writing – Lois and Clark Explorers

Not going to lie, walking around these cute towns is torture in this heat. Our last day we opted for renting a boat and visiting different towns and beaches. I love being on the water. The water here is so blue and beautiful. It was a little choppy but not enough to stop us. We had to rent 2 boats so we put all the kids in one and adults in the other. Two of the kids were 18 so technically there were adults on the boat with them.

We went to Porto Venere. It was a really cute town with a castle at the top of the hill. Believe it or not I made it to the top and then walked back down. After boarding our boats again, we stopped in a little cove and almost everyone jumped inn and swam a bit. Then the boat driver/owner bought everyone ice cream from the ice cream boat. Only the kids wanted ice cream. We went to another cove and again most everyone (literally meaning everyone but me) dove in and enjoyed the water. Such a fun day! We had to reboard the cruise ship early so we didn’t have much time for more. After boarding the ship we went to dinner int he main dining room, went to a Broadway Cabaret show which was fun. Then Leeman wanted us all to meet at the craps table. He insisted I throw the dice and apparently I made a lot of people happy. I actually throw 3 snake eyes–that’s two ones. It was nerve wracking when everyone at the table is wanting you to roll something good.

That pretty much sums up the day. Tomorrow we disembark and spend one day in Rome and then home the next day. Major photo dump coming soon.

Here we are at the old gate to the walled city. Today we took a bus to the old city as it was way too far to walk. Today’s temperature when we left was only 83. And yet the temperature continued to climb through out the day. It started out really nice. This is where the Game of Thrones was filmed but we did not take that tour. There were so many steps and once you got up above everyone you walked in the bright sun (there was no shade). It just sounded horrible to me and since I didn’t watch Game of Thrones.

It was a great day in town. We met up with Christy and Leeman and the kids and Shelley. The kids weren’t loving it and wanted to go back to the ship so we took them and Shelley back to the boat on the bus. We got real lucky because one bus was pulling away and the next one coming in so we were first on board.

We took the kids to the pool. Of course they had to check out the buffet first. The boys had ice cream and cakes and all kids of sweets. Sefina grabbed pizza, steamed dumplings and a slice of watermelon. The pool wasn’t as refreshing as the one at the vineyard but it still felt good.

The kids slowly deserted us and headed off to play with their cousins so we meandered back to our rooms. The rest of the group wanted to go to the dining room instead of the buffet but John and I opted to see what the buffet had to offer. After eating we, John and I, went up to deck 11 to watch the sunset. Another beautiful sight. The kids all came up and we sat in the lounge and then headed for the Whitney Houston impersonator. She was amazing. I didn’t think anyone could do her justice–I was wrong.

Tomorrow we have to get up at 5:00 am to see us pull into port. We have been told it is an amazing sight. Can’t wait!!

We started our day with a morning walk to see the sunrise. This was around 5:30 am

I woke up about 1:00 am and could not fall asleep. I could hear the kids upstairs so I knew they were awake too. I could see the sun was coming up so I called to them to come downstairs and go for a walk. Christy was up too so off we went. Who’d of thought I would be caught up and walking at that early hour. No one! lol

After our walk we had breakfast here at Fattoria Laloggia. We drove to a parking lot to take a train into town because rental cars are not allowed to park in town. That is reserved for the locals. It is a huge fine if you park a rental in most of the big cities in Italy. The drive was about 20-30 minutes (much longer on the way in due to traffic) then the tram/bus was about 15 minutes. From there we walked everywhere. It was 93 degrees and so crowded. We knew this would be the case before we got there but it really took a toll on me. Whew! Lines were out the door and wrapping around building around the block. We really saw nothing because of it. I was too hot to even eat. The kids wanted a gelato and I didn’t even want that. But, luckily we were able to get a seat inside and I could sit down in air conditioning and rest. I was ready to go and so were the kids. Bazlo said, “She’s too old and we are too young!” So we took them with us and went back to the pool. Best part of the day.