Venice, Italy

The very best part of Venice was this!!!  Getting to see my brother John and his family.  I got about a hundred Christopher hugs which I loved and lot's of GO COUGARS!!!  We all had our shirts on which made it even more fun.  Before we left on this trip, Venice was probably the city I was most excited about.  I was so disappointed in it.  It was so hot and dirty and the people we not very nice at all.  Behind us is St. Mark's church.  That was amazing!  The apostle Mark is buried there and pretty much everything else  was stolen during the crusades.  Antique stores there brought on a whole new meaning.  So many things were from the time of Christ or just after.  Kirsten and I got to go through that by ourselves because the kids didn't think that sounded so fun.  I can now say that I've been there but it's not a place I would go back to.  We didn't let that stop us from having fun together though!

We took a gondola ride through the city which was an adventure!  They are crazy!

Venice is famous for their glass.  We took a boat out to the island of Madura to the factory that is most well known.  We saw a demonstration and then got to walk through their showroom.  It was unbelievable and so expensive you were afraid to move or touch anything.  I got a beautiful vase that they engraved for me with our family name and the date.  I have no idea where I'm going to put that so Kody doesn't break it but I guess I figure that out later. 

This is what every street in Venice looks like!  It's hard to get around because everything looks the same.

For lunch we had pizza!  It was something everyone would eat!!  Gelato for desseret (twice!)