All things glass and beautiful...SHOPPING DAY!

First of all “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHAEL” Mother loves and misses you and was so happy to be able to Skype with you and Krista (and Sara and Riley) yesterday. Can you believe he's 25 today?  Much needed rest told us to sleep in today. So I slept in till 9am and woke Deanna at 10am and we felt much more like ourselves. Today was a wonderful day because we actually saw the sunshine before noon – in fact we wore our capri’s and people looked at our feet the whole day. We could not decide if they thought we were weird dressing like that in April (they all had coats and long pants on) or if they don’t paint their toenails here. To us it was a nice sunny Oregon day – to them, it was still cold weather even though the sun was out.

We decided on lunch since Venice doesn’t seem to be a place where they serve breakfast and we’ve noticed that the local shops also take a 2-3 hour break in the middle of the day and shut down their shops and leave.  The bread is usually plan, or has butter.  They do not have mayo or mustard for the most part and if they do and you ask, they say ok and still don't bring you any.  Here is the view from our outside lunch experience.

It's fun to be staying in a traditional neighborhood because we get to see the locals out and about.  These two boys were playing while their parents ran the shop next door.

It was fun to watch the locals do their work

Today was a special day because we went to Murano Island we got to go to the Murano glass factory is…surprise, surprise. We made a few stops to pick up people (limit of like 125 and I swear there was more like 200 on the boat) and at one point we had so many people that one girl got on and was pushed off to wait with the others. 

There are 3 stops on the island and we did not know which one to disembark on so I asked a gentleman on the public boat taxi and he said that the first stop was the cemetery. The name of the stop was also close to the name cemetery so we didn’t know which he meant. A few minutes later he told us we should get of at the next stop. That boat was so crowded that one girl pushed her way on to get pushed back off and had to stay behind with others could who were not have able to get on. A few steps after we disembarked I noticed a supermarceto so we picked up some bottled water at ½ the cost of purchasing it at a restaurant (.75 cents instead of 1.50 euros and grabbed some candy (white chocolate bars and black licorice)

and off we went to explore the glass shops. It is a quieter pace than Venice and more local shops with no "rift raft" trying to sell us sunglasses and fake gucci purses.

The island consisted of canals with shops on each side connected by an occasional foot bridge. Each shop had some of the same glass and some different then each of the others. It was so much fun to look around to see what was new.

I did pretty well for the first little bit and then had to purchase a few things...and then a few more, and then…well, I did manage to find two beautiful lights to hang over my bar (sister Karin will be VERY happy with my find since she and I went shopping for them in downtown portland and I wouldn't purchase any due to the $200-$400 PER lamp price). I’m not sure how I’m going to get them home as I left with a full 22" bag and backpack.  LOL

Different man, differnt island, same deal

Miss my granddaughter Riley Rose

A few more pics of Murano for your enjoyment...and to capture a vision of what we experienced on this beautiful sunny day God gave us to enjoy...and we did.

We came back to the apt, changed to warmer cloths (it was starting to get chilly) and headed off to the Rialto Bridge to find a place on the canal to eat dinner.  It was a beautiful sunset looking out over the water and towards Piazza San Marco.

And some of the shops

And the Rialto Bridge by night...

And the view from the bridge by night

And me on the bridge...

We met a nice couple from AZ on their honeymoon and we talked with them through the whole meal. They had flown into London, then went to Paris (same time we were there), and then to Venice and will be heading to Rome shortly. It was a fun evening of laughter and shared memories of our travel stories. On our way back across the Rialto bridge we heard singing and at the top there was a group of young kids singing a Christian song (with a hat out for money).

It was a beautiful sound that echo’d into the night. We were going to take a water taxi home since it was late but it looked like it was 24 minutes out so we walked home down Venice’s “Rodero Drive”. (spelling?) It’s funny to see their Ferrari shop, shoe store with mostly Nike shoes, and Gucci bag store, etc. on little narrow alleyways.

Well, hard to keep my eyes open, time to head to bed. Another fun, successful day in Murano and Venice today. Tomorrow is the day to tour the Church’s and Museums. Night all.