Monday, August 10, 2015

50th Anniversary!

This August marks 50 years since Dan and I were married. It's hard to believe it's been that long. To celebrate, we are taking a Mediterranean cruise with our two children and their spouses. Today (Sunday) we all met up in the Rome airport and transferred to the Hotel Traiano in Civitavecchia, the port city for Rome.

The trip went very well -- drive to Michigan City, park at the bus stop, ride the CoachUSA bus to O'Hare, check in, go through security (hurray for TSA PreCheck!), and find our gate. We had a bite to eat then boarded our flight to Montreal. After we deplaned onto a bus we followed the signs to Immigration and Connections. It was a very long way and several of the escalators and moving walkways were not working. When we entered the immigration hall we were appalled -- there were masses of people as far as we could see. It looked like a very long wait. Then we spotted the sign for connecting flights and realized there were only a few people standing there. I felt sorry for anyone who had Montreal as their destination, but was very grateful we didn't have to go through that line. After we passed through Canadian immigration, we still had to walk a very long way -- I believe we arrived at Gate 89 and left from Gate 11 in a different concourse. So we got plenty of exercise even on a travel day! The flight itself wasn't very eventful, nor was it full -- an uncommon occurrence these days. We both managed to sleep for a few hours.

We had to wait at the Rome airport for about three hours until everyone arrived (we were first). Dan got us a mozzarella and tomato bagel to share while we waited. Delicious!


Once everyone had gathered, we found the driver from our hotel and loaded up the van. It was about an hour or so through rolling Italian countryside. After showering, changing, and taking a brief rest, we walked down to the shore where we found a restaurant. It was only about 5:00 but we were all hungry and very tired. Anjali, Domingos, and Dirk had a cold coffee drink as shown below.


Even though it was definitely not a standard Italian mealtime, we were able to order some pizza, grilled vegetables and pasta. Then we went right down to one of the beach areas where people were enjoying the cool water on this very hot day.


Heading back to the hotel, Tracy, Anjali and I stopped to rest in a park for a few minutes and we got this picture of us. Not bad!


Tomorrow (Monday) we will board the ship and head off into the Mediterranean Sea. I will post as often as I can while we are on the ship, but the internet is quite expensive, so it many not be quite every day.

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