Italy part 2 - Pitigliano & Montepulciano

So the pics of the villa are coming, but you can see the places we visited in the slide shows below. First is a picture we took on our last evening in the villa; notice how Kai has turned into a ghost.

Italy part 1 - Roma

So they are finally here - the pictures from Italy. We had so much fun in Rome running around in our dirty clothes because Air France failed to transfer our luggage in CDG, but that wasn't going to stop us! We saw most of the timportant sites in one day - arriving early that morning and returning to our hotel after midnight. We stumbled onto the Pantheon by accident - what a surprise. Another nice surprise was the buzz we both got off just one vodka and Schweppes Bitter Lemon.

Below are the photos from our first day, including a panoramic that was assembled with Hugin and loaded with Panoye. You can also follow our adventures with the map below.








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I'm back (sort of)

I know I am late posting pictures, but the Italian Interwebs weren't as available (or fast) as I had hoped. Pictures will be coming soon. Check back later this week for the best of Italy. In the mean time, there are some great events coming up that I will have up later this week. I am also visiting Spice Market this week for a review, so be sure to check back for the low down.

Italia

I know the posts have been a bit infrequent this week, but I have been planning a trip to Italy! I am headed there this Friday with the family for nine days. If they have the Interwebs there, I'll be sure to post plenty. If not, you will have to wait until I return. Cindy & Ray will have to manage without me for a few weeks.

Please Don't Stop the Music

Here is the final entry from the Costa Rican adventure! Not much to say about the whitewater rafting (pictures below). The real story is the following video. Just released today, the contents of this video were prepared for the three birthday boys on our trip: Alun, Darell and Kevin. I hope you enjoy watching as much as we did making it - be sure to stay for the credits.

Swinging like a monkey (with climbing gear)

Out next adventure was scheduled - we took a zip line tour of the rain forest. White water rafting and the Project Runway challenge are coming. Pictures and video below.
Pictures:

Click below for the Lost-esq video of my 1,400 ft. zip.

Costa Rica

Lost, found and burned

So what do you do when you go to the beach? Go to the beach. We tried to do just that on our first day. About 45 minutes after the first group left to search for the beach, my party left the house with the same destination in mind. After two wrong turns (and lots of backtracking) we found the other group - lost - and they joined us in our search. We then made the mistake of assuming that since the beach was down, we should follow a road in the same direction. When we got to the bottom of that road we discovered that it was a private property, so we turned back.

Before I continue any further, I should inform you that is has already been about 90 minutes since we left, and I said I would apply sunscreen when we got to the beach. And I had my backpack on (sexy farmer's tan).

After returning to the top of the hill, we met up with our remaining two housemates who had slept in and had breakfast. They informed us that we had walked right past the sign pointing to the beach (only one more mile). Damn them and their everything bagel!
We finally made it to the beach, and it was worth it! We ended up walking to a little cafe down the beach, having margaritas and playing in the surf. We ended up taking a cab back to the house (we needed it after our long hike).

Check out the slide show of the entire trip below.

Pura Vida

I'm back - sun-burned and relaxed. I'll post pictures and stories later tonight. Stay tuned.

"Watch out for feces-throwing monkeys"

That was my dad's advice.

As I depart for Costa Rica in the morning, he doesn't warn me about safe travel, keeping my eyes open for the terrorists or avoiding the Costa Rican 'dope'. Instead he warns me about how his old Army buddy shot his rifle barrel cleaner at a monkey and was later ambushed and attacked by said monkey. Thanks, dad. I promise not to shoot any monkeys; I'll only spank them. Could you imagine explaining that to your friends? "Uh, a group of monkeys (who haven't intelligently designed as much as I) jumped out of a tree and whooped on me." Ouch! You get a black eye and a bruised ego. I'd tell my friends I insulted a drag queen's shoes instead.

We are headed to Puerto Quepos to celebrate three 40th birthdays (old people and their destination birthdays). If we have access to the internets, I'll post pictures as often as possible. If I am MIA for the week, you (my mystery reader) will know why.

Pura vida!