Provence and Tuscany!
We are finally back in North America! We are at mom and dad's right now in Bellingham and are enjoying some of the luxuries of the US like Ranch dressing and nice toilets.
Our trip with Steve's parents was wonderful! We had beautiful weather (only rain for one day and most of the time 15C) and saw a lot of the south of France and Italy- 4000km worth of driving!
Provence was beautiful and we stayed in a great old farm house out in the country! It was very well equipped and the owner was great in directing us to good markets and things to see and do! We saw a lot of hill top towns overlooking vineyards and olive tree orchards. We did however miss the lavender, sunflower and poppy in bloom so we had to imagine the colors we would have seen in the spring/summer. We were quite thankful to have missed the 'busy' season because it was so much easier to be there without all of the tourists!
Tuscany was great too! We had some down time (took a break from all of the driving we did in France) and Steve and I got some work done for preparations for missions and learning the language. We ate really good the whole trip and did most of our own cooking which was nice. It was a challenge to go the the restaurants and order food in another language but the few times we did was very enjoyable.
The house in Italy was really nice as well but the road up to it made me sick every time we went out- it had over 80 turns in 10km up to the place!!!! AND Italian drivers are CRAZY!!! They pass all the time driving way too fast and NEVER stay in their lane! I am thankful for Steve (he did all of the driving) because he kept us from dying on the road!
We went to the east coast of Italy for a day and found the Ferrari museum so the boys enjoyed that. We did a day trip (on the train) to Rome for a day which I think was my favorite city in Italy! Then we spend two different days in Florence seeing more of Michelangelo's work and eating Gelato! We saw a lot of "Duomo's" (churches) and many paintings of Mary and Baby Jesus, which provoked a lot of discussion about the believes and values of the Catholic church.
We ended our trip in Pisa and flew back to London from there! The pictures will give you a good overview of what we saw!
We are looking forward to catching up with some friends and family and continue our preparation for Ethiopia over the next few months! Keep in touch and take care!
Mel and Steve
5 comments:
yes your state side, ok your only 25 mins from us (HINT HINT) we would love to see you!!!! call me if you can come visit 4259314213 Hugs Sheila
Have a wonderful time back in the US! Wish I was there to be able to catch up with you. All the best preparing for Ethiopia! I'm so pleased for you guys and can't wait to travel with you on your journey! Love, Priscilla.
What gorgeous photos! Gregg and I love both Provence and Italy. So glad that you got to experience it together.
Welcome back, and may your next steps be guided and blessed,
Karen and family
Your pics are amazing! We had so much fun with you guys. Thanks for visiting Seattle.
Maybe your friends don't leave more comments because the comment highlight is so hard to find. The dark read is hard to see especially for and old guy like me. (for what it's worth maybe you can change the color a bit brighter)
Miss you already. We will keep you in our prayers, Love Dad
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