North Eastern Sicily

Today we went to Mt. Etna area. We found 3 geocaches and did some hiking. The weather was cloudy and cold, but that was finally a change. Tourist were looking at us as we walked around the ski lodge at Mt Etna in .......shorts. It must have been about 55 degrees and the visibility was about 50 ft. and got worse as time went on. After hiking and enjoying the clean, clear, cool weather of Etna we went down to the Gambino Winery. It was beautiful. From the winery you could see the Mediteranean Sea, the mainland of Italy, and the ancient city of Taromino, all from the lower slopes of the Mt. Etna lava flow. WHAT A WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!

The Big Dog is finally here

The truck came yesterday, the exact day it was scheduled. We picked it up on base and Randy drove it home. This truck is almost the size of some buses. Randy will drive it to work a couple days a month, this way Anne can have the car to go out to some markets or just out and it will keep the truck running. Who can afford to run a truck that size though??!! Right now we parked it in the carport of an empty unit, hopefully we will be able to keep it covered.

Swim Meet

Today was another swim meet for Cameron. This time it was for the European Forces Swim League (EFSL) against the Naples Tiger Sharks. By the way we are the Sigonella Swordfish. Cameron had a great day swimming. He raced in four different races: 50 meter freestyle, 50 meter backstroke, 50 meter breaststroke and 50 meters in a 200 meter freestyle relay. The next meet is in England on the 27th of September, but we aren't planning to go that far, yet. It was a LONG HOT day for the spectators.

Found the market, finally!!

This morning we went out again to find the open air market in the city of Caltigirone and ......... we found it. Thanks to the neighbors loaning us their GPS. Come to find out there is a new and old section of Caltigirone and we were in the old section before. We bought tons and tons of fresh off the farm, fruits and veggies. We didn't look much at the sections with clothing or other things, just fruits and veggies. We had a hard time thinking about buying "fresh" fish off the bed of a truck.

Anne and her projects

I decided the gate needed to be fixed. The latch was only a hook and eye and Cameron couldn't get in and out to the playground out back without letting the dog out. So I asked Slim and Lo to get me the gate latch, which I recieved about a month ago. (Thanks guys!) I have been trying to get screws and figure out how to rig it semi-permanently without much damage to government property. Here is my fix it job. All it needs is a yellow string and it reminds me of the gate at the house on Heritage. The only problem is the pull string sticks and the latch doesn't always fall back down. Any suggestions?? I put a weight on the top of the latch, helps, but not all the time. I put an eye for the string to pass though so it didn't get stuck on the fence, didn't do much. I drilled a hole so the string could pass directly above the latch, nothing.

West Coast of Sicily (3rd and final day)

Marsala, outside the museum.
Selunite

The Greek walls in Selunite looking out to the vineyards.
8/31

The final day of our trip poor Randy had to drive a lot. We drove from our hotel to Marsala, but because it was Sunday all the wineries were closed. We did go see a museum with a Punic Ship from about 500 BC. Cameron and I will be studying the Ancients in history. What could you ask for, history at your fingertips. We then went to Salunite, the largest area of Greek ruins outside of Greece. It was very nice and interesting, but very HOT as is all of Sicily in the summer. I guess the Med is not known as cool climate. We were going to make a couple stops on the way home to check a camping spot some of my friends were at, but we were too tired and ready to get home. There are only a couple "freeways" here in Sicily, most roads are only one lane each way with everyone passing. They are winding and very hilly and exhausting to drive. We, Randy, drove a total of 600 miles on this trip in our VW Golf. Praise God the car lasted and the vacation was what we had hoped for. The trip was refreshing and it was nice to see other parts of Italy. Boy we are surely glad we didn't drive to Rome this weekend like we were thinking. Way to far for too short a time. I know, we will go to Rome when we pick up guests who fly into Rome. Stay a couple days, then drive back to Sicily. Cheaper for guests and not too far a drive. It is hard to believe we have been here for only 2 months.

West Coast of Sicily (Day 2)

Medieval Castle in Erice
Streets of Erice.
Salt flats of Traponi.
Erice on the top of the hill from salt flats in Traponi.
8/30

Saturday, the second day of our trip, we went to Erice. Erice is Anne's favorite city in all of Italy so far. It is a beautiful, medieval city at 2500 feet in elevation right off the West Coast of Sicily and only 100 miles away from Africa. It was beautiful, cool and ...... Wow, I just loved it. From there we went to Traponi. This is where most of the Sicilian Sea Salt comes from. We went to a couple salt beds. Funny thing happened in the Port of Traponi, we where driving along a jetty and 5 dogs started attacking our car, one in front and two on each side. They were biting the car and tires and they actually loosen a plastic part off the rocker panel of the car. We didn't want to stop, but we didn't want to drive faster and run over the dogs. All of a sudden a big dog jumps off one of the boats and stares down the other dogs and they left us alone. It was wierd. We spent most of our day in Erice and only a bit in Traponi. We are getting tired of always looking at churchs, they are beautiful, but every city has a least 5 beautiful churches.


In the evening, we went to an Agrotourismo (farm house) for dinner, but dinner doesn't start until after 8:30 PM. They serve meals family style in 5 different servings: Antipasta (5 different types), 1st pasta (1 pasta with sauce and a couscous with eggplant), meat, salad and then dessert. You can't pick your foods, but they serve a bit of everything in a nice relaxing setting. They usually grow most of all they serve. This was great food and again, children were running around and playing outside and Cameron was right in the mix. Thank God he is so social and easy going. He is very adaptable, maybe because he has had to be.

West Coast of Sicily 3 day vacation (1st day)

Castellammare del Golfo
View from the hotel pool.
Beach city of San Vito lo Capo
8/29/08

We went on our first mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend. Randy had Friday off, so we left early on Friday. Here are some shots from Friday. We traveled from home in Mineo to Palermo then around to an area around the beach called San Vito Capo. Our hotel was about 25 km from the beach on a hill where they quarry marble. It was very pretty. Our first day we got to the hotel around 3pm and waited at the pool for a bit over an hour for our room. After that we went to the beach at San Vito Capo and the nature reserve. We went to dinner in Castellammare del Golfo. The restaurant had a playground, so Cameron got to play with the Italian kids and had a great time. The children are learning English in school and Cameron has been working on his Italian, but play has a language that is all its own.