Mood:  happy

For the 4^th of July weekend, we took another Outdoor Recreation trip, this one to Croatia.  We’ve heard some wonderful things about Croatia, and since it just isn’t that far, or that expensive, we figured why not?

The trip was very, very okay.  The weather was nice, but could have been better.  The hotel was fine, but could have been nicer.  The downtown shopping was fun, but small and not much variety.  The terrain was rugged, but not rough.  Even the coastline was fine, but not spectacular. 

The food, however, was great…

We arrived at the hotel via the ODR bus, checked in, and then decided to walk through the town.  About the only thing that we knew was going on was an evening multicultural festival featuring music, dance, and food from around the Med (and in some cases, well beyond).   So we walked around the town, did some shopping, ate dinner, and then went in search of the festival. 

It was okay.  A bit slow for my liking, but the Greeks looked like they were having fun.  We didn’t stay long.

The next morning, we had a cruise around the coastline to see, among other things, two other cities and more shopping opportunities.  The other things…apparently this part of Croatia is one big nudist colony/beach, with a minimum age/weight limit.  After a short while in each of the two cities, we took the boat back in time to catch the bus and begin the long drive home.

It doesn’t sound like much, and truthfully it wasn’t, but we did have a good time and I’m glad we went.  At the very, very least, it was one more weekend spent as a family away from home.

Posted by kisajaja at 8:49 PM MEST

Updated: Tuesday, 14 July 2009 2:59 PM MEST

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Ryan has a ball to attend this weekend…in Germany. We were going to make a leisurely four hour trip of it, but then he was told he had to be there by 10AM – which meant we had to leave the house by 6AM. That’s not quite so leisurely… The trip went fine until we crossed the German border and then the clouds rolled in and the rain started…aaaahhh – just like I remember.

We were looking forward to attending this event because the hotel where we would be staying offered paragliding trips and we have never done that before. We tried to sign up for it when we got to the hotel, but it was cancelled due to bad weather – so we jumped on the waiting list for the following day. It was cancelled that day too, so we put our names on the list for Sunday. Sunday turned out to be an alright day as far as German weather goes – lots of clouds hanging around but only a sprinkling of rain. After finding the field which was to be our meeting point – far harder than it sounds as we were given very poor directions by the resort staff, we rode the cable cars to the top of the mountain where we proceeded to put on all of our gear and run off the mountain. Paragliding is such a great experience. It is very peaceful, relaxed, and quiet. We had plenty of time on the descent to look around and take in all of the scenery. By the time we had both made it to the bottom it was time to start our trip back to Italy. On this trip we had gotten to visit the monastery at Ettal and walk through Partnach Gorge. Everyone always talks about how great Germany is, but I find I like it best when viewed on a postcard while I’m in a different country…

Posted by kisajaja at 8:47 PM MEST

Updated: Tuesday, 14 July 2009 3:58 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

It was a busy weekend and a four day weekend for Ryan. Jacoby’s last day of school was Thursday (June 11^th) – so Friday was officially our first day of summer. We woke up early and headed back to Cinque Terre – only this time instead of going by bus trip Ryan drove, so we could take our time and explore without feeling rushed.  We revisited each of the five towns, (It was Sabrina’s first time seeing them.) and stopped in all of the little shops, but we skipped the long part of the trail this time – the one without much of a view but with an insane amount of stairs (all leading up). At the last town, Monterosso, we wandered a bit farther than we had before and discovered the large statue of a man carved into the cliff face. Before heading home we gave the kids a chance to play around in the Mediterranean. It was cold so they only ventured in as far as their ankles. While Jacoby tried his hand at skipping stones, Sabrina and I sifted through the pebbles that had been polished by the ocean waves.

On Saturday Ryan finished up some work from the office and then we headed to the movie theater for a double feature.

Sunday morning we got up early so we could visit Lake Bled in Slovenia. Interestingly, the fastest route from Italy to this lake in Slovenia goes up and through Austria – even though Slovenia is right next to Italy. About an hour and a half into our three hour trip the GPS blinked off. Ryan pressed the power button – it came on again – and we were back in business…for about five minutes until it shut down a second time. It turns out that the power cord had not been working at all during the trip and we had now exhausted the battery supply. So, we had to get to Slovenia the old fashioned way – using maps and road signs.

Lake Bled is beautiful with very bright light blue water – not unlike the super oxygenated water of Huka Falls in New Zealand. In the middle of the lake there is an island – Slovenia’s only island. People can get to the island by either swimming to it or renting a boat. We chose to simply view it from a distance because the island is quite small and holds little more than a church. We hiked the trail all the way around the lake and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. The food was delicious and I am happy to say that pizza was nowhere on the menu. Apparently Lake Bled is known for a type of cake affectionately referred to as the million calorie cake. One of Ryan’s coworkers could not stop raving about it – nor could one of the online travel reviews of the area – so of course we had to have some. We gleefully partook of said cake and, I’m sad to say, we found it to be only average. Oh well. Back on the trail we took the path leading to the castle. The views from the top were magnificent, but I think the thing that impressed us the most was that from the top of the castle perched on the top of a large cliff, we could look down into the lake and see huge fish whose enormous size was even more evident when we compared them to the people swimming beside them. We came. We saw. We ate. We left happy. Slovenia – check.

On Monday we went back to the pet store to see if they had gotten any more rabbits in. They did not – but what they did have were baby chipmunks. Chipmunks are a lot cheaper here than they were in Germany… We are now the proud owners of a small fuzzy chipmunk named Armani (because he’s Italian and wears a little striped suit). 

Posted by kisajaja at 8:33 PM MEST

Updated: Wednesday, 1 July 2009 3:36 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

On Saturday we got up early and made our way to Outdoor Rec. We were signed up for the Via Ferrata trip. For those of you who don't know- “Via Ferrata” is Italian for “iron way” and the trip we were signed up for was something akin to rock climbing but with fixed iron cables, rungs, ladders, and bridges built into the route... a bit like rockclimbing for dummies. We arrived early and got decked out in all the requisite safety gear to check for fit, and  then we sort of stood around and waited  for the others to arrive. At some point one of the guys in charge decided to ask our names so he could cross us off his list – only to realize that we weren't on his list. Eventually, he did manage to find our names...on the list for the JULY 6TH trip and not the June 6^th trip – aparently some sort of clerical error, but enough to temporarily wipe out our plans for the day due to a limited number of ropes available for use. So, as we headed back to the Jeep with a backpack full of water, lunch stuff, spare clothes, and cookies – we were a bit bummed at the prospect of facing a whole day with nothing to do. The consensus was that we had everything we needed to spend the day somewhere; we just weren't quite sure where. So, Ryan asked for suggestions and I threw out San Marino. We had attempted this trip previously by train – before we realized there were two San Marinos, only one of which has anything worth seeing...and not the one we saw. The Republic of San Marino was just three hours down the road, so we programmed the GPS and headed south. After a few hours of driving we spotted a large mountainous region off to our right with towers and we felt pretty confident that we had found the correct one this time. We parked the car and found a trail that led up. As Ryan always says, “If up is an option...”. We followed the trail to a picnic area with a great view and had a glimpse of the third of San Marino's three towers. The third tower had a great view of the second tower – which we were able to go into and check out the different rooms and cases of old weaponry. From there we could see the first tower, which is the biggest of the three. We were allowed to enter this tower as well. I've read that on a really clear day you can see all the way to Croatia from the tower, but it was a bit too hazy for us to be able to do that. The views were still amazing. We left the tower and followed the cobblestone streets into the town which had an odd mixture of souvenir shops, liquor stores, and stores selling swords, ninja gear, and air soft weapons. San Marino is the world's smallest republic and it's oldest sovereign state, and it certainly has retained its old world charm. For an impromptu trip thrown together at the last minute, things came together beautifully and we had a fantastic day.

- Kimberly

Posted by kisajaja at 8:51 PM MEST

Updated: Tuesday, 9 June 2009 9:12 PM MEST

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Mood:  flirty

Okay, so as a Freshman, Jacoby couldn't really go to the Junior/Senior Prom...But having a Girlfriend that's a Senior does have its privileges...For Jen, she had a date to the Prom.  For us, it was the privilage of buying him a tuxedo, and then making him wear it for photos.  For him, it was the ability to take part in Prom '09 (including the bus ride to and from, and the buffet dinner at the event, not joking here...), and to spend more time with Jen before she goes off to College.  For Jen's parents...Well that was more torture than privilege, from what I saw.

Enjoy the pictures!

Posted by kisajaja at 10:10 PM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 31 May 2009 10:20 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

                Hello from Italy people!  This is Sabrina, and yes I have finally made it to Italy.  Today, I get to write about our exploits over the past… yesterday.  Wow, that was all in one day.  We did a lot! 

                Okay, so about a month ago Mom signed us up to go on a trip to a ropes course.  This was supposed to take place while Dad was still out of town.  Anyway, this trip ended up being cancelled because not enough people signed up.  Apparently, not a lot of mothers felt like climbing through the trees on Mother’s Day.  We can’t explain it either.  Mom and I were bummed about it because the trip sounded like a lot of fun.  So when Dad got back and started talking about how we should do something on Memorial Day weekend Mom had a plan. 

                Yesterday we left the house around eleven o’clock to drive to one of these ropes courses.  The one that Mom in her infinite wisdom had selected happened to be called Acropark.  I really had no idea what to expect because I knew nothing about this particular ropes course.  We all piled into the Jeep while Jacoby muttered about how we were destroying his social life.  As his sister, I am entitled to find this funny.  

The drive to the Acropark deserves its own paragraph.  The first part was comparatively boring.  We drove past a lot of houses and stores.  Some of those houses were more interesting than others because they had an older European look to them.  While I am capable of appreciating the architecture of a single building I have never really found towns a fascinating study.  Things changed when we reached the mountains.  Mountains always impress me, sheer, vertical walls of green.  It’s difficult to explain.  There are so many places in Italy where it almost feels like you are in a bowl because of mountain chains so high the tops blur into a blue haze.  Dad had a lot of fun with the actual drive.  The road up the mountains had an insane number of switch backs.  These were made even more insane by the fact that motorcycles and bicycles were apparently partial to this road. Motorcyclists screamed past the cars with their knees practically scraping the ground on turns.  Whereas the bicyclists took up half of the lane forcing cars in both directions to make do with three fourths of a tiny unlined road.  Boring it was not.

We ate lunch at a small restaurant on the side of the mountain.  After managing to communicate to the proprietor that we wanted ham and cheese sandwiches we sat outside and ate them.  There wasn’t much of a view from the restaurant because it faced the road rather than the valley.  Shortly thereafter we resumed our drive.  The view on the mountains was spectacular.  There were, I’m not joking, rolling planes of wildflowers spotted with the occasional house.  It was a lot cooler in the mountains as well.  I’ll spare you more praise of the mountains and say that eventually we made it to the Acropark.  It was situated at the edge of a forest next to a huge German style building containing a restaurant and bar.  There was also a small body of water nearby that created a nice breeze.  So we get out of the car and walk around.  The sign on the ticket booth says that it will be twenty minutes until the next safety lecture which is mandatory.  So we walk into the forested area and look at these courses. 

There were four courses at this particular Acropark.  There was a green course for little kids which was only a couple of feet off of the ground.  Then, there was a blue course that was a little more challenging for slightly older kids.  Next, there was the red course which was slightly more challenging.  This was the course that we planned to do because the final course was the black course.  In order to do the black course you had to be older than eighteen and sign a waiver stating that if you managed to harm yourself it was your own fault.  Jacoby couldn’t do that one and Mom and I weren’t sure we were ready for it.

After twenty minutes had passed we walked back to the ticket stand and waited…  And there was no one there.  Now we are thinking, “Huh… that’s not good.”  We couldn’t tell if they were closed or what was going on.  With no one there to ask, we walked over to the bar, which was more like a café, and tried to ask the guy working there.  With some multilingual phrases we managed to find out that the Acropark would open at three.  We got some gelato at the bar and then we decided to drive to Asiago to search for a park that Mom and Dad had heard about.  Dad says he has written about Asiago before so I won’t say much about that.  For those of you like myself who missed that post I’ll just sum it up with: cute cheese town in the mountains.  It only took twelve minutes to drive there, but they never ended up finding the park.  Either that or they found the park but it wasn’t what they expected…  I was there, but I can’t catch everything.

We drove back to Acropark and sat about for a bit allowing Jacoby to catch up on some valuable Game Boy Advanced time.  Finally the Acropark opened for business.  We were each handed helmets and a harness.  Helmets, not a problem, the harnesses took a little figuring out.  With a few exclamations of “Alora” from the Italian course workers we all managed to get suited up.  After a quick demo we were allowed to start the course.  It was a blast!  I can’t say how high up we were because I am no good at judging distances.  All I know is that, had we fallen, we would have broken limbs.  We went across rope bridges and walked along cables; we climbed ladders and hopped from stump to stump.  We also had to traverse a series of logs suspended lengthwise by cables.  The most fun, of course, were the zip lines that connected all of these treetop obstacles.  It was pretty awesome, and had the course gone on any longer I don’t think any of us would have been disappointed. 

We finished, laughing and joking, and were getting ready to turn in our harnesses when one of the course workers told us that we hadn’t done the big zip line yet.  We all kind of looked at each other, because you were supposed to pay extra for the big zip line, but the guy told us to go ahead so we went.  This zip line had two legs.  You took off from what amounted to a dirt slope.  This was fairly ungraceful as almost everyone ended up dragging their butt along the ground before taking off.  From there the zip line led to a platform on the edge of the parking lot, and the next zip line took you across the parking lot and the water to a platform on the other side of the water.  While definitely fun it was not nearly as satisfying as doing a whole course. 

Although the rabbit project was a success our plan to see Angels and Demons was less so.  We discovered on the way to the theater that the movie was at six o’clock rather than nine as we had anticipated.  So, we settled for Chinese food in a restaurant that has a huge aquarium in the floor.  Then, we got home in just enough time for Jacoby to get in some desperate computer time before bedtime.  Fortunately, Angles and Demons is playing again today so we are going to do that shortly.

Posted by kisajaja at 4:37 PM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 24 May 2009 4:44 PM MEST

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Mood:  cheeky

This was an interesting weekend.  I’ll wrap up both days here, since neither one was “photo intensive.”  Both days (Friday and Saturday) were day-trips, so it was fairly low-key.

Friday began as a normal day off.  Wake up late (7:00ish, maybe 8:00) and I look at Kimberly and she looks at me, and then it starts…

“What do you want to do, today?”

“I donno.  You?”

“I donno, either.”

About ten minutes later, we had a plan.  We’ve eaten gelato at the Ponta Vecchio in Florence.  We bought a Venetian mask from Venice (during Carnevale, no less).  One thing we HADN’T done is eat Asiago cheese bought in Asiago, Italy.

Asiago is a little mountain town about an hour away from us, by jeep.  It’s up in the Alps, and it’s BEAUTIFUL.  After a fantastic drive, we arrived in the small village, shopped through their downtown area, and then concluded our trip with a visit to the local grocery store, which had several varieties of locally made Asiago cheese.  We bought the original kind and two others to sample, and then had a small picnic in the car.

By 10:00, we were done.  The drive was so pretty that we really didn’t WANT to be done, so we decided on the spot that the next thing to do would be to drive about 45 minutes from there to a smallish town called Bassano di Grappa, known for its locally produced honey. 

Asiago is near the top of the Alps.   Bassano is near the bottom.  Again, BEAUTIFUL drive.

We arrived in Bassano, parked, and started wandering around.  The first thing we noticed is that it’s bigger than I’d thought.  Then, as we were wandering, a little old guy approached us and started speaking Italian.  He had this little, out of the way restaurant that we wanted us to try, and truth be told, it was lunch time!  We decided, why not?  The little dude walked us for a few minutes to find this tiny restaurant, where we ate lunch, but mostly drank water.   We were pretty thirsty after the driving. 

After lunch, we realized that Bassano didn’t really have much going on.  There was no market in the downtown area, so we couldn’t find any obvious local honey salesmen. We realized that the whole town closed for Riposso, so no honey for us.  Then we drove home and took a nap...  :)

Aussie's have their morning tea, Italians have Riposso.  Basically, for three hours immediately following lunch, it's family time.  Stores close, gas stations close, mom and pop shops close, the whole place shuts down.  They do it every week-day, which we knew, but today was a rare day off for me (Easter Weekend), so I forgot it was a weekday...

We decided on the train for this trip.  According to the Train Italia site, it would only take two hours to get there, and it was only 10 euro each for the round trip ticket.  Can’t beat that, and we wouldn’t have to park!  -So, we woke up early and headed to the train station.

We boarded the train, made the next connection, then the next, and then arrived in San Marino!  -Italy.  NOT San Marino, San Marino.  Apparently, there is a tiny town very near Bassano (from yesterday) in a valley in the Alps called San Marino, which has NOTHING to do with the Republic of San Marino. 

So we wandered every street in that town!  It took 10 minutes.  The train station was actually a room off of the back end of someone’s house.  I’m glad we had our return tickets, because from what I saw, we would have had to knock…Lord knows some old lady in a bath robe and curlers would be there speaking Italian and we would be there, explaining how we wanted to go to San Marino, but not THIS San Marino…It just wouldn’t be good.

It was a neat little town, though.  Very pretty, but I’m glad I don’t live there…

We’ll have to try this again, after a little more research (already begun).

Posted by kisajaja at 2:46 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

If Australia has the Great Ocean Highway, then Italy certainly has the Great Mediterranean Trail.  There is a place in Northwestern Italy called Cinque Terre (the five lands). 

Basically, there are five little villages, separated by walking trails and train stops that are built right along the cliffs and coast line of Italy.  The walk is estimated to be around 10km (6 miles), up and down some pretty steep natural stairways (both rock and root) and long, winding paths.

The plan was for us to take the train into the first village, since there are no cars allowed in any of them.  Once there, we would walk, shop, and site-see through to the last village, and then take the train back to our start point, and ride the ODR (Outdoor Rec) bus home.  We had roughly five hours to do it, and when it was all over, we cut it close, but comfortably.

What a great day!  We heard in the forecast that we should expect more cold wind and rain.  Thinking Lugano, we bundled up appropriately and headed for the villages, but the weather just didn’t happen.  It was sunny, clear, warm, dry, beautify!  Of course, we were a bit overdressed, but I’d rather be warm than cold, any day!

I can’t say enough about Cinque Terre.  I think it will be one of my favorite places in Italy, much like Rothenburg was in Germany.  You simply can’t come all of this way and not see it.

I hope you enjoy the pictures, but really, they can not do it justice.

Posted by kisajaja at 7:47 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 5 April 2009 8:00 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

On our last ITR trip ever (they merged with Outdoor Rec) we decided to go to Lugano, Switzerland to check out the Euro-Chocolate Festival.  It was supposed to be this great little town, and with the festival, I thought it would be fun to sample all of the chocolates and see who’s best.  Spain claims that there Toblerone is pretty good.  I’ve ALWAYS like the German Kinder-chocolate.  Kimberly likes the swiss chocolates, particularly the dark kind.  All of us like Cadbury, but they don’t make that here…

As a last minute change on this trip, Jacoby asked if Jenny could come along, so I went and got one more ticket.  In hindsight, this was money well spent.  I’ve never seen Jacoby so happy about wandering around a small town!

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  Lesa, the ITR tour guide told us that we would have PLENTY of time at the festival, so if we wanted, we could stop by one of the swiss cholcolate factories on the way, see the chocolate being made, and then buy “seconds” and bulk chocolate at the factory outlet.  Sounded good to us, so we did!  And it’s a good thing, too, for reasons that I’ll get to later.

The factory wasn’t really working at the time we were there.  We walked the whole tour in about five minutes, seeing all of the machines at rest.  Not real exciting, but then we got to the store.  FANTASTIC!  Not only did they have samples of everything readily available, they had full shelves of everything they made at discount prices.  It was crowded, but we did very well there.  Then it was off to the festival!

Which was thoroughly underwhelming.  Seriously, I think it was four tents, all of which had samples and over-priced chocolate products available.  It was fun to walk through and try things we had no intention of buying, but we “did the festival” in about twenty minutes.

Then we walked through the town and it’s neighborhoods and parks until it was time to catch the bus to come home.  While walking the town, I bought a small Swiss Army knife, because I wanted to say that I got it in Switzerland.  We also got a tourist spoon from one of the local jewelers.  I think it’s pewter.  I may be wrong.

Anyway, the weather was lousy.  Cold rain on an already cool day, we spent pretty much the whole day under coats and an umbrella.  It’s too bad, because it really did look like a nice town, with neat terrain.  We may have to go back some time when the weather is nicer.

Still, I’m glad we went!  We still have PLENTY of the factory chocolate left, and we did buy some stuff at the festival.  A bad day out of the house, out doing stuff is still better than a day indoors.

Posted by kisajaja at 7:35 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 5 April 2009 8:08 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Between home and Verona is a small town called Soave.  It is an old military fortress dating back to the early 1200’s.  It’s similar in size and structure to Marostica (the town with the human chess board), but we had never been.

We spent about an hour this morning walking through the old town, climbing the hill to the castle fortifications, and crawling around on the castle walls.

It’s a neat place, but there really isn’t too much to write about.  The pictures pretty much tell the story, so here they are…

Posted by kisajaja at 4:27 PM MEST

Updated: Saturday, 14 March 2009 4:36 PM MEST

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