We have to admit, we didn’t choose the best weekend for camping in terms of weather. Even the camp ground host at the Muskegon State Park thought we were crazy. On the bright side, no one’s tent blew away in the wind storms and it only rained at night.
We actually had a lot of fun. It was nice to catch up with our friends who recently found their way back to Michigan. I’d have to say the highlight of the weekend was Kendra finding her first Geocache (thanks Jillian). I must note, Kendra cheats when it comes to camping; she brought an electric blanket and a queen blowup mattress!
What an exciting cruise! Our first scheduled port, Monaco, was closed due to severe weather conditions. The captain consequently decided to hit all of the ports in reverse order. This was a blessing because we had amazing weather the entire week. After roughly six hours at sea, our ship received a mayday call from a small boat that lost engine power. Through the entire night we shielded this boat from the dangerously large swells and strong winds until the coast guard finally arrived.
Our first stop was Messina Italy. Like most of the ports in Italy, you have to travel a bit before there is anything worth seeing. We ended up taking a cab to a beautiful town called Taormina (where The God Father was filmed). We met a very nice French couple who anchored their sailboat near the beach we were looking over. They excitedly pointed to Mt Etna, Europe’s largest volcano, in the distance and showed us pictures of the eruption they witnessed the preceding night. Before departing, we stopped in a local Sicilian café to enjoy the recommended Cannoli pastry – amazing!
When we arrived to Naples, we jumped onto a Jet boat for an hour journey to the beautiful Island of Capri. This ended up being quite the adventure; the swells were as tall as our boat and about a third of the passengers were sea sick. The unfortunate crew was scrambling to handout puke bags and paper towels while trying to keep their balance on the rocky boat.
After strolling through the narrow streets and a wonderful Italian lunch, we headed to the famous ruins of Pompeii. The historic eruption of Mt Vesuvius took the lives of around 2000 people and buried the Roman city under 20 feet of ash. With the ash mostly removed over the last 200 years, details of everyday life have been revealed (including R-rated art in the brothel as seen in our pictures). From the complex water systems to the reflection stones in the streets, we were both completely stunned at how brilliant people were 2000 years ago.
We of course made a stop in Rome where we explored St. Peters Square. The magnitude of the Vatican and the superb detail by Artists like Bernini and Michelangelo are unexplainable. Somehow we managed to find time to visit the Coliseum which has enticed me to watch Gladiator for the fourth time. At the end of this crazy day we were able to enjoy a perfect lasagna dinner with a super nice couple from London who we continued to meet up with throughout our trip.
When we arrived to Livorno we felt obligated to see the tower of Pisa. Neither of us was completely enthused considering that we’ve already seen so many cathedrals at this point. To our surprise, this excursion ended up being one of our favorites. Departing Pisa, we took the bus to a famous winery in Tuscany. After the owner explained why Italian wine is so much better than French wine, we were presented with an array of cheeses, variations of salami, olives (Kendra somehow likes these) and of course a great selection of wines. We made a lot of friends on that trip!
It’s hard to believe that we have already spent five days in Barcelona, time just flew by us. Our hotel was very nice, yet it was again pretty small compared to what we’re use to in the states. The best part was the pool on the roof terrace where we spent a lot of our time reading/napping in the sun. Our first night we met a young couple from philadelphia that recommended seeing the Sagrada Familia, so without much of an itinerary we did just that. It is a beautiful church known by many as the never-ending project (notice the cranes in our picture.)
We found a café we really like a short walk from our hotel where we regularly had omelette tapas and coffee for breakfast. Our favorite part of this city was walking down La Rambla, a boulevard that is crowded with tourists, musicians, artists and roadside cafés. The mile long La Rambla also housed the famous La Boqueria market where they sell everything (I’ll spare you the details.) Branching off the main streets like La Rambla are beautiful side alleys that host little shops and cafés. While exploring these alleys we had to be careful of crazy people on mopeds, they were ruthless.
Our last night we took the bus to Tibidabo, a small town on a mountain that overlooks Barcelona. The view was fantastic, so we decided to enjoy it over a few tapas and a bottle of wine before we embark in our cruise.
Note to self, do not depart GRR early on a Monday morning…the security line alone was more than an hour long. Unlike many, we made our flight and we were actually lucky to leave before the big storms that went through Michigan. We landed on-time in Madrid where we spent our first night. The city is absolutely beautiful and the people seem to be extremely nice.
After catching up on some sleep we walked around the center of Madrid. We visited the Biblioteca Nacional Museo and Museo Del Prado. During our first dinner a nice canadian couple sat next to us. They seemed very excited that we spoke english mostly considering that the northern part fo the country where they just traveled from doesn’t speak any english.
Kendra had to wait for her OT license before she could start her new job at Hope Network, so he was able to meet me in Vegas near the end of my conference. Kendra saw her first Cirque Du Soleil (KA), the Bellagio fountains, the craziness of the strip and on our last night we watched Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. While that was exciting, Vegas was not the main reason for our trip. It was our mission to make it to Colorado Springs to visit our friends Rachel and Daron and do some SKIING! Kendra did amazing for her first time out west. I’d have to say our relationship was tested on some of the steeper runs, but she eventually forgave me.
Jen and Tony were heading up north for their friend’s wedding at Bond Falls, so we thought we would tag along. As you can imagine, the september drive around Lake Michigan was beautiful. We also saw the Pictured Rocks and Miners Falls.
We were lucky to see the beautiful Doubtful and Milford Sounds in the Fiordland, visit Christchurch, Queenstown, Gore and Nuggets Point. We spent most of our time hiking New Zealand’s Hollyford Track, Routeburn Track, Kepler Track and more.
