sistene chapel sneaky pic

Forgot to post this one.. :)

Pictures!

Well, the pics have been posted. I guess that closes the vacation.. :(

http://www.dropshots.com/chadandkara

We had SUCH a great time. Each location was so amazing that we have a hard time picking out favorites.. between riding a boat-bus in Venice, seeing the statue of David, experiencing Florence with the Garnetts, drinking wine and watching the sunset from our terrace in Cinque Terre, eating pizza by the Leaning Tower, walking around the corner to see the Pantheon in Rome (and the Colosseum, and St Peters, and the Duomo..), or walking the surprisingly still intact streets of Pompeii wondering how they didn't twist an ankle on the cobble stones when all they were wearing were flats with laces up the calf.. :)

Call us - we'd love to talk about any and all of it. :)

Heading home!

Italy was fabulous and we can't wait to show off all the pics! They'll be posted here soon! www.dropshots.com/chadandkara

Heading to Pompeii

We're on our way to Naples and Pompeii today. We're going to be archaeologists..digging through the ruins of the town that Mt Vesuvius destroyed in AD 79..Aug 24th to be exact. :)
Its our last full day in Italy and we're a little sad. Its been such a fun trip!
Dad - you would have loved the meal we had last night. Chad had lobster linguine..it was SO good! All three of our dishes (app and meals) had the tastiest little tomatoes. Even smaller than what we know as grape ones! Everything is served shell on here..mixed in with your pasta. Makes eating daintily a little tough. Haha!
Fingers crossed that the weather holds today.. I planned for summer and its just a tad overcast..

What a day!

Our morning was spent touring the Coloseum, Forum, and Pantheon..while the afternoon was in the Vatican City. And boy are our feet tired! What amazing sites though! Its absolutely unreal how HUGE and beautiful everything is in real life. Even things you see and then walk to..its just jaw dropping. I'm pulling pics off the cameras now. So glad we brought the laptop! 8gb still wasn't enough for all the pics!
Tomorrow we go to Pompeii.. Fun!
Pics are outside the Coloseum, the Pantheon from our lunch table, and on our way to Vatican City.

Just arrived in Cinque Terre..

View from the terrace..laying in a lounge chair.. :)

Florence!

We've been gaving a great time with John, Kim, Will and Claire in Florence! We've seen the Uffizi gallery, Accademia, Medici chapel, Santa Croce..and are going to the Duomo tomorrow. Wine is flowing, the Keens are holding up fabulously and the new camera is fantastic!
Hopefully we'll get pics uploaded tomorrow!

No pictures?!

Medici Chapel in Florence is cool.. But you can't take pics! Sneaky camera phone pic of the dome.. Oh well.. :)

A day in Venice..

Grand Canal near Rialto Bridge..

Ahhh..Venice..

Well, we have arrived! Our flights were very smooth to Chicago O'Hare and on to Rome. We stayed up late on Wednesday night hoping that would make us real tired for sleeping on the plane.. Didn't exactly work..we got about 2 or 3 hours each. Haha! So instead of being able to enjoy the Italian countryside on our train to Venice..we dosed. At least we'll have plenty of other opportunities! The train ride was good after a short "change of plan".. Our first choice of train was full which delayed is an hour in the Rome train station. So we people watched..fun!
Now we're showering and are about to go explore Piazza San Marco..its 2 blocks from our hotel!
The attached pic is from the window of our hotel room. :)

Layovers..

Sitting in Chicago in the Admiral's Club. Watching CNN cover Ike. Sure hope our friends are safe..

The backpacks have been good so far. We're already learning how to pack a little differently to be more efficient. And we're already debating whether bringing the laptop was a good idea.. Extra weight or handy when we take a ton of pics..? We'll see.. : )

Check it!

I'm bogging from my phone! :) this could be very cool..

Leaving on a jet plane!

Well, the big day is tomorrow! We're heading to Italy! Chad and I have been packing, organizing, re-organizing, shopping.. :) and the packs are ready! check us out!

We're SO excited about our trip. Today, we picked up maps and an Italian pocket phrase book. Mom - we got those cool fold-up maps that you and I had of London - one each for Rome, Florence, and Venice. They're so cool because they have the streets, major sites, transportation/subway routes, etc. AND - they fit in your pocket! Now that all my pockets are full, I guess we're ready!

First Post

So blogging is the new Christmas letter.. and I guess we better get on the bandwagon. I found out you can blog from your cell phone - so this might actually happen. :)

Chad and I are going to Italy next week. Next week - I can't believe it's almost here. of course, this whole year is just flying by.. I hear that happens as you get older.. and considering I'll be officially IN my thirties next month - it could be true.

Back to Italy. We're going to Venice, Florence, Cinque Terre, Pisa, Rome, and Pompeii. How cool does that sound?? The trip will be Chad's first to Europe. I'm so excited to go with him! I know he's just going to love it. He's such a fan of history..I can just imagine that the age and beauty of things - buildings, statues, fountains, sidewalks - are going to be fascinating for him..as they are for me.

We just purchased a new camera to record everything on the trip. A Canon Rebel XSi. It's so freakin' sweet. I've taken a ton of random pictures already with it..Chad is getting quite annoyed. :) But I'm trying to learn how to use it so we get some really good pictures on our trip! So I'm learning about aperture and focal points.. Will taught me about white balance.. It's all so fascinating! I think I'm going to have to take a photography class now!