Reminiscing of Italy - April 2005

My in-laws are currently traveling around Italy. Part of their voyage will take them to the stomping grounds of distant relatives....I'm interested to see if they will be able to track down the correct Bacciagaluppo (can you get more Italian than that?) family. I love learning about family history! We also have some friends who just returned from an Italian adventure, so all this talk of Italy has had me thinking of my whirl-wind trip there in 2005.

I would love to go back some day...there is something just so charming about Italy, it captures you! These are just a few of the photos I randomly found on my computer today.

This man practically begged us to take a photo with him, so after a few minutes, we obliged and then we started walking away. Bad move on our part...we heard yelling, so we turned around and saw him following us through the crows by the Trevi fountain...then we ran...we kept hearing, "you pay! you pay!" He somehow caught up to us and grabbed us, so we coughed up a few Euro and paid him, he was creepy.

The Spanish Steps...

The Trevi fountain is beautiful, and it really is romantic.

Aaaaah, Florence! It is the picture I had in my head of Italy.

What's a trip to Italy without the typical, "I'm holding up the leaning Tower of Pisa" picture?

Yes please! I will take a cappuccino and a croissant :-)

We were in Rome at the beginning of the trip and the end. The first time we were there was Easter Sunday and the crowds were crazy at the Vatican, so we didn't go in. We figured we would wait until the end of our to do that. Again, bad move. The day we got back was the day the Pope passed. The picture below was taken fairly early in the day, so all of the crowds had not arrive. The square was packed with people praying, chanting, and singing! So, I've been to Rome two separate times and have not seen the Sistine Chapel...maybe some day.

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival

Two weeks ago we went up to San Francisco with some friends to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Golden Gate Park. It's a FREE 3 day festival put on by a super wealthy guy who loves bluegrass...how cool is that? We only made it up for a few hours on the last day, so we missed many amazing shows (like Elvis Costello and Emmylou Harris), but it was still fun to be a part of.

Believe it or not, I had never driven the coast up Highway 1 to San Francisco, so we took that route and it was a perfect day for it! On our way, we stopped at Taco Bell. Why? Because look where it is! Seriously, Best. Taco. Bell. Ever!

Go for a surf, a walk, or a fun day at the beach and you have food right in front of you. They even have an outdoor ordering window on the deck for all of their customers with sandy feet. How accommodating!

The show was packed! There were six stages with concerts going on at each one all throughout the day. The main reason we went was to see the Avett Brothers since we had missed both of the shows they played in the area earlier this year. I needed to get my fix, and I did. They are so fun live!

I think one of my favorite things about concerts is the people watching. These two danced the entire show! No joke, an hour and a half of the same movements over, and over, and over. He pulled out some really sweet hip movements which I didn't catch, but you'll get the idea.

Sweet Baby Girl

Little Evangeline is already getting so big. I was able to hang out with her a bit last Saturday when we celebrated her big brother's 2nd birthday at Vasona Park in Los Gatos. She spent most of the day soundly sleeping in her baby bjorn, but I was able to manage a few snapshots before she slipped off into dreamland.

Poor girl, she was being smothered by all of her aunts, uncles, and cousins. I'm sure she was wondering what the heck all of the commotion was about...

"Auntie Em, will you please get out of my face with your camera, it's starting to get annoying..."

Isn't she sweet? She kindly let me take one last photo of her, thanks baby girl :-)

Let the Landscaping Begin!

We're at it again. After a long hiatus, we are back to working on the house. We still have more work to do on the inside, but we're both tired of paint, spackle, tiling, crown molding, baseboard, sanding, etc., etc. So, we decided that to keep things rolling we should change gears and work on the outside of the house. It's going to be super fun to watch the yards go from weeds and dirt to patios, grass, and tropical plants!

Phase 1 of the landscaping journey started last week. We extended the patio that comes off of our "sunroom" so that we can have a spot to put our hot tub....YAY! We are so excited to get our hot tub back, and just in time for winter too!

Before we could lay the patio Brian had to move an in ground drain that was in the way and redo some piping. Here he is working hard...

Laying down the last of the rebar...he looks pretty happy with his rebar skills.

Here's a closer look at the job.

Thinking things over. "Are we sure this is what we want to do, are we sure we left enough room to put the plants we want around the patio?"

Now for the real fun part...the pouring of the patio! Brian's dad was nice enough to come help us out for the day, and we couldn't have done it without him! Go Brendon, go!!!

Brian looks happy that we have started working on the house again :-) We'll get there some day, but at least for now the ball is rolling again!