Meanwhile, much later . . . .

I have to work tomorrow! We haven't actually worked (on a nursing floor) since August 18th! That's almost 2 months! No wonder we're nearly broke! We did have classroom orientation in Ocala, FL last week. So much has happened since August 18th. We drove home to Ohio and spent a week there. On August 29th we flew to Atlanta where we met friends, Claire and Arlene. We all flew into Rome where we spent three nights. On Sept. 1st we were joined by three more: Brenda, Phyllis, and Virginia. The next day we went to the port closest to Rome where we jumped on a cruise ship for a 12-day cruise! Our ports of call included Monte Carlo, Livorno (Florence), Naples, Santorini (Greece), Kusadasi (Ephesus, Turkey), Mykonos (Greece, Athens, Katakolon (Olympia, Greece), Corfu, and Venice. We then spent 3 nights in Venice. Brenda, Phyllis, and Virginia left after 1 night to go to Switzerland. Claire, Arlene, Brian & I took an overnight train to Paris. We spent three nights there. Two of those nights we stayed with Claire and Arlene's aunt and uncle. It was so nice of them to let us stay there. After we flew home, Claire and Arlene stayed another week. This was not a "relaxing" vacation. We got a workout every day! What a trip, though! We got to see the Colosseum, Vatican, Tower of Pisa (which we climbed), Pompeii, Ephesus, the Acropolis, Venice, AND the Eiffel Tower. Through in the beautiful Greek Isles, and WOW, it's enough to blow your mind. We feel very blessed to have seen any ONE of those things.

Favorite Place: Oia, Santorini, Greece
Places that we hope to return: Oia, Paris, Venice, Florence, and Capri
(We missed Capri due to our ship being late into Naples.)
What I will think of when I am having a stressful night at work: I will close my eyes and pretend that we're sitting at a sidewalk cafe in St. Marks Square, Venice. We sat there and listened to the dueling orchestras while we drank cappuccino and ate tiramisu (or gelato). This is my favorite memory out of many, many, many wonderful memories.

After we returned to Ohio after our trip, we went camping with my family for a weekend. Everyone was there! The weather was perfect. What a great time!

Now we're in Florida for the rest of the fall and maybe all winter. We've already been to see Brian's family two weekends. We hope to do a lot more of that. I'll post pictures soon.