Lake Berryessa, CA & Italy, baby!!

So I'm in the bedroom, while Joe is languishing on the sofa watching Apocalypto (which is why I'm hiding in the bedroom. No way am I about to watch that movie). He got a nasty, nasty sunburn on his entire back this weekend; so bad, that he didn't go to work today. Poor guy. So I'm the go-fur girl, and aloe vera applier extraordinaire, since coincidentally I was off work today too.

We were up at Lake Berryessa this weekend, helping our friends Brian & Cami with their newly purchased houseboat. They went in on it with our other friends, Luke & Amy Taylor (who just had the new baby), so we'll probably be up there quite a bit. It was a lot like camping - no running water, no electricity, and HOT!! The guys built the swim deck on the back, and we organized and cleaned inside. The entertainment of the weekend were their too cute for words kids, Grace (5) and Sam (3). Sam has the deepest voice on a kid that I've ever heard, and is obsessed with trucks. He carries around an orange monster truck and asked Joe about every 20 minutes "Joe, where your truck?", and when Joe wasn't around to be asked, he asked me, then his parents. Very funny. We were also there to witness Sam catching his first ever fish with his brand new Shrek fishing pole. He was about ready to jump outta his skin he was so excited, and proceeded to bellow for about an hour after to everyone who walked down the dock that he caught a fish. So it was a good weekend, other than the burning. I assumed it would be me who came home redder than a lobster, seeing as how I have a love/hate relationship with the sun. I hate being this fair, and how anal I have to be about protecting it. I love being on the boat, and in the water, but in that intense of a setting, sometimes its just not enjoyable - its a pain to have to reapply the sunscreen, and still feel yourself toasting up, and then being all splotchy, red and stingy the next day. Oh, the crosses I bear... I know, I know, whine whine whine.

On a much more exciting topic, ITALY HAS BEEN BOOKED!!! We bought our round trip tickets to Rome, so it is definitely happening. I don't think there's a word for being this outrageously excited. Just the thought of walking around some palazzo, eating gelato gets my adrenaline pumping. We'll be taking off August 24 and coming home on September 2. It's not a very big chunk of time, but we kind of felt like it's a now-or-never kind of deal. Who knows when Joe will get this amount of time off for vacation again, and we don't have any super big responsibilities...so, off we go! We'll be in Rome then take the train to Florence and on to Venice. It is cramming a lot into a little, but we figure we're young and can do it. We won't be able to see everything, and that's OK - at least we're going. There's a lot of choices to make, and they're not all easy. We came to the conclusion that we can't make it to London this go-round, which is disappointing. I love it there, and Joe really wanted to see it...we were really tempted to get round trip tickets to London, and then just catch a charter flight to Italy, but in the end it would be more expensive, and eat up 1.5 days with extra travel, so it's just not worth it. Just another reason to go back there though, right?

So today, I've been pricing accommodations and enjoying every second of it. I think so far, the place I'm most excited to be staying at is what we've found in Rome, the Hotel Santa Maria. It is a converted cloister, and right in the heart of the ancient section of the city, the Trastevere, which (supposedly) is central to all the big sights. It looks quaint, beautiful, and like it's got a lot of character. I was super opposed to staying at the Marriott, or something like that; I want a real taste of the local flavor - and I think we'll get it with this place. As soon as I wrap up this post, then I'm gonna jump into Harry Potter #2. I finished the first one over the weekend, and I liked it. I'm curious to see what this one'll bring. I hear Joe, gotta go slather on some more Banana Boat...