Venice

See Venice from an aerial shot.  The grand canal goes right through the middle of the island.  The bottom of the photo is where our cruise ship will depart from.

Packing for a trip

Packing is always an ordeal for me.  I usually start weeks in advance for a big trip.  I will lay out a suite case and will begin to place things in the suit cases.  I will try and layout my clothes options so that I know exactly what I will need and not.  Often times I will over pack but because I have laid things out for days I will have begun to see that I'm over packing and remove things from the pile.  This works well for me.  Unfortunately Robert does not share my organizational skills and each and every time we travel we end up at a local shop (including those on a cruise ship) buying him additional pieces of clothes because he did not pack well.  I know you might say well with all that time why didn't I just do it.  Well see the problem to that is that he ends up with all the clothes I like and he doesn't so he wont wear them and or will have pulled them out of the suite cases in the days leading up to the trip so that by the time we leave his suit cases is empty because he wore all the clothes.  Just know its never a winning battle with him.  Anyways having said all that I will say that I've been on the look out for a good luggage set.  The set we have now has been used abused and has far too many miles on it.  It was good for the past 3 years but we are on to a hard case.  I'm pretty sure I would like a Samsonite set.  We are allowed 2 check in pieces and 2 carry on pieces.  I'm not going to buy the biggest piece I can find because what I have learned is that particular piece is often over packed and not within the weight restrictions.  It only took me once to be told I was over weight to not make that mistake again.  My other consideration is that when traveling through Europe we will often times find our selves pulling our own luggage through the terminals.  That means I must be careful to not over pack because I will be DRAGGING my own luggage.

Europe in November

Yes we are going to Europe in November.  We are going to Venice for 5 days

 

 

 

 This will only be the beginning of our 22 day trip.  How cool is that?  I'm very excited and have already begun to prepare for our trip.  I'm trying to refrain from buying to many new things for our trip because I want to save my money for the trip.  Venice is only our first destination after spending 5 days there we will then board a cruise ship for a 12 day Mediterranean cruise.  Our ports will include Greece, Turkey, Italy Venice, Rome, Naples, Florence, France and Spain.

 

As mentioned I have begun to research our trip details and making list of what needs to be done prior to us leaving and of course what we need to take.  There are some pretty cool sites out there that really make things easy.  www.tripadvisor.com seems to be a great resource.  Love the photos and comments.  Love all the handy tips and the does and don'ts by those who have gone before us.

 

 

French Door and siding repair $700
Robert putting on final touches

Mean while interior changes

New Closet doors for Master room:  $300
Ceiling fans in each room $600

More updates

Tree removal and trimming $1500
New Gutters $300

Update to the Utah house

This is what the door first look like