First of all, I didn't drop off the face of the earth. A week after we got a new modem (after the storm burned our first one), Dan fried our power supply on our computer in the process of converting it to a 220 volt system. However, we're not alone in this error, since almost everyone here did the same thing SO I guess I won't hold it against him for much longer. And I do still have the laptop, but I don't like the keyboard on it and don't like using it very much. But thanks to my amazing and speedy friend Shannon, the power supply arrived tonight and viola, I'm back in business!
So on to our lives. Honestly, we have been kinda' sluggish lately, not really doing a whole lot. Alex went and came back to Space Camp, didn't get lost in the process, and had a really good time. But I'll let her tell you about it ... she has her own blog now with pictures at http://www.someconfusedthoughts.blogspot.com . And now she's trying to save for next year so that she can go again.
Kyra participated in the Missoula Theater Children's production this year. This is the first year that she's done anything all by herself, a fact that we didn't register until we saw her reaction to it. She is really growing up! You may not be able see her very well the mask, but here she is anyway.
Between travels to the airport to take Alex down and pick her up, swimming lessons and Italian classes, we hadn't been doing any traveling at all. And we weren't happy about it! So.... it was off to Venice this weekend! Easy trip for those of you who want to come visit! We jumped on the train and walked out of the train station to this scene:
That bit of water that you see is the Grand Canal, right outside the train station. I've been reading travel books and looking at photos, but nothing could have prepared me for that moment of stepping out of a pretty typical train station to a whole new world. Pretty cool!
We then decided to buy the all day pass for the public transit, but that transport just happens to be via boat (you can see the public boats just behind my crew in the photo above). We figured that we'll have plenty of opportunity to come back to Venice, so we just wanted to take it easy and explore. We didn't stand in any lines for museums or other goodies, so we have a long list now of what we WANT to do next time we go. We basically spent the day riding up and down the Grand Canal, checking out where things are and what we want to do on our next trip. So here are some more images of our first adventure in Venice:
More tomorrow about a short Sunday jaunt we took...
Next weekend, we'll travel out of country for the first time, and we're looking forward to it!
