A Day on the French Riviera

George & Anthon were in heaven
with the chess game in the front lobby!

It was just the day we needed after a longer day in the car yesterday and before our big trek through 10 countries.  We woke up, ate out breakfast in our hotel room, put our bathing suits on and headed to the little beach ville of Cassis (cass-ee).  It was the perfect day of sun, sand (albeit a little rocky), waves, collecting rocks and relaxation.  We were there for about 5 hours, playing and picnicking.

George & Anthon were a little hesitant at first....
but they cheered Grace on!

Papa was the best sport of all to brave the cool water with Grace.

Emme was in heaven adding to her rock collection.  Anthon enjoyed fighting the waves and a few times it looked like the waves were winning, when his feet were knocked out from under him.  George and Grace with a little help from Anthon built a sand fortress complete with ramparts and “tricky strategy” of buried rocks underneath the sand to thwart the enemy.  We parents and grandparents joined in all of the fun trying to brave the colder water.  We ended our beach time with the traditional beach burying….but here it was with rocks, not sand!

Grace named it the most interesting people watching location thus far on our trip.  I had prepped the children that in Europe and actually most every other part of the world except for the U.S., in is common and societally acceptable to see a topless woman.  They didn’t believe me until they saw a few dozen for themselves…..  There were only a few muffled chuckles, but mostly they understand and accept our cultural differences. 

A tired daddy relzxes while working on his tan. 

Our collector.

Anthon kept running away from the waves.

"Kung-fo fighter, Tilon,
breaks free from his chains!"

We got some gelato (which Grace says is getting better and better the closer we get to Italy), cleaned up and headed for Monaco, then Milano, Italy for pasta and  pizza!  Yes, we are definitely going to eat our way through Europe.

Not to label, but I have two neat and clean eaters
and two messy kids!  My messy children have already
gone through a Tide-to-go stick!  I should have packed 2.
But those two sure do know how to have fun!

The perfect plan for the day all fell apart in the crazy, chaotic streets of Milano.  It was a big yellow bus that separated our van from my parent’s car.  We were waving out the window to show them that we had turned onto a side street to figure out where we had gone wrong with directions….and the didn’t see us.  It was rush hour traffic combined with road construction and to make matters more complicated we were already behind schedule to meet with the Olson family for dinner and the Milano Cathedral….and our French cell phones will NOT work in Italy.  Gratefully, Matt had had a stroke of inspiration an hour earlier and pulled off the highway to give the hotel name, phone number and address to my parents, just in case something happened and we got separated.  Are we ever so grateful, because otherwise we would never have made contact….until Sunday in Paris.

So, we were lost and had lost my parents.  Matt had a splitting headache and he pulled into a pharmacy (miraculously because honestly the driving is rather aggressive in Italy) bought some excedrine and asked the pharmacists if they could help him.  Unlike our weeks in France, EVERYONE in the store spoke English!  They could not have been more friendly and helpful.  They were printing off google maps for Matt, arguing over where in Italy you could get the best pizza and then giving a recommendation for the best pizza in Milano.  It was well past dinner, the children were being ever so patient (honestly, so very patient, every one of them—I think they were stressed for their parents) and so we decided to go get some pizza and gelato, because that was the true reason we had come to Italy!  Forty minutes later we finally found the restaurant, Pomadoro’s.  It lived up to every expectation we had had about food in Italy.  We walked right in and were immediately seated at a table for 6, ordered right up, and were served quickly after.  The children declared it the best pizza they had ever eaten in their lives.  They kept saying, “The tomato sauce is so good.”  It’s usually the cheese that is the favorite part.  The ingredients were so fresh for everything we were served.  We over ordered….just to try most delicious tastes.  We had gnocci, an arugala with procuito & parmesan salad, 3 margarita pizzas, one goat cheese & emmental pizza, and one with buffalo mozzerella.

The streets of Milano were some seriously intense driving moments.

We were ALL happy to be filling our bellies!

We have found Italy to be beautiful, extremely friendly and helpful, rather confusing to get around in and very delicious! 

After leaving the resturant the children reminded us that they are in Italy and have not had gelato yet.  It just so happens that we parked right next to a gelataria.  So with smiles on their faces and full bellies we loaded into the car one more time to find the hotel.  Minutes later we were successful and found my parents and and Erik Olson waiting in the hotel lobby, concerned that we had been driving for hours. 

Meanwhile, Randy and Janet had had their own adventure.  Upon realizing that they had lost us they made several attempts to get directions but failed.  They finally came upon a police station, and a kindly officer escorted them all the way to the hotel which was not a short drive.  Phew!

Exhaustedly, we all fell into bed, grateful to be back together.

Ciao!