Dear Venice...thanks a lotto for the gellato.

Ciao, our beautiful friends and family fans!

This is Haley and we are in Italy, probably my favorite place on this earth! I travelled to Europe when I was 15 and when asked what my favorite city in Europe was, I never hesitated...Venice was always my response! That's why I was so excited to bring the girls here. We get in and the first thing we see is the large canal that runs through Venice. We then spot many boats and gondolas cruising through the water.

Venice is unique in that there are no cars allowed in the city. Boats are the main mode of transportation. If you need to hail a taxi, a boat will get you there. Feeling sick? The ambulance boat will rush you to the hospital. This is one of the many reasons that I love Venice so much! There are no street lights or loud traffic...no speeding and impatient drivers. No waiting for crosswalks and none of the rushing around trying to get where you need to go quickly. Everyone just strolls around the countless little alleyways and arched bridges.

The buildings are different here in that they use a lot more color. Many of the buildings are painted in orange, pink and yellow colors and work in brick and brightly colored shutters. One of my favorite parts about this town are the little alleyways which mostly measure 5 to 6 feet wide.

Our first day there was so relaxing because we didn't have any agenda, no big sights to see...we just wandered the streets and got l0st...which in Venice is not difficult to do! Venice is well known for a few things, one of them being masks. Almost every other store in this town is filled with brightly colored masks that locals hand make in their shops. I had been to Venice in 2000 and had gotten a mask so I wanted to get one this time. Lets just say that Lindsay and I love the mask stores...so, we would see another mask shop and just HAVE to go in. Kirstin felt a bit different about the masks. I think if she had seen another mask she might have passed out!

Another thing that Venice is well known for are the gondola boat rides. Young Italian guys in striped shirts paddle around and give you history about the town, they are also supposed to sing to you...but I have seen no evidence of that! All day we were wanting to take a ride on a boat but realized quickly that they were quite expensive. Then Lindsay said "what we need to do is just meet some locals with a boat!" I instantly doubted this idea. Like we would be THAT lucky! Well, that day we met a few people that quickly offered to take us for a boatride! It was so awesome! We flew through the large canal and then drifted slowly through the smaller rivers while our friend Argon told us a bit of history about the buildings surrounding us. We felt like locals just cruising around Venice.

Venice continues to be one of my favorite places in Europe. We felt separated from the world. It was a quiet, slow paced trip and we loved it!

I just want to mention a bit about my travel buddies! They are hilarious...we have a least 25 different one liner inside jokes since starting this trip (sorry to our friends back home who will be completely oblivious when Kirstin yells "butterflies!!" to Lindsay...ask us to explain this one later if you are curious). We are rarely bored together and laughter is not hard to come by around these two.

So, thank you girls for being so wonderful and helping me to have a trip of a lifetime! I can't imagine having this great of a time with anyone else! This has been a hard year for me and I am so thankful that God has brought you girls into my life!