Milano

And after 4 days of drinking and eating and sleepin a little, I was off once again this time to Milan.  This is where the work came into play on this trip  :)

I was headed off to visit a show that was geared to restaurants and hotels.  My main interest was the coffee pavillions of which there were 2.  And it took me 2 days to get through them.  This show is huge!!! 

I did take some to time to sightsee and shop of course.  The Duomo is the landmark of Milan so that was stop number one.  Also, a quick stop on the roof as it is amazing up there but the day I was visiting, it was raining a little so not quite as delightful as it had been 16 years ago.  I also managed to get a ticket to see The Last Supper by Leonard Da Vinci.  What a score!  15 minutes with the famous painting.  Also visited La Scala Theatre but was not able to get any tickets for any opera.  Next time.  There was some art thing going on in the city.  Giant painted elephants.  So I had fun trying to find them as I toured around the city.

A great trip all in all, but after 10 days away from home, I was dying to get back home to my girls!

The Duomo

On the rooftop of the Duomo

A cool statue inside the Duomo.

The Duomo at night.

Area surrounding the Duomo.

The Galleria (shopping mecca)

Cool coffee cup display at the tradeshow

A gimormous coffee roaster!

Trento

After my 2 day jaunt in Rome, I grabbed a high-speed train for a 4-hour ride and headed off to Trento in Northern Italy where all my family is.  I was picked up by my cousins and whisked off to dinner.  It had been a while since I last saw them so we had lots of catching up to do.  Also, it was my first trip back to my parents' home town that I did not have a place to stay.  We used to have my grandparents, house but that had been sold some years ago  :(  So I was going to spend my stay at my aunt's house.  Very nice.  I had my own 2 bedroom apartment!  Mental note... must come back with Gord and the girls...  There is something about this sleepy town of 400 people.  I get sucked in everytime!  I am such a country girl at heart.  I would be able to live that lifestyle no problem!  There is nothing wrong with waking up and seeing the Alps from your bedroom window. 

The town church

 

Directions to all the neighboring towns.

 

View from my bedroom

View from the living room.

Neighboring area

Mountain flowers.

 

Castel Thun

Snow!

Rome

It was decided very last minute that I was to go to Italy for 10 days.  Poor me  :)  Well, in fact, I went for work purposes but seeing that I had not been there in 16 years, I went to spend some time with my family in Northern Italy.  And since I had a supplier in Rome, I made a pit stop there too!

So first off, Rome for 2 days.  I was picked up at the airport by my coffee supplier who then took me to visit his present factory and then his new one.  He then dropped me off at my hotel to settle in but of course, I did not stay there long.  I needed to get out there and explore!  My hotel was just around the corner form the Colisseum so I grabbed my camera and headed off by foot.  I explored the area a little and made a plan for the next day.  Later that evening, I went out for a typical Roman dinner with my supplier and thenit was pass out time.  Jet-lag had finally gotten the best of me. 

The next day, I purchased a hop-on, hop-off bus  pass on a double decker bus and made my way around town with that.  These are some of the stops I made.  My time in Rome was very short so I chose to not visit any museums or any of the sorts.  Will save that for my next trip.  I chose to ride the bus and just walk through all the neighborhoods and just simply hang.  Loved Rome!  Can't wait to go back...



Colisseum

Colisseum area

Colisseum area

 

St. Peter's Basilica

The Vatican

 

Trevi Fountain

Piazza Navona

Spanish Steps

Cuba 2011

Here is a slideshow of our annual trip to Cuba.  Once again, we had a fabulous time with the most fantastic weather ever!

Watch out... Here we come!

It's finally here, the night before the big departure for....

HAWAII!!!

I am off for 10 glorious days with my BFF... no kids, no husband!  I am almost giddy!

August in Review

What can I say?  August is already over and not one blog entry.  Pathetic!  So, for posterity purposes, I will resume the month in bullet form (with pictures of course!).

• 
  
  Every year, we have what we call Fun Day at the cottage.  This year's theme was 'Toga Party'.  So, off came the white sheets from the bed bright and early on that Saturday morning and 4 togs were created.  We paraded around the lake for about an hour and then a hot dog lunch was served at a Director's cottage.

• 
  
  And then there's 'Pep Day'.  Don't ask how this day got it's name.  Our dear friends invite their entire family for a day at the lake followed by a lovely dinner.  Not sure why we are invited.  Guess we are considered family!

• 
  
  Then we attended my annual Italian Picnic that I help organize feeding app. 200 people spaghetti in the park!  Yup... that's always fun!

• 
  
  We also managed to squeeze in a week's vacation at the cottage for some serious R & R.  Time spent at the cottage really does recharge those batteries!

• 
  
  And then some of those quiet days are followed by some pretty eventful evenings.  This one particular evening, 'The Pizza Party'.  Basically, the entire lake is invited to this shindig where we all make our pizzas and bake them in the outdoor pizza oven.  Yummy!

• 
  
  And with cottaging comes lots of arts and crafts.  Can you guess which one is Cara-Li's and which one is Alexia's?

• 
  
  August also always brings our annual Chinese Reunion, this time Alexia's third.  And what a spot!  Wonderful place!  We rented 2 condos with 5 bedrooms each so space was not an issue.  It was on a beautiful lake with an semi-olympic size indoor pool complete with saunas etc.  A little bit for everyone.

Large living area to accomadate all 28 of us!

No trip would be complete without a repair of sorts.

The boys' version of the story...

... and the girl's version of the story!

Fishing tales.

How many men doews it take to BBQ? 

Answer:  All of them!

The Big Girls' table.

The Little Girls' table.

And the Big People table.

Come on guys!  It's time to have some marshmellows!

The traditional family picture.

And no trip would be complete without a picture of all the wonderful little girls! 

See you all next year!

• 
  
  Summer also brings camp.  Cara-Li did 5 weeks at the Montreal-West Day Camp but then decided to run away and join the circus!  That's right... she and her friend SQ went to Circus Camp for 2 weeks.  They had a fab time together!

• 
  
  For a change, we decided to have our friends V & J with their daughters SQ & NJ along with N & S with their daughter M and new son T for a summer visit at the cottage.  Unfortunately, the weather sucked and no fun was had outside.  Lots of fun was had inside though!

Despite the cold, the kids did play by the lake a little.

A little coffee-table dance never did hurt anyone, right?

• 
  
  There is always one day of the summer that somehow sticks in your head.  For me, it was the last Sunday before the start of school.  It was the most stupendous day, not a cloud in the sky and it just seemed that life could not get any better that this!

• 
  
  Inevitably, the first day of school does come around.  But Cara-Li seemed to fall right into the groove of things.

So there you have it.  See you in September!