Seth becomes a Doctor and a Captain in one day

 So today was Seth's big day.  He graduated from UNM Medical School.  They even announced him as Doctor Seth Farnsworth.  Archie and I were able to go with Kristina.  It was held at Popejoy Hall, for those of you who have been there.  Everyone was able to choose the person to put the hood on you.  They had to be a MD, a PhD or a JD.  Seth chose his father who has a PhD in engineering.  Kristina and I sat together on the second row, middle behind the graduates.  Archie had to sit with the honorary hooders.  They went up together.  By the way, you can see the green front of the hood in the first picture.  All these pictures were taken just after the ceremony.  We look pretty happy in these pictures. 

Then after we got home and had a celebratory turkey dinner, Grandpa Richardson, who is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force administered the oath that made him a Captain in the Air Force.  Grandpa also swore him in to the Air Force as a Lieutenant 3 years ago.  It was a pretty special day all around. 

Laura and her Girls Come for a Visit

Laura and her 3 girls came to visit us last week while Mike was out of town for business.  The kids, and Audrey especially, loved to be outside in the yard.  We put sunscreen and big hats on them to protect them from the early spring sunshine and they looked so cute.  Audrey and Simeon both have a passion for being outside so they spent a lot of time out there. 

Cami played inside most of the time.  Here she is in the front room.

 We took the girls on the Rail Runner for a short but fun trip.  Here are Hayley and Audrey trying out the train whistles on the train.

Cami trying out the whistles on the train also.  They were only here for a few days but we really enjoyed their visit.  It doesn't show here but Laura is so cutely pregnant.  She is due in 12 weeks or so.  How nice that she would drive to our house by herself to spend some time with us.  We loved it. 

Upholstering Project With Elizabeth

We took a trip to Arizona recently to visit with my brothers and sisters.  Then we spent some time with Elizabeth and her family in Mesa.  While there we embarked on an upholstery project.

She had 2 upholstered kitchen chairs that had seen better days.  Then she lucked into a lot of material (probably used to be a swag drape) in a color that matched her drapes and one wall in the kitchen for a ridiculously small amount of money.

We started removing the old material and within a day had a beautiful upholstered purple chair.  We had a lot of fun, got pretty tired, but felt so successful it was worth it.  She is going to scotchguard it and move it into use at the table so they will now have enough large chairs for all the big people (now that Adam is a big people).  She still has Danielle in the high chairs. 
 

She still has another chair to do but that was enough work for one
day.  In this picture you can see the other chair next to the finished one.  Next time I go over we may do the other chair.  Then she plans to redo the seats on the wooden chairs, covering them with the purple and then the plastic.

A very gratifying day, and good fun together.

Cruise Overview---Venice proper

Chad & Marsha on left, Geneen on right by raised sidewalk

 This is the Piazza San Marco but the crowds were so tremendous and the lines were blocks long and it cost 18 euros to go inside so we decided to forego.  Because it was high tide, water was bubbling up from the drains and so they had put raised movable sidewalks around to keep tourists out of the water (see picture).  By the way the exchange rate is almost a dollar and a half to the euro. 

 But the plaza was spectacular without going in.  There were shopping kiosks everywhere. 

 Unbelievable architecture in the plaza.  If it weren't so cold that day we might have stayed longer.  It never got up to 60 degrees. 

Here is a street in the Rialto shopping area.  Archie said that it looked like Venicians were only 10% of the population in the Rialto.  Such a crush of tourists and shoppers.  We joined in and shopped there also.  All through there were small shopping booths and open door leading into one room shops.  The men were most interested in the architecture and moving along.  The women kept getting side tracked by the shopping.  It was so funny, when we would finally all be together again and start walking we would say "the amoeba is on the move again." It was like herding cats, we were always losing someone.  The men were actually amazingly patient with our enthusiasm.  

 As we walked through we constantly ran into small canals between buildings.  Luckily there were a lot of bridges.  This is just a typical water alley. 

Marilyn and Ron in front of the Basilica S. Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari

 We stopped and for 3 euros apiece toured the Basilica s. Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari.  It was so ornate and spectacular it was unbelievable.  This is right in the middle of Venice.  Reminded us of the churches we had toured in Rome and Florence two years ago.  Eye popping decorations, statues, sarcophogi. paintings and wall decorations.

 Another view of a church in a plaza.  So typical in Venice.

Ron on left, Archie on right, my pizza in middle.  That is a bottle of olive oil on the table. 

 We got hungry as we SLOWLY made our way across Venice.  For lunch we stopped at a little eatery and bought sandwiches and wraps.  If you bought it outside and ate it outside they charged 4 euros per sandwich.  If you wanted to eat it inside they cost 5 and a half euros.  We were desperate for the WC (water closet) and all over the public ones cost a euro and a half to use and were not all that private.  We bought enough sandwiches that they let us use their free bathroom in the restaurant.

I forgot to mention that we had to make 2 stops for Gelato in spite of the cold weather.  It is so good, and Italy is the place to get it.  Yummy

For dinner we went to a pizzeria. The pictures here are of the dinner at the pizzeria.   They were so charming and were so excited to see a group of 10 come in. Archie's ham pizza (which was bigger than the plate but very thin crusted and crisp) was 7 euros and mine with ham and mushroom (called funghi on the menu) was 7 and a half euro.  Gary and Lucy got Calzones for 6 and a half euro and they were bigger than their plate also.        Quite the adventure.

Chad and Gary digging in, Lucy's hands and calzone in the foreground

We bought gifts in Venice.  I got Pashmina scarves that I had seen in every city we had been in.  Geneen, Lucy. Marsha and Jesse got Murano glass pendant necklaces for their families.  We did not go to Murano but their hand blown glass and pendants and earrings are everywhere.  We thoroughly enjoyed Venice, partly because we strolled slowly through the whole city and so saw quite a bit of real Venice and loved it.  We will never forget that day.
The whole trip was made so fun by having family there.  Dad did not come on the tour of Venice, having been there before and it was vigorous and a lot of stairs for his wheelchair.  But we so much enjoy each others' company whether on the ship, at dinner, or sight-seeing and of course shopping together.  Dad went most places with us, skipping only Venice and Athens, both places he and our Mom had toured before and not very handicapped accessible.  What an adventure it all was.  How fun to be together for a week.  Thanks Dad for taking us all on this memorable trip with you.

Cruise Overview---Grand Canal, Venice, Italy

 We had all day in Venice so we got dropped off at the bus terminal then took a ferry on the Grand Canal to the far side of town and took the day walking back to the bus terminal.  The grand canal is really big and it was high tide so it looked like water was coming into some of the homes.

 The architecture reflected the centuries of Turkish ownership. 

 San Toma.  Quite the architecture.  We didn't get off the boat here, we kept going to the Piazza San Marco, which was so spectacular. and was on the far side of Venice.

 Gondolas are all over the  place but they are way expensive, like 100 euros for an hour ride or so.  We were warned to save our money and take the ferry.

Another view of San Toma.  Most of the people on the ferry got off at the Rialto.  We didn't know why until we were walking back and came to the Rialto.  I will show it in the next blog. 

Cruise Overview---Bed and Breakfast in Venice

Chad and Ron in front of our rooms

We wanted to stay over a day in Venice so Jesse booked a B&B over the internet that was a mile from the airport because we had an early flight the next day.  We only paid 450 euros for 5 rooms and so were expecting something pretty old and primitive.  What we found was so astounding.  It was a newly built and extremely luxurious and beautiful sets of rooms built behind an aging villa.  

Here we are unloading from one of our 2 vans

 The grounds were BEAUTIFUL.  Just look at some of the pictures of the grounds.  I don't know why it never occurred to me to get a picture of the rooms and BATHROOM which was almost as big as the immense room.  Very modern, with a bidet and everything. 

The front of the villa

a raised, landscaped thing in the front of the yard

fountains and plants at the very front of the villa

Cruise Overview ---Nafplion, Greece

This was a fascinating city.  We were only in port for half a day.  Archie went up the 999 steps to get to the castle and fort above the city.  I passed on that and spent the morning looking at old Greek Orthodox cathedrals, narrow stone paved streets and little one room shops on them.  I can't believe that cars often tried to go down the marble paved streets.  Shoppers had to hug the walls to let them by.  I gave the camera to Archie so I didn't get any pictures of where we are but here are some pictures Archie took of the Fort. This was a tender city, which means the ship could not get into the harbor and instead they ferried the passengers into the port on tenders (life boats from the ship)  I had loads of fun in the city with my sisters and Dad while the hale and hearty hiked to the top.  See the view of where I was from the top of the fortifications.