We thought we would post some of our favorite pictures here for those of you who are curious to see them.
I took over 1500 pics through out the trip, but I won't bore you with nearly all of them!
We had an absolute wonderful time on the cruise. On the last night, as Nick and I sat with some drinks in the bar listening to live music, I got to thinking and I teared up a bit. We had first started talking about the cruise right after he left for his deployment and shortly thereafter we booked it. We finished saving for it throughout the course of his time away, and NUMEROUS times while he was gone we would talk about how fun this trip was going to be once we were all together again. There were many times, while we were apart, that thinking of this trip was what got me through some tough days. So, as I sat there, on the last night of the cruise, I realized that we had come full circle- we spent 8 longs months apart but we made it through.
Anywho, this trip was definitely one we will never forget. We were/are grateful that my parents were able to experience it with us and we longed for the company of those who couldn't be a part. We look forward to all our future adventures!
The trip to Venice was only about 75 minutes and tickets cost us 20 Euro a person! Lovely benefit of traveling within Europe.
We flew through a little rinky dink airline named RyanAir. Mainly cheap flights, mainly cheap aircraft. ;D
Flying with them is an adventure. There is no assigned seating, you wait in a long line for a first come-first serve selection. Because the tickets are so cheap, they continually try to sell you stuff during the flight. Smokeless cigarettes anyone? How about perfume? How about toys? Oh, and my favorite part is when they land they play an "on time trumpet jingle" and everyone cheers. Out of curiosity, I checked to see if I could find the jingle on youtube, and sure enough here it is! Listen to it here if you would like:)
Arriving in Venice reminded us SO much of landing in Florida actually! You are immediately hit with a wall of heat and humidity when you depart from the plane. There are palm trees and even the smell reminded us of Florida.
One of my favorite first memories of landing in Venice, was how happy and vibrant the locals seem. The vibe there is so fresh, friendly and fun. As we were waiting for our luggage, no more than 20 minutes after we had landed, the sweetest family came up to Penelope and kept saying "Ciao Bella!" "Ciao Bellissima!" One thing, I can not even begin to stress is how much the locals at most of the countries we visited LOVED children and ESPECIALLY Penelope. When I saw this shirt later, I had to get it for her. After all, it was our first Italian experience!
