Back to Blogging

So it's been a while since we've posted a blog. Like, a month. Lots has happened but we won't go through it all here. I basically decided that while we were on holiday, we wouldn't blog. And then that continued for another week. I doubt we'll keep up the weekly pace.

Anyway, week one of our holiday. The cruise. We took a Mediterranean cruise through 6 cities and 4 countries and I'm going to limit myself to one sentence for each. We first flew to Genoa, Italy, which was pretty uneventful. We had to take suitcases on buses which is not fun but if you're going somewhere cool, like Italy, it's worth it. Our first city on the actual cruise was Rome. Rome was Jodi's favorite city and the only city where we paid for a full tour. Our tour, as you can see in the Facebook album, included most of the typical touristy sites including the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and Vatican City. After Rome was Palermo on the island of Sicily. The port was conveniently close to the main part of the city so Jodi and I explored on our own and managed to get some fantastic photos and gelato. No wifi, though. Even in restaurants that said they had wifi. We then crossed the sea to Tunis, the capital and port city of Tunisia. some words of advice: if you travel to Tunis, have transportation ready or be prepared to walk through gauntlets of taxi drivers that are NOT afraid to literally run after you in search of a fare. After Tunis we had a day at sea where we officially grew tired of our ship's entertainment amenities. We decided it would be a good idea to visit the outdoor jacuzzi when it was 40º F and ridiculously windy. Then we realized how terrible that idea actually was. We were happy to leave the ship the next day when we arrived in Barcelona, which was my favorite city. While Jodi was hoping to exercise her Spanish here, we learned instantly that locals speak Catalan in Barcelona. Neither of us speak Catalan. But Barcelona is beautiful and clean and full of artsy, food-loving culture so I was okay with that. Our last city was Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. It was probably the coldest city but there was something incredibly homey about it. It felt like a movie. I was able to use my painfully rusty French and we found a cafe that served crepes and espresso so, naturally, we indulged. We then returned to Genoa, spent way too long in their tiny airport, and returned home.

Our time back in London was short. Three days after we returned from our cruise, we left again for Los Angeles. Our friends Sam and Leah were getting married and we were frankly growing homesick. a welcomed retreat. Fun fact: the couple that got married met at our wedding. It's kind of our fault. Anyway, we paid visits to old friends and bought more American things than we should have at superspeed because we only spent 6 days in LA. And one of them was reserved for Disneyland. Unfortunately in all of this haste, we forgot to take any pictures of anything ever. So enjoy the cruise photos.

Last week we were at work catching up on everything we missed the three weeks preceding. Exciting.

Click here to see our cruise album.

Safety drills...

When in Rome...

Tuning a tuun in Tunis, Tunisia.