Jammin' with Evan

Here Comes the Sun - You can tell Evan is a musician... and I am not. And Evan learned that song about 3 minutes before we sang it.

Final Hooray!

Our last two adventures included Venice and Milan. Both amazingly beautiful. Especially Venice, I just think the city is incredible.

In the old town of Venice motor vehicles aren't allowed, mainly because there are no roads for them. The only means of transportation is boat. The taxis are boats, even the public "bus" is a boat. I wish I lived at this home. It's true.

We ate lots of gelato here and yes, don't worry the gelato is good in Venice, too. We made sure.

The city was jammed full or tourists. It is that way year-round. Me and Sam had a discussion trying to figure out which city in Italy gets the most tourists and I am leaning to this one.

The coolest part of Venice is their masks. There are hundreds of shops selling different masks. Anywhere from theme masks, film characters, or just artistic ones. Cool stuff.

And lots of other weird/huh?/cool type stuff.

Of course, Gondolas are every where. The best part was seeing all these romantic couples go by and then seeing these 6 Italian teenagers get a gondola together. They look soooooo cool. Not. Losers. Jk. So romantic.

Here is where the real love is at. woo hoo!

Us on the "public transport."

Some ancient important building. Cool huh. No, really though be respectful.

I know I am always posting pictures of us eating, but it is important. It is REALLY important. It is our explanation for why we carry this extra baggage around our wastes and justification for this poundage. Accept it.

Here is the cathedral in Milan. It is by far the most eye-catching thing. Very gothic style and HUGE.

These were our last Gelatos. (I capitalize Gelato out of respect).

Our last moments laughing together. Sorry that Sam looks like this when he is laughing.

. . . and our last moments watching ancient wrestling matches.

We loved it all, but now we need to move on. We miss you America and are glad to be on your land. Posting from JFK.

Hello and Goodbye

That has basically been the motto of our trip. We meet new people we are staying with, or see people we haven't seen for a very long time and then a day later we are saying goodbye. Our last weekend in Europe was that same way. We spent it with Sam's cousin and his wife, Ben and Kasie, who are living near Venice on the air force base. Even though it was sad to say goodbye, the weekend was perfect!

The weekend started out with us ordering "the best pizza in town" and going out to the local hot spot . . . Go Cart Racing! When your a little town like Aviano, Italy, it is easy to have the best pizza and be the local hot spot. The pizza was huge though. (just like Sam's muscles, hehehe).

We look so good in uniform.

These things went so fast, it was kind of freaky.

I was sooooo good at it. (yea I didn't even get a placement that is how good I am.)

This is us not being allowed on base while they went and got the AMERICAN groceries for our hike that day.

Okay, so that is the view outside their back window and that is the mountain we decided to climb. It had no switch backs only a path straight up.

Here are a few shots from our awesome hike. It really was so fun and beautiful. There is something special about being with family and no journey across the world can replace it.

Italian Alps

Then on our way down we decided to not take a path but go our own way. DUMB BUMS. 10 minutes into our descent it started to rain, then pour, and then hail. It was actually kind of amazing. The problem was there was a ravine on both sides of our "path" and the mountain was getting slippery.

After about 2 hours we eventually found our way to the bottom with only a million mud stains but no broken bones (which we were all a bit worried we would end up having).

We are excited to see them again at Bass Lake!

FLORENCE!!!

Hi, Hows it going? We went to Florence. We have both already been to Florence, but we still thought it was pretty and stuff. We only looked at a few sights and then we headed straight to the market. I love the Florence market. You don't really hear any Italian in that market. Only English, and other language that sound like baby talk to me, but for some reason people understand them (I think).

We got a few cool purchases at the market.

Sam went around bartering for a sweet belt because he wanted one to match his new italian leather . . .

Shoes.

This was my saving grace that day. It is everyday. Actually about twice everyday.

I feel like if he can do stuff like this, he probably could get a sweet job somewhere and not have to do chalk on the streets. But maybe he likes drawing on the sweets, maybe he feels like it challenges himself? I didn't ask him, so I can't tell ya.

Ponte Vecchio.

Reagan+ Sam+ Ponte Vecchio=

Cool Italian with crazy red curls. Yes, they were natural- and Yes, he was Italian- and Yes, he did look like one of Sam's friends back from Seattle.