They are giving the Beach away!

We had a couple days at the end of the summer to spare on one more trip.  Sam couldn't go with us.  We waited until after his football camp,

Sam after a hard weekend of football camp where he won two awards

 but the day afterwards, they started 2 a day practices and those were the main try-outs.  I talked to the coach and he said, "technically try-outs aren't done until after the first week of school, but..."  Yah, so he stayed with some friends- Thank you Pickerings!!- while the rest of us ran down to Camp Darby, Italy!  After this year, there will no longer be an American beach- we are giving it back to the Italians.  I wanted the kids to see where we used to go every year for vacation.  We drove to Camp Darby, set up our camp and then headed over to see the Leaning tower.

It really is beautiful. 

We weren't sure of the parking and didn't want to get a ticket, so we parked way far away and walked in.

That seemed to be a theme for our Italy trip!  The next day was supposed to be a yucky day, so we decided to go see Cinque Terre- 5 beautiful towns on the Italian riviera.

So, apparently, did everyone else!  We set off late, so we skipped the town we were going to park at and then take the train up to the first city.  That was our downfall.  I thought it would be quicker to just go to the first town. Nope!!  We got turned around and told no parking- move on.  At least that is what I thought they were saying.  Italians don't speak English for the most part and I don't speak Italian.  We found a spot way up on top of the mountain to park and hiked all the way down.  We checked out the town

and got ready to do the walk to the next town and found out that the path was closed! 

There was no way to get there except by train, which we just missed.  We could have waited for the next train, but it was getting late and we still had a huge hike back up the mountain.  We made it over an hour later back to our car.  So yes we hiked Cirque de Terre, not just the way you are supposed to.  And yes we saw it, just not up close!  It was still gorgeous!  

The next day was beach day.

The red flags were up, so you couldn't swim, but you could go up to waist height without them saying a thing to you and since we just wanted to body surf and crash through the waves, we had a great time.  Apparently, if you had a surf board, you could be out there as well, because there were a ton of surfers doing their thing.

We were supposed to stay one more night, but the kids all got burned bad, even though we put on sunscreen a couple of times.  And the mosquitoes were killing us.  We tried citronella candles, bug spray, long clothes and dryer sheets all over us and they still kept bitting us.  Those are some seriously crazy bugs down there in Italy. 

 He's eating my S'more!

Emma at the swimming pool on base showing you that she can stand at 8 feet 2 inches!

We looked like we had a case of chicken pox after two days- all of us.  So we packed up and spent a night in Garmisch at the very nice Edleweise Inn.

 The Zugspitze in the background

The Hammersbach in the background- what Joseph climbed for scout camp.

We drove through the Dolomites on our way.  Such a pretty area.  

The next day we drove home via Linderhof palace- one of Ludwigs palaces (he of the Cinderella Castle persuasion.) 

So pretty, yet so tiny.  Everything is going to be tiny to us, now that we saw the palaces in Russia.  I think the Russians meant us to come away thinking that!

Rob kept asking me if I remembered this or that.  Things were a little different.  I don't remember the Tower begin so pretty.  I know the base had more facilities than it does now.  Now it's not even properly a camp.  It is overseen by a Major and they are part of Vincenza base.  The beach I do remember!  The girls all seemed to have gotten modest, though- no topless anywhere.  Just lots of bums eating swimsuit bottoms.  Still I am glad that my kids got to experience a little of what I did on vacation as a youth.  So sad Sam didn't get to enjoy it with us!