It's a Boy!!

Alex leaves for Venice this Friday, so our doctor let us take a peek to see if we could see anything before Alex left. After a searching for a while, the bashful baby Boogie finally cooperated, revealing that he's a boy!!!


16 weeks!!

Shou-Chuan Tao 1915-2008

My grandfather passed away on Wednesday. I'm not the writer in the family, so this is a link to my cousin Eunice's tribute to our grandfather, Shou-Chuan Tao.

http://ryanandeunice-life.blogspot.com/2008/07/gong-gong-1915-2008.html

California

We spent a week in California visiting family and friends.

Group pic with Valerie and Paxon, two of my cousin Jennifer's kids. Pax looks a little nervous.

Pax was just starting to walk. Here he is, walking to great-grandma.


Great-grandma with her three great-grandchildren, Valerie, Paxon and Melody.

We drove down to San Diego to support our friend Kate, who was running her first marathon. She's the one in the peach top looking very chipper at mile 10.

Kate and her husband Tony after it was all over. Under four hours!!

Along the coast in Coronado.

Fabriano

After eight months, we finally got around to taking pictures of Fabriano's center. It's a small town, therefore, only three pictures.


The main fountain, modeled after the fountain in Perugia.


Main street.


The local hangout/cafe.


Red flowers on the outskirts of town.

Santorini

Our next destination was the island of Santorini.


The view from our hotel in Oia.


The island is less beachy, more cliffs with sheer drops.


Sammy and Alex enjoying a nice meal and sunset.


The buildings are built into the cliffs, so everyone has a great view of the ocean.


Three sculptures.


Our hotel pool. 90% of our time was spent in or beside this pool.


The narrow streets lined with shops and restaurants.


Self portrait.


Self portrait #2.


People gather to watch the sunset every evening.


Our last dinner in Greece.


Santorini sunset.

Mykonos

From Athens, we took a high-speed ferry to Mykonos.


The ferry left at the crack of dawn, but you can't tell from this picture!!


Paradise Beach. Very windy, but beautiful.


Not quite tourist season.


View from our hotel room. This is the construction for the new port.


Another view from our room.


On the outskirts of the center of town.


Octopus drying in the sun.


Did I mention that it's windy in Mykonos?


Classic white and blue building in Mykonos.


Little Venice.




Souvenir shops line the streets of Little Venice.


Alex eating a chocolate bar in an alley.


Narrow, narrow streets.




The monastery in Mykonos.


Windmills.


More windmills.

Athens

We took a ten day trip to Greece at the end of the season before heading back to the states.


We spent our first day at the beach near Sounion.


Sounion.


Temple of Poseidon.


Our friends, Julie and Chris were in Athens this season. They were awesome hosts!


We also met up with our friends Sammy and Judith in Athens. Here we are, waiting to get inside the Acropolis.


Surrounded by ruins at the Acropolis.


Theatre of Herod Atticus. Built by the Romans in 161 AD.


I think they had a Yanni concert here once.


You get a great panorama of Athens when you get to the top of the Acropolis. The city is huge!


Walking up to the Parthenon.


The Parthenon was built in the 5th century B.C. It guess it was about time to do some renovations.


Us with a bunch of other tourists.


Me and Sammy, laughing at Alex.

View of the Acropolis from the metro stop. The Greek metro system was very impressive.

Waiting to buy tickets for the metro.

Sammy the tourist.

Shopping in the Plaka district.

More shopping...