Sunday Funnies

This morning, I'm sitting here, sifting and sorting some 600+ pictures and wondering where do I begin.   

Why with the funnies of course!  Growing up, the Sunday paper featured the comic sections.   Between that and the Target ad, I think those were my favorite parts of the paper.  

  Many of these photos were taken with my phone and I uploaded them to Facebook or messaged them to  friends and family.   So yes, if you see me on FB, this will seem a bit like a rerun.   But hey, Reruns, those are a summer staple too, right?  

Ok,so back to the task at hand...

Touristy Thing

Throughout the Pisa courtyard, or Field of Miracles as the area is officially referred to, you spotted tourists posing in different ways, creating the allusion of trying to fix the tower's lean.   And then, you had our Funny Thing, he had a more inappropriate pose planned.   Ok, whatever, he's a 15 year old boy, but was most amusing was how his dad helped  him capture the pose for all of eternity...at least now that we've posted it a few different places on this here Internet.

The Hills were alive...with the sight of Biking Things

 The one tour 75% of our family was most looking forward to was the Sound of Music Bike Tour.  If just for the cheesy goofiness of it all.   I mean seriously, a historically beautiful town, that most Americans visit only to see where this musical movie was filmed?   Yeah, you've got to love the American ways.   The tour was good, the bike ride was a great change of pace from our usual tours and while the oldest Thing will likely deny ever having liked this tour for one moment, we did spot him smiling a time or two.  

Political Things

 When our plans for visiting an Italian friend changed, we found ourselves taking a quick trip to the country of San Marino.   Yes, it was beautiful, but one thing we were impressed with how casual the attitude was towards tourists just waking into their government building and well, taking a seat.   We couldn't help but snap a picture or two...while looking over our shoulders, certain some official would tell us "No, do not touch".

My Tuscan Son

 On our long car trip from Pompeii to Modena (some 7 hrs or so in the car), we stopped off in the small hill town of Montepulciano.   In the heart of the Tuscan hill country, I couldn't help but snap a picture of Thing Two, using a very bad pun of Tuscan sun.  

Gives new meaning to Telecommuting...

 It might be interesting to share that during our 3+ week adventure, Hubby used up exactly no days of vacation.   Yep, he's been working throughout his travels.   Each evening, we had to be situated in our hotel by around 4pm so that Hubby could log into work and tackle any network issues.   Occasionally he had to take phone call that was related to work.   But we still took time for a dinner break and often Thing 2 and I would go off exploring while Hubby worked and Thing 1 recouped from a strenous day of soaking up sunshine and interacting with the world.

Location, Location, Location?

I spent a lot of time this past winter/spring researching hotels and picking places with the best reviews that had the features we needed (wifi and parking) and were within our budget.   Munich proved the most difficult.   As a big city, it was prcier.   But this hotel came with pretty good reviews and well, the pictures they showed on their website were clearly taken from a DIFFERENT angle.

And yes, I did mention this added extra in my review.   We weren't offended, and in fact, Thing 2 was again easily amused with the products being displayed in the store front windows.  

Things exploring the ruins

 In hindsight, I should have tagged it something along the lines of Breaking Things.   Who knew when I picked the "Thing" reference so many years ago (as a way to protect the identity of my young children), that there would be so many puns out there just waiting to happen.  
And no, they didn't break anything in Pompeii.

Pompeii Tupperware

With several funny comments that followed...such as "used only once"...to which I added that "Pot looks a little different back home".    Seriously, Pompeii was indeed an interesting stop on our adventure.     I'll likely reflectmore on it in the weeks to come but it was just different than I imagined it would be.   

Got Jet Lag?

Poor Thing 1 seemed to suffer the most from jet lag.   Rome was hot, and crowded, two things nobody likes but for this kid, it really was an adjustment.   I had to chuckle when he fell sound asleep, with hand-held device in his hand, but clearly out cold. 

Speaking of Thing 1 

   Today's his 18th birthday...

We love you to the moon and back...

We pushed you to reach outside of your comfort zone on this trip, but are really proud of how you adapted to these new sights and sounds...and yes, even seemed to have a smile or two to share with us along the way...

Until next time....