Italy Series: Hilltowns// Abbazia di San Galgano

If I were to say that the Hill towns trip was the most challenging trip for me at the time, I would have to also say it had the best, most breathtaking unexpected sites to see. This one was my favorite of all, somehow the time we arrived, the weather, the location and the ruin all made the experience of this rather isolated site quite uplifting. Unlike a lot of the churches and museums we had visited, this was the the carcass of a beautiful building, completely open and un-policed. We could walk through it, around and comfortably study the architecture without feeling like if you leaned too close to the wall or touched it even..you'd be immediately tossed out.   

It was early morning when we arrived, I didn't know what expect and I was in charge of the 24 or so students along with a bus driver who spoke no English ( I spoke no Italian) . Looking back on it now, I was way too young to handle the pressure but I'd never trade the experience. We got off the bus, groggy and a bit chilly, the sun was coming up over the valley and we wondered over, there really was no agenda here but to wonder around and sketch. It was a bit of a relief from the tension that had been going on amongst the group. I took advantage of it..I may have even smiled..

 

 This place was breathtaking, it was completely serene, quiet, and inspiring. If I had my way, I'd have had my wedding here. It seems like such a perfect location to unite and begin a new journey.

Ocean City MD

Ocean City was our choice for a family holiday this year, mainly because it seemed close and we could combine vacation and home comforts without breaking the bank. I really just needed to relax a bit and I knew the kids would be fine with sand and water all day for 6 days so it seemed perfect. The twist to the vacation was we rented a four bedroom condo right off the beach along with my brother ( whose younger and single) and my sister who has two kids a bit older than mine. I wasn't sure how the week would go with so many of us in one house, I sometimes get a bit antsy having to coordinate so many different personalities but this time actually not bad. We started out as as a group of nine then my brothers friend joined in and then we were ten. By the third day we had added 9 more people in form of my cousins, their kids, my mom and aunt. 

We spent most days buried and sleeping in sand, listening to music, eating sand sprinkled sandwiches and soaking up the sun. It was nice to really feel relaxed, the kids were mostly well behaved, no one got overwhelmingly cranky. The first night we attempted to go out to dinner but it was such a popular place and we went out a bit late, my kids started to melt down by the time we were seated, so I had to ride the bus back with the two of them by myself. That was a low point because I had a crying 2 year old and a crying 5 year old on a bus full of drunk people! I learnt my lesson from that, feed the kids before we go out or go out earlier.

At first, Arielle would not even go near the water, in fact when she saw the first wave she ran away crying and wanted to leave but eventually we coaxed her closer to the water and eventually by midweek she wouldn't get out of the water, so much so that she was making everyone nervous because she was so daring. Evalie, napped every single day we ware there, either on me or on the beach towels which allowed her to maintain enough energy to wake up every morning at 6:30 screaming and running down the halls waking everyone else up. I'm used to that but I think my brother was alarmed by her busting into his room and jumping on him!

I actually haven't ever spent that many days in a row on the beach (well maybe I have..but not in the US) and I realize that I really enjoyed it, the weather was perfect, not too hot and humid but warm enough to make the alternating between wet and dry pretty pleasant. We usually all packed coolers of food and drinks so we didn't have much need to walk back too the condo except for the occasional need to go to the bathroom or charge the phones. We would get to the beach at about 10 and stay until 6. The day we had more people than expected we just ordered pizza to the beach. They also had a beach bar fully stocked with food and drinks so there really was no shortage of supplies. 

Most of the time, Arielle was happy to have her best cousin there with her but they had some spats as well, when the other cousins joined in or other kids on the beach tried to play with them, things got a little complicated, "threes was a crowd" and of course they wouldn't let Evalie play witht them so she made her own friends or played with Shaina (my 11yr old niece) when she wasn't in the water which wasn't much of the time.

I was also especially happy with the opportunity for my kiddies to bond with my brother, he's been away for most of their lives although he does visit and attend their birthday parties, baptism etc, they really only got to see him for a day or two at a time on holidays. Its better now that he's moved to the city because he's closer to us but I was still excited for them to really get time with him. 

On our first night, we didn't go out to eat so we took the kids for ice cream and treats after dinner at the candy kitchen which is basically a store filled with tempting chocolates, candies and toys. Its basically a little girls paradise. Within minutes of us getting in there, Evalie got so excited she knocked over a box of jawbreakers! The staff was not happy. 

The tides were pretty high and got progressively higher each day so we (well I didn't)  built a fort to protect us from getting flooded. Everyone else on the beach just picked up and moved back but we were relentless, we wouldn't move back. We just kept building the wall higher and higher..each day we'd return and reclaim our spot and continue building up the wall. We had a dolphin sighting too! It was really about 30- 40 dolphins 

We did have some decent dinners out, like the night we went to Phllips, even though we waited on line for a while, we eventually got in and I think everyone had a good time, the kids stayed out of trouble and ate all kinds of things. For a buffet style dinner, it was pretty good food and drinks. 

We had a nice time sitting out and watching the sunset from our balcony and an ice bucket challenge or two were completed up there! I was too chicken to do it though. Although the condo was nice, we really didn't spend too much time indoors. Maybe one or two nights we ate at home but otherwise we showered and slept there. It was decent though, more than enough space for everyone, my only problem was I didn't like having to clean up after everyone on my vacation so next time I would definitely hire a cleaning service to clean the place everyday like a hotel would...or just stay at a hotel/ serviced flat on the beach.

On our last day, we had to be out of the place by 10am so we decided to spend the day at the boardwalk and drive home at night. There was a little amusement park, Ripleys, tons of food and vendors so we bought all our souvenirs and spent the day down there. The beach was nice over by the boardwalk but very crowded with a very different type of crowd than we had at our beach. We put the kids on some rides, had some lunch and then as people started getting tired we decided it was time to go. Its always sad to get the end of a vacation but I do think it ended just in time. We all got some food for the ride said our good byes and that was it. The drive home was quiet and seemed quicker than it took to get there and we were all happy to be home. 

Until next summer!

Sesame Place.for Evie's 2nd Birthday

 

We did Sesame place..again..as a gift to Evie for her Second birthday (really from her dad to himself). We have been there in the past, about2 years ago soon after she was born we took Arielle during her “Abby Cadaby” phase and I was a bit overwhelmed that time but this time it was actually quite fun. The weather was perfect, we rented two cabanas (we had invited some friends and family to join us) and we chose to go on a Friday instead of Saturday this time. What a difference! Although the park was still pretty full of patrons, it was not overflowing and it was a different kind of crowd on Friday. Let’s just say Saturday was bit less PG than Friday. Anyway, when we got in we immediately spotted Zoe, and at that moment I knew if Evie was going to be receptive to these characters or not..this time she was cautious. She stopped and looked at her quizzically but did not want to get close at all!  Not a problem I figured when she got a bit more comfortable with the surroundings she would open up..which she did to “the count” of all characters. On our way to the cabana though we ran into others, Ernie and Bert, Big bird being rushed over to some other activity. We checked in, go our water shoes and changed…Can I just digress for a minute..water shoes are the most unflattering thing ever, they don’t look good on me, they don’t even look good on cute little girls..and they are horrendous on grown men! I amy hate them just as much as I detest crocs! But I admit, after paying twenty five dollars for them, I remember thinking how worth it they were every step of the way! There's something to be said about being in water and mingling with hundreds of other peoples feet..I don’t maybe its me..but I was quite happy having a barrier from in my hot pink water shoes!

Okay. We started out by a jumping into the pool at the counts castle which you can see from my last trip to SP. And since last time I had a little baby, I barely went into the water so this time, I jumped right in and stood square under the bucket for a good lashing..there was no going back after that, once you’re soaked, the water fun just becomes second nature.

Evie is a little fish, she loves the water and if you’ve been to Sesame Place before, you know the water is extremely crisp, freezing, but she wouldn’t get out even while she was shivering. She was running up and down the stairs at the counts castle water slides and even went down a windy slide several times..she wasn’t nervous at all. This particular pool, has slides and was filled with kids and adults, has water falling from every location and every few minutes has a huge bucket of water dumped on the swimmers! My baby Arie (almost 6 years old) was terrified and cried because of the loud thunderous sound it makes before the deluge but Evalie wanted to stand under the deluge! They are so different. It was a bit hard to negotiate because we were first so if Arielle wanted to go somewhere else, we would have to separate.

We were also looking out for my sisters and their kids so we didn’t want to go too far until they got there. What I realized that day though was that SP is a pretty compact park, it seemed much larger the first time.

When the others arrived, we ordered lunch and jumped back in the pool, hit up a few slides and then rushed back for our personal visit with the count..at non other than the “Counts cabanas”! Last time we were amateurs so we missed all the perks of the cabanas but this time we knew, we could get food delivered, we got one on one visits from the count and we got to bypass the lines on the rambling river!

While we ate lunch and relaxed for a moment, the count came in. We took a bunch a funny pictures with him, he laid out for a bit on a chaise and Evie even with him. He was the all out best most friendly character there. Kudos count!

We had been advised by an insider when we arrived that morning that around 2pm people would start leaving their towels down on the sidewalk to save the prime locations for the parade so thought we’d do the same because last time that was something I missed, I was too far back with my stroller and Austin just threw Arie on his shoulders so she could see. This time, we did as the Romans did but we were a bit late, by about 2:30 all the spot were taken so we were at the end of the line. The parade kicked off at 3pm and it was a blast. Evie wouldn’t get off Sesame Street, she wanted to run and down with them but the guards are very strict about keeping the kids on the curb because of the moving floats. Anyway, the 30-40 minute parade was lots of fun. The kids were screaming out and waving as all their favorite characters rode by on floats and came into the street to dance. It’s quite lively and very colorful.

The rest of the time was a race to get on as many rides and slides as possible but still make it to the hotel in time to wash up for dinner. We took the little ones to the wave pool (it was filled with little babies and the water was quite a bit warmer than the other pools! yuck.) Arie and Evie made friends, and really had a good time there, in that regard, they are both quite similar, they like to have one friend and they are happy to stay.  

I knew that if we waited too long Evie would melt and although we left the park at 6:30ish, and she slept for about an hour, she woke up very cranky and hard to deal with which is what I was afraid of. She eventually snapped out of it, when we go to the restaurant around 8pm. We had the usual Teppanyaki table hijinks which my kids like and the food was quite nice. They brought her out a cake and sang and then gave her a porcelain cat cup (a bit bizarre but its the thought that counts!).

Day 2 a SP was a bit more low key, I was grumpy to start but eventually lightened up. We split up in three groups for most of the day! My sister parked herself on a chaise lounge under an umbrella with a good book and her visor, the guys and older girls went off to ride the more daring rides and my other sister and I along with the two year olds did ice cream, got caricatures, met Elmo and Super Grove, rode a slow Elmo ride..etc. We even got to see a part of the parade again. We spent some time at the kiddie area but unfortunately the wave pool had just been evacuated..word on the street.. the Sesame street..was that one of those babies pooped!..ewww. We left he park around 7 and drove home, kids in PJ’s and fed ( NJ turnpike food..) but at least it was food!