yes i am a baby - I cried when Hannah got here!! It has been so long!!
We had a great day today although H is beginning to droop a bit now. Won't be having a late night tonight as we are off to Christchurch tomorrow.
Then just 2 more sleeps and Mike and Cait are here WOOO HOOOO
WOO HOOO - for the first time in FOREVER - a proper SUMMER christmas with all our family in New Zealand! Going to be so much fun seeing all our aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
The last time we were all together was
2000 - much much too long. Yes we had a big bunch of us together in
2006 when they came here - but my brother Mike and his kids could not
make it that time - and although we had everyone else here which was
fantastic - it still was not all of us.
This could well be the last time we can even do this - as we all get older. All the kids are getting to
the ages now where they are going to university, getting jobs, moving
on and out. So not that easy to all get together - not even counting
the fact that we live in the US, my nephew is in Australia, and the rest are in NZ.
The getting there and back this time is a little wonky - all over the place really - because of the kids university schedules - and trying to get a somewhat decent airfare without totally being bent over and @#@$%#$ on price.
I am flying over first, then Hannah - then Mike and Cait. Hannah is back first because she is going to New York this year for NY Eve in Times Square. Then Mike, Cait and I are all coming back together in January.
I will even be in NZ for my Dad's birthday!! Because of that - I am going to be gone a LONG time. 5 -nearly 6 weeks in fact as I leave the Monday after Thanksgiving.
I am gone all of December!!! and do not get back until the end of the first week of January.
relaxing
water
camping
water
boating
water
sun
water
aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Declan spent so long up here... every day... I think he wore holes in all Mike's shirts!!
It was so funny... he would just back up to Mike... and put his arms up... no words needed!
And when he got tired, he would just lay his head down on Mike's and have a little rest.
when our friends were here in from NZ - the weather was the pits!!!!! I have had warmer weather there in December - it was just weird. The 4 days we were there - we never saw the sun - nor any blue sky.
This is a pic from their first day - around 2pm - at the beach .....
I am off to LA today. Friends are arriving there tomorrow from NZ - and we are meeting them there. Can't wait to see them and their boys who I will spoil rotten!!
I bet they have grown since this pic was taken!
I was talking to Jake (the oldest) on the phone yesterday and having him on that I might not recognise him at the airport and he better call out my name if he sees me
... in all seriousness he told me ...
well I have grown taller and lost some teeth
... gotta love kids!!
We are spending a couple of days at Disneyland and DCA so will be a blast.
We are heading out of LA on Monday via the La Brea tarpits. I have to admit - after all these years in California and all my trips to LA - I have never been there. Lunch in Solvang and then it's on to San Simeon for an overnight stay.
Early the next morning its Hearst Castle. I am kidwatching while the 'dults go for the tour - I have done a lot of them - several times over! Then carrying on up PCH1 - hoping there are still some elephant seals breeding on the beaches, lunch at Big Sur - then its San Jose bound - back here Tuesday!
We did not really know Bari at all - or what to look at - so we decided just to go for a wander in the car. We headed towards the harbour and the old part of town
I look at some of my photos now and they look like postcards - almost not real. It was the first time either of us has seen the Adriatic (I think!!) cos maybe Venice is on the Adriatic?? But certainly the first time on that side down that far. We spied a little cafe up against the *wall* of what we are not sure - and decided it would be a nice place to have lunch looking out over the sea.
The lamposts were quite gorgeous and I would have liked to nick a few.
When we first pulled up there were no boats out - but during our lunch
lots and lots came out and it looked lovely.
We carried on driving
around the seafront - from the old part of town and the old port
towards the new port.
We passed the Castello
Normanno Svevo - a very
forbidding but impressive looking place. Decided not to go in - and
just carried on - looking around at everything.
We got a little lost - and wound up on the Autostrada again - but it was a lucky lost - because that is when we found that wonderful shop that had the fridge of my dreams!!
Wednesday night - we met up with Riccardo, Annarita plus Ramie from
Spain and Riccardo's sister Desiree and Riccardo took us all to Cafe
Del Mar for dinner. This is the website - however there is no
English version so you will just have to look unless you are very good at Italian! http://www.cafedelmarbari.it/
I think jet lag was getting to me - as I had my camera and did not take one photo on Wednesday night - DUH!
It is right on the sea and they have these huge window/door things that
they usually open up but it was a bit windy so they left them
closed. The place specialises in fresh seafood from the area, along
with pasta and pizza. Our meal was just yum yummo. Riccardo
ordered a couple of appetisers to share, and then I had a pasta dish
and so did Mike. His had local shellfish and mine had a local cheese along
with crudo (raw ham) and something else I can't remember. All
washed down with a local beer - really enjoyed that as we both
still felt a little dehydrated. the meal was finished off with Panna Cotta and a Ristretto - I was in heaven! We were not out too late - and on the way back we had a giggle -
Riccardo had warned us - but evidently the road that the Cafe is on -
along the seafront is a wellknown hooker spot. Sure enough all the
way along - many many ladies/trannies of the night were there. There
was a guy in an Audi in front of us cruising slowly - picking out which
one he liked and he got right royally PO'd cos we were going too fast
and in the end he had to pull over and do a U-turn to go back and look
After a long and tiring flight from SFO to Frankfurt (I can now say I have been to Germany!!) - we finally made Rome - on Tuesday afternoon. At that stage we had been travelling over 24 hours.
We grabbed our rental car from Daniel the bad tempered Hertz guy and
set off for Bari - after a quick detour around the airport trying to
get out of the airport -
sometimes Neverlost is not THAT clear!! We hit a bit of traffic on the
ring road around the outside of Rome but once we were past that we had
a pretty clear run and the further on we went, the less traffic there
was.
That is not to say we did not get flashed all the time by speeding
Italians! who thought we were going too slow in our little Renault Clio
- which seemed to only have a top speed of 130km!
Finally around 10 we made it to Bari. We found the road the hotel was
on - although dopey Michael had put #445 into the Neverlost and it was
#455!! So after driving up and down the bloody road and doing
u-turns several times, he got out and walked along and we eventually
found it!
Got inside the gates and the owners showed us the room, and gave us the
keys to the gates. I was super pleased to get the green room as you
can imagine. The room was lovely and roomy, plus the bed was
SUPER comfy and a REAL double - not two twins pushed together.
Those big wooden doors certainly kept
the light and noise out which was great, and they opened up onto the
verandah which looked out into the back garden. It really was a
lovely old villa.
About this time Mike and I pretty much crashed into bed as we had been up over 37 hours!!
