Skip to main content

Mountain Climbing???

Our first stop on our trip was to Naples Italy, where we had signed up to visit Mt. Vesuvious and the ancient city of Pompeii. Mt. Vesuvious is a volcano that destroyed much of Naples, and all of Popmeii in 79 AD. We went on this trip with my sister and her husband, Wes and my aunt and uncle.

The drive was beautiful, but as we talked about the day ahead, my sister asked us why we chose to hike up the mountain as our excursions, seeing as we had a child and a pregnant woman.... hmmm? Good question.... Ignorance to what we had sign up for I guess!

It wasn't until we began hiking that I realized how we might not have chosen the best outing for us! The picture below is on the path we had to climb up to the top of the mountain. We were given walking sticks, because the ground was all loose gravel, and without it, you would slip very easily.

I had to stop many times during our mountain climb, but finally made it to the top, to be above the clouds! As we got higher, the air got cooler, making it a nicer climb. I think the spiral walkway from the road to the crater was 3/4 a mile long... so we walked 1.5 miles just to the top and back with quite a steep slope!

My wonderful husband, and my hero of the trip, carried our little boy in a backpack carrier (thank you mom and dad!) all the way up the mountain! It was not an easy hike, but he did it without complaint!

The view was amazing... this crater is what is left from the devistating erruption.


We stopped at a refreshment stand to get water, and enjoy the high view of Naples.

My favorite boys!

Nice incline right!!!!

Enjoying the view from the top and a break from the backpack!

Tyler fell asleep on the way down the mountain. Poor thing couldn't keep straight in the backpack, so he kept flopping over to one side!

At the bottom of the climb, we survived! Tyler still asleep in the back!

After we cooled off and drank some water, we headed to Pompeii, where we had lunch and Gelato! After a short break, we headed into the ancient city ruins for a walking tour. This was incredible to see how well preserved this city was! Again, we didn't realize how long we wold be walking... this took another hour or so.... but it was totally worth it.

Aunt Becky and Uncle Nick outside the city walls.

The theater, where they would fit 900 people. This area was half the size of the "bowl" at CLC.

Tyler asleep again in the backpack! We couldn't have done half of the tour without that thing!

I peeked through a gate to see this garden. It was just such a beautiful surprise amoungts all the old ruins.
This was a garden in a palace that was over 10, 000 sq feet in size. It took up the whole square block on one street. We saw the bath houses, the temples, the gyms, and many homes and business centers. It really was quite amazing.

Our little sweaty boy having a bottle break!

This was the city center, with the ruins of a temple behind us. And further behind that you can see Mt Vesuvious. We were wearing a thing called a "whisper" around our neck and ear. That enabled our tour guide to be talking to us while we were quite a bit away, without her straining to shout or us missing anything.

The thing we were most amazed about was the size of the city and the structures. Things were very large and very detailed. It was amazing. There were moments you could hardly believe that you were walking where a civilization once lived thousands of years ago! It really made history come alive for us, and Jordan and I both love that kind of stuff.

This was the city wall, as we were leaving!

As soon as we got back to our room, Tyler was so happy to sleep in the crib. After we all had showered he got very hyper and played on our bed for half an hour! We were all exhausted, but loved the day. This was such a neat experience.

The sunset view from our room as we left the coast of Naples!

The next day was a "day at sea" where we were traveling to the next port. Tyler loved the reflection of himself in the balcony door. He even danced with himself!

My cutie pie!

Watching the "wa-wa" go by... We spent much of this day getting settled,playing in the baby pool with Tyler, and exploring the boat.


Next stop, Dubrovnik, Croatia!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Diagnosis and Grace

Friends- "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" Psalm46:1 Much has happened since I last wrote only 2 short days ago. We found out much later that night a new diagnosis, that our sweet boy has leukemia . We were not completely shocked but we were certainly shaken. After I posted about what was going on at Shady Grove, and we waited a bit more for some results, and we were informed that we needed to take Jack to Children's Hospital in DC for further testing with specialists. This raised our concern level quite high as you can imagine, that even with a snow storm coming, we were needing to make this trip. I began to google the combination of things they had found in the tests done on our little boy (swollen spleen, low platelet count , swollen lymph nodes) and came up options that were NOT Lyme disease, although a few of these symptoms did also look like Lyme. As a result of the google quest, I came across some concerning outcomes, one of the most...

.coming home.

Well, the past 24 hours have changed things again for us! The biggest update, is that we are being discharged tomorrow afternoon some time! The reason this is so crazy is that the Dr. who was on the floor yesterday, was telling us she wanted to keep us here for the entire first month of Jack's treatment. We had begun to think through how we could do this as a family and all the changes that would entail.... and then our nurse came in this morning and told us she was pretty certain we were going home, as early as today if we wanted!! Let me tell you about the past three days that lead up to this decision of our doctor. Firstly, you should know that when Jack was diagnosed with Leukemia, he had a blast count in his blood of 37. That count is now at ZERO!!!! After the central line was put in on Thursday, they began his chemo treatments Friday. He had been having a fever up until that time. He has responded so well to the chemo, and other medications, that he has been fever free since...

.Day by Day.

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion says my soul. Therefore I will hope in Him." Lamentations 3:22-24 This has been the cry of my heart these past few days. When thoughts of the future loom ahead and what this is going to look like in a week, month, year are ever present, we are seeking to take things one day at a time. And even as we take it one day at a time, each morning, we are faced with more of the unknown- what the day will bring, how Jack will be feeling, how he will respond to his meds, how he will respond to the staff here, when the nasty side-effects of chemo will begin... the list of unknowns are seemingly endless. Not only is the thought of what the day will bring full of unknowns, but we are also very tired, as we are not sleeping much at night and so we are tempted to view the day through the filter of weariness. So yes, it is a fight each...