Amalfi Coast Vacay Part 1

Amalfi Coast!  We loved you!  But before we went to see you, we had to stay in Naples for a day or two.  

Please don't judge the quality of this vacation by the quality of this first picture.  Jason had to work in Naples, so he left a few days before us and then we joined him.  He still had to work while we were there, so I attempted to entertain the kiddos with a trip to the bowling alley.  I asked a nice cashier there to take our picture.....this is what I got.  The creepy lighting in there wasn't ideal for a family photo.  

Let's back up a bit, shall we?  So, the Navy paid for Jason to FLY up to Naples.  Me and my kidtastic crew DROVE our way up there.  I only mention this because anytime we told friends and coworkers our plan, they were amazed by my superhuman abilities.  One hour drive + 20 minute ferry to mainland Italy + 7 hours up to Naples = bravest mom in the world.  I've done the roadtripping thing more than a few times by my lonesome, just not in Italy.  It was very uneventful and I wasn't nervous about it.  But, I did enjoy the "cool points" I got from people that heard I was going or found out I did it. (I drove home alone, too......I'm amazing.)

Here's a couple more funny pictures we caught at the little restaurant they had at the bowling alley.  

Sullivan learned he LOVES fries.  Who doesn't, right?  I was hoping to get him to the year mark before introducing them, but survival mode is survival mode.  Fries, coming right up!

No, survival mode did not include letting Sullivan drink some Coke.  Lucy just thought it would be a funny picture.  

Action shot.  It got a little crazy, but we had a great time.  

A couple of days later we made our way to the Amalfi coast.  It was only about one hour from Naples.  We stayed in a sweet little town called Maiori.  The drive was incredible!  Small roads on that wove in and out, making it's way through the small towns on the hillside and down by the ocean coast.  We had a partial view of the ocean from our apartment that we rented.  

We really enjoyed the outdoor living space that we had.  We could listen to the waves as we ate our breakfast.  

A couple of our days were spent at the beach, of course.  We LOVE the beach.  Italian beaches are definitely more crowded (especially in the summer), but we still had a great time.  

This picture of Sullivan cracks me up.  One evening, while we were driving around, he WOULD NOT stop crying and screaming.  Finally, I handed him a piece of licorice and he stopped.  I'm not sure he would have survived the evening if it hadn't been for a few Twizzler sticks.  Fries and licorice at 9 months.  Yikes.  

Maiori has this beautiful street of shopping and restaurants.  Everything in the town is walking distance from where we stayed.  We walked up and down this street a few times as we looked for places to eat for dinner and gelato to sweeten our evenings.  

Down the center of this street there was a canal.  It was mostly dried up this time of year, but we thought the vines growing around it were beautiful.  The girl in the picture is pretty sweet, too!

We went exploring the first evening we were there.  We found this spot for a photo op.  

Sand angel!!

One of the many reasons I love Italy is the food.  There are "bars" everywhere with great calzones, pastries, arancini, gelato.  Good stuff!  Side note:  here they are called "bars", but they are more like what we Americans would call cafes.  We were impressed with the shape and size of Graham's calzone/pizza thing.  At one point it was a hat, as well.  

In our exploring, we also found this little tots play area.  3 euro for the whole evening!  

More exciting pics to come!