Living the Dream

at the start of september, we took a fantastic break from the backpacker lifestyle on a 7 day cruise around the mediterranean with laura's parents. we loved not having to figure out a place to stay or a place to eat or worry about much of anything while floating from country to country and working on our bridge skills and our tans. we introduced jim and joan to kayaking in croatia, climbed around the ancient ruins of ephesus in turkey, explored the beaches of santorini, greece, drove a scooter around corfu, and floated down the canals of venice... and we ate a ridiculous amount of delicious food about 6 times a day... adjusting to hostel beds, public transportation, and carrying around our 35 pound packs after the carefree week of luxury has been a challenge.

we had an awesome weekend visiting our buddies keith and katie from vandenberg in vicenza, italy. it was great to catch up with them and hear all about their adventures living in italy and reminisce about the good times at 4425. we hiked in the julian alps and stayed in a refugio for a night with keith and katie and some friends of theirs. hiking in the alps is way different from hiking in the US, in that they dont really believe in switchbacks, so the traditional 'trail' we think of in the US is usally non-existent. you are generally always climbing straight up the mountain, often with just a series of cables and clips you are supposed to hang onto as you dangle from the cliffs... it was a fantastic challenge and the scenery was amazing.

hit the palio, an annual horse race run in the piazza of sienna for the last 1000 years or so, with adam and travis -- a fantastic festival in a beautiful city. after almost 4 hours of waiting in the square, and 2 minutes of excitement, the fierce and mighty... goose... neighborhood won. too bad we dont have many pictures since this is the night our camera decided to run away forever with a sienna taxi...

favorite palindrome of napolean and lutheran high's doc sheaffer... we kayaked around this beautiful island off the coast of tuscany for a few days. the water was amazing and paddling fantastic. italian families and hundreds of their strollers and two year olds swamped the streets (maybe the casting call for the movie 'look who's talking 3?') italian families apparently liked this place more than napolean, who escaped after less than a year.