European Vacation

Tired from all the other European traveling we'd done over the last 9 months, we finally decided we needed a break. So last week, our fam paired up with 4 other families and headed to the lovely (albeit a bit rocky) beaches of Croatia. Specifically, we headed to a neat little beach town just north of Split called Vodice. Great sunsets, great food and that great, slow vacation pace.

As Americans, we stood out a bit in Vodice. Most everyone there knew English, so that wasn't much of a shock - in fact, many natives initially judged us to be British based on our language alone (apparently that whole accent thing didn't matter much to them). We quickly found that very few Americans would vacation in such a place (not because its a bad place, just because when Americans think Europe, they think Rome, Paris, and London) - but frankly, that was fine with us. A few of the other factors that distinguished us from our fellow European vacationers:

• Bathing suit tops on the ladies in our group. Whether hiding something pleasant, or, well, no-so-pleasant, European women have no love for their bathing suit tops. Grandmothers and twenty-somethings alike, they all diligently pursued their goal of no tan-lines above the waist.
• Our insistence on keeping our children clothed while in the ocean or on the beach. Apparently all those waterproof diapers in the supermarket didn't reach their intended consumer base. There were more naked kids on these beaches than wrinkles in an old-folk's home. It was gross, frankly. Definitely made you want to swim out past where the tide was breaking if you wanted to take a dip. And the child nudity wasn't reserved for the toddlers either. If you were under 10, you probably weren't wearing much in the way of clothes. Ugh. Someone pass the hand sanitizer.
• Swimming trunks for guys. This was just disturbing. And don't get me wrong, I expected a bit of this. But what I saw was nowhere close to what I came prepared for. Whether you weighed 85lbs or 385lbs, if you were a guy, you were wearing a speedo. A tight one. Some would even show up in regular trunks, only to shed them within moments of arrival. And let me tell you, trying to avoid banana-hammocks in the background made picture-taking quite an adventure.
  

We rounded out our adventure in true "sea to sky" fashion: we drove to the Dolomites on our last night to take in even more scenery. Anyone who knows me knows I love the mountains, and man-o-man: these were mountains! We stayed in the quaint little former Winter Olympic town of Cortina d' Ampezzo. The digs were a bit dated (mostly circa 1956, built for the Olympics) , but perfectly situated in a neat little downtown area ripe for wandering. At several thousand feet above sea level, the temperature was a vast departure - and a welcome reprieve - from the Croatia heat. We took a cable car to the top of one of the mountains, and the views were astounding. The mountain bikers made me green with envy. Melissa drove us back the next day through windy roads - her driving avoided carsickness, also allowing me to gape at the sick mountainscape and sicker $7,000 street bikes the psycho italians were riding on the switchbacks. Lance Armstrong, eat your heart out.

Some more of our trip, in pictorial:

Jack getting a head start on prom night 2023.

Ah, beach tan.

Classic Croatian fare.


Closest neighbor: God.

I'd also be remiss to leave out our adventures with Kassi and Jennifer the weeks before our real vacation. Besides several side adventures for the girls while I was at work, our time was spent in three main locales: Florence (and the Tuscan countryside), Rome, and the picturesque isle of Capri. Again, the story in picture format:

The colorful Capri coast upon arrival by ferry...

The view from the top of the island, a.k.a. "the top of the world."

Me clutching Ella while riding on the one-seat, no seat belt, 30-feet-off the-ground, 15-minute chair lift that gets you to the top of Capri.

Dad getting crazy with the camera.

Last, just to make another long post even longer , I'm proud to announce that my daughter just went poopie in the potty for the first time, and at 18 months! We're not really expecting it to take hold yet, but its nice to think that its the beginning of the end for diapers...at least with this one.... And no, I'll spare you the pictures this time around. And yes, there are some.

- pac