All Aboard!!!

Well we are now on the ship. It's a great ship, from what I've toured of it so far. Our room is nice. I've unpacked everything so we are settled in.

We're going to go for dinner in a little while and then we do an evening gondola serenade. I'm looking forward to that. We were suppose to do that 11 years ago when we were in Venice, but it was cancelled due to weather. It looks good out there so far, so hopefully it won't be cancelled again!

Greg paid for his parking ticket today. He thought I had mis-read the numbers and that maybe it was only 11.20 Euros. Yeah right! It seems he parked in some 'specialty' parking and that's why it was so high. We had no idea. Didn't really see any special signs around. Guess we were lucky tho... if they had come back again and the car was still there, they would have towed it away -- that would have been another 250 Euros! Did I mention that he was driving an Alpha Romeo? He was loving it. He's anxious to see what we'll get in Spain. I didn't do any driving in Italy, but I think I will in Spain... if he lets me... ;-)

We met 2 other couples at the airport today (that's where we had to drop the car off) from Ontario. One couple is from Cambridge, the other from the Distillery District in Toronto. We lost them as we went through all the boarding hoopla. Maybe we'll run into them again.

Anyways...it's been great so far. I've tried to take lots of pictures. Hard to get pictures of Greg and I together, but we'll have to work on that.

That's it for now. I've bought my 'package deal' for using the internet. May eat them up fast, the connection is so slow!!!

Until next time...

We made it to Venice!

The drive to Venice today was a breeze. I was able to print off a map from Google before I left our hotel in Ravenna, so that helped a big time.

Now comes the OUCH! We drove off from the hotel this morning and I noticed that there was something under the windshield wiper. I pulled it out when we got to the gas station. It was a parking ticket -- for 112 Euros!!!!! Nuts!!! We had no idea how to pay for it, so we will deal with it when we drop the car off tomorrow.

We enjoyed our stay in Venice so far. We walked from our hotel to St. Marks square today which was about 30 minutes through the maze of Venitian streets. I let Greg do the navigating. It was HOT, HOT, HOT!!! But we still enjoyed it. After we got back, Greg had a nap and I went wandering on my own. I was at the train station, on the front steps writing post cards when a lady sitting next to me started chatting. Turns out she live in California, but grew up in Uxbridge. She seems to love to travel. She travels alone, which seems a little sad, but she enjoys it.

We went for a nice dinner and now we are on our way back to the room for the night, but I
walked by the internet cafe, so I had to stop in.

I am sure I am missing details of our adventure so far, but I only bought 15 minutes and I want to get this posted before I run out of time.

Until next time...Ciao!!

Hello from Ravenna...

Well -- we made it! What a LONG 2 days it has been.

The flight to Rome was uneventful -- thankfully! Everything since then has been an adventure!

It took us FIVE hours to find our hotel in Rome!! The streets go in multiple directions and there are NO clear street signs -- and they change name constantly. Needless to say, we did not really get to see much of Rome at all.

I tried to go onto the net from our hotel there, but it did not work, even though I still had to pay for it. Oh well!!

We left Rome this morning around 10:30. We arrived at our hotel at around 10:30 pm! We had tried to take the scenic route, but that was taking forever and got a little dull after a while, so we got on the autostrada. Bad idea!! It was nuts! We were actually stopped for about 20 minutes at one point.

This adventure sounds vagues familiar to me... something to do with the 4 hour tour around Buffalo... :-)

Anyways, we here at the hotel. A little hungry, but too tired to care! No way are we taking the scenic route to Venice tomorrow. We are going straight there so we can enjoy some things instead of spending the entire day in the car! Although I did see a nice shopping area in Ravenna -- and Greg needs shoes since he forgot to pack his. Nice Italian shoes -- can't go wrong with that!

Only one more night and then we board the ship! :-)

I do not believe the hotel in Venice has internet, so I will post again when we are on the ship on Wednesday.

I do not know if they covered any of this on Canadian news, but Athens is having major fires. Not sure how this will impact our trip. I will keep you posted!

Good night all!! I'm tired from a full day of driving and trying to figure out how to use this Italian keyboard! That the tab broke off my pop, now I can't open it.

Definately time for bed!!

Only 5 more sleeps...

and Greg and I are off on our Mediterranean cruise!

We will be gone for 3 weeks! We're flying into Rome and then driving (via Ravenna) to Venice. We board the ship in Venice and then go to:

• Dubrovinik, Croatia
• Athens, Greece
• Santorini, Greece
• Naples, Italy
• Rome, Italy
• Florence, Italy
• Cannes, France
• Barcelona, Spain

We disembark from the ship in Barcelona. From there we are renting a car and driving to Valencia, Spain; Cartagena, Spain and then to Madrid, Spain. We fly home from Madrid.

My plan is to update my blog with our adventures, so if you want to follow us along, check back here often!

*Sniff* DC is done for another year...

Well Destination Create has come and gone. Thanks to Patti, Elia, Barb and team from the Scrapping Nook for another wonderful event! I had a blast catching up with people and meeting many new people as well.

Thank you to Caroline from Maya Road for teaching her 3 awesome classes. She also provided some ubber wonderful gifts for the gift bags and her classes had lots of 'extras' too. Caroline is such a lovely lady and I was glad to have had an opportunity to meet her in person.

Unfortunately, I ended off DC with a lousy cold, which I'm just starting to get over. But it was all worth it and I'd do it all again!!

Now I need to get busy and finish off the albums from Caroline's classes and get moving on some other projects.

DC 2010 -- here I come!!!

It's almost Destination Create Time!!!

By this time next week, I'll be hanging out with all my Nook friends at Destination Create. I'm super excited about it. I believe that there is still a spot or two available for a couple of the classes, so if you like Maya Road, Caroline will be there to teach some classes. I've seen the final products and they are AWESOME!

Also looking forward to spending some time with Pam who will be arriving on Wednesday night.

Now -- if you'd like a chance to win some ubber cool stuff, go check out Jennifer's Blog. She's giving away a magazine and some cool stamps. All you have to do is tell her what you would like to see her blog about! Easy Peasy! Jennifer is going to be at Destination Create too! Looking forward to seeing her there.

Off to do some work -- which pays the bills and my scrapbook supply shopping addiction... :-)

Almost ScrapFest time!

I'm going to be leaving this afternoon to head out to Kitchener to help Barb and Patti setup the Scrapping Nook's booth at ScrapFest! And then tomorrow the fun begins!!! It's going to be a great time! Looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces!

Wishing everyone safe travels! See you Friday and/or Saturday!