Verona

I met up with a high school friend, Manny Gentinetta, and we spent a day in the pouring rain in Verona. Here are some shots from the town hailed as the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

 Better lucky than good.  Umbrella Man walked in front of the camera while I was taking this shot providing a nice effect. 

A typical Italian pizza kitchen, complete with brick oven and lots of firewood.

 Manny, a true world traveler, guides bike tours in Italy (during the norther hemisphere summer) and Argentina (during the southern hemisphere summer).  Italian is his 3rd fluent language.

 My first time eating roasted chestnuts.  They are amazing...it's no wonder there's a Christmas song about them.

Juliet's house...or so they say.  When I downloaded the trip photos, I discovered that I had a dozen or so shots of the walkway leading up to Juliet's house, which is apparently where people write love notes, but I didn't get a single photo of Juliet's balcony.  In the movie, "Letters to Juliet," there's absolutely no grafitti on these walls.

For more on Manny, the dude who rode his bicycle from Alaska to Argentina (15,000+ miles) after high school, check out his website: http://www.bikeitsolo.com/

The Pumpkin Festival

Italians are all about festivals.  There are bird festivals, flower festivals, mushroom festivals...you name it and there's bound to be a festival in a nearby town.  In this case, we traveled to the walled city (complete with moat) of Venzone for the Pumpkin Festival

 The streets and squares of Venzone were surprisingly crowded with people eating pumpkin products.

Many of the vendors were dressed in medieval garb.

 We sampled pumpkin bread, pumpkin pizza, pumpkin liquor, pumpkin soup, pumpkin doughnuts, pumpkin gelato, and pumpkin beer.  Pumpkin soup was my favorite, mostly because it's called "zuppa di zucca."

 Fortune teller

Maniago Knife Factory

We live in Maniago, a town well known for its quality knives.  It turns out that our landlord owns a family-run knife factory.  Here are some photos from the tour he gave me.

 Making some finishing touches on tiny blades.  I'm told that the reason Maniago knife companies continue to stay in business is their attention to detail that results in high quality products.

Finished blades

Family Photos

Kids are cute.  For some reason, they're even cuter when you put them in strange settings, like the air intake of an F-16 engine for instance.

 If you pretend to smile, we might let you out.

 I'm flying this jet tomorrow, please don't break anything.

 She calls this look "Blue Steel"

 This jacket feels a bit snug.

Phats' Going Away Party

We said farewell to some great friends, Pat and Jordana.  Here are a few photos from their party.

 Pat, Jordana, and Baby Kennedy (not pictured, but nestled safely in the womb)

 Aaron, Kristen, and Abbie

 Aaron walked around with my camera for a couple hours and got some great shots.  His parents were nervous about him toting around my dSLR with a huge flash mounted on top, but I got everything back in one piece.

 Jordana shortly after receiving the customary (and always-awkward) flowers and kiss from someone in the squadron.  In this case, Splinter classed it up with a dip-and-kiss maneuver.

 Setting a good example for the little ones.  Doesn't everyone learn to play beer pong when they're 8 years old?

Lindsey.  Photo by 2nd Grader Aaron. 

Steve, Cassy, and Sara

Budapest Half Marathon

 A bunch of our friends signed up to run a half marathon in Budapest, Hungary.  It was the perfect time in Cassy's marathon training plan, so we decided to join in the fun.  We both trained for the run and it went really well.  The course was nice and flat and went through the city and along the river.  With 6,000 other runners, there was a great vibe.

Before

After

My feet hadn't been doing well during the 7 weeks of training.  The race didn't help.

After the run, we were allowed free admission to the Budapest thermal springs.  There are pools from freezing cold to super hot.  The giant pool behind Cassy was like a giant hot tub.

 We didn't exactly have the place to ourselves, but we're starting to expect crowds...it's the normal European scene.

The Wynn Family

I shot photos for some friends of ours a couple weeks ago.  Cassy and I had a great time trying to get 3 kids and 2 parents to look at the camera at the same time.  Out of several hundred shots, we had a few successes.

I found this spot at the river just below a climbing crag.  I love the white Dolomite limestone and the clear water.

The Maniago Piazza