Here are our photos from our visit to the chapel of St Francis in Assisi(St Francesco) located in the Tuscany region of Italy, south of Florence. The chapel for St Francis sits up on a hill, one for the monks and another higher up in the mountains for the nuns. You walk up through the town which was surround by a large stone wall and heavy gates for protection. The St Francis chapel was built after he died and is actually one chapel on top of the other, built into the side of the hill. We entered through the door in the bottom chapel and St Francis is buried there under the altar. No photos in the church. The ceilings are painted dark blue with stars, and the life of St Francis is painted along the walls of the upper chapel. The large stained glass window is built facing the setting sun which was not the usual for churches of the day. They usually build the church facing the rising sun to celebrate light and a new day. This one was celebrating the setting sun and life after death. INcluded are some photos from around the town. As you can see from the steps and roads, there is a lot of hiking and walking straight up and down on top of the hill! The shots from the top of the hill down into the valley are beautiful. The area is surrounded by the town in the valley(peasants) and olive tree orchards. And as I mentioned, The Franciscan cross looks like the letter T. Included is a shot of our tour guide and the local monk who took us through the chapel. Also a courtyard inside the chapel. And my favorite wine, cheese and sausage shop where I bought Tom some wild boar salami.  

We're Having A Heat Wave! A Tropical Heat Wave! Wow. Temps in the 100s here in Baltimore and humidity on top of that. It is actually hard to breathe outside sometimes, especially when there is no breeze. It seems to be coming to an end though with a couple of tstorms. We mostly spend our time indoors.It makes it hard to take Cookie for a walk. I usually wait until around 10pm.

Scott spent his mornings though outside on the greens at his Golf Camp this past week. He then spent his afternoons at Pets N Vets class at the local community college. SCott has taken the Pets class several times and never tires of it. You never know what type of animals will show up. This year they had a goat, a chicken, lizards, turtles, rabbits, cats, police dogs and lots of dogs as pets. Of course Scott took Cookie one afternoon, and our turtle another afternoon. We discovered our turtle is a yellow eared or yellow bellied turtle and not a red eared as we thought. Scott needed to take the turtle to class towards his Boy Scout merit badge "Pet CAre" that I have him working on. (Along with his summer reading and other badge work).

Thank goodness for Allison. She has been driving him all over for his classes. It has certainly been a great help. She is also staying busy on the weekends at work, and finally she and Tom were able to get all her model birds put up at the Nature Center over the week. She has already heard great compliments from guests and the staff on having the birds available on the trail. Now she is trying to schedule a class for the staff and hopefully one for the kids before she goes off to school in August.

Speaking of school, she received her college housing assignment and roommate. She sent off an email to Melania (seems she is Ukranian), but it also seems she is off visiting in the Ukraine. Allison is anxious to chat with her. She did scope her out on Facebook. We went off this weekend and spent Allison's graduation gift cards at Target, buying all her dorm room linens, as well as buying school supplies with her Staples gift cards.  We also got our fall semester bill-it was nice to see they credited Allison with her scholarship money. And she also received her orientation week schedule. What a week! Lots of activities planned all over campus. Allison is reading a book assigned to all the freshman, The Meaning of Matthew about a guy that was killed in Texas several years ago who was gay. The mom wrote the book and she is their guest speaker over the opening weekend. We have to drop Allison off at 7:30 in the morning on a Thursday, and then they have programs scheduled for students and family members all day until they send us off with an ice cream social. Salisbury is a very family oriented school and schedules programs during the year to get the kids and their parents and siblings together. Not to mention lots of activities organized for the kids to get involved in their community, as well as with each other(and of course to succeed in their classes).

We also had the Girl Scouts over on Friday night as we plan for our upcoming trip to Michigan. We will be leaving next Sunday and stopping overnight at Cedar Point. We also plan on driving up to my parent's house in Charlevoix to spend time on the water as well as taking a day trip to Mackinac Island. The girls are very excited! I also plan on taking Tom and Scott along for the trip. Scott can't wait for Cedar Point too!

Tom should be used to traveling by now. He had just gotten home from LA, and then was off to Salt Lake City all last week. He is busy repacking for a trip to Chicago this coming week. Too bad he lost his pager when we went off to the mountains last week! It is harder to keep in touch with him!

I have been busy at my new job. We finally put together our entire team, but may need to add a few extra therapists as we get busier. It is just nice to have a steady income again!

We arrived back home in the US early Saturday morning! We had an amazing Girl SCout trip of Europe and saw absolutely everything! We were quite happy to be back home again though as we were missing toilet paper, decaf coffee with cream, tortilla chips and salsa and hamburgers! (In that order!)

The first part of our trip took us on a United Flight last Weds night from the DC Dulles airport to London Heathrow airport. Tom convinced me it would be better if we drove ourselves. We had a quicker flight with a strong tailwind-just about 5 1/2 hours. I would have preferred to sleep all night, especially since I wasn't feeling too well. But between dinner service and drinks and snacks, the very nice flight attendants kept us busy and awake. And the economy seats are so much smaller than they used to be! Hard to get a comfortable spot for sleeping. Although I did manage to get a very fluffy pillow! Overall it was still a great flight and we arrived in London around 9am, 5 hours later time difference than Baltimore and made it through a very long, hot customs line.

I guess we were the last one's to arrive. The rest of our Girl Scout Group was already there. Our group consisted of 50 girls and women from all over the country-South Carolina, Seattle Washington, California, and Nebraska. Ages ranged from a 10 yo girl to a Grandma. Most of the girls were around 15-16 yrs old. We all boarded our bus and headed to our hotel in Beckton, south of London. We checked into our rooms and grabbed some sandwiches at a local equivalent of Walmart. We then boarded the local train and headed into London where we switched to the tube to head downtown for a walking tour. Our first train ride was interesting as it ran above ground, operated by robotics-no driver! We got a great view of Olympic village and East London University, a local stadium for concerts as well as the marshes that run into Thames river. Our walking tour took us by Big Ben, Picadilly Circus, the National Gallery, London Tower and the Tower Bridge. We stopped for dinner near the London tower at an Asian restaurant and did some souvenir shopping. Then headed back to the hotel on the trains.

We were pretty exhausted. Unfortunately, Allison and I were stuck with the group's misfit mom and daughter as roommates. Very nice people from Nebraska, but constantly losing everything(including a close call with the passports). The daughter had anxiety attacks and spent more time in our room than her room. I could have paid more and roomed just with Allison, but she was hoping to spend time with the scouts and meet new people. She did meet a few girls that she enjoyed hanging out with but they never had the opportunity to share a room. And my roommate snored horribly. Although I was so tired it almost didn't matter.

The next morning after breakfast(which was mostly cereal, yogurt, juice and coffee(no cream), we took a bus tour of London. We drove over the Tower bridge and around the Tower of London. Next visit we will have to go in. Many of the places we visited, even cathedrals, charge an entrance fee so it can be quite an expensive trip. The Tower of London was used as a castle, fortress and prison where they currently keep the crown jewels. It hosted lots of executions  with lots of royal prisoners in the past. They also have their own ravens living on the grounds and it is said the kingdom will always stand as long as the ravens remain. We drove around Westminster Abbey and Westminster, Big Ben, #10 Downing Street, Harrods Dept store, The London Eye, with a quick walking tour around St Pauls(cathedral where Charles and Diane were married). We traveled through the neighborhoods where Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens lived. An American businessman rebuilt an exact replica of Shakespeare's Globe theater, including the open roof. Theater goers stand on balconies around the stage and have the opportunity to participate in the shows, just as they did during Shakespeare's day. We drove around the fictitious neighborhood of Sherlock Holmes, and the shady dark side of London including Fleet Street and the infamous barber Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper. There was certainly quite a dark side to London including heads on stakes as you entered the city and being buried up to your head in the marshes as the tide came in. The bloated bodies were known as Wappers(not the same as the ones at Burger King but gives you a whole new perspective). I learned that Wharf stands for Wharehouse At the River Front. And that the Romans settled London since it was conveniently located on a major river, but it was just too cold so they left. We also saw lots of spots where they filmed the Sherlock Holmes movie and tv series, and of course Harry Potter. Including the Millenium foot path bridge that was closed for several years due to poor construction. This is the bridge where the dementors attacked the pedestrians. We also saw the old train station used in the movies. And we saw quite a bit of the new, very modern London including the Mayor's Office kindly referred to as Darth Vadars helmet. We then stopped by Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. Afterwards half of our group headed out by bus for a tour of Windsor Castle near Heathrow airport. The rest stayed behind for free time and a ride on the London Eye. Allison and I had decided to tour Windsor castle, home of the Queen Mother who was actually in the castle during our tour. Sadly we did not catch a glimpse of her or her dogs.  After lunch we did see Queen Mary's elaborate dollhouse, the castle tour and St George's cathedral-patron saint of England. Allison and I had the chance to have our photo close up with a royal guard and their bearskin hats! There was a bit of a mix up with transportation back into London, so we arrived to dinner late. Fish and chips in a local tavern. We had hoped to see a play-Phantom of the Opera, however the tickets were sold out that Friday night. Looks like we would have been late anyway. Just have to catch it in Baltimore next year.

On Saturday morning we headed to Hampstead, north of London for a visit at the Girl Scout World Headquarters-Pax Lodge. Lord Powell began the Boy Scout movement in England and his wife, Olave began the Girl Guides. Juliette Lowe met Lord Powell while traveling to England and began the Girl Scouts in the US. Pax Lodge or Peace Lodge was built in 1989 and was named after a vacation home of the Powells and built in honor of Olave Powell. It is a youth hostel with bedrooms and kitchenettes, meeting rooms and a patio/garden. We were met by several Girl SCout volunteer staff members from all over the world. We had a flag ceremony and sang The World Song(which Allison and I know from choir!), a pinning ceremony, tea ceremony, a tour of the building, lots of videos on the history of the building and the girl scout movement around the world and free time to buy souvenirs and swap patches.  If Allison was ever interested, she could apply for a free internship at the Pax Lodge and run programs for the visiting Girl Scouts for about 2 months during the summer. What a great opportunity to visit London! We had the whole place to ourselves that morning, and then headed out to a train station for the two hour ride to Paris.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tom and Scott spent their first weekend alone doing yardwork. Lots of bushes to trim and Scott rebuilt our stone wall around the birch trees. They also had a boys day and SCott had a friend over for a bike ride. At night, his Dad came over and Tom set up a movie outside in the backyard on our projector. Scott planned on spending the upcoming week in computer classes at Kids on Campus summer camp learning how to make 3D video games and applications.

Here is a taste of our London tour photos-Big Ben, London Eye, Picadilly Circus,  Tower of London and Tower Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, Westminster and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Changing of the Guards, Windsor Castle, Pax Lodge and Girl Scout Pinning ceremony and tea ceremony along with our GS Tour Group. Waiting in the train station for our trip to Paris. I will send out info on our trip to Paris in my next blog(don't want to overload anyone!). Let me know if I got something wrong or missed something Dave and Sandra(the Bozyk family lived in London for a few years and I am sure they are expert tour guides!).
 Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tom and Scott spent their first weekend alone doing yardwork. Lots of bushes to trim and Scott rebuilt our stone wall around the birch trees. They also had a boys day and SCott had a friend over for a bike ride. At night, his Dad came over and Tom set up a movie outside in the backyard on our projector. Scott planned on spending the upcoming week in computer classes at Kids on Campus summer camp learning how to make 3D video games and applications.

This certainly was a busy week and a half!

 Hope you all were able to get through my last blog(and maybe even the video!). Scott's choir was back at it last Friday singing during a Memorial mass at school. Tom and I were home, but opted out since we were busy getting the house ready for guests. Tom took on a few maintenance projects including painting our foyer ceiling from an old roof leak and changing out the bathroom faucet downstairs.

Tom's sister Susan and husband John arrived on Friday night. We took them along with Scott's boy scout troop to the Memorial service at our local military cemetery. Each year the boy scouts have placed flags in front of the headstones at the Baltimore National cemetery with a small ceremony following. This year it was just unbelievably cold! It was hard to stand outside very long with the cold wind blowing and we didn't exactly dress for snow!  Scott was a bit taken aback when a woman visiting her son's grave asked for his photo while he placed the flag at the tombstone. I told him that was what it was all about. Afterwards we headed to Olde Ellicott City for dinner and to get out of the cold. Only a few days earlier we had to turn on the AC when it was in the 80s and very humid!

Allison was recuperating at home last Friday night from a long week of finals and graduation rehearsals.They had to practice the ceremony at least 2 hours each day!  Unfortunately the Seniors had a pool party on Friday afternoon, but not much swimming. It was about 50 degrees outside! But the kids enjoyed themselves with a cookout and volleyball. And earlier in the morning they had an awards ceremony at school. Allison was given the Top Honors Student of the Year in the Teacher Academy program at school, complete with a plaque. Her Kindergarten mentor was very proud and so are we. But now on to Business school. She is just happy to be done with projects and tests. (Although we still have the Gold Award project to work on this summer which she got caught up on after finishing her finals).

Scott was busy this past week finishing up his big Social Studies presentation on Madagascar. He downloaded his power point presentation, but when he got to school it did not work! Fortunately Tom was able to email the presentation to the teacher, plus Scott had the written report to go along with it. At least he did not have to present. So he is wrapping up just two more weeks of school. He was also busy last week with his Patrol Leader meeting on Monday night and Boy Scout meeting on Weds night. We couldn't get to swimming though since we had some thunderstorms rolling through. We made up the lesson on Saturday morning instead.

I finally got hit with paperwork for my new job which I needed to turn in the following week. Our whole new rehab team starts on June 3rd with orientation the Saturday before. I also finished up my dental appointment with the endodontist. All in all I put in 9 hours of dental treatment, but I am not sure if she was able to make a difference. Now I need to go back next week to cap it off with the dentist. Oh well. I tried.

Over the holiday weekend, Scott went off with the boy scouts for an overnight camping trip to our local fairgrounds. The boys worked an electronic swap meet-assisting with parking and setting up/cleaning up sales booths for which they get paid.  The boys had a terrific time digging through electronic odds and ends too. I volunteered to drop off Scott camping and to his swim lesson while Tom took Susan and John in to Baltimore for a tour. They visited our submarine and The Constitution, the 100yr old tall sailing ship docked in the harbor, as well as some souvenir shopping. Allison was off working, and when she got home we headed back to Olde Ellicott City for a Ghost Tour. The weather was a lot nicer and the evening stroll around olde Ellicott City was a lot of fun. Until we were all scared silly by a cardboard box that rolled down some alley steps(all by itself!) right in front of us. Until the guy taking out the trash caught up to it!  That gave us a good laugh. As usual, the ghost stories are fun, but the history of the town is even more interesting.

On Sunday we took it easy at home. I had to drop off Cookie to doggie day care since we were headed out of town for a few days. Sunday afternoon, Tom and guests visited the electronic sale and picked up Scott. Scott spent the rest of the day finishing up studying for some upcoming tests and then passed out for over 12 hours! We also enjoyed watching the Indy 500-interesting finish. On Memorial Day we all headed down to Williamsburg, VA. We decided to visit Colonial Williamsburg and turns out military personnel and family were admitted to the shops and town for free! What a great deal for Susan and John since John is a retired Marine. We bought our tickets and enjoyed the afternoon exploring historical Williamsburg. I think Scott most enjoyed making bricks with his feet and buying colonial root beer! Afterwards we had a great chinese dinner buffet and spent the night with Tom's travel points covering the hotel costs. On Tuesday we headed over to the Water Park. Scott missed out on a field trip at school that day, but we decided our field trip was more fun! There was hardly anyone at WAter Country and the weather was pleasant. We felt like we had reserved the whole park for ourselves! We had a great time on all the rides and floating down the lazy river. We left early in the afternoon and enjoyed a game of putt putt golf before heading home in the rain.

Weds was Allison's big day!

Scott went off to school in the morning and I had to run over to my new workplace to get tested for TB and drop off paperwork. The graduation ceremony was at noon, and Allison had to be there by 11am. We got great parking in the nearby mall as all the high school ceremonies are held in our outside theater. It was already getting pretty hot, but we were nice and cool under the canopy with the monstrous ceiling fans. The high school band provided music as well as the Senior choir and they managed to pass out 4oo student diplomas in just over an hour! All in all it was a very nice graduation ceremony. Allison is wearing her NHS sash as well as a double gold cord for being in the top 5% of her Senior class(so about 20 kids out of 400 had the highest GPA). Way to go Allison! Apparently they do not have Valedictorians or Salutatorians anymore(GPAs have gotten very complicated with all the different levels of classes). So after the ceremony the kids have to turn in all their sashes and cords(they don't get to keep them). And we were off to lunch. I then needed to get home to complete an online computer training session for my new job, and Tom and Allison went to pick up Cookie and SCott. Scott had some homework to finish and after dinner I took him over to his boy scout meeting. Tom, Susan and John had a tour of Allison's high school.

It was wonderful having Susan and John visit over the holiday weekend and help celebrate Allison's big day.  Thanks everyone for all the great cards and gifts! Since Allison is now done with school she has been keeping busy with thank you notes!  Susan and John got up early and headed out to spend the day at Gettysburg in PA before heading home to Indiana on Friday. Thanks again for visiting!

Enjoy my photos of graduation(Allison getting and gotten her diploma!), Scott with the Boy Scouts placing flags at the Baltimore National Cemetery for Memorial Day and a few shots of our visit to Williamsburg(Governor's Mansion, Martha Washington's carriage, and Allison tries her hand at the hoops-hours of entertainment).