Day #5 Venice

Sunday, Oct 25th we met up with Justin (Jason's brother) , Emily and their three adorable girls. We were really missing our kids by then. We had been away from them for a week. We were more than happy to have our nieces around us. We were ready for some kid time. We loved touring through Italy with Justin and Emily. They were perfect travel friends, we will definitely have to do it again sometime!

They picked us up from the airport that morning. We drove to a dock that has boats to travel the rest of the way into Venice. It was a lovely city, but extremely crowded with tourists. Very few of the actual residents of Venice still live there. It mainly still functions mostly for tourism. It was very lovely though and we just happen to go there on a day when there was a marathon happening. Maybe it was a little more crowded because of that. It was fun to see how the people live with streets mainly of water.

Jason and I with Justin, Keanna, Ayla, and Lyndi. Aren't they beautiful girls?

The Marathon. It was a beautiful spot for a marathon. I would almost think about doing it. (ALMOST)

Jason and I with Keanna and Ayla at St. Marks Square.

Jason and I with the other view of St. Marks Square.

This is usually how it went down. Justin would have the "Rick Steves" travel book and Jason had to have a map of everywhere we went so he could follow along with where we were going.

St. Mark's Basilica.

A view of a waterway street in Venice.

Eating pizza in a safe part of town. Don't mind the graffiti it is some of Italy's most populated places signatures.

Keanna and Ayla running through some of the narrow paved streets.

Parking of boats outside your door. You don't have to worry about car alarms going off here.

Emily and I enjoying a visit while the boys are mapping out our "best" route through Venice. They did a great job!

Traffic through Venice.

Famous gondola's, we did see one guy attempting to sing to a couple as he paddled down the street. Attempting is the key word there.

More buildings on the water edge. It was an amazing city. They had pictures of when the tide gets really high they use the benches for walk ways.

After a fun day in Venice we went to Camp Darby in the middle of Italy and that is where we stayed. It was nice traveling with Justin that could get us into these army bases. It was also refreshing that night to hear English and be able to use American currency to do laundry!! Thank you Justin and Emily!