In April, Katie and I flew to New Mexico for a quick weekend excursion. We met up with a few friends from Justin’s high school, Ben and Mitch. Our first order of business was to visit Carlsbad Caverns. This network of caves includes the third largest cavern chamber in North America. It spans 4,000 feet and is 250 feet high.
This spring, Katie and I have been busy. First, we picked up snowboarding as a new hobby. We started the season with green runs and after lessons and several hard falls we have progressed to blue and a few black runs.
About midway through our trip, we went salmon fishing. We ended up catching 10 fish and brought home 28 lbs of salmon, red snapper, and cod.
After the wedding, we started our journey to Tofino, British Columbia. This small town is incredibly remote and took us two flights, 1 ferry, and about 9 hrs of driving to get there.
Our Europe trip has come to an end and we are all exhausted. The last few weeks have gone by fast and we are already planning ahead to our next destinations. Meanwhile, enjoy the pictures.
From Rome, we traveled to Pompeii. This ancient city was partially buried by by ash during the volcanic eruption of Mt Vesuvias in 79 AD. Now, the remains are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts 2.6 million visitors every year.
Today is our last day in Rome. We started by heading to the Vatican again, however this time we picked up tickets and proceeded to enter the auditorium where Pope Benedict XVI would be giving a weekly prayer. We brought along some crucifixes to be blessed.
We started the day with a quick bus-ride over to the Vatican to get in line early for the St. Peter’s Basilica dome climb. After a short wait in line, we proceeded to climb 448 ft to the top of the dome. Along the way, we got some very impressive views of the inside of the Basilica. Of course, the view from the top was excellent.
Rome started out rushed. We took an early train from Florence and arrived at Roma Termini station just before 10am. From the train station we dropped our luggage off at the hotel and took a cab to the Vatican for our 11:15am Scavi Tour. This is the same tour that Matt, Lyle, and I participated in last year. Katie, Julie, and Alan toured the excavations of the Vatican without me, since I had already done it.
To Florence we went! After our arrival, we ventured to Piazza della Signoria which was home to lots of statues and a replica of the Statue of David. We were not able to take a picture of the real David so a picture of the fake one will have to suffice.
