Venice is.... well, I Mean, It's VENICE!!

I don't often gush about how awesome my husband is, but I have to sometimes, and this is one of them. Last weekend, for Valentine's Day, he whisked me away to Venice for a long weekend. Yeah, that's right: VENICE!! He found an awesome hotel right on the Grand Canal. Our windows looked right out over it! It was amazing! We saw bus boats, police boats, laundry boats, grocery boats, taxi boats, construction boats, ambulance boats, fire boats, regular people boats (like it was there car), and even a FedEx boat. He had to practically pry me away from the windows because I was so entertained watching the regular everyday goings-on of the canal.

It was Carnivale and everyone was wearing masks and crazy costumes. People were decked out in the full 16th and 17th century regalia: wigs, hats, feathers, dresses (with the giant skirts & corsets); men in knickers, tights, and heels. We actually bought masks and wore them around to get in the spirit of things. It was so much fun.

Can I just say, too, that if you ever get to go to Venice, you must go see the Basilica di San Marco. The entire ceiling is gold mosaic - the ENTIRE ceiling of this huge church is tiny bits of glass covered in gold leaf mixed with different colored glass to creat beautiful pictures. It's mindboggling. They let you go up to the balcony so that you can see part of it up close, and then you can walk outside and look out over the piazza. So very cool.

We also climbed the bell tower, which was scary actually. I'm really afraid of heights, but I still climb a tall tower in every European city I go to: the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, the Westerkirk in Amsterdam, the clocktower in Bruges, etc. This one, though, was really scary because when we were up there, the giant bell over our heads began to swing back and forth and then ring really loudly for like 2 minutes. It shook the whole thing and was so loud. I almost squatted into a fetal position, no joke. Once were back on solid ground (semi-solid, since Venice is sinking), my hubby pointed out how much the tower is leaning and that the foundation is crumbling. We then found out that it collapsed in 1902 without warning, was rebuilt with a wood foundation, the wood is now rotting, and they are trying desperately to fix this so that it doesn't collapse again. Good stuff.

The whole weekend was just really wonderful (the food was out of this world). I feel so lucky that we got to go and see this crazy awesome city. It was so exciting, in fact, that when we got home, we were both so worn out that we got sick! Oh, well, it was totally worth it.

Let's, see, what else is going on.... I'm quitting the gym because it's too far from my house, and I never go. I am now co-chairing the AWC group for gardening (we take care of the garden at the Ronald McDonald House), and I'm also assisting in the community outreach group. Oh, and I went with our NU friend to Laban and we gave each other class. That was hard because I had to come up with phrases right there to do, but fun, too, because we got to do the exercises and phrases that we wanted.

I suppose that's it for now; I hope all is well across the pond. Of course, I would know if only people would blog!!