Walks and a trip to America in Venice

Let me just start off by saying it has been HOT here lately. Crazy out of control heat stroke warnings hot, but we figured that we can't let it get us down. Princess went to the co-op everyday last week. She made some new friends and had a good ol' time learning new games and making crafts. I worked my debt off on Friday watching toddlers. It was a little crazy, but when put in perspective totally worth the time she gets to spend there. She gets to have some social/play time with kiddos her own age and as already stated I get things done! Hurray for us all!! And of course again Lil Beau is so easy going, but he does get extremely excited when we pick up Princess, he is crazy about her.
On Tuesday we went with Janna and Grace on a walk to the park by her house. Park doesn't seem to be the right word to describe it, but of course I can't remember the name of it and have no idea what else to call it. All I know is it is amazingly green and a gorgeous walk. There are no slides or swings, but instead lots of animals and trails which Princess loves.

This is not the park but somebody's yard

He wasn't so sure about the bumpy ride

The trail to the river

Nothing is more fun than throwing rocks, especially when you won't get in trouble for it!


She gets really nervous for people

Hard Rock Cafe has arrived in Venice. Thursday the long awaited day finally came for Christy and me to go chow down on some good food from our home land. We had been waiting for about a month for a day to come up when both our husbands were off work. Our planning process was pretty simple, we figured we would hop on a train for the hour ride there at about 3, get to the restaurant, eat, hop back on the train and be home by 8:30 right after the kids are nestled in bed for the evening. :) You would think we would know better by now. Started off great no crying children as we left, we got to the train station about fifteen mintues before the train left and arrived in Venice right on schedule. It was blistering hot outside so we figured we would enjoy a nice ride on the water taxi instead of trying to make our way through the maze that is Venice. I got to take some pictures of a side of the city I haven't seen yet, so that was awesome.

Police!

It is a breathtaking city

Hurray we arrived in San Marco's square no problems, doing great! We thought we would be tricky and bring the trusty navigator to guide us to the Hard Rock. I had the address on hand and we plugged it in and made our way.....in a circle.....twice. The navigator decided it wasn't feeling so trusty that day and took us from one side of the square to the other side and back again. Both frustrated after about an hour of searching we decided to go ask for directions from the Hotel where we knew they would at least speak English. We crossed the bridge to reach the hotel and this is what we see to our left:

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOOO


Ice in our drinks!!! To explain why this is picture worthy let me just say they had to make sure that we wanted ice in our drinks because it just isn't done around here


A little interior picture, it is the smallest Hard Rock out of them all, but cozy and of course amazingly delicious. I did take a couple pictures of our food and some other various silly things, but I will spare you :)

So pretty

By the time we got our food, ate and finally got our check it was way past nightfall, but we did get to see the Gondolas park for the night


There were several tents of live music playing as we left which was new to me since I have never stayed there so late. Our well thought out plan didn't pan out as we had hoped it would considering it was past midnight when I finally arrived home, after being stopped by the Carabinieri (which is a whole different story, no I wasn't speeding, no ticket and didn't go to Italian jail. Just passed through a "checkpoint"), but it was great food and a lot of fun.


This is Princess at Miss Christy's house.


El fin!