Home at Last!

Well, we got up this morning knowing that our comfy beds were waiting for us in Charlotte.  That in itself is enough to get me going.  I don't think I have mentioned how hard the mattresses are in Italy.  It doesn't matter what 'star' hotel you stay at....they are all the same.

We decided to take a cab back to the Termini to catch the Leonardo Express again.  We knew it would take us an extra 20-30 minutes, but it was worth it since we still had a couple of train rides left on our EuroRail pass.  We got through everything at the Termini and the airport without too much trouble.  The only trouble we had was dragging all the 'memorabilia' I acquired while in Italy.  :-)

Our trip back included a plane change in Philadelphia.  We had a direct flight going into Rome.  Well, one thing I didn't realize is that when you buy items that have the tourist tax added to them, you have to have them in your physical possession to get the custom stamp and get your money back.  I had all the forms and everything filled out, but no one told me that I had to have them with me.  We had checked most of the things except the tile.  I think we only lost about $50, but I could have used that $50!  Hey, I haven't had a Starbucks in 11 days!!

I am a bit tired as we have been up almost 24 hours, so I am going to try out my mattress and see if it is just how I remembered it.  If you aren't tired of following this, check back tomorrow evening and I will have the pictures up.  I don't have enough 'gas' left to do it tonight.

The Vatican

Well, it's almost time to go back to the grind. We have had a great trip. It's the first time that I have been on a vacation and really feel like I have done enough and I am ready to go home. We jumped on a train this morning to go back to Rome. One thing is for sure, if you are taking a train, you will be on time!! It's really amazing how efficient the whole system is.

Vatican at dusk

We are staying at the Adriatic Hotel that is right around the corner from the Vatican. Again, I booked this hotel because Frommers suggested it. It is a two star hotel and it has turned out to be a good place to stay. It's clean, good location, nice staff(only one person at a time...but hey) and cheap. We have a small room with two singles and a queen for 140 euro!! That is a deal. Has all the other extras that the better hotels had: hair dryer, soap, 4 shampoos (the expensive Salerno hotel only gave us two for 3 days!), linen towels and the best air conditioning we have had yet.  The only thing that it didn't have was a refrigerator, but the ones in the hotel didn't keep things that cool anyway....so no loss there.

One of the ceilings in Vatican

We had 'skip the line' tickets to see the Vatican. That worked out perfectly. The line was huge again, so it's nice to walk right by the line. We didn't do a tour and that worked great for us. Just walking through without reading all the history they have put for you took about an hour! It's amazing how they have you zig and zagging all through the museum on your way to the Sistine Chapel. There is so much to see and take in that you really need a couple of hours. One thing about Michaelangelo that I didn't know (actually I'm not all that well versed on Roman history) is that he was forced to paint the chapel! He had signed a contract for his his work but he thought it would be all sculpting. I won't go in to the whole story but google it and read about it. It's really interesting.

Ted on spiral staircase in Vatican

The boys were sleep deprived from getting in around 4am (normal for Italians) so they went right back to the hotel to take a nap. Ted and I walked around the area near and across the bridge from the Vatican. That's where all the expensive shops are!! We did mostly window shopping!! :-) Then back to the hotel for a quick nap. We got up and went to dinner and to see how the Vatican looked at night. It was beautiful.

Home tomorrow. So check back to see the pictures of our travels!! Thanks for going along with us!!

So Long to Salerno!

I know this is a late post for Friday but we just got in from having dinner!!! 12:09 am! The whole town was still alive and kicking when we left the restaurant. Even the small children were still up this late. I have fallen in love with their day to day life. The family is always together: school until 1 pm, home for lunch with all the family, father goes back to work at 3-3:30 and the kids are done for the day. However, they do go to school on Saturday too.

Carson, Pietro, Forrest & Salerno friends

We have had a great time discovering Salerno and visiting with Pietro's family. We want his younger brother, Francesco, to come to NC for school also. Pietro's whole family is wonderful. His father is a mechanic so Forrest has really enjoyed talking to him and checking out all the cars and trucks that he is fixing. Carson hasn't felt that great on the trip so we are thinking that he may have a gluten allergy. That is pretty much all you eat here with very little protein or green veggies in the diet. It's great food don't get me wrong, just way different.

We did a great job in the shopping department today also. Ted's really nice titanium glasses broke so fortunately Pietro's mom knew a local guy and he fixed them 'pronto'. Ted got two new frames for a great price. I ended up getting some cool sunglasses from the same guy. He gave us great prices and was extrememly kind and friendly. (uhmmm..pretty cute too!)

The boys went to a local water park so Ted and I just walked and walked and walked. We figure that we put in at least 10 miles today. It was great!  This area is beautiful. I dint think that you would ever get tired of walking around.

Tomorrow we are back to Rome for our last day. We hope to see the Vatican tomorrow afternoon.

Salerno, Amalfi and Positano

View off of our hotel balcony

Wow! When we woke up this morning and looked off our balcony....what a view! This coast is beautiful. It is not flat like Myrtle Beach. There are gorgeous mountains where there is literally just a drop off from the mountain into the ocean. The sand is a grey/black with lots of larger rocks mixed in with the sand.

Almalfi coastline from ferry

We met our exchange student and his family and walked from our hotel down just a couple of blocks to catch a ferry to Positano and Amalfi. It was an amazing ride. Carson said it was his

Ted relaxing on ferry

favorite thing to see so far. You pass many small towns that are embedded on the side of these mountains. Each one having its own basilica whose dome/steeple can be seen over the whole town. I don't see how these people built these amazing buildings. You wonder how they haven't slipped off the side of the cliff. One hotel had an elevator built on the side of the mountain to take it's guests down to the beach. The Frommer's book of Italy suggested driving down the Amalfi coast but my vote goes for the ferry. There is no way that you can put into words what you see from the boat. So, it is impossible to see this from a car or a tour bus.

We got off at Positano first. It is known for it's pottery mostly but also it's lemons. They are the size of a big peach! I had already bought the pottery that I wanted in Florence, so I was a little worried that I might find something I liked better. Anyway, I decided to go to a shop that the Frommer's 'Born to Shop Italy' suggested: Ceramica Assunta. Well, don't buy there. We stopped at a little shop on the way up to Assunta called Emporio della Ceramica and it was much better. Prices at Assunta were higher and the quality and choices were not that good. Emporio's owner was very friendly and he had more unique pieces. His tables were to die for...OMG! The quality of the pieces was better at Emporio also. I ended up buying a small scene to put in the kitchen as a back splash.

Another town along the Amalfi coast

We got the best fresh lemon slushies here also. YUM! We walked around a little more and toured the local basilica which was beautiful. After that, we headed back to the beach to catch the ferry back to Amalfi. The ferrys leave about every hour at about 15 after the hour.

Basilica in Positono

Amalfi is another charming town on the side of these mountains. You see right away that it attracts more upscale visitors. Frommer's Italy book says that these towns are appealing to the rich and famous because of their inaccessibility to the masses! Our local family that we were with knew a restaurant owner so we stopped there for our lunch. They had the best bruschetta that I have ever eaten. You could choose from several different kinds. One of which even included tuna! After that, we went to a shoe shop that was owned by our new friends' aunt. She gave me a great discount on some shoes for my granddaughter, Hollins!  The boys then went to try out the ocean. It was pretty cold but a great relief from the sun and most importantly...from shopping.

Positano beach area

While they were swimming, I checked out some of the shops with all the gorgeous linen pants, dresses and blouses. They were incredible and were incredibly high priced. I skipped the linen
because it wasn't really any cheaper than in the US: better choices though.  They had some very unique tops and dresses, but I wasn't in the market for those things. Amalfi also had wonderful handmade sandals. You can basically pick out which one you like and then the guy will make them in 30 minutes. I didn't get to this shop in time to wait for him to make them, so I couldn't get any sandals. Next trip!

The breathtaking views are endless

We caught the ferry again back to Selarno. We saw some windsurfers around which were fun to watch. Our boys and Pietros' family went back to Pietro's house and tools us ti he ready at 7:30. We were having supper at their house. Pietro's father came to pick us up and we began our long winding trip up the mountain to their house. There were so many narrow winding streets that I got a bit carsick on the way up. There town was really neat and you can sea the water from their house. Pietro's dad has his car mechanics shop under the house. It was really neat. The first floor had Pietro's aunt and uncle on it and then the second and third floor belongs to Pietro's family. We had a great meal which of course included appetizer, first plate(usually pasta), second plate(usually meat) and then dessert. The meat was a chicken dish that was made by Pietro's grandma who raised and killed the chicken!! Pietro's grandparents were delightful. It's been really nice getting a glimpse of how a local lives and survives.

Basilica in Amalfi...beautiful!

Still wishing u could get pictures up, but no internet yet to try. the only bummer is that we can't go to Capri because the seas aren't calm enough. Well, we could go but we couldn't get into the Blue Grotto, so it's not worth going for us.

Tomorrow we are at the mercy of our local family, so remarkably...we don't have a thing planned! Surprise...surprise.

Tip of the day, you can buy Frommer's Italy guide but don't bother with the shopping counterpart. I have found several things that I don't agree with so just go explore and find your own shops. That's more fun anyway!

Trivia about Michelangelo's David!

Okay...so picture this in your mind...the famous statue of David. You remember the guy right?
David who killed the Philistine giant in the Bible! The 17 feet tall, curly hair, and naked body David! Well, guess what I found out today about David? You see that he is holding one thing in each hand. I always thought the pebble was in his right hand and the slingshot in his left. Wrong! He is holding the handle and strap for the slingshot in his right hand and the pebble in his left. The real secret though is that when you walk behind him, the slingshot leather is draped around his back! I didn't realize how long the strap was on his slingshot. I have always pictured the kind of slingshot that you get Woolworth's and buy for $1. You know, maybe a wooden gismo shaped like a 'U' with a little piece of leather attached to a piece of rubber tubing. :-)
After seeing the length of the leather strap and knowing how small the pebble probably was, you understand even further how God had his hand on the whole situation. It would be so hard to whip the pebble around and be so accurate as to hit the giant in the head so perfectly to knock the him down...and with the first stone.  Cool huh?!

(no pictures here....you are not allowed to take pictures in this museum)

(R-L)  Carson, Forrest, Pietro

After our tour, we headed for Salerno. It is a southwestern coastal town. The boys friend,Pietro, met us with his family at the train station. We went and had dinner and we were back at the hotel by 11:30pm!! People eat so late here...and they eat sooo much. We had an appetizer, a first plate(usually some kind of pasta dish) and then a second plate(meat or fish)and finally dessert! You go to sleep right after that and then get up 7 hours later and start the whole eating thing all over again. Not to mention the Gelatos that you eat in between that. The most amazing thing is, is that you look around and they are all skinny!

I thought I had figured out a way to get some pictures posted by using my iPad,but the hotel Internet doesn't work at night. Check back tomorrow and I'll try again.

Pietro's brother, dad and mom

CIAO!

FOOTNOTE:  We weren't able to make it to Greve in Chianti.  I'm really disappointed about that,  but
                         we will just have to make that a priority next time.

The Mona Lisa

No, we didn't see the Mona Lisa but we did stay at the Mona Lisa...does that count? :-)

On our walk to the train station today, I discovered a quaint pottery shop around the corner from the hotel. OMG! The wares in there were beautiful and the lady making and painting these was about 70(or more possibly). On the way back this afternoon, I had to stop and support this little old lady!! If I didn't buy anything from her, she may not eat next week!  I am expecting my spoils late August. Come by and see me and we will have a party. :-)

Stairway in Pisa Tower

We took a quick ride on the train to Pisa. I don't think words can express the breathtaking view that is in front of you as you round the corner to the tower. It's amazing. I never knew that it is just part of a cathedral that is an amazing structure in itself.

Top or Pisa

Again from my Frommer's book, I was able to reserve a time to climb the tower and 'skip the line'. It worked like a charm. The plaza was swarmed with people all trying to get a time to climb the tower. When we walked up at 1:30, the sign said that they had times to climb after 7:30 pm!! People just have to sit and wait just for that 20 minute opportunity to go to the top!! It was such an experience! As you start to climb, you feel like you are on a boat that is listing. As you get closer to the top, the stairwell gets narrower and narrower. If I was any bigger, I'm not sure that I would have fit!!

Ted and I climbing to the top

It started to rain after we were down, but that was okay because I got a Pisa umbrella out of the deal!! :-) We headed back to Florence but made the mistake of getting on the locals train, so it took us an extra 30 minutes to get back. That was okay though because we got to see more of the mountainous area. One of the neatest things still is the field after field of sunflowers. It would be like riding through Iowa and seeing sunflowers instead of corn. They bow their heads all together when it is cloudy or getting darker. It was cloudy today so they were bowing for us as we passed by!!

Mona Lisa with a kitty

Smoking Mona

Oh...one thing about this hotel, they have pictures of the Mona Lisa all over doing all kinds of things...even smoking a cigarette. It's pretty funny.

We have another 'skip the line' tour tomorrow. This time to see the statue of David. After that we are going to try to get to Greve in Chianti. I guess that you can figure that one out!
After that, we are off to Salerno.

Why Salerno you ask? The boys had a friend, Pietro, this past year at school. Pietro is from Salerno. Carson and Forrest will be staying with him for a few days before we go back to Rome for our last day of Italy!  Also, Salerno is right at the beginning of the Amalfi coast.

(sorry for any errors...I am having to do these last few by phone because I have no wi-fi here)

Last Day in Venice...On to Florence

Venice has been fun but there really is limited stuff to do...except of course shopping could go on forever if you have a big enough wallet!! Did you know that there are over 400 bridges in Venice? It's really pretty neat to be walking down some narrow alley and all of a sudden you come upon a bridge.  Some bridges may be only be 5-10 steps and then you are across.

Got our water bus back to the train station and then we were off to Florence. The trains are wonderful except for one thing...the bathrooms are disgusting. Whatever you do, pay the .80 Euro to use the toilet/water closet at the train station.  :-)

When arriving in Florence, we walked out of the train station and you could see to the right the most amazing cathedral that I have ever seen. It was the Basilica of Santa Maria. It is breath taking. The tiles used are colored, so from the outside it looks like what you might see on the inside. Supposedly it has the largest brick dome in the world. Can't wait to see the inside.

One more new tip on traveling: get international service on your iPhone or other type of smart
phone. Why you ask? It is your very best way to navigate through the cities. Even with the local maps that your hotel will give you, it can be difficult to understand the road system.  Taxi drivers are on strike here so instead of waiting in at least a 30-40 minute taxi queue, we decided to use our phone GPS and walk to the hotel. It worked great!

Okay, I won't be as long winded today. It's 12:10 am here and we just finished dinner at 11:00 pm!! The cities come alive around 8:30 pm. Tomorrow we are off to climb the Leaning Tower of Piazza.

Ciao!

Off to Venice!

Today has been another excitement filled day. We left Rome at 8:45 am on the fast Eurostar train. It took 3 1/2 hours to go what would have taken 6 hours by car. This train was awesome! I read that you should reserve seats even if you have a pass during the busy season. That was great info. We have first class train tickets (not much more than second class but a huge difference in comfort) and it was a really enjoyable ride. Right out of the termini you begin to see fields of sunflowers. They were beautiful! Unfortunately, Italy has the same set up as New York: most of the train stations are near low income areas so their is a lot of graffiti on the buildings.

Water bus

We arrived in Venice right on time. It was fairly easy to navigate to the water buses. The only blip in the whole thing was that we needed to take boat number 1 but didn't realize that they were two #1 areas. The only way we knew was that we were waiting on our dock with a few other people and we just waved as our ride went right past us! Oh well, what would a trip with me be if we didn't get the wrong boat or something!! I might start to think that I am really good at navigating around places! :-)

Rialto Bridge in the distance

I will have to say that Venice isn't really exactly like I pictured it...say, like what you see when watching The Tourist or any of the many other movies filmed in Venice. The Grand Canal is actually really large. The small canals(like where you saw Angelina Jolie doing that amazing driving down those narrow canals) actually run inticately in and around the town. The other thing that was different is that it wasn't quite as dirty as I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong...it is far from what we consider clean, I just expected much worse.

My best piece of advice to those of you that plan to visit Venice....start saving!! There is so much for us shoppers to buy!! My favorites so far are the nice leather handbags (even the ones that aren't top designers are nice), the murano glass items (there is everything from the simplest rings and earrings to the elaborate chandeliers...some are breathtaking), and the gorgeous hand made lace tablecloths. I really want to go home with a tablecloth, but they are pricey! The price is fair though...just have to pay a lot for all that handwork.

Rialto Bridge

We took a motor boat tour around the Grand Canal and that was really fun. Since we are only hear for about 28 hours, it was a relaxing way to see a lot. Believe it or not, we may skip the gondola ride. I know that that is a must here, but we liked the boat ride quite a bit. I hate to say it, but that was a mistake too! It was one of the two things that I didn't book myself, and I must not have made it clear that we wanted to do the gondola, not the power boat. Well, Ted said that was a good mistake, so I'm off the hook for that one.

Thin House

Oh..on part of the boat tour, we passed the 'Thin House'. It is supposed to be a work of art.  What do you think?  I think that it would be hard for some of us to fit down that hallway!!  :-)

Church of the Redeemer

Another piece of info for you guys that are planning to come. yesterday and today (Sat & Sun) was the biggest celebration of Venice....or so said our tour guide. It is called the Celebration of the Redeemer. Evidently Saturday night, they had a big party with fireworks and everything. One of the neatest things they do is build a temporary bridge from Venice to the island just across where the church is. It is amazing! They only put this bridge up for two days for the whole year and they do it every year on the 3rd weekend of July. Then they take the whole thing down.

One thing that I have forgotten to mention is...now pay attention all you sweet tea drinkers out there...you can get tea everywhere!! It's in a bottle but it is pretty good. You can get it with lemon or peach flavor. This has been a life saver. When we went to Spain, there was no sweet tea of any kind to be had anywhere.

Venice

Well, I know I got a little long winded on this one but hope you enjoyed it anyway.

Segway tour of ancient Rome!

Can you believe it!!! We did a three hour tour(not to be confused with the Gilligan's Island one)of ancient Rome on segways. All the men in my family were delighted when we walked up to the Segway store. It only took about 2 minutes for us all to figure out how to ride them. We rode them through crowds, up and down the cobblestone streets and all around the Colosseum!! Carson and Forrest said they never got bored riding the segways. Come to think of it....I didn't either!!  Oh, on our way to meeting up with the segway group we ran into this authentic roman century, so we had to have pictures taken.

We not only saw the Colosseum but also Arc of Titus, the Arc of Constantine, the rose gardens, the Trojans forum, and Palantine Hill. There is truly so much to take in because you are literally surrounded by history. I wish that I would have brushed up a little on my Roman history because I think that I would have gotten more out of our tour. I think this is a place you need to see twice or spend at least a week just in Rome. We are on the 'fast track' sight-seeing vacation. Maybe my boys will bring me back one day with my grandchildren!! :-)

The best thing that happened all day though, had to be when we were up around the ancient Roman Circus. This wedding couple parked along where we had stopped to get out and take pictures. Well, guess what they wanted to do first?!?! They wanted to get the photographer to take a picture of them with our Segway group. I will post the one we took after the wedding couple took theirs. It was pretty funny because everywhere we went, people seemed to be more interested in the Segways than all the history surrounding them!

Needless to say, I am a little disappointed because my mobile upload of pictures to my blog is not working. I'm sorry you can't see the cool pictures of us in our helmets! I only brought the iPad with me so I don't have a any other way to upload the pics. You will just have to create in your own mind what my crew might look like standing in front of the colosseum with helmets on! I even took a picture just for Hardy of me and a REAL LIVE ancient roman guard....well, he was at least 70! Sorry Hardy!

We leave for our 1 1/2 day trip to Venice tomorrow at 8:45!! I hope that I don't wear everybody out too quickly. They are all napping right now and am just reading my book 'born to shop Italy'!!

Ciao

Hit the ground running!

Well, we made it safely to Rome after a grueling 9 hour flight. One thing not to do when flying to Italy....go coach. Unless you are shorter than 5'8 there is not enough room for you to sit straight behind the seat in front of you. Heaven forbid that the person in front reclines their seat!!! I had a friend tell me there was more room on these big planes. I beg to differ....there is less! You can imagine how much sleep my 6'3, 6'5" and 6'2" boys got on the plane. The upside was that it was a pretty smooth flight and we had our own personal TV screen to watch our favorite movies or TV shows!

Anyway, on to the good stuff. We landed and our walk through the passport check took about 10 minutes. The girl didn't hardly take a glance at our passports. I bought a flexi euro rail pass for the family, so we are all on the same ticket. This was a good choice because we are traveling together everywhere, so you save a good bit of money. I read in my handy dandy Frommer's book for Italy about the Lenardo express train to the Roma Termini and that worked out great also. We hit the ground and went right to the Leonardo Express train and arrived at the Roma Termini in about 25 minutes. It was a 3-5 minute walk to the Hotel Morgana that I booked through Priceline and it is perfect. It's close location to the termini makes it a great 'base' from Rome. And oh....did I mention that the Termini has a mall?!

Our rooms weren't ready, so we went and had a bite at a cute 'fast food' Italian place right near the hotel. Got our bags in the room around 1pm. We took a 30 minute nap, then off to our tour or the Catacombs and the ancient Roman countryside. Of course we decided to walk to the meeting point and the nice locals gave us some good directions. They had us going in circles! I'm thinking that they are at home laughing tonight talking about how they gave some Americans the wrong directions!;-) We thought that we were going to miss the tour because they said they would not wait more than 5 minutes. We got there 6 minutes late and....the Roman gods must have been with us...we made it! It was a great tour. We did a 'skip the line' tour. That was a good way to go because we had 0 wait time when we arrived at our destinations. Our tour guide Alex(andria) did a great job.

After that, we jumped on the metro for a ride back to the hotel. We stopped and had a quick supper, dropped the boys off at the hotel to go to sleep, then Ted and I went after a gelato. Now I can go to sleep. We calculated that we were up for 31 hours!

Tomorrow is our tour of the Colosseum! I have kept it a secret as to how we will be traveling on that tour. Stay tuned and I will fill you in tomorrow.

Oh, I took some pictures with my phone and tried to do some mobile uploads but they didn't work. I will try something different tomorrow to try and add some pictures!

One Day And Counting!

Well, success in getting the reserved rail passes for Venice and Florence.
Another word of advice, if you have to go to another city and you are on a time schedule, make the reservation!! The original train that we wanted to be n to Venice was full. We had to settle for an earlier time. Ugh!!

I think that we are all about packed and ready. I have packed so efficiently that I was able to put an extra duffle bag in my suitcase for all the 'spoils' that I will need to bring back with us. Anything that we have forgotten at this point will have to be bought when we get there. I guess that ain't all bad!

I will try to upload a picture of us as we are ready to leave tomorrow!
Pray that we get on the right trains!!

Two days and counting....

Things are coming together and my favorite step-mother, Pat, has saved the day and volunteered to take the Muffy.  Muffy gets treated like a princess there, so she will be happy while we are gone.

Okay, if you ever decide to go to Europe this next piece of info might be helpful.  In my last post, I mentioned that I was trying to get seat reservations on the euro rail. The reason for this is that even though you may have a rail pass, during high tourist season, there may not be enough seats for the train that you want to travel on which could cause some delays in your travel.  To be safe, I decided to do this because we will only be in Venice for a day and a half, so I want to get there early in the day.  These reservations cost a little extra, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

I found out from the AAA lady that the website that is listed on the euro pass and all the other info isn't where you can make seat reservations!!!  You have to go to www.raileurope.com!  I don't know how you would figure that out, but I am just glad I found it.  After going to the site and trying to make a reservation, I found out that you have to make those reservations in enough time for them to send the tickets to you via snail mail.

Plan B...you call the number that is listed on the website and wait a minimum of 30 minutes.  The good news is, is that you are connected with someone in the US that represents euro rail.  I found out of course that there wasn't enough time to get my reserved seat tickets in the mail.

Plan C....as luck would have it, there is a licensed travel agent here in Charlotte that can issue me the tickets here!  Yay....plan on trying it tomorrow.  Stay tuned to see if it 'all works out in the end'.

For all Charlotteans that might like to have this info, the travel agency is Court Travel.  704-372-4231

Three days and counting!

Well, I am trying to tie up all the loose ends and things are coming together pretty well.
I was able to secure a reservation at the Adriatic in Rome for our last night in Italy.  It is written up in Frommer's book of Italy, so I feel confident with that hotel.  It is right near the Vatican, so we will probably try to go there our last day.  

Finally figured out how to sync my calendar from my iPad to my iPhone.  I had read so many comments about how to do it and none of them had worked.  It actually ended up being a real simple fix....you just had to know where to look.  If anyone else out there is trying to figure it out, just give me a call!

I have two more things to figure out.  Need seat reservation on the euro rail to ride from Rome to Venice.  It seemed like you could do it on-line, but it just wasn't happening.  I will try to get with someone from AAA tomorrow.

Last but not least...need someone to look after Muffy.  I thought Eden was going to be able to look after her, but she is moving out while we are gone.  Between that and law school, she can't do it.      Poor Muff Muff!