My Favorite Barcelona Pictures

This was actually my second time in Barcelona, I went in June 2009 with some girlfriends. Crazy enough, I think I'll always remember that first trip as when I found out Micheal Jackson died. Anyways, I think Barcelona was my favorite place we went to on this trip. I like walking down Las Ramblas and looking at the vendors and artists. 

We did Barcelona on our own as well. It's really easy to get off the boat and take a bus to Las Ramblas. From there we walked down the street, then took the subway to see La Segrada Familia, the Catholic Cathedral originally designed by Gaudi. 

Barcelona wasn't as hot as some of the other places we went, and Las Ramblas was actually pretty decent for the middle of August.

The munchkin took lots of naps in her stroller on the trip. Isn't she such a happy sleeper?? haha

After Barcelona we had a full day on the boat while we made our way to Naples!

My Favorite Cannes Pictures + Marseilles

We didn't book any excursions in Cannes, and decided ahead of time to explore by ourselves. It ended up being a pretty short trip; as soon as I got off the boat and felt the heat I knew I just needed to get Lily back and relax (sleep) so she wouldn't be exhausted by the end of the week. 

Cannes seemed to be just a beach resort town. We walked a long the beach, which was really beautiful and looked like a stereotypical beach scene with all the colorful umbrellas. Oh yea, and some seriously tan French people! Skin cancer must run rampant there.

We ate lunch at a place along the coast, stopped to take some pictures, then headed back to the boat.

The next day we docked at Marseilles, and Jim and I decided not to even get off the boat. We had a feeling it was going to be just like Cannes, so we decided to save our energy for Barcelona and Naples. Greg and Susan went out without us and reported back that we didn't miss much. 

Favorite Pisa and Florence Photos

The first excursion we took from the boat was to Pisa and Florence. This was a "do-it-yourself" tour, which means we basically just paid for the shuttle service to and from the cities, and a tour guide on the bus. Our first stop was Pisa, and there isn't much to do in Pisa except look at the tower and take pictures. You can buy tickets to walk up to the top, but we knew we weren't doing that with a baby in tow. 

Next Stop: Florence! We had about 3 hours in Florence, which gave us enough time to walk around and see the highlights and get some real Italian pizza and pasta. 

We chose our lunch location just based on the fact that they had air conditioning, pizza and a place to sit, and it turned out to be the best pizza of the trip (in my opinion). I realized half way through our meal that this was Lily's first experience with pasta...what a spoiled little girl! First time eating pasta and pizza and it's authentic!

We saw Il Duomo, the Catholic Cathedral, and walked across Ponte Vecchio. There were lots of artists set up on the streets painting and selling their art. Jim and I saw a painting at the very beginning that we both like, then decided after walking 3 hrs that we wanted to get it and found out it was 175 euros. Crazy! Needless to say we didn't buy it, but the artist was selling another painting equally expensive at the time. 

I need to get on the ball with recapping our trip before I forget it all!

First Day of School

Of course at this age it's just day care, but for some reason it makes me feel better to call it school instead. I guess I hope she's learning something knew instead of just being babysat. 

We attempted to take a few pictures this morning. I had to get some kind of picture with her new outfit and new backpack!

She did great! We dropped her off at 8, and she walked right in and started playing with some toys and barely said bye to us. We heard some tears when the door shut and she realized we were leaving, but by the time we got back to the front entrance where we could see her on the video monitor, she had stopped crying and was playing. I picked her up at 12:30, then we came home, had a bottle and went down for a nap (she didn't nap at daycare, which doesn't surprise me). 2 hrs later, and she's still sleeping!

I'm thankful the babies don't have to wear the uniforms and I can get some use out of her cute clothes :)

Jim and I went to Starbucks afterwards, which was really nice. Then I came home, napped for about an hour, then swept and mopped the floors. It's so much easier to clean when I don't have babyzilla following me around everywhere!

She will go three mornings a week: Sunday, Monday and Wednesday. I'm hoping to use the time to get homework, cleaning and errands done so my evenings will be more free.