Whew - we all Scream for Travel Days!

But not a scream of enjoyment like for Ice Cream.  Travel Days are long and difficult no matter how well planned out and how smoothly it goes.  And it WAS all planned out and it all DID go smoothly.  But with a group of 16 we always have issues.  We can't buy 1 gelato we have to buy 16. We have to go back for 16 forgotten napkins to wipe up the 16 messes we've made with 16 melting gelatos ;-) No matter - it does make for some great memories.

What are are memories today???  That loading 16 people with WAY TOO MUCH LUGGAGE onto a single train car is hectic. We are thankful thankful thankful for air conditioning.  We would be even more thankful for an elevator in our 5 story Venice hotel...but in the building year of 1288 elevators just weren't the "in" thing that they are now.  And by the way you DO know what floor all of our rooms are on, right???

We made it safely even though we had to shower after hoisting all of our bags up that many flights of stairs.  It was comedy for ALL of us...as in that delirious laughter of "I just can't carry one more thing" but you know it must be done.  These students are all troopers! You should have seen them hauling not just their own baggage but their friends' bags, too.  What teamwork. This afternoon and evening we spent wandering about in Venice, eating dinner and learning how to navigate the island.  Navigation skills are taught, tested and REQUIRED if you want shopping time tomorrow.  If I were a betting man I'd put ALL my money on the girls passing their test ;-)

I'll stop babbling now (because Mrs. Mynatt says I have too many words) and just leave you with some self-explanatory pictures.  Wifi is only available on 1 floor here, and that particular room is unairconditioned.  Good Night from magical Venice. The kids ALL LOVE VENICE!!!

We've arrived!

Seeing St Mark's Basilica...we had reservations and again SKIPPED THE LINE! Whew, it's about time for a line-skipping event today :-)

I know you see us eating a great deal of the time, but I promise you that it's not lazy eating.  We're eating because, according to Ms. Ketchen's "step-o-meter" we're doing somewhere around 20,000+ steps per day which she estimates at over 10 miles per day.  We eat because we're burning all those calories.  What great fun.  It's kind of like the Waltons + the Von Trapp Family all combined.  Today on the train when Mrs. Mynatt gave the ticket checker our receipt for 16 tickets she said "they are all mine" in her best European accent.  The ticket checker's eyes got big and he said "all YOURS?".  We had a good laugh.  Talk to you tomorrow. Good night from Venice.

PS - are you noticing that calendar countdown up there??? We'll be home before you know it, and you'll get lots and lots and lots of stories I'm sure.