Trip to Italy - Part 3

The final destination of our grand Italian vacation was the beautiful city of Venice. They say that the farther you go North in Italy, the more expensive it gets. From our limited experience (from Naples in the southern portion of the country, to Rome in the middle, and then Venice in the North), I can indeed confirm this piece of folk wisdom.

Venice's Grand Canal

Venice is a tourist destination for a large number of people from Europe and Asia. The city seemed much more ritzy-touristy than Rome, which had many historical sites. Venice, on the other hand, features a large number of ways to separate you from your money via high-end shops and restaurants.

Dining al Fresco

The municipal coat of arms for Venice features a winged lion, and you see this symbol throughout Venice. I can hardly think of a better mascot, short of Trogdor the Burninator.

Winged Lion of St. Mark

We walked through the open air market near the Rialto Bridge one morning, and saw some of the local produce and seafood, which is boated in daily.

Local Produce

Fresh Seafood

The architecture of Venice fascinated me the most. It is a city with almost no land unused. The alleyways twist and wind through the buildings, occasionally meeting in a small plaza or crossing a canal. The lesser traveled walkways (sometimes only 3 or 4 people wide) can be eerily quiet even in the middle of the day, and it is always interesting to see what shops are found on these lesser traveled routes.

Horse - the other red meat!

After three days in Venice and 10 days in Italy, we had to make our way back home. It was a great vacation with the family, and something I think we will all remember for the rest of our lives.

Trip to Italy - Part 2

While we stayed in Rome for the week, we made two day trips during those 7 days. Our first day trip (by way of a very comfortable high speed train) was to Florence. We had reservations to the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno to see Michelangelo's David and several other works of art (sorry, no cameras allowed!).

Fountain in Florence

We then walked about the city, taking in the sights and sounds. A bus tour sped us through the highlights of the locale, and we visited the Ponte Vecchio ("old bridge"). The Ponte Vecchio was first constructed by the Romans, and was the only bridge not destroyed by the German forces during their withdrawl from Italy in 1944, allegedly because of an express order by Hitler.

Our second day trip took us South of Rome, to Naples. From Naples we caught a local train to Pompeii. What can I say about Pompeii, other than it was truly an amazing experience? It boggles my mind how complete a city it was, nearly 2000 years ago!

Pompeii Baking Area

The city is so well preserved that some of the artwork (mostly frescos) is still visible, and quite beautiful.

Fresco on the wall of a Pompeii house

We spent a good 5 hours walking around Pompeii, and could have easily extended that to a full day if we had the time. Herculaneum is Pompeii's lesser known sister city, which faced a similar fate. That archeological site would have needed another day in and of itself as well.

Vesuvius and Family

We then made our way back to Naples, and had pizza Margherita at pizzeria “Da Michele” - supposedly the place which originated this style of pizza. I can't say too much positive about the city of Naples itself (other than the pizza), as it was still recovering from a trash workers strike. We had to be extra careful of pick-pockets and others, and that extra vigilance can take a toll on your ability to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds.

My next post will cover our three days in Venice!

Trip to Italy - Part 1

Well, things have been very busy for me and my family, but I have a few spare minutes and thought that I would update the blog on our biggest event this year so far - our trip to Italy. We went with our extended family, and everyone had a great time.

Several months before leaving, I decided to try and pick up as much of the Italian language as possible. I purchased a few books, and even gave the (very boring) Rosetta Stone program a try. However, the best tool I found for picking up conversational Italian is Pimsleur's Speak and Read Italian.

There are three courses in the series, each consisting of 30 lessons. Each lesson is just under 30 minutes, which just so happens to perfectly coincide with my commute time. Thus, I would often listen to a lesson on the way to work, and then repeat it on the way home or advance to the next one. I made good progress through the lessons, and made it half way through the Italian II course before we headed off to Italy.

We left for Italy on the Saturday before Easter, and actually arrived in Rome Easter morning. We spent that day checking into our hotel, relaxing, and trying to get a feel for the new surroundings.

View from Our Room

There are a lot of sights to see in Rome, as one might expect of a city with over 2,700 years of history. We took a bus tour around The Eternal City to get a feel for it, and stopped off at Piazza Navona to walk around a bit.

Piazza Navona

A short walk from there, and you'll find yourself at the Pantheon.

Pantheon

There are many fountains throughout Rome, built to bring water to the people. The water is fresh and we drank it often during our walks through Rome.

Trevi Fountain

My youngest son thought that the Colosseum was extremely impressive, and I would have to agree. Although parts of it were cannibalized for construction later on in Rome's history, a good portion of it still stands today. Perhaps most impressive were the storage areas underneath the main "floor", where the gladiators and animals they fought were kept. You can see today where elevators raised new and exciting beasts to the arena floor.

Colosseum

Exploring the forum and the ruins around it are definitely worth your time. Don't miss out on hiking up Palatine Hill to get a breathtaking view of Rome, and stroll through the Emperor's palace.

Family

My next post will cover two of our days trips from Rome...

Mammoth Lakes Vacation - Part 1

Wow, have I been slacking off on the blog lately, or what? I've been very busy at work and at home this last month, so please pardon the virtual dust gathering around here.

For our family summer vacation this year, we decided to rent a trailer and go camping up in the Mammoth Lakes area. There are many of campgrounds in the area, and quite a few activities to keep us busy.

Our trip up was fairly uneventful. We a made a quick stop in Lone Pine to stretch our legs, and take in the beautiful view of Mt. Whitney.



After that brief stop, we grabbed lunch in Bishop and then made our way to Mammoth Lakes and our remote campground. The wilderness up there is just pristine, with jaw-dropping views surprising you around each new bend in the road.



I took the kids fishing for the first time, but we were skunked. From what I understand, it is best to avoid the easy-access lakes, as they are fished heavily. Even though we didn't hook up anything, the kids had a good time trying their hand at it.


It was odd seeing Mammoth Mountain without snow, as I had never been up in this area during the summer. It is a truly beautiful area, and I bet we make our way back up here sometime in the near future.


I'll have parts 2 and 3 coming up in the next week or so. To see more photos from this picture set, click here.

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, with high hopes for a prosperous new year! I'm taking a couple (much needed) weeks off from work to spend time with the family, surf a bit, and decompress. See you in 2007!

Summer Vacation Part V - The Road Home

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When we last left our intrepid band of family members, they were leaving the confines of the Puget Sound area, and making their way back home to Southern California. SoCal, where mold isn't the state flower, and sunshine isn't an endangered species. Ah yes, I was so looking forward to getting back home.

After 10 hours of uneventful driving through Washington, Oregon, and into California, we stopped for the night in Redding, CA. The first order of business was getting a place to stay, and we opted for a local motel which appeared a little bit worse for the wear. However, we actually had our best night of sleep there, so I can't complain too much. They had a pool (the temperature was very hot), wireless net access, and free donuts and coffee for breakfast.

After securing accommodations for the night and letting the kids cool off in the pool, we went out to eat at Buzz's Crab Seafood restaurant, an establishment that came highly recommended. Redding doesn't conjure up images of waves breaking on the beach, crabs skittering over rocks, nor sharks (lasers attached to their frickin' heads on not), so I was a bit apprehensive about the place. My fears were misplaced, as the food was great and the setting informal (a big plus when traveling with three kids couped up all day in a car). Everyone enjoyed their meal, and the night was still young, so we all decided to go for a walk and see what was available locally.

We had heard a little bit about Turtle Bay Exploration Park, so we bugged our hostess for directions and made our way to the park. The park is next to the Sacramento river, and the most striking feature of the park is the Sundial Bridge which goes over it. As it was getting on fairly late in the day, most of the park was closed except for the bridge and the trails adjacent to the river. Here are a few pictures:



So, we hiked around a bit, took some pictures, and headed back to the room to catch some Z's. The following morning, we ate a few donuts and hit the road homeward bound. The remainder of the trip was uneventful, save for the wonderful traffic in Los Angeles.

Summer Vacation Part IV - Silverdale

After leaving Hood River, we had a relatively short four hour trip to our next destination - Silverdale, WA. My wife's parents live there in a house which sits on Dye's inlet. We took several opportunities to investigate the local sea life during the extremely low tides we experienced while there. To illustrate the radical tide swings, note the above picture taken during a low tide. At high tide, the water goes all the way up to the rock wall.

There are tons of shells to look at, and it seems as if you can't go more than two steps without crushing sand dollars under your (hopefully booty equipped) feet. The kids had a great time looking for perfect sand dollars, hermit crabs, and other shells. Of course, I was enlisted to help collect helpless sea creatures as well.

While in Silverdale, we visited the Naval Undersea Museum in Keyport, which is open to the public and free of charge. The museum is extremely kid-friendly, with man hands-on
exhibits including a dress-up area with kid sized costumes.

One day, we made the trip up to Port Townsend, and our trip was stopped at the Hood canal bridge. The original bridge sunk in 1979, and the current version opened about three years later in 1982. It's most notable trait is that it is a floating (or pontoon) bridge, and is also a draw bridge. However, instead of raising up a section of the bridge to let vessels pass through, sections of the floating bridge slide back, like a retracting roadway.

The vessel passing through this time was one of the large subs based at Bangor, and since it was not traveling under its own power, I'm guessing that it was being towed to the Bremerton ship yards for repairs.

After about a week up in Silverdale, the whole family was ready for the trip back. So, with one more stop on the way back home, we took off early in the morning and made our way back South.

Summer Vacation Part III - Hood River

Breaking camp early in the morning on the 4th of July, we made the 8+ hour drive from Lake Shasta to Hood River, OR. Driving along the banks of the Columbia River provided a nice view of two waterfalls, and as we drove I thought about Lewis and Clark, and their most excellent adventure which took them from the interior of the then new country, all the way out West.

We spent two nights at my sister-in-law's house, and had a nice time watching the fireworks display on the 4th. The following day, we drove around the countryside, bought locally made fresh fruit products (jams, pies, etc.), and saw Mt. Hood. At one of our stops, the kids fed a few goats, which they enjoyed.

After two nights, it was time to head further North once again...

Summer Vacation Part II - Lake Shasta (cont.)

Other than camp and eat near-gourmet quality food (if I do say so myself) while at Lake Shasta, what else did we do? For each of the two full days there, we planned something different.

On our first full day in the Shasta area, we decided to visit Lake Shasta Caverns. After a brief boat ride across the Lake, and a shuttle ride up a twisting and turning path, we all delved into the natural caverns discovered above the McCloud arm of the lake.


The caverns were a good twenty degrees cooler than the outside temperature, which was quite welcome. The caves had some pretty amazing formations, which don't show up to well in the photos I took due to a distinct lack of good lighting. In total, we made out way up, down, and around 695 steps on our round trip explorations of the caverns.


No children were harmed in the taking of this picture:

The second full day found us traveling a bit North and then a bit east, to hike up and see the Middle McCloud falls.

The middle falls are around 100 ft. wide and 50 ft. tall, and quite breathtaking.

After snapping a few pictures, we made our way down to the Lower McCloud falls, and tempted fate by changing into bathing suits and braving the near pure snow-melt. I didn't have a thermometer with me, but I'd estimate the water temperature to be in the 40s - much colder than any ocean water I surf during the winter here in San Diego (with a full suit). The water was so cold that your feet felt a bit numb after a few minutes in the water. However, the weather was so beautiful that we braved the chilly temperatures and had a good time.


The next day we said our farewells to Lake Shasta, broke camp early in the morning, and continued on our journey heading further North.

(To be continued!)

Summer Vacation Part I - Lake Shasta

Prior to this summer, our family had not driven farther than the distance from Oceanside to San Mateo, to visit my brother and his family up in the bay area. It also has been two years since our last summer vacation (camping at South Carlsbad State Beach). So, this summer we planned a long road trip from Oceanside up to Seattle , stopping at points in between.

The first leg of our journey found we five hardy travelers making our way up to Lake Shasta. From Oceanside, that is approximately a 10.5 hour trip. The kids handled it well, and we only stopped once for breakfast at 9:00 AM, around 5 hours after we left the house. Yes, those of you who are handy with numbers will quickly deduce that we left the homestead at 4:00 AM. Doing this, I can avoid the traffic in LA and the kids will go back to sleep for a while.

The drive up I-5 went well, except for a closure in LA due to who knows what. We made it up to our camp site at Shasta Lake RV Resort and Campground by 2:30, and boy was it warm! I think it was in the mid 90s as we pulled in to our site. Thankfully, the tent sites there are almost all shaded, and very spacious. So long as you were not doing much physical, the temperature wasn't too bad. The picture to the right gives a decent overall view of the campsite.

The campground had hot showers, a swimming pool, and a nice little camp store that sold ice, beer, and other life or death items. The people who worked there were polite and friendly, and I wouldn't hesitate camping there again in the future. The RV sites looked a bit close together, however.

I cooked all meals using charcoal and my two dutch ovens. We ate well, cooking dinners of stew, cornbread, dump cake, tequila lime turkey breast, home made sourdough bread, apple crisp, etc. Breakfast was also cooked, featuring: bacon, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, etc. We kept lunches simple with PB&J sandwiches. Unfortunately, I was so busy cooking that I forgot to take pictures, except for the following from breakfast one morning.


So, what did we do for the three days we were there? That'll be the subject of my next entry...

Cleveland Rocks!

Over the weekend, I attended a conference in the suburbs of scenic Cleveland, Ohio. During our stay, we saw a few of the following sights:

First up was Lake Erie (it's sort of hard to miss it as you fly over it on landing approach). We drove through Sandusky and up North to the Marblehead peninsula to get a good look at Lake Erie, the shallowest of the Great Lakes (maximum depth of 210 ft.). In the past, it has frozen completely over, allowing people and cars to traverse the lake over ice to the islands. Ice fishing is also fairly popular, or so I was told.

Thankfully, the weather was very pleasant while we were there so no cold weather gear was required! :> While on the Marblehead peninsula, we visited the Marblehead lighthouse, which is the oldest lighthouse on the US side of the Great Lakes. We managed to visit on the one day of the week it is closed (Sunday), so we had to make due looking at its exterior and watching folks catch fish nearby.

On the way back to our resort, we stopped at the Firelands winery, on the outskirts of Sandusky. For $1, we were able to sample some of the local wines and then took a self-guided tour through the winery. The wine was good enough to persuade us to purchase a bottle, so I'd easily recommend the stop to anyone.

I didn't have a chance to do any more sight seeing until our departure date, as I was busy attending seminars, presentations, and the like. However, our last stop was the best by far. We stopped at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum for about an hour and a half, and were quite impressed. With a $20 admission price, I'm glad to say that I think the museum is worth it. A fan of rock and roll could easily spend a half day there, and a whole day isn't out of the question. Two thumbs up, definitely!

After four days away from home, I was glad to slip back into the ocean yesterday! There's just no place like home.

On Vacation

So, I decided that since I had to cut my Christmas / New Year's vacation one week short (due to work) that now seemed as good a time as any to take that week off. The weather has been improving (today was gorgeous, perfect Spring weather for San Diego), the kids are on break from school, and I could use the break from work.

Today I made a killer steak and eggs burrito breakfast, surfed and had fun with the kids at the beach, rested a bit at home, then tackled baseball practice in the afternoon. You know, I think I could seriously live like this, sans work, if you know what I mean! If only we didn't have those nagging monetary needs... ;>

So, I'll be out of the office for a few more days, and plan to enjoy all of it.