Thanksgiving Plans

Hello, all. Tomorrow we're hopping over the pond and 6 time zones to visit family and friends in Florida for Thanksgiving. We are really looking forward to the trip; the weather here has turned to the cold, grey and overcast that we will have until late February. The thought of warm temps and sun is very exciting, as is the fact that we're going to be able to see a lot of our family over the next couple of weeks.

We'll get into Tampa around 8 PM Saturday. Steph and Wade are flying down on Sunday and the 4 of us and Mama will head down to Sarasota for the first part of Thanksgiving week. Steph and Wade fly back to the great white north on Thursday, and after we drop them at the airport Shelly and I are heading up to Gainesville. My sister's family is coming down from Virginia for the weekend so we'll have a full house for Thanksgiving weekend which will be nice.

We're also going to get to see UF hoops and football play FSU on Friday and Saturday; needless to say we're excited about being able to make a tailgate this season.

If you're going to be in Gainesville for the game and want to get in touch with us, you can call my parents house at 352-378-4922.

Have a safe, happy and tasty Thanksgiving.

--Ed

Rome

Finally, I've gotten around to posting pictures from Rome. We met up with Regan and Cheri in Rome after their excursion to Venice. Cheri's cousin, Anthony, lives in Rome and was nice enough to host the four of us for a long weekend.

Since we had already been to Athens I was looking forward to comparing Rome to what we experienced in Greece. Truthfully, there was no comparison - there is so much more to see in Rome and so much more history. We got our fill of Athens after 1 day, however 4 days in Rome was the perfect amount of time. We spent the better part of three days walking the city stopping in Vatican City to see Saint Peter's Square & Basilica, the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel, and climbing the 491 steps to the top of the cupola atop Saint Peter's Basilica. Of course we also hit the Colosseum, the Forum, Circus Maximus (if you've ever seen Ben Hur, this is where the chariot race is supposed to have been), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Novona, and many places in between - including a bit of a side-trip outside of town to the Catacombs. Rome was an awesome experience, made even better by the companionship of a couple of our good friends and some great conversations. We're looking forward to hosting more friends and family in the future.

We'll be in Florida for two weeks over Thanksgiving, hopefully we'll see many of you while we're home.

--Ed

Shelly and Ed at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City

Climbing the stairs to the top of cupola at St. Peter's

Shelly and Regan at the top of St. Peter's

The view of St. Peter's Square from the top of St. Peter's cupola

The Colosseum

Ed and Shelly at the Colosseum

Colosseum from the Forum

Cheri and Shelly at the Colosseum

Shelly and Ed at Castle Saint Angelo

Castle Saint Angelo

Ed and Shelly at Trevi Fountain

Trevi Fountain

Regan and Cheri at Trevi Fountain

The Appian Way - The ancient road leading to Rome.

Stopping for a snack on the steps of St. Johns.

Regan and Cheri's Euro Trip

As promised, the pictures from Regan and Cheri's visit to Europe are posted below. What a great two weeks - 5 days with friends in Vegas and then a week and a half showing Regan and Cheri around. We spent a couple of days day-tripping out of Hanau to Heidelberg, the Rhine River and Rothenburg. After our short stay home, we left on Thursday night for the long Columbus Day weekend in Munich and Salzburg. We did a day-trip from Munich to see Neuschwanstein and then to Garmish where we hiked around the Partnachklamm; a gorge through the mountains that was perhaps the highlight of the trip.

We drove to Salzburg on Sunday and spent most of the day touring the city. On Monday we took the Sound of Music tour through Salzburg and the surrounding villages. The SOM tour was OK, the highlight being the small villages on beautiful alpine lakes (I'd post a picture, but it wouldn't do the scenery justice).

After the Sound of Music tour we had to hussle back to the hotel and get Regan and Cheri to the train station, where our guests hopped a train first to Venice then Rome. We all had a great time, the company made whatever we were doing an enjoyable experience - even a one and a half hour stau on the drive to Munich. Fortunately, we would see our friends again in two days in Rome.

Pictures from Rome will be up soon.

--Ed

Regan and Cheri on the train from the airport

Beer and schnitzel at the Hofrauhaus. Regan is "in his element."