Day 1 From Utah to New York to Venice
Really it begins with a blurr of packing, entertaining, birthdaying (hence the crown below made by my sister and nieces), and preparing for departure.
Leaving Mia was so hard. I probably kissed her 40 times that morning and squoze her hand extra tight on the way to the airport. Mom gave me a hug, got choked up, and said, "Mia will be fine. Have a wonderful time. You may never have a chance like this again." I needed that. Adventure 1. Luggage. We thought we could carry on 2 each. Not so. So we performed a total luggage rearrangement right there at the check out place. Checked 2 in and ended up taking the extra as a carry on. But right before boarding the plane, there was an announcement that there was limited carry-on room and passengers for that flight could check in any bags they wanted to for free. So we were able to check in that bag after all. . . for free. Well, they lost it. It was left @ JFK airport and is now being flown to paris and will then find it's way to my hotel room.
Adventure 2. The flight. I've decided that an international flight is like a giant sleepover. . . on a plane. . . with a bunch of smelly strangers. And that I really REALLY can't sleep on a plane. There were two 12 year olds making out in front of us. Lady bizzarly stomping her foot next to us. The touch screens on the backs of our seats were a real bonus. Except that they were touch screens and required considerable pressure. When I strangely found my seat being vigorously shaken (it felt like someone was punching it) by the person behind me. Serious poundage. I looked @ alfonso in bewilderment and he looked back @ the lady behind me. She was completely wrapped up in playing and winning her game on the back of my chair till she realized what she was doing. "Oh, sorry." She said. I'm just glad that she stopped after that. We got a good laugh about it anyway.
Adventure 3. My inflight playlist and a magic landing. You could brows throught hundreds of songs. My favorites were Cee lo green's Bright Lights, Big City, Love Gun, J. Legend & The Roots', Compared To What. Stuff by Miranda Richardson, Tim McGraw, Norah Jones. I also got that main song from Tangled, Now I see the light?Whatever it's called. I really like it and the words were very meaningful.It was playing as we touched down on italian soil. "All those years, watching from a distance. . . . I know I'm where I belong." I've always dreamed of traveling to Italy. My hayfever started acting up. I was just so full of GRATITUDE for this INCREDIBLE experience and humility for having this chance.
Adventure 4. The water taxi. After arriving in Venice, we dealt with our missing luggage issue (boooo), and were escorted on a short walk to our water taxi. WE boarded the boat (alfonso said to sit in the back per richard's request). IT was such a fun ride. 
We felt the wind in our faces as an old venetian style motor boat cruised us along the coast of venice. Taking us to our hotel, the Molina Stucky Hilton. We saw so many beautiful buildings and began taking pictures. Lots of pictures. Our career as asian photo taking tourists really took off. How do you not take a billion pictures of the most beautiful place you've ever visited?
The hotel was AMAZING, the dinner, amazing, and our mini excusion afterwards. . . amazing. Our room was perfect. The dinner was delicious. Buffalo mozzarella - my new favorite. We decided to venture across the Giudecca Canal on the hotels shuttle boat, to the Zattere. First item of business, GELATO!!! For me, 1 scoop Cacao, 1 scoop twix. Alfonso got 1 scoop limona, 1 scoop melona. It melted so fast. We ate it like 2 year olds, giggling the whole time. 
We strolled along the rios gasping at the architecture, the flowers, the alleyways, and I realized that I'd found a place where every ally was beautiful. Seriously. We stumbled upon a community gathering. A play of some kind? Everyone was celebrating and having a great time. They gave me a candle to light when it got dark. I don't know why, but I was so honored that they would chose me out of all the other people there. I'm wierd, I know. They play started, it was a comedy in Italian of course. We listened and couldn't help laughing at everyone laughing at something we/I didn't understand. Alfonso understood a lot of italian. I guess Spanish and Italian are very similar. 
We topped the night of with late Gondola ride. (I have to tell you we rode the gondola's at the Venetian in Las Vegas on our honeymoon, where we were told that it was good luck to kiss under each bridge. So we were experts at the gondola thing :))The water was so peaceful. (GAG ALERT, GAG ALERT)Just like on our honeymoon we kissed under every bridge. That was fun. We tried to take pictures but it was so dark, we just wanted to remember how beautiful everything was. 
After the ride, we passed by the celebration and watched the local children dance to american pop songs on a stage lit up with lights and smoke. It was so fun.
I woke up in Salt Lake, I ended the night in Venice. It was a very long, but very GOOD day!
