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By Ben, 1 July, 2009

Rome Sightseeing

[Note: this post was written as captions for a series of photos. The photos are now in an album but the captions are still here.]

On Sunday (May 31) we faced the prospect of another day without our luggage. We bought some clothes from roadside vendors, washed our traveling clothes, and hung them out the courtyard window.

Tags

  • honeymoon
  • Italy
  • photos
By Ben, 26 June, 2009

Paying it Forward

On Monday night, Jessie and I played host to four young bicycle tourists -- Kelly, Lucy, Remy, and Ann Caroline -- on their way from Colorado to Washington, DC as part of the Trek to Reenergize America.  You can read Kelly's take on their visit -- now it's my turn!

Tags

  • travel
By Ben, 13 June, 2009

Vatican City

[Note: the videos referenced here are now in an album of photos and videos.]

Tags

  • honeymoon
  • Italy
  • photos
By Ben, 11 June, 2009

Home Safe

We got back from Italy last night, and although we had some misadventures all along the way, for the most part we had a wonderful trip and couldn't wish for a better start to our marriage!  We'll spend the next few days digging ourselves out of the backlog of work and mail and such and should start posting photos and stories from the trip sometime next week.

Tags

  • honeymoon
By Ben, 10 June, 2009

Home Stretch

On Tuesday, June 9, we needed to get wi-fi to plan our day, but doing so at the Ostello was a big production involving photocopying our passports. Checking out also involved an inspection of the room, which we had to clean ourselves. Then we went down the road and got breakfast before hitting the highway back to Florence. We arrived in town by 11:30 and found a parking garage for 21€ for 9 hours.

Tags

  • travel
  • Italy
By Ben, 9 June, 2009

Tuscany

On Sunday, June 7, we had breakfast at the hotel buffet and headed for the Venice airport, but we got the directions wrong and spent an extra hour on the bus due to starting in the wrong direction. Fortunately we were not catching a flight, but just renting a car! When we arrived at the airport, we followed the wrong signs to the rental parking lot but eventually found it. We had reserved a car with an automatic transmission so that both of us could drive, but the Hertz agency didn't have any, so we got a tiny Peugot convertible with a manual transmission that only I could drive.

Tags

  • travel
  • Italy
By Ben, 6 June, 2009

Venice

See an album of our many photos from Venice.

Tags

  • Italy
  • travel
  • photos
By Jessie, 31 May, 2009

an update from Italy

We have had a wonderful two days in Rome. Friday we were surprised to find Patti [the luggage clerk at O'Hare] had booked us in business class seats! So we had a late but very pampered flight to Rome. Saturday we arrived in Rome around 10am. We got through customs quickly as they merely glanced at our passports and stamped them. We went to baggage claim only to wait 45 minutes and then find out our luggage had not made it. We filed a claim, they said our luggage would show up Saturday or Sunday, and went on our way to the city.

Tags

  • honeymoon
  • travel
  • Italy
By Ben, 29 May, 2009

Angels and Demons both have Airplane Wings

Public relations is such a fragile thing.  A company can spend millions polishing and maintaining its reputation, only to let you down when it matters most.  Another company can treat you like crap repeatedly, consistently cutting corners in a heartless bureaucracy, and then in one beautiful, human moment make you want to sing their name from the rooftops.  In this particular moment it may still be premature to say which company is which.

Tags

  • travel
  • honeymoon
By Ben, 29 May, 2009

an update

If you were relying on this site to keep you up to date on our lives, you'd think nothing had happened in the past few weeks.  On the contrary - we spent a wonderful week in New York at the YAI conference and in New Jersey visiting Uncle Dave and Aunt Elizabeth; we spent a week in Manley, NE preparing for the wedding, and we got married!  We just haven't had time to blog about any of it.  So stay tuned.

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"Blue Boat Home" is the name of a UU hymn by Peter Mayer, about how we are all travelers on the Earth. We have his permission and blessing to use the name for this site.