Saturday, July 16, 2011

Vacation Part 1 - Travel Day/First Day in Venice

I probably should write a whole separate post about us planning this vacation - how much fun it was. We have spent entirely too much time apart and it was so nice to be able to put together a trip that was just for us. Luckily, my mom and my Godmother, Helen, were happy to come watch the kids for the entire 10 days and that left us able to go..well, anywhere. Within reason, of course! I had pretty much thought I had talked Chris out of this vacation but he really wanted to take me to give me a break from dealing with everything without him. I can't believe how incredibly fortunate I am to have him.

We decided to go with this cruise in particular for a few reasons. The first is that trying to go all over Europe, carrying stuff, cramming things in, switching hotels, etc sounded exhausting. Since that was the opposite of what we were going for here (we both needed REST!), this cruise gave us a nice mix of activity and relaxation. It had a full but not necessarily popular itinerary, but it sounded amazing to us. We were both going to fly into Venice on a Friday and have that full day to explore, then our cruise left from Venice on Satuday at 5. The cruise itinerary looked like this:

Saturday             Venice, Italy -- 05:00 PM
Sunday                Koper, Slovenia 08:00 AM 07:00 PM
Monday              Ravenna, Italy 07:00 AM 07:00 PM
Tuesday              Bari, Italy 11:00 AM 08:00 PM
Wednesday         Dubrovnik, Croatia 08:00 AM 06:00 PM
Thursday            Cruising -- --
Friday                Venice, Italy 08:00 AM --
Saturday             Venice, Italy -- --

It was on board Royal Caribbean's "Voyager of the Seas".

So I left the kiddos here early in the morning on Thursday and got on the airport shuttle. By this point, my stomach was in a zillion knots. I had written all these pages of instruction for the kids (not that either my mom or Helen needed them) and had left Zoe notes and activities for every day. I pretty much tried to stay up the entire night before thinking I would fall asleep on the plane.

I boarded a plan in Seattle, headed for Amsterdam where I was lucky enough to have an aisle seat. I tried to sleep, but unfortunately nervousness had kicked in, plus I have never been able to sleep on planes. Instead I took advantage of my kid free/husband free time and actually chose which movies to watch for the first time in oh, about 5 years! I watched Black Swan, Country Strong and Hall Pass (don't ask on the last one - everyone around me was watching and laughing hysterically). I also read  "Something Borrowed", which was pretty decent.

Our flight landed in Amsterdam and I was totally unprepared for what it was like to change planes in an international airport. We had to go through passport control and I had to walk to a totally different part of the airport that was going to take 17 + 12 minutes according to the signs. I started to become very, very certain that I was going to miss my flight or possibly get bumped as they had been begging for volunteers. The idea of getting stuck so close to seeing Chris was horrible!

But through sheer will and determination, I made the plane just in the knick of time. I did get thoroughly and totally groped by a woman in security there, it seemed to be the norm. I ended up on the plane next to a very, very friendly couple from the UK who were also going on a Royal Caribbean cruise out of Venice, but a 13 day itineray. He could tell I was a nervous wreck and talked me into taking the red wine they offered with breakfast and then they chatted my ear off the whole flight. It was wonderful! I don't know how I would have made it without the distraction. By the time they began the initialy descent into Venice, my heart was thudding louder than the engines and I could barely hear the landing gear descent. We hadn't been able to speak and I wasn't sure if we were going to be meeting at a wine bar we had discussed, right off my plane, or near the baggage carousel. I wanted time to brush teeth, hair, etc, but the flow took me right to baggage and there he was. I swear that we have been separated like 30 times but every single time I see him in an airport like that, I want to drop everything and run and jump into his arms! I sort of/kind of restrained myself but I know I had an idiotic grin spread all across my face. I honestly couldn't believe that I was in Italy! With chris! With no kids! And in italy! And with Chris!

This has gotten longer than I expected, so I am going to end Part 1, Part A here for now.

Leveling Out, Minus the Level.

Just starting in the middle of nowhere.

I had a fantastic morning at the Farmer's Market. I got Abby a brand new Ergo carrier yesterday and she absolutely adores it. Our neighbor even said she had never seen the baby so calm. She calls it her "go-go" and we had a wonderful 3 mile walk yesterday and then another lovely stroll around the Farmer's Market today. I ended up getting a pound of zucchini and a pound of yellow squash for a total of $3. They are currently chopped and awaiting roasting.

Things have been good - I have about 7 blogs to write about our vacation - possible even more and will be doing that here soon, just wanted to say hello and  figure out the Google Plus Integration.