Italy

First sunrise in Tuscanny.

This year we haven’t been able to go camping because John had shoulder surgery so we accepted an invitation from our daughter to go to Italy on a ten day cruise. Four days in Florence and 10 days at sea, then one day in Rome before heading home.

This will be our first cruise so we are very excited. We are staying at Frattoria LaLoggia, a vineyard and olive grove in Tuscanny.

I am going to go back to leaving ATL and arriving in Paris and finally Florence. Whew what a trip.

‘This is us finally in our seats. We got lucky that there was an empty seat next to me. It gave us a tad bit more room but, leaving at 4:30 in the afternoon put us in Paris at 6:30 am or 12:00 am our time. Not good because I usually stay up that late. We had a 2 hour layover in Paris and then on to Italy. We arrived in Italy about 11:30 and our bags were some of the last ones off the plane. Oh and they are building a new airport in Florence so we literally had to walk down the steps onto the tarmac and take a bus to the airport. It was brutal but I remember those days.

This was waiting for the luggage and then the rental car.

We drove to a small town on the way to the vineyard we were staying. It was hard to find parking so we ended up just heading to Fattoria Laloggia. It is beautiful here and our rooms are magnificent.

I was too exhausted to go to dinner. John, Christy and Leeman went out and I stayed home with the kids who had already fallen asleep. Woke up at 1:00 ready to go. Ugh!

New Orleans

Our first stop for the day was Barataria Preserve. It is one of 6 sights scattered across Louisiana as part of the Jean Lafitte’s National Parks. We arrived to discover, not only are dogs not allowed but there was only one short trail open. We put Chanel in the car with a window open and walked the .25 mile trail. Luckily it was early and the temperatures were in the high 60’s low 70’s by the time we finished. This guy is the only wildlife we saw. After walking the trail, getting my National Park stamp, we head to the city. New Orleans has lots of dog friendly restaurants and we chose
Flamingo A Go Go. It didn’t disappoint. We had lunch and they even brought a bowl of water for Chanel. She is soooo good. She sat quietly while we ate. After lunch we headed, on foot, to the French Quarter. After getting lost, we went back to the car and drove to the French Quarter. It was a full day and we got back in time for a not so spectacular sunset on Lake Pontchartrain and dinner and a few games of scrabble. John slaughtered me in both games. OMG! It was bad.

This was our favorite sunset pictures from that night.

The next morning we got up to go to a walk at a Bayou but unfortunately we could not find it. Our gps said we had arrive but there was nothing there. We tried another address–same thing. We were in the middle of a bayou but there were no walkways or parking lots. We did find a parking lot along the street with a dock and boat launch. We stopped and took a few pictures of some ducks and headed for another location. We arrived there only to discover–no pets. Ugh. We went back to the campsite and decided to go ahead and leave. The trails were closed at the park and we could be home in 6 1/5 hours so why not. It was only noon.

OMG! I forgot to publish this! lol

Louisiana

We left Mississippi and headed to Louisiana for our next stop. Originally we had a boondocker spot picked out but, discovered it did not have hook ups and they asked for $20 a night. I don’t mind paying but I want hook ups. We found this beautiful park, Fontainebleu State Park, located on Lake Pontchartrain and reserved a spot. In Louisiana they give seniors a 50% discount so it only cost $20 a night for full hookups. Score!

We set up camp and immediately went out to explore. The first thing we spotted was the Alligator Reefie at the visitor center in the park. There is a small museum in the visitor center with fish tanks, and displays of animals in the area. Then we took a hike on a path behind the visitor center that looped around about 1/2 mile. Of course I was whooped so we went to the truck and drove to the lake for the sunset.

I know I am running a little behind. Tomorrow is New Orleans!

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