Cruise 2012: Venice to Rome and more

We are in Venice! Molto bene! We arrived an hour or so ago, and are having a glass of wine in our apartment while we start some laundry. After looking around at the local restaurants, the one we like has too long a wait, so to the grocery - more like a 7/11, just a few staples - for pasta and pesto!

The trip has been perfect so far! Our afternoon in Seattle was quiet, just a walk through Pike's market, and then we went for oysters at a crab place, where we ended up eating halibut collar, clams and sushi at happy hour prices. Several glasses later, we went back to our hotel to watch the presidential debate and get to bed early.

Up at 4:30 to catch our flights to NY, Madrid and Marseilles! We caught a few hours of the baseball game between uneventful flights. (Go Giants!!!!) Catching the bus to Aix was a piece of cake, and we had time for a nap at the Cardinal Hotel before meeting Andrea, Ambri and our adorable 6-week-old grand-nieces for a drink at Place Richelme. I can't adequately describe the pleasure of meeting these adorable babies and seeing our nieces while enjoying a kir in Aix! Life is very, very good.

We spent all day Friday and Saturday in Aix, drinking coffe in the mornings to help with jet lag (the worst I've ever experienced), then playing with babies in the afternoons and evenings. Doug has thousands of photos of them! Did I mention how cute they are? We went out for a wonderful dinner the first night, then fixed dinner at Ambri and Giuliano's the next two nights. Try as we might, we could not eat at a reasonable hour - dinner at 10:30. And we can honestly blame the babies for one of those nights! Photos to come - we are still working out some technical issues.