Venice: Day 1

The day before our trip was a bit stressful. Abbie's friend fell at our house and needed stitches. Then, the dog sitter didn't show up at our meeting spot. Unfortunately, he was vacationing in France, and wouldn't be back until AFTER our train left. John's co-worker came to the rescue, offering to take Lucky and deliver her to the dog sitter the next day. Phew. Disaster adverted.

On travel day, we woke up to snow. So much for Spring and those lovely shorts the boys had longingly packed! We grabbed some gloves, swapped out for warmer coats, and headed to the train station.
Traveling by train is definitely the way to go. During the first half of the trip, I read the Venice guidebook, John played an iTouch game (to stay ahead of the boys), and the kids watched assorted videos. We played cards together for the remainder of the journey. The kids' new favorite game is Monopoly Deal. It's a fun game that involves both luck of the draw and strategy. Brendan won the first 3 games. Since then, the rest of us have all managed to squeak out a win, including Abbie.
We finally arrived in Venice. Door-to-door it was an eight hour trip. When you factor in airport waiting times and transit to and from the airport, I don't think flying would have been much faster. And, we wouldn't have had the family game time.
We had dry skies just long enough to call our greeter. She directed us which boat to take, checked to make sure we had the right address for the apartment, and told us that she'd meet us there. It seemed like a reasonable plan until it started to rain. It came down so hard that we couldn't keep the map out. We kept making wrong turns and ending up in dead ends or at a canal with no bridge crossing. C.J. is once again convinced that his parents have no map-reading ability or sense of direction. The 15 minute walk ended up taking us an hour and a half. We got soaked. Our luggage got soaked. It wasn't good. The greeter showed us around the apartment, taught John the trick of unlocking the door, and even pointed out the closest grocery store. I still argue that it would have been better for her to meet us at the boat stop, but I can't say she wasn't helpful once we found the apartment.

John stopped at the grocery store for breakfast food -- milk, yogurt, and Honey Nut Cheerios. Most of you won't think twice about the cereal selection, but C.J. was ecstatic. Honey Nut Cheerios are his favorite, and they aren't to be found in Switzerland. He's already declared that he is taking a box or two home as a souvenir.

After drying out, we headed out for dinner. We got summoned into a little restaurant that ended up having amazingly good food. C.J. tried gnocchi for the first time. It was the best gnocchi any of us had ever had. Brendan and Abbie had pizza, and John and I had pasta. The kids watched the pizza maker for most of the meal. He ended up making them a bread mask. (I think the kids encouraged this act of generosity.)
I took the camera out to get some pictures, and the waiter immediately rushed over and told us to "hide the evidence." The pizza maker wasn't supposed to be making masks for the kids, and he didn't want anyone else to see and get jealous. The kids ate it on the way home, so I never did get a good picture.