Lawson Rudd Family

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Italy - Day 9 - Travel

Up at 3am - out of the apartment by 3:20am. 5 minute walk to the Rialto. The Vaparetto (water taxi) was right on time at 3:34am. Walked to the taxi stand just as taxi is pulling up. Set price to the airport, so I suspect our driver was competing to see how fast he could get there! We were there before the check in desk opened, so hung out with the homeless people sleeping and then checked in and I got my last cafelatte and croissant in italy (kaitlyn got some good fresh squeezed orange juice). We had a 2.5 hour flight to heathrow - 3 and 1/2 hours there, then 9 hours to chicago, two hours there then 4 and 1/2 to Seattle - ugh. By the time we got home, we had been traveling for 26 hours!

not the most flattering picture of me - but after almost 24 hours of travel - realistic! This was not a set up - both kids were sound asleep on me!

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Italy - Day 8 - More Venice!

Still cold today (we left a few days before they got a rare snow!), but very sunny - lots more people out, lots of gondolas and crowds! I got up before 9, showered and crossed the Rialto bridge to find the produce and fish markets. Got to watch a seagull steal a sardine from a vendor! I got some good pictures, then had breakfast sitting by the Grand canal - changed things up - cafelatte and almond croissant - yummy! This cafe was only 140 years old. I headed back to the apartment aroud 10am to drag everyone else out of bed. Managed to convince Tony and Kaitlyn to come back to the markets - Kaitlyn enjoyed getting pictures. Went back to the apartment to collect Matthew and headed out again. Walked through the Cannaregio neighborhood on the way to the transportation area of venice. Kaitlyn found an amazing hand made steam punk mask that she splurged on then we headed to the cruise terminal to see the most beautiful cat in the world contest! Tony declined to pay the 10 euro entry and sat outside while Kaitlyn, Matthew and I went and looked at all the kitties. Lots of smush faces, main coons and sphynx. Ther was even something called an elf - which appears to be a sphynx with curled ears. Our favorite was a tuxedo smush face named Francesco. We were starving so we hit a somewhat overpriced cafe near the train station for lunch (though my pizza and Kaitlyn's eggplant parmesan were very good). From there we took the slow Vaparetto (one that hits all the stops) down the grand canal while listening to the Rick Steves audio commentary - that was really good. Ended up at Piazza San Marco and headed back to the apartment. Matthew stayed there while Tony, Kaitlyn and I hit some mask shops (Kaitlyn's choice). We found a cool steam punk cat mask but it was 80 euros and kaitlyn had already splurged, so we just took a picture. Tony and Kaitlyn shared some seafood salad and I found some gelato (nutella). Headed back across the accadeamia bridge to try to get to piazza san marco for the sunset (missed it, but it got cloudy then anyway). We saw Teatro Fenice on the way as well as some amazing chocolate and steam punk cake confections. Walked through Piazza San Marco as the lights were being turned on and headed back to the apartment. We thawed out there for an hour, then went out for take out fresh pasta - Kaitlyn got squid ink sauce! Tony was too cold for further adventures, so he and Matthew stayed in while Kaitlyn and I went out to get our vaparetto tickets for the morning and confirm the 3:34am vaparetto departure time. We stopped into a local cafe near the Rialto bridge and had hot chocolate and a nutella milkshake and some pastries. Then we headed back to pack and try to get a few hours sleep!