christmas cards presents

2020 Giving Back

We decided to make Christmas cards and little gift bags for a senior center. My little elf and I made 50 cards and gift bags. We made two different cards–one was a Christmas tree and the other was a stack of presents. I found a template online to make the Christmas tree and drew a

Love’s Seafood

Whenever we go back to Mobile, this is the first restaurant we hit up. It is fresh, inexpensive, and consistent. We get a cup of gumbo, shrimp fried rice, crab claws, and some fish/shrimp/oyster plates. During our most recent, week-long trip to Mobile, we went here three times.

poulet grand mere

Quarantine Cooking Class

For my birthday this year, I got to do a virtual cooking class with Chef Daniel Boulud!! We have always wanted to go to his restaurant Daniel in NYC, but never got reservations the few times we were up there. Doing this cooking class made me want to go to his restaurant even more! Ben

lake como borgo le terraze

Lake Como/Lago di Como

We arrived in Milan in the evening after a nearly six-hour train ride from Naples Centrale with a stop in Rome to change trains. Because we were lax with our planning, we missed the local train to Como and had not arranged for a private car to take us to our hotel Borgo le Terrazze

cupcake positano beach

Amalfi Coast

The train ride from Roma Termini to Naples Centrale station was about an hour long. We left Rome in the morning so that we would have enough travel time to get through the mountains and onto the coast. Once in Naples, we negotiated a taxi to take us to the coast. Our taxi driver spoke

Deanna pumpkin patch

Pumpkin Carving

We went to a farm/nursery up the street from us to check out their pumpkin patch–our normal pumpkin patch closed down a couple of years ago. There was not a huge selection, but we want to support local businesses. Deanna picked out a couple of small ones to paint and a couple of big ones to carve. Boy, have I gotten weak during this pandemic. Those two, big carving pumpkins were a workout!

colosseum

Rome/Roma

The majority of our Italy trip was spent in Rome. When we were planning our trip, Rome had the most sites/attractions that we wanted to visit. Day 1 From Florence we took a high-speed train from Santa Maria Novella train station to Roma Tiburtina station. It was about a one and a half our trip.

florence gelato

Florence/Firenze

From Venice, we took a high-speed train to Florence. The train ride was about two and a half hours (Santa Lucia to Santa Maria Novella). Then we took a very short taxi ride to our hotel, Granduomo. We walked around in circles a few times looking for the entrance to the hotel. The entrance was

venice piazza san marco

Venice/Venezia

The train ride from Milan to Venice was about two and a half hours, plenty of time to catch a nap. Train travel in Europe is a completely different experience from the train travel in the U.S. You have to make sure you are sitting in the correct seat number as your ticket indicates. Most

Milan/Milano

We had arrived in Milan. I chose to fly into Milan Linate airport instead of Milan Malpensa (MXP) to avoid an additional connecting flight. At Linate airport, we headed for customs. We waited in the line for the international arrivals. A customs worked motioned for us to follow her. Sure! She brought us past the

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