Ephesus

We were so excited to visit another continent when we docked in Turkey for 4 hours. We quickly boarded a bus for our excursion, driving through beautiful mountain. We loved the clouds in this picture that masquraded as mountains!

Had a good laugh over this sign!

Our first stop was at the house of the Virgin Mary. Jonathan lit a prayer candle.

This is the house where the Virgin Mary lived out her last years. They do not know exactly where her remains are, but they suspect they are within a 5 mile radius of the home.
Like I said, it was a beautiful country.,

Our next stop was Ephesus, the town where Paul preached. His letters to the Ephesians were directed here. We started at the top of the hill/mountain, and weren't very impressed. Just a few remains here and there.

As we walked further down, we saw more and more of the town.

Then we rounded the corner and saw this sight! Wow. It's amazing how well-preserved it is! We were there early in the morning and it was very hot and crowded. Lots of detail still remains. It was a gorgeous town, that's for sure.

Alexander is sitting on one of the public toilets. No kidding. They had an advanced water system that flowed from the top of the city down the hill. The water flowed under these toilets and washed away what was deposited there. AND there were musicians that stood in the middle playing music for those who were sitting.

Jonathan is standing in front of the library, which was a gigantic building. What is left is still impressive.

The ampitheater, where St. Paul preached.

Pompeii

We visited Pompeii on our way from Rome to Greece. The city of Pompeii is HUGE, and we only had about two hours there. It was a highlight of our trip. We had an excellent tour guide who took us through the city (with our whisper sets) and explained everything. Pompeii was buried under ash over 2000 years ago, and they are still excavating it. The ash preserved everything very well, so you can see just what the city looked like. This first picture was taken at the brothel. Men would come in, look at the pictures, and choose the room under the position they preferred.

The theater was still fairly well preserved.

We went inside one house where you could still see the paintings on the wall and the mosiac tiles on the floor. It was incredible.

Here Alexander is listening (through his whisper set) to the guide explain the water system of Pompeii, which was incredibly advanced. Water flowed throughout the city. Jonathan in the background is standing in what would have been sewer water. The rich people paid extra taxes to have sewers flowing, which swept everything away.

A fast-food take out store...the food was made, then kept warm in these bowls.

Walking down some of the narrow streets

Since the sewers were flowing throughout the city, they built these taller steps to cross the streets and avoid the muck.

The center of town, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It would have been much taller before the top blew off.

Benjamin

Athens Highlights

It's still amazing to believe we were actually there. Here's a really cool view of the acropolis. The Greeks are crazy drivers. You have to really watch when you cross the street. Plus, they'll park anywhere they can squeeze their tiny cars into!

We saw so many ruins, but this was one of our favorites. You could tell how tall all of the buildings were.

Eating his first Gyro...they put fries in it!!!

We stayed in the town of Glyfada, an upscale suburb of Athens. Here Chris and Jonathan are walking back to the hotel. I stayed with the other two to see Toy Story 3.

It's been awhile!!

Well, I've let the blog fall by the wayside. It has just been a crazy two months. We returned from a whirlwind Europe trip, unpacked, then headed to PA a week later. Drove Benjamin to camp, and then a week later got a job offer. Drove home the next day to get started on my classroom. Boys came back the next week with mom and dad.

Now, 4 weeks into school, I can finally breathe. I've been teaching a kindergarten/first combo, and it's been challenging. The kids are great, but the planning is killing me. Relief is on the way when we hire a new teacher next week.

All of our other activities have also started. Benjamin is again taking tap, jazz, ballet, and modern. Alexander opted for modern and acro, and Jonathan is taking acro class, as well. I'm trying just to keep my head above water at school and sneak in an occasional run. Oh, did I mention Chris and I are running the Daytona Beach Half Marathon in a month and a half?? The fun never ends.

Seriously, though, we have been blessed. We took an amazing trip with great high-schoolers. I was a bit worried to travel with 75% boys, but they were awesome. Then I got a job at a wonderful school with a great team of kindergarten teachers. I've also been saving our "disney dollars" from our credit card and we were able to use them (and our "give-a-day" volunteer credits) to purchase annual passes for the first time in 3 years. AND I'm back in the public schools, where the pay and benefits are way better. Life is good.

Rome (552 photos), by Karen Weinrich

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Cruise pictures

Before we start back to school (MONDAY!!!), I am trying to get some of our pictures posted. Instead of uploading all of them to my blog, here is a link to snapfish. These are the pictures from the second day of our cruise. We went to Ephesus in the morning and Patmos in the evening. I called it our religious day - in Ephesus (in the country of Turkey - and the continent of Asia!) we saw the Virgin Mary's house and where Paul preached. In Patmos, we hiked to St. John's Grotto, where he was exiled and dictated the book of Revelation. We were unable to take pics inside of either place, but it was amazing to just be there. Warning: There are 195 pictures and no captions. Enjoy.


http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3014739015/a=1283235_1283235/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Mykonos

I just finished downloading pictures from our trip, and I thought I'd start with just a few from our favorite island, Mykonos.