Cinque Terre

It is hard to say which part of Italy I liked best because each place was so different from the one before it. I loved Venice but Cinque Terre was amazing too! Cinque Terre is a national park, which was convenient because I only hike in National Parks, and it is unlike any other I have been to. Cinque Terre ( which means 5 lands) is made of 5 fishing villages that are on cliffs above the sea. The towns are linked by a train, that stop in each village and hiking trail, and roads too although we did not see the roads. The hiking trail from the first to fifth village is 9km long and broken in to 4 parts. We hiked the first, and easiest one, took the train from the 2nd to the 3rd village (because the trail was closed) and then hiked from the 3rd to the 4th and took the train to the 5th village. It was an amazing day, one that we almost gave up on because it was raining when we left on the 2 hour train ride from Florence.

There are locks on most famous bridges all over Italy. Couples put a lock on the bridge and then throw the key into the water which will, supposedly, keep them together forever

Here you can see the train tracks and the second village, Manarola.

On the first, and easiest path

The 4th village, Vernazza

The last village, Monterossa, with a beach

Just a Few...

Too tired to go into any detail tonight but here are just 4 of the 350 photos I took while in Itlay....more to come

Duomo in Florence

our man in the window....

Yes, there are french fries on the pizza

Ahhhhh Venice......we LOVED it there

Just a Few More

My Favorite Character

There is a section at DL for all the the Disney Villains. Snow White's Queen was my favorite! She was perfectly mean to all the children, in a fun way. She was in perfect character the entire time!She made Emily make a mean face for the picture!

The Fairies

We waited in line to see Tinkerbell twice! She spent a lot of time with each child!

The Parade

Emily and I opened and closed Disneyland last Wednesday. We were there when it opened at 9am and stayed until the parade was done at 8pm! I knew Emily would love the parade and did she ever. I made sure we were in a spot where the parade stopped. The Characters got off the floats, danced and sang..... and the kids were able to go in the street and dance with them! It was a great ending to a great day!

Princess Heaven!

After we left Chicago we went to California because Rick had a conference. Emily and I spent one day at Disneyland and our day was full of FUN! Emily really was most interested in seeing the characters, so that is what we did. Disney was not too crowded so the lines were not unbearably long. We went to see the princesses twice and as luck would have it there were 3 different princesses there each time! Emily waits in line like a champ!

Chicago

I love Chicago! What a wonderful city. On Saturday, after the Expo, we toured the city, went to the American Girl Doll Store, and took an architecture tour on the river. I did not want to walk too much so we did not go crazy trying to see everything.





The Bean, in Millennium Park.

The afternoon of marathon Sunday! I could barely walk but it was a fun afternoon anyway

26.2

On 10-10-10 I completed my first marathon. I have to say, it was HARD. At the 17 Mile marker I really started to feel it and said to myself "I AM NEVER DOING THIS AGAIN!" Anyway, as I was saying, it was quite warm, in the 80's which I don't mind, but for many runners it was too hot. At the 13.1 mile marker I was thinking (as Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer was blasting...you know how it goes...your half way there...) what a much more civilized distance it was.....

As I was coming to the end and I saw the finish line, I could not go any faster, too tired.

I finished in my goal time of 4:15 and came in 11,817 out of 36,159 finishers...not bad for a girl who said she would never run.

And by the way...my watch said 26.65 miles when I finished. Apparently it is 26.2 if you can go on the inside corner at every turn

Shopping at the Expo...which was the best part!

The Nike booth had every runners name on the wall!

Emily was a trooper. Rick, Emily and Peter ran around the race course trying to see us but only saw me at mile 2. She was on Rick's shoulders clapping for all the runners and he said she was excellent all day!

SO HAPPY to be finished!

Repeats

Some never-seen-before and some worth repeating....