It can only get better, right? (Flight and Venice Day 1)

 The flight and the first day of Venice.

Rather than pay uber or some other car service, we hired my Godson, Aidan to drive us.  I'd rather him get some cash than some dude who creates extra traffic for me in the morning.  

It was a fairly slow day at the house, just making sure we had what we needed and then waiting around to go - which creates more anxiety.  Of course the night before and then as we get in nthe car, it starts to monsoon.

Despite the rain, it was a pretty easy drive in to JFK.  We hopped out and grabbed our bags and headed in.  Poor Aidan had to drive back in the family truckster.  

On the way, we noticed that our boarding passes did not have our known traveler number which means we could not hop on the pre-check line.  I checked on the app and it said to see what we needed to do and it said to see a customer rep.  Joy.

We got in and the guy tells us to use the kiosk.  We do and it does not work.  We got on line and it moved slowly, then got off because Jess tried the kiosk and got it to work.  The kids spent a few minutes weighing themselves and their bags.  Then themselves with their bags.  Then everyone on the scale at the same time.  We got to the precheck woman and then Jess’ boarding pass did not have the precheck number on it.  So back we went - kiosk again and got it to work, then back on line.

The pictures at passport control were absurd, I can't even believe that they let us leave the country. Neil making his fish lips, Isla at the back of the camera view, then moving then he had to have her step in motion so he could capture her. Both Malcolm and Duncan did something slightly silly as well. If you're wondering about your rights, guess what, you have very few because the facial recognitioin seems to work really well, regardless of the carelessness of (women) and children.

Once we got through, of course, everyone was hungry.  We had to stop to get some food. I sat with the bags while they went and ordered.  My plan was to try to drink less  this trip since the beer is not the same as some other countries.  I figured I’d tone it down.  

I need a beer.

Fucking $100 on food and no alcohol.  $9 parfaits and I’m getting a gyro - I don’t know why, we are going to fucking Greece.

The Flight:

So as we get on the plane, instead of going to the right, Isla goes left and they of course, let her in.  I'm glad they are back to doing that kind of stuff.  I am also glad that nothing was broken - specifically, navigation equipment and landing gear.

Now, the good: the flight was not bad at all.   Of course the two you don’t want to sleep and be energized were passed out for a good portion of the flight.  I had trouble getting to sleep as usual - then Jess started to get nauseous.   This was not good and would not be good for us on this first day.  Let's be honest, something happens and I don't know shit about anything.

I grabbed Jess' backpack and Malcolm the food bag and we headed out into the airport - went quickly through passport and then out into Marco Polo.   Everyone had to go to the bathroom and then Jess was still feeling horrible from motion sickness.

To be fair we were doing good up until this point and then the horseshit started.  Touching, pushing, playing some shitty version of tag...and of course, that set the tone for the day.  We made our way out to the water taxi to go from the airport to Venice.  Jess was not feeling better and then people started dropping like flies.

I'll let you decide who the main instigator was...

We made it to the Rialto stop - our apartment is not far from the bridge at all and it has an awesome view.  It fucking should because it is the top floor and 100 steps up.

We got in and decided that everyone should take a quick break - Jess needed to sleep, I was destroyed, so I napped as well and then the kids jumped on their iPads.

I'm pretty sure I took this shot on one of our other trips here.  We headed out around 2:30 ish to grab some pre-dinner snacks and walk the city.

We went to this very highly rater place for cicchetti - a Venetian thing.  The good was too rich for the kids.  I thought it was quite good but definitely had a mouthful by the end of the plate.  We had some calamari, that white stuff was cod fish, there was a meatball and some other things.  Overall, I would definitely go and eat it, alone, with Jess.

This is for my law-enforcement friends - thought you should know:

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking around the city,   And that meant Isla and Malcolm fighting in the most absurd ways, to hold Jess' hand, fighting about who was in front and generally just purposefully annoying each other.  Then Neil get involved because it annoys him and it is just constant stupidity.  We managed to stop in to a church or two and that did not help.  They were still possessed.  This was San Salvador.

We continued walking as we headed towards a shop that had fresh pasta and take-out and decided that we would do that for our dinner and head back to the apartment and it's 100 steps to eat.  These were some of the sights along the way:

In case you were wondering, Malcolm and Isla were still fighting at this point...

And here...

Here too...

Most definitely here...

We headed over to see San Marco - Neil was not sure how it could be so big after seeing one of the others.  

Still fighting...

Yes, the other two fought throughout all of this.  You're probably wondering where Duncan was - he was busy shuffling his feet so that if Isla missed any puddles, he was sure to get them.

We have an appointment for St. Mark's tomorrow.  After enough bickering, we got out fresh pasta and headed home for more bickering but around the kitchen table.

Dinner led to some more napping - me and Jess...Isla on my head and then Neil, who refused to get up and so, I gave him a little encouragement.  Buddy Jesus agreed!

We decided to get some gelato and then see the Rialto and Il Gobodo - one of my favorite statues.  I like the story behind its purpose.  

Actually, not fighting...

Il Gobodo is located in the mercato and if you were caught stealing, you had to run from St. Marks and touch the statue while people threw stuff at you - and I think the beat you too - good times.  Seems appropriate.

Back to fighting...

We walked a bit more and then had had enough, because you guessed it, the fighting continued - and continues now as they are in bed.