A little background: the first time we went to Italy, I was so excited to try real Italian food, and we were horribly disappointed. By the end of the trip ( pre Airb&b and yelp) we had resorted to buying pizza slices from the Russian shop down the street in Rome and eating them in our hotel room..On our next trip, we were a bit more savvy about avoiding the restaurants in the tour guides, but still did not have many great meals. Now, on our fourth trip, we are really off the tourist trail, and tonight I had the best fish I've ever eaten in a restaurant..If you ever get to to the village of Pieve D'Alpago, please go to Ristorante Stefano...Stefano personally served our fish, delicately removing tails, bones, and skin. My Italian is ... read more

We knew the rains were coming, but we were still hopeful this morning, when it was only raining lightly. We decided to drive south to Treviso, where it was predicted to be cloudy, but with no rain. Ha, ha... We took the toll road down (an hour trip), and had some difficulty finding parking. All the lots outside the walled city were full, and the rain had started. We only got in jam once, trying to turn around, finding ourselves blocked by a one way street and no where to go, with a car trying to get by us. We extricated ourselves, and found a parking lot near the center of town, and two spots opened up as we waited! And then the sky opened up: thunder, lightening close by, and a downpour.... We sat in ... read more

I guess our new normal is forgetting and losing stuff! We had to turn around 15 minutes from home on Monday, because I had forgotten my coat! When we got to the gate in Seattle, my metal water bottle was missing, and I got my morning run by jogging back to security to look for it...no bottle. I tried to buy one in Chicago, but $22 for a Chicago Cubs bottle was too much...While waiting for our Venice flight, we realized we had left the guide book on the desk at home. Thanks to Amazon, we had it downloaded before we boarded! And then last night I left my cell phone in the bar where we had "dinner" (more later..), and we had to drive back in the dark to retrieve it....I'd like to hope we're ... read more

We visited the Pima Air and Space Museum on Friday. It has an extensive collection of planes, housed both inside and out on the grounds. We had hoped to visit the giant Air Force "boneyard" facility, but you now need to get security clearance at least ten days before your visit. The Museum is one of the world's largest non-government funded aerospace museums. and features a display of nearly 300 aircraft spread out over 80 acres. "The concept for the Pima Air & Space Museum began in 1966 during the celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the creation of the United States Air Force. Earlier the commanders of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the Military Aircraft Storage and Disposition Center the forerunner to today’s 309th Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group recognized that the historic World War ... read more

We decided to take a quick sun break and do some hiking in the Tucson area. We flew from Bellingham to Tucson on a cheap Allegiant flight, rented an SUV and drove in the dark (with a stop for groceries) up into the mountains to our rental. This place is beautiful, with saguaros all around. The owners live on the property, and recently moved back here from a three year stay in Japan. We took a short hike this morning, and got back just before the thunderstorms hit. The sun was predicted to return later in the day, so we decided to wait til the afternoon to visit the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. I had been there with Luke and a friend's family about 27years ago, but Bill had never seen it. We drove south and ... read more