comment that this was like camping. All of our clothes just had a damp feeling to them. It would be nice to have forced air heat or even air conditioning just to dry things out in our apartment.

The Leaning Tower of Pizza

This morning we got up early to head in to Pisa. We had tickets to climb the leaning tower at 9:00, so we had to get under way in good time. That meant getting up at 6:30 to be on the road in time to get to Pisa.

Parking in Pisa is difficult. Even at our early hour we had to drive around for a while to find a parking spot.

The leaning tower really does lean. Quite a bit.

Climbing the tower was very interesting. At times it felt like we were going up a really steep hill but at other times it felt like we were almost going down hill while climbing the stairs. It was a very strange feeling. The spiral stairways started out wide and got continually more narrow as we ascended. By the time we got to the top the staircase was barely wide enough for my shoulders.

Sine we finished our sight seeing pretty early we decided to find a place to pick up some of the additional supplies we needed for our apartment, such as beach towels and toilet paper. So I took a guess with the GPS and we found a mall with a great big coop. This seems to be the equivalent of a Target store matched with a Lunds. Lots of good fresh food in the deli and meat areas and lots of fresh cheeses. In addition to the usual stuff you find in Target. I was also able to find a new pair of reading glasses for just 18 euros. I think its a much better pair than I have found at home so maybe its not wasted effort.

Since we are in Tuscany here is a bit about our ‘Villa.’ We have a living room, a small eating area and a small kitchen. The kitchen has a range and a toaster oven along with an assortment of small pots and pans. If this is the size pan that most everyone uses over here it is no wonder that the small french tops work just fine. The floors are all red tile and the ceilings and columns are all brick. It feels very Tuscan and it is quite charming.

We have two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kids have a bedroom with three single beds. Their bathroom is down the hall. Jane and I have a king size bed along with our own bathroom. The water heater is located in our bathroom and is an ‘on demand’ kind of heater. That is whenever you turn on hot water the water heater springs into action. The only problem with this is it takes quite a while to get warm water, and our water heater is a little finicky. Sometimes it heats and sometimes it does not.

The manager is not here all the time so getting someone to fix the water heater could be a bit tricky. Since I am complaining a bit I will say that the weather has been rainy and damp, and our apartment is just as damp as the outside. All our clothes feel damp, and we have been trying to wash clothes for a couple of days and it is impossible to get them to line dry in this weather. Finally I decided to light a fire in our fireplace to help the clothes dry!

Tonight I cooked dinner in the apartment. After our interesting shopping trip at the coop in Pisa I had the ingredients to make a nice Risotto. Of course since we could not find chicken broth (brodo e pollo) I had to make some stock from scratch. With no decent size frying pan I decided to just throw the chicken into the sofrito and let it cook along with the rice. That worked out fine, and of course everything came together perfectly at the end when I added some of the nice Parmigianno Reggiano. Along with some nice tuscan wine it was a very good meal. Josh seemed to really like it as he had about four helpings. Maybe it was just nice for him to get something he liked besides pizza!

The Hill Towns of Tuscany

For our first full day in Tuscany we decided to check out some of the hill towns. We went to Volterra and San Giamanginino, two of the ancient Etruscan hill towns in Tuscany. The etruscans predated the Greeks and were equally as advanced in art and science. It is really interesting to look out at the horizon and you can see many little towns, each perched on the top of one hill or another. The valleys are all full and planted with vines and other crops.

The fact that the towns are all on tops of hills makes driving challenging. You don’t follow a nice straight road through the valleys, but rather you go up one hill then down then up again, winding in and around farms, villas, and the occasional castle.

Volterra is a beautiful city. It is much like what you would find in other large european cities but has a much smaller feel. Although on sunday afternoon it was still pretty crowded with tourists. We checked out the Etruscan museum which had some interesting artifacts from etruscan life along with hundreds of urns to hold the cremated ashes of ancient etruscans.

We had a late lunch at one of Rick Steve’s recommended restaurants. When we walked in there was hardly anyone there but it was full when we left.

After Volterra we drove to San Gimiangno which is another etruscan hill town. It was also interesting but it was even more full of tourists than Volterra. It was in SG that I realized that shopping appears to be a very large part of the european vacation experience.

After our trip to the hill towns we decided to try dinner at one of the restaurants recommended by the manager of Il Lebbio. We drove into town and Tried Casa Masi, but it was full, so we continued on to Carpe Diem. This was a restaurant that was attached to one of the hotels in Montaione. They have a large outdoor seating area and and inside area with a great view. We did not have a reservation so we ended up sitting back from the view. The menu was nice and had several good looking wines as well. We were all a bit tired of Pasta tonight so we tried a little different menu. Crepes, Beef Chunks, Dory and Pork chunks.

The service was extremely slow even by Italian restaurant standards. But at the conclusion of our meal the manager apologized and gave us a free bottle of wine.

On to Tuscany

Our goal was to leave Venice about 1:00pm. So, we got up, had our breakfast and headed over to visit the Doge’s Palace.

After the palace we wandered back to our hotel and tried out one of the recommended restaurants. The pizzeria around the corner in the Piazza. Since they didn’t start serving pizza until noon we found ourselves with an extra 20 minutes for sipping pop and water. We made the mistake of each ordering a pizza. I had the proscuitto, Josh had Margheritta, and Jane and Kaia each had a cheese and basil combo. Josh and I only at about half of ours, but Kaia ate her whole pizza!

It was a pretty drive to Tuscany. Many tunnels and in and out of rain.

For dinner tonight we took one of our managers recommendations and dined at Il Cammieneto. While we were there we had a short conversation with a group of Germans. When we told them we were from Iowa they smiled brightly and said Ahhh, “Big Potatoes!”