Congratulations Mike and Lisa! & Happy Birthday Jamie!

Today is a double celebration and we get to celebrate with my parents!!

My cousin Lisa is getting married today and since we can't be there, we're celebrating with cake (for Lisa) and beer (for Mike).  We wish we could be there, but are glad that Katie can stand in for our whole family.

Today is also Brian's youngest sister's birthday so she had to be part of the celebration!  Happy birthday Jamie!!

The cake lineup:

Dad - fruit cake
Mom - cherry kuchen
Brian - Black Forest cake
Beth - raspberry chocolate cake

Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect

If you click on the link below you will be linked to my last bike ride.
This is the first time I (Brian) have used this so you might say I am trying it out.
Depending on how well it works may depend on how may others I will put on in the future.
Bike ride - GPS view via Garmin Connect - Details

So If you followed the link and you like it please comment on the post and I will try to put more exciting tips on this as well.

Italy with the Campbells - Venice

On Tuesday, we spent the whole day in Venice.  Our hotel had breakfast, so we took advantage of that and were surprised to find garden gnomes in the breakfast area.  This hotel was quite interesting!  After breakfast, we took a bus into Venice.  Rather than taking a water bus around, we decided to walk through Venice in order to see a bit more of it.

Our first stop was San Marco Square which is probably the most famous area of Venice.  We first went into the church there and got to hear a choir singing for a service they were having.  This church was built in the Byzantine style, so it was much different than any that we had seen previously.  I really liked the marble on the outside.

In San Marco Square, we also checked out the pigeons, found a library, and saw a couple on the way to their wedding.  Brian really liked the 24-hour clock that was on one of the towers in the square.  We then made our way in the direction of Murano and stopped for sandwiches on the way.  Murano is an island that is separate from Venice, but still part of the city.  This island holds all the glass-making industry of the city.  When this first started, they put this whole industry on a separate island to protect the rest of Venice from possible fires. 

We took a water bus over to Murano, saw a store where they show you how they make the glass objects, and then headed into the main street of the island which is lined with different stores selling handmade objects from Murano.  We all ended up buying quite a few souvenirs and gifts from here because it was all so beautiful!

We then took the water bus back to Venice (which was not very fun because of lots of people!) and stopped for a dinner of pasta.  We all got something different and all really enjoyed what we got.  We then walked back to the bus station and made our way back to our hotel and some gelato!

Italy with the Campbells - FN to Venice

We spent 6 days in Italy with the Campbells while they were here, so I'm going to write several blogs about our trip since no one wants to sit and read it all at once.  :)

On Monday, we left FN and drove to Venice with a stop in Trento.  We spent a LOT of time in the car over the week.  We weren't so excited to be in the car by the end of the trip, but here we are at the very beginning.

You'll notice our massive piles of stuff in the background...the car was definitely full!

We drove around the east side of the lake through Austria and into Italy.  It was a beautiful drive through the Alps!  We were so excited about all the mountains, but they just kept coming and getting more and more beautiful!  We started taking a bunch of pictures of what we thought was the most beautiful view, but then the next one was even better, so eventually we gave up.

Besides lots of mountains, there were lots of tunnels.  Since we were driving through the mountains, we were in a valley most of the time, but there were times that we drove straight through mountains.  The longest was over 15 km long!  I don't think I've been through such a long tunnel!

Once we made it through Austria, we entered Italy.  Surprisingly (at least to me), Italy was quite mountainous.  I guess that mountains don't care about country borders, though!  The further we got into Italy, the less mountains there were.

We made a stop in Trento, Italy to meet up with Laura's friend from college and his girlfriend.  She is originally from Italy and he is studying there.  She is currently working in Switzerland, but was in Trento for the Easter weekend.  Once we found a place to park, we eventually made our way to them and had lunch at a great restaurant and were able to get to know Ini and Astrid a bit.  Lunch was good, except for Laura's anchovy pizza!  Yuck!  After lunch, Astrid showed us around Trento.  We walked through the town, got some gelato (yum!), and went under the city to see the old Roman remains.  It was wonderful to have a local tour guide!

 Brian, Ben, Astrid, Ini, and Laura at lunch

Ini, Laura, Ben, Beth, and Brian in front of the Neptune statue

After a break in Trento for several hours, we got back in the car and made our way to Venice.  We stayed in a hotel that was on the mainland and was quite...interesting...  The hotel was clean, so there's not too much we can complain about, but their choice of decor was quite interesting.  Everything was pink and gold and in the breakfast room, there were garden gnomes.  Yeah.  Garden gnomes in a hotel.

We definitely all slept well that night after a busy day of driving.  We were heading into Venice on Tuesday, so we needed some rest.

For more pictures of our whole Italy trip, check out our Share site at http://ponsteinpictures.shutterfly.com/.