Fred posting from Dallas...thoughts about travel

   I have been back in Dallas for two weeks but had a great couple of weeks visiting the family.  The trips to Rome and Paris were simply magical; what a treat to expose our kids to three of the world's great cities in less than a week.  I have now spent over two weeks in Florence over the span of two months and feel like I am really getting to know the city.  Of course Renee and the boys are the experts but how often do you get the chance as an adult, half way through your career, to spend that much time in such an incredible place?  Honestly...it has been tremendous.  I am on my fourth book on Florence and loving the history, the art, the culture.
   I came back with about 800 pictures and will share a few of the offbeat ones.  So my theme for this post is travel..some of you may have seen my shot of the Alps in my first post; well here is another one on our way from Rome to Paris:

  What beautiful contrast...that is the wing of an Easyjet plane, one of Europ's discount airlines.  We flew from Rome to Paris for about $120 each.  Much has changed since I spent six weeks travleing trhough Europe on a Eurail pass with my brother in the early 80s.  The trains are more expensive and airfare is much less expensive.
   We saw our fair share of fake gladiators in Rome...but my favorite was the guy talking on his cellphone!:

  The boys each drank a little wine from time to time.  This first picture is Ryan having a sip at lunch at a delightful little trattoria close to our hotel:

  We walked the streets of Rome for two days, including time spent with a private tourguide at the Vatican courtesy of Pat Owens...incredible stuff.  We had lunch with the Pope and explored the city the rest of the day...ending up at the Trevi fountain at night...nice pic below of the Renee and boys in front of the fountain:

   Okay, okay...we didn't have lunch with the Pope, he was busy.  But we heard he really, really wanted to have lunch with us.  Next time you see me remind me to tell you one of my favorite Pope jokes...if you are old enough you'll get to hear it! 

  So many iconic places to see in Rome: the Pantheon, the Colliseum, the Forum, and of course St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican, photographed below from the bridge of angels over the Tiber:

  Rome was magical.  We all loved it.  More to come..next stop paris!