Lake Como and Lugano, Switzerland

Ciao!

After we walked around downtown Milan with a LOT of other people, we made our way out of the Plaza and found our rental van again. We got ready for an 90 minute drive, and drove to Lake Como.

DRIVING RESPONSIBILITIES. Throughout the trip, Frank drove the van the whole time. It was nice, though, that he got to 'spread the wealth' of

This was my view, for the whole trip!
from the passenger seat in the van.
(Frank wears wrist protection on long
drives to avoid carpal-tunnel symptoms)

responsibilities, to David a little bit. David found an app for his phone that pulled up maps of Italian city streets. He could type in our next destination, and it would find us, then he could tell Frank, "turn right at the next roundabout," or "not this next exit, but the next."

view from inside the car, driving towards Switzerland

It was NOT flawless or stress-free, of course! Sometimes it would not find us until we had already passed the street we were supposed to turn on. David would say "Oh." (as in, "great: NOW it found us...") "Sorry, you need to turn around as soon as you can."

looking down from our balcony--they're eating
breakfast on the dock

Or, we would be approaching an exit and Frank would slow down: "Is it showing that we should turn? Is it this one?" And David would be at the mercy of the slow app! "It doesn't say yet...okay, yes -- turn HERE!"  A fly on the wall of the van would have been laughing, I'm sure.

Mom DID go on this trip! Here's proof :)

Kara greeting the day from our balcony

LAKE COMO. Wow. I can only say "Wow!" This is a place where George Clooney has a summer home with his wife, Amal (an attorney who also happens to be beautiful). We took a little while to find our condo...like I said, the app was not without delays and a little confusion at times. So it was getting dark when we finally got there, and the nice little lady next door helped us confirm that this was, indeed the right address and then the owner showed up with a big smile. All was well!

Lake Como view from the balcony. Yes, really :)

We woke up to a gorgeous view of the lake. Everybody got up and had the same response: "Oooooh! Wow! Beautiful!" We took pics and walked around.

AIR BNB. I have to say that airbnb.com worked out wonderfully for us this trip! It's a website of places to stay all over the world (U.S. included--LOTS of places available nationally). People either make their homes available, or a room in their home, or they own an apartment that they rent out, and they live 5 minutes away or something. You can look at pictures, and read reviews, and email back and forth with them before you officially book a room with them.  This whole trip we used airbnb, renting the whole unit so we always had a kitchen and space to spread out. AND, we met some really nice people! Our only miscommunication was with one lady, ONE night of the stay. It was awesome.

SWITZERLAND. One afternoon we drove to Switzerland. Yes, a short drive over the border, is the town of Lugano.

We wandered around downtown Lugano, and walked in to a grocery store. We made a point of buying some yogurt flavors we don't have in the U.S., and of course Swiss chocolate!

We had that as a snack, and bought enough to last us awhile...

TRAGEDY. Then at the next condo, we put our chocolate in the refrigerator and forgot about it. YES! UGH! We left withOUT our chocolate!! :( :( :(

Oh well, such is life, right! Funny story with that: when we returned from the trip, we got a note from that lady where we left the chocolate in the fridge. "THANK YOU for leaving me chocolate in the refrigerator," she says! Then a side: "I hope you didn't forget it...I am eating it in your honor." We did get a chuckle out of that.

Kari

Part One: Iceland and Milan

Ciao!

We just came home from a whirlwind trip to Italy. David was home from his mission for 3 weeks, and in that time Kara finished her finals at the high school.

I'll start a summary of our trip, hopefully without giving TOO much detail...the idea is not to put people to sleep -- snore -- but to remember the highlights! Ha.

Iceland Road Sign

End of the Rainbow art at the
Iceland airport

The good thing about a blog is that you can also just click on the pictures, and look at photos! No offense will be taken if you only look at the pictures! :) :) :)

(**SIDE NOTE: if you click on the pictures, they are BIGGER.)

Geothermal activity in Iceland

The evening of June 24, we flew away to Milan, via Iceland. It's about 5 hours from Boston to Iceland, then another 4 or something to Milan.

ICELAND. We had something like a 6- or 7-hour layover in Iceland, so we rented a car and drove around. They have lots of natural parks with waterfalls and geothermal activity.

By the waterfall. Kind of chilly but not too bad.

FUN ICELAND FACTS:
1. over half of their energy comes from geothermal activity.
2. the island country is roughly the size of Ohio.
3. beer was illegal here until 1989.

It was overcast and rained some while we were there. We walked the boardwalk trails and saw waterfalls and geysers.

Geysers

FLOWERS. There were also these great fields of tens of thousands of purple flowers -- wow! We drove by them all morning, and I dropped hints to Frank that it was so hard to photograph them in a moving car...after all our driving, and we were getting closer to the airport, Frank took pity and pulled over for me to get some flower shots. :) Winner!

Here are Iceland pics.

MILAN. We got to Milan in the dark, at 10:30 at night, then we waited for all the paperwork, etc., to rent our van. At 11:30 p.m. we didn't see much on the way to the Hotel Ascot.

I know it's just a van. But we spent SO much time in it! :)

CHURCH. In the morning we made an attempt to find the church building...we knew it was close and what street it was on, but kept driving by it back and forth...turns out it was in the BACK of a building, and the sign was kind of out of the way (?!?!), so we made it to the last half of Sacrament Meeting. We tried.

Big cathedral downtown Milan

In the afternoon, it was fun to go downtown and see the Italian architecture around, and we visited a castle.

The castle was next to a beautiful park and gardens, where we found lunch.

coconut display

FERAL CATS. This was the beginning of seeing cats around everywhere...they don't belong to anyone, they are just...around.  There was a cute kitten at the Bed & Breakfast when we stayed along the Amalfi Coast. That will come in a later post.

We spent lots of time waiting for the green "Walk" guy to show up at the intersections...

And throughout the cities in Italy, they have fountains where you can get a drink or fill up your water bottle. We waited for this cute little boy to finish, then filled our bottles.

Have a great weekend! Kari

Meeting David at the Airport

Hello!

We got to go to the airport on Friday. Amazingly, David has completed his mission to Italy! He came in mid-day, but of course had to take his baggage through customs and immigration, etc., so he walked out of the doors about 3 p.m.

Welcome Home Banner!

friends from high school Nick (L) and Nikhil

Dunkin tradition

We wanted someone besides our immediate family, to take some video and still shots for us upon his arrival. We asked amongst his high school friends home from college, if anyone had a couple of hours Friday afternoon to come to the airport with us! Nick and Nikhil stepped up and came to the airport with us to meet him :) :) :) So glad the stars aligned and they could come.

Such an overwhelming time for him, and for us! People ask him "how was your mission?" ...How in the world can you pack 2 whole years of experiences and growth into a few sentences...

We went right from the airport to the home of one of our church leaders in the "stake," which is the group of congregations in the Boston area. He had some very insightful things to say about missions and returning missionaries. He said how each mission is so different and individual for each missionary. He reminded us that the Lord knows each of us individually.  David's mission helped him grow in ways that the Lord knows will help him now and in the future. Like filling a "bucket" of experiences and knowledge for yourself, that you can retrieve and remember later. That can help YOU get through future challenges, and help others, too. Maybe experiences he had will give him the wisdom to help someone else down the line, when they come to a challenge or obstacle.

I applied that to those of us who did NOT serve a 2-year mission, too. I think God knows what each of us needs and just what and who we need to get through adversity. Or how we can help somebody ELSE through those things. We each have a different "bucket" of life experiences to draw from when we need it.

This church leader then "released" David from his service in the Italy Milan Mission. It wasn't a blessing or a prayer or anything. He said David would not be serving in that mission anymore. BUT, he was not being released from the TYPE of work that he did: serving people and being a representative of Christ. Those are life-long things.

It was a very emotional day, and for David he ended up being awake for about 24 hours straight.

Here are some pics of the weekend. I also put some on facebook so there is some overlap.

Happy weekend! Love, Kari

Kara's Prom 2016

Braedon & Kara

Hi!
I was just going through pictures, and I realized that I hadn't posted any of the pictures of Kara from Prom 10 days ago!

**ALSO: if you click on the photos, you can see them bigger.**

Kara got to go to Prom 2 weekends ago, as a sophomore--that was a pretty big deal :)

In Wayland, we have a "Junior Prom." That means everyone has to go to prom with a Junior...so Kara got asked by her friend Braedon. She knew him from reffing soccer games, and also they have a "free" period at the same time so they hang out in the library occasionally.

Anyway, there were a series of family events that caused Braedon to NOT be at school for the couple of weeks before prom. He had the tickets. But he had not asked anyone yet.

He ended up decorating his car, writing all over it "P-R-O-M-?" and driving it into the field by the tennis courts, while Kara was at tennis practice. It was cute!

Kara & Dad

The not-so-cute part was that he asked her THREE DAYS BEFORE THE DANCE.  So we looked for a dress, Online and at the mall, but really even if you order the "overnight" shipping, they still have to receive the order, go find it, package it and send it. Sure, it's "overnight" once it's SHIPPED. But they may not SHIP it for a couple of days. Ugh. And we looked for shoes. And made hair and nails appointments, but not CLOSE, because all the close ones to our house were booked up. We had 72 hours.

Prom "Orange Carpet"

But we got lucky in a couple of things! Amazingly, it worked. (Yes...I think I lost a whole decade off my life in those 3 days.)

Kara with tennis friends

Prom Trolley!

Kara got some friends to do her makeup. They took pre-prom pictures at someone's house, then the trolley took them to the High School for the "Orange Carpet!" Kind of like a "red carpet," but our colors here in Wayland are orange and black. So the carpet was orange and the couples walked down it for more pictures, and to socialize more with friends.

The trolley took them to dinner and the Prom dance in Boston. I think it was at the Hyatt this year.

So there you have it!  I'm including pics of Kara and some of her friends.

Happy week!
Kari