Venice - Arrival Day

Our overnight flight landed around 10:30 am Saturday and once we cleared through passport control, we boarded our pre-scheduled water taxi to San Marco Island.   Our hotel, the Gritti Palace, had its own dock, so this seemed like best way to get there.  It was so strange to be out on a water expressway - just zipping along in our water taxi!  We did get some great views of the Grand Canal on our way in.

I originally booked a Westin hotel for the trip, since it was one of the few Starwood/Marriott/Hilton hotels near St. Mark's Square.   A few months before the trip I got an email that they would be undergoing a renovation and be closed, so they upgraded us to the Gritti Palace.  And wow was it an amazing hotel!   It was built nearly 500 years ago and was very old world luxury.   My favorite was the shower in the bathroom.  It was unfortunate that we were only there one night, so I only squeezed in two (three?) showers!

 After showers, Dad, John and I went for a walk about to check things out.   I knew the streets changed names and directions regularly, and that the bridges would lead us in circles, but I was actually most shocked that the streets were so narrow between buildings that you couldn't visually orient yourself.  I guess I'm too used to having skyscrapers to cue me - or wide open landscapes that you can see across - because it was very maze-like to be wandering between buildings with no ability to see the church steeple or a tower.  But eventually we stumbled out into St. Mark's Square and the main attractions.  We were fascinated by the standing water in various spots in the square (boy....did we have a surprise coming the next day!), the raised platform "sidewalks" to cross the water, and people with their shoe covers splashing about.

 I couldn't believe how much the washed out colors of the canal make me feel like it was a movie backdrop - or perhaps more appropriately, a Disney backdrop!   Funny enough I have since learned that some of these Venice sights ARE in the Italy Pavilion at EPCOT.  I had no recollection of it at the time though.

 

Our hotel concierge recommended a very close by restaurant where we could walk, and we loved the food and drink!   I had Spaghetti Aglio, Olio e Peperoncino (spaghetti with garlic, olive oil and peppers) that was outstanding.   Day one in Venice was a really great start to our amazing trip!

Cruise Overview

Although I usually plan and book our travels well in advance, this trip was an anomaly even for me.   I've already forgotten how I stumbled across this cruise itinerary originally but it hit all of my must haves: a few days when school would be out, the opportunity for full days in Venice and Rome, and a great price, so I booked it more than 18 months before departure.  And then I stalked the Norwegian Cruise Line website for new deals and ended up pricing matching a year out for even more of a discount.  My travel lover and frugal accountant personas were both thrilled!   Of course that far in advance I hadn't considered what a big travel year 2018 would be with my 40th birthday trip to Disney and Desiree's 40th birthday trip to Peru.   So we ended up collecting a lot of airline miles this year and even more bucket list memories!

Our itinerary

• Friday evening:  fly nonstop Chicago to Venice (arriving Saturday mid-morning)
• Saturday and Sunday:  explore Venice
• Sunday: Embark the Norwegian Star
• Monday:  Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Tuesday:  Kotor, Montenegro
• Wednesday:  Halloween at Sea
• Thursday:  Athens, Greece
• Friday: Santorini, Greece
• Saturday: Day at Sea
• Sunday:  Naples, Italy (Pompeii) 
• Monday:  Disembark in and explore in Rome
• Tuesday:  Explore Rome
• Wednesday:  Fly home (Rome-London-Chicago)

Traveling on the trip were my family of three plus my parents!   And since our crew was full of history lovers and gelato aficionados we had an amazing time!   

Chef William

William has been helping in the kitchen since he was two or three, and this fall he has elevated his chef game from sous chef to lead chef.   He made our family enchiladas almost entirely on his own, and he made beef sliders in the Instant Pot as part of a Cub Scout requirement.

To get into the fall spirit we swapped out our usual Sunday pancakes for pumpkin spice French toast.

I asked for his help making enchiladas one weekend and he ended up owning the entire process.  He has made this a few times now.  We observe Taco Tuesday all days of the week!

For the meal he had to make for Scouts, he was in charge of the menu, budget, shopping and preparation.  He wanted to make shredded barbecue bison loin on Hawaiian rolls.  Since we went to Target for the meat, we ended up with beef roast instead, but the rest of his plan was spot on.   

He really is so much fun to have in the kitchen - learning about flavors and techniques and having time to spend together!

One other project he "cooked up" was this diorama for a book report he presented to his class.   I was so proud of his creativity on this one to use the snake he had and make a landscape for it.   A+ for effort and on his speech!

Indiana Dune and Bike Trails

We are so happy with our decision to get William a new bike for his birthday in the spring.   Having gears and bigger tires made a huge difference in our ability to ride as a family.   And after the debacle of shoving that bike in the trunk of my A4, we bought the SUV and bike rack so we wanted to make good use out of it!   I had scoped out (I thought) a neat boardwalk path to ride alongside the Indiana (Sand) Dunes.   Turns out the path I picked was a paved wooded park path several miles from the lake.   Of course I didn't realize this until we were riding.   So after we enjoyed ourselves there for a few hours,  including a short attempt at the single track mountain biking path, we loaded the bikes back up and drove the 15 minutes to the lakeshore and dunes and walked in the sand and played in the surf.  Not my original plan, but an absolutely wonderful family fun day!

I didn't get more pictures once we were back into the single track because I was too busy trying to make sure I stayed on my bike.  William or John always went first so I like to think my timing was just disrupted trying not to run into them rather than my mountain biking skills being suspect. 

Indiana Dunes State Park is on the Indiana side of Lake Michigan.   You can see the Chicago skyline across the lake.  After parking at the visitor center, we walked up hill and down hill for about 20 minutes to get to the lakeshore.   Our shoes were full of the fine sand.   Our mouths were full of the bugs!

 

Museum of Science & Industry

We made a fun family morning in the city to go to the MSI.  Since I work so many weekends in the summer, this was a fun way to get the guys to the city and hang out with them.   After our museum fun, I dropped the guys off at Maggie Daley park to  mini golf and explore while I got in a few hours at  my office.  They walked over to meet me before we all drove home together. 

 

Several neighbors had posted about this cool maze, and it was great!  I'm glad I wasn't in there alone, or I may have gotten lost and definitely would have been disoriented.

William is finally at the age where he can read and interact with all of the exhibits himself.  We took him when he was younger and a lot of things he thought were boring since he wasn't fully engaging in them.  Now for my math, science and history whiz, this place is his playground.

The highlight was the U-Boat tour.  The guys had been on it a few years back when we had family in town, but I didn't get to go that day.   And it turns out William didn't fully remember it, but now he has read and watched so much about WWII that he was full of knowledge and the thirst for more knowledge.  He asked the docent some really amazing questions; including some she couldn't answer!  I was a very proud mom.