Venice - Day 2

Written by: Dan
View pictures: Click Here

Where to begin! What a time. We kept busy during the day yesterday being tourists. We went to St. Mark's square, Palace of the Doges, St. Mark's basilica, and the Campanile.

It was quite a busy day. We went back to the hotel to to rest up and take a quick nap. On the way out a hotel employee recommended a great place for dinner. His favorite place, but not a popular place with tourists. It was great. Annie had a whole slew of things she would normally never eat, and our main course was pasta served out of a cheese bowl! This rivals the big honkin reeses peanut butter cup from San Diego!

After dinner we walked along the Grand Canal and found a spot to have dessert and a bottle of wine. Our seat was right on the river. We spent the better part of an hour watching the boats go by.

After dessert, we headed back to St. Mark's square to drink more wine and listen to a 4 string band. The setting was amazing. We drank (a lot) of wine in this vast square, listened to music, and stayed up way to late.

We returned to our hotel (no idea what time, but just about all of venice was sleeping), and drank one last bottle of champaigne on our balcony. It was the perfect ending to great day in Venice.

Our Honeymoon - The trip to Venice

Written by: Dan
View some pictures (click here)

Our trip was long (over 20+ hours), but successful. We traveled from Detroit to Chicago, and after a short layover, got on the plane to Amsterdam. It was the biggest plane I have been on - 474-400. It had an upstairs! The plane was not full, so we started with our own row in coach. After we took off the crew bumped us up to business class! The seats were great (the even recline to allow us to lay down). We had our own screen and movies and such to keep us busy. So, of course, we didn't sleep a wink. After another layover we were headed to Venice (On this plane ride I was sound asleep before they showed us how to use the seatbelts).

Once we arrived we quickly got our baggage and headed for the city. We opted out of a water bus for a private water taxi. Though much more expensive, we are glad we did it since it gave us a great tour of the city, and a fantastic ride.

Our Hotel (Bauer Hotel) is located on the other side of Venice a block from St. Mark's Square. This room is amazing. It is huge for a european hotel room. It has a hottub, little living area, and an ass washer! Plus, we have our own private balcony that overlooks a canal and an old church. We have yet to get inside this church, but have plans.

Last night we took a walk to get dinner. Dinner was a fantastic, we had thier house drink, pasta and pizza. The house pizza had egg on it! I am totally giving this a shot on my own when I get home with our new pizza maker. The walk back was interesting, we sorta got lost. This should be no suprise since we can't navigate with streets in the town we grew up in. Give us a foreign country and waterways instead of roads - we had no chance. Anyway, we came back to the room after a long walk back to a complimentary bottle of champaign and a long night's sleep.

Today is the "touristy" stuff like the Palace of the Doges, St. Mark's Square, and the Basilica. We will post picture from those stops later. Tomorrow we may travel to Verona to see an opera at an old roman arena.

We are at the hotel resting up now, looking for a place to eat. So far this has been the most amazing place. We can't wait to get back outside, break into that church next to us, and tear up the city.

4th of July

The Hoban's have envaded Roger's city again. Some highlights from this year included:

Beer tasting

Magic Show

Keg-o-rator

Beer Olympics

Fireworks on the beach (fight the power)

Kevin's fire sing along

Another year on my margarita glass (I've made the brim mow)