Flat Stanley Left Us

on the bus to Pisa

 We returned from our vacation almost two weeks ago, and I still miss him.  Flat Stanley had been with us since Kyra's second grade year.  He went to Afghanistan with Kyle.  He traveled with Kyra's Grandma and Grandpa Reeves.  He has been to several states, England, Canada, Mexico,  Luxembourg, Afghanistan, the Netherlands, Panama, France, Belgium, Germany and Italy.

He got to Pisa, Italy and decided to stay.  As much as I miss him, I can't blame him.  The weather there was lovely -the air temperate, the sky blue, the sun was shining.

Maybe he was just tired of traveling and wanted to settle down.  Perhaps he was tired on being folded and slotted into a backpack only to be squashed by our water bottles.  Whatever his reasons he joined us on our excursion to Pisa but did not travel back with us.  I hope the other tourists are kind to him.  

Kyra and I have resolved that another Stanley is in order.  I have already found similar looking template.  He will look as much as possible like our original Flat Stanley but it won't quite be the same.  Our thoughts are that a Flat Stanley 2 is better than no Flat Stanley.  Flat Stanley 2 will have our email address and mailing label on him.

In your travels if you see a Flat Stanley with "Kyra" written in second grade cursive on the back - he's ours and he's welcome home anytime.

Vesuvius

The photo isn't all that picturesque.  The industrial port of Naples isn't gorgeous.  But in the background you can see Vesuvius.  Up until the eruption of 79 AD, this was one mountain peak not two.  With your imagination draw an inverted V between the two peaks and you'll have a rough idea of the mountain the Romans saw.

On our first excursion day we had the choice of going into Naples, driving along the Amalfi coast, visiting Capri and other such activities.  The "strenuous" excursion was a climb of Vesuvius followed by a visit to Pompeii. With two active children and bodies that aren't letting us down (yet) we opted to climb Vesuvius.

The day was cool so the climbing was pleasant.  The bus took us over halfway up, our feet took us the rest of the way.  Our guide told us of the two eruptions - 79 and 1944.  He described the changes to the volcano and how it affected the cities below. We peered into the crater and looked out over the population below.

If/when Vesuvius (which is still considered active) erupts again, many people will need to move quickly to safety lest they become the newest Pompeii.

Our European Vacation

Disclaimer - It is my intent to share information, my thoughts and in general let you know about my life here in Belgium.  I wish to share not brag.

Over the next few days, I'll be blogging about our recent family vacation.  In many ways it was similar to vacations we have taken in the US, except this time what is close to us is Europe.  So - if this is coming off as bragging, I kindly request that you don't read this blog for a few days.  In case you think life is glamorous here, I'll remind you I do not have a garbage disposal, the toilet lid falls down on me every time I sit, it is cloudy most days and because my washing machine is small, I'll be doing laundry continuously for three days to recover from this vacation.

And now on with the show..

All Saints' Day is observed in most of Europe as a holiday.  In the kids' case, as a week break from school.  So with a week off of school, our choice was to travel.

Allen's cross country season finished with the European championships held in Heidelburg Germany on Saturday, October 30th.  He traveled there on the team bus and Kyle, Kyra and I followed in the car Friday evening.

Allen competed Saturday afternoon (separate blog).  We then started our drive to Barcelona which was our cruise port.

We did a week long Mediterranean cruise which stopped in Naples, Rome (sort of), Pisa (sort of) and two small towns in France.

The picture is of our cruise ship taken through a window of a fortification in southern France.

We docked again on Sunday morning and then drove for over 13 hours to get home in time for the kids to return to school on Monday.

We had a great time and made some wonderful memories.  The most remarkable things weren't so much what we saw but what we did together.