Fell in Love with Venice

So, the adventures are done.Took my parents to the airport this morning...4:00 A.M. to be exact. Little brutal, but was definitely able to come home and fall right back to sleep. It's 14:09, and I'm still in my pajamas!!! I've been trying to convince myself to get up and go run, but so far, no such luck. Where to begin!!

Our first stop on our whirlwind vacation was Rome. My parents got to Prague Monday, and we left bright and early Tuesday. The minute we got to Rome we hit the ground sprinting...so much to do and see!!! Found Rome to be completely tourist friendly. It was an easy city to figure out...easy but entirely overwhelming at the same time. Of course, Rome was amazing...the history, architecture, people, everything was great. You can hardly believe what you're looking at when you're there. To think about how long some of those buildings have been there is just incredible. We totally lucked out with St Peter's Basilica, because all day there had been massive lines, and we were able to walk right in around 5:30. So, huge tip for any of yall planning a trip to Rome, see St Peter's late in the day....no line at all!!! Our bed&breakfast was right near the Vatican, so we saved that for the next morning. Again, totally lucked out, and hardly had to wait in line. My favorite part of Rome was St Peter's and the Vatican. I loved the book Angles and Demons by Dan Brown, and had pictured all that stuff in my head a million times, so to see it in person was awesome.

Next we took a train to Venice. As you can tell by my title, this was the highlight of the trip for me...I absolutely LOVED Venice. It was just a beautiful, romantic, chill city. I loved the layed back atmosphere...especially after just coming from Rome. Don't get me wrong, Rome was awesome, but just too overwhelming and busy for me. Venice is everything you imagine...quaint streets, outdoor cafes, and great wine. I definitely want to go back. To top it off, our B&B was totally adorable. Right on the water, so close to the train station, and tucked away enough to get a great night's sleep. Kinda sounds like a commercial, but it was pretty great. Let me know if you're going soon, I'll give you the name!

I kinda hit my wall in Venice...I had been going like crazy the 2 weeks before this trip, and I think it was all catching up to me. I was just getting tired of being a tourist!!! My poor mom was goin like a champ, and me and Joe kinda fizzled out. I did learn a lot on this trip...one thing I wasn't warned of were the massive amount of pigeons in St Mark's square. Totally freaked me out, and just knew I was going to get crapped on at some point. I had a little incident in Prague with a bird not too long ago, so it was kinda fresh on my mind. Fortunately, I walked away without any bird feces making contact with any part of my body...thank the Lord!! On another note, my mom's a picture taking fool, but is actually getting quite good at it. I can thank her for most all my pics. Discovered very early on my job was video taping. In all, we took around 1000 pictures (yes, 1,000) and about 3 hours of video. Mom even wanted to video me shopping in my grocery store! At first, I said whatever, go for it, but as we walked in I was overcome by embaressment. I told her I just had to draw the line there, but, of course, ended up letting her anyways...

It was soooo great having Mom and Joe here. I love that they got to see where I live, meet my team here and many other friends, and see the amazing city I live in. Hope you like the pics, and I'll try to get some video and more pics later! Have a great Sunday!!