We're baaaaack-- did you miss us?

We had a fantastic vacation!!! We were SO ready to be home by last night. I have always heard that you know you've had a great (and long enough) vacation when you are actually ready to return back home to the daily grind! Daily grind we have today as well.. I'm sitting here waiting on my fourth load of laundry while Derrick is washing and putting together carseats that have been covered in food, leaking diapers,etc. oh the fun of coming back home!

I kept a travel journal on the trip and tried to write every night before I went to bed if not while riding in the car for long hours. Sometimes I did it the next day, I won't lie. These will probably get long and boring for some of you so skip to the pics if you want. I am using this blog also as an archive for my children some day (yay for printing!) so read what you want!

Powell Eurotrip 2008-

Day 1: Drive to Messina, Ferry to the Mainland, and on to Rome! August 4, 2008

We wanted to leave by 6:30 am but slept until 7 after a night of cleaning and packing until 1am! Valerie's birthday party was the day before and we had to clean up as well as be at church an hour early since I was singing. Sunday after church we went to gas up the car and realized another silly thing about Italy. It is impossible to find an open gas station during riposso (nap time in the afternoon basically) on Sunday's!! Good thing we left on Monday morning. phew.

The car is packed solid with a cooler of snacks, portapotty, and dvd's. On the drive up A18 to Messina we saw a worker on the busy highway packing pot holes by hand! He dumped hot asphalt out of a bucket and jumped out of the way of the fast moving traffic on the autostrada!! Unbelievable.

It is a beautiful drive up the eastern coast of Sicily. The water out my window is crystal clear and a shade of turquoise you don't see at the Catania beaches by us. Everytime we leave our region we talk about how much we love the island and it's amazing how we live in the only ugly part of it! (during the summer.. it is burn/dead season!)

The volcano, Mt. Etna, was rumbling last night. We thought it was thunder at first but driving on the north side of the volcano today confirmed our suspicions. There is a smoking trail all down the side but at 9am you can't see any lava.

For Derrick's birthday, I ordered him an early present- a gps- tomtom920. This thing made our vacation so much easier! However it led us through Messina instead of along the autostrada which I think added 40 minutes to our trip. Slightly annoying.. I don't recommend doing that! We arrived to the ferry line and bought our tickets at the little cafe. A car/van costs 25euro for one way across to the mainland. We waited about 20 minutes for the next ferry and drove our car right onto the ferry. Once you park you can get out and go upstairs to watch. The girls loved it. It felt much like the cruise ship we were on last summer, although Valerie was sad that it wasn't the "Mickey Mouse boat." Back on the road we hit some construction right after we were on the mainland but it wasn't too bad. It is really easy to find gas stations that take the gas coupons along the autostrada. Make sure you have 50cent euro coins if you want to use the restroom. (And bring wipes.. as you know, they are gross). The Autogrills also have decent panini's and pizza,etc. if you want something hot to eat for lunch. We even found a Burger King in one of them but I can't remember where it was ... I think up near Tuscany. We did pull over on the autostrada to pull the princess potty out more than once. I definitely recommend that with toddlers. They ALWAYS have to go after you leave a rest stop.

Anyhow- We arrived at the farmhouse in Rome around 9pm, just at dusk and I had time only to snap a couple pictures. The place is gorgeous at sunset. The large pine trees were silhouettes in the pink/purple sky. We pretty much checked in and went right to bed. We had a room with 2 twin beds, a little kitchenette, and a separate bedroom with a queen bed for us. However they both ended up with us anyhow so it wasn't exactly worth the money for a bigger room. Ya just never know! Before we went to sleep, D said, "Goodnight John Boy..." :)

P.S. On the way back we ended up on a different ship about a block away from this set. Apparently there are lots of different ones. This one had a lot of deck space, a bar, bathrooms,etc. It took about 40 minutes to cross. On the way back we were only on the boat about 15 minutes but didn't have much deck space to rome around so we pretty much stood by the car. If they ask you to buy a round trip ticket say no unless you plan on using it in 3-4 days. I forget the exact time frame.. make sure you ask!!

In Messina we passed several stands like this selling fruit and other random statues. You see this all over Sicilian towns. I think it's comical.

Incase this may help someone in Sig-- This is where you buy your ticket.. just walk up to the counter inside. Look for the Biglietteria sign. You pull up literally right in front of this cafe (pic taken from car window)

The place is called Casali Santa Brigida. I wouldn't try to find it without a tomtom but it was nice.. about 20 mins out of Rome on the north side. After a day of business it's nice to come back to the country to a place with lots of grass for the kids to run around and you can actually relax without watching your back constantly! I wish I took pics inside but always forget to do so. It was pretty basic as far as amenities but had beautiful landscaping. It was roughly 80 euro a night including breakfast. I'd probably stay there again.