View from top of Mt Bachelor
Another view looks like the peaks of the mountain almost touching the sky
Before I tell you about our travels in Calabria, I must share something about our recent visit to Rome (post-Istanbul) where we spent a week gathering content for several travel stories, experiencing walking tours, hotels, restaurants, and museums, doing interviews with fascinating locals, and for my husband and co-writer Terry, shooting photos. Despite the fact that we were working, for the first time in a long time, I felt like a tourist. And, much to my surprise, it felt fantastic. We'd been to Rome a few times before, yet this trip was different. The first time we visited, a decade ago, Terry and I were spending a summer backpacking through Italy, Spain and Portugal. The second trip I took my mother as part of a summer sojourn to places she'd always wanted to go but had never been - Istanbul, the Greek Islands, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Spain - as a way toward healing and learning to live again following my dad's death from cancer. The third visit was at the end of another long Italian summer for Terry and I that involved writing a book in Milan, followed by (our reward!) travel to some Italian places we'd never been together, a driving trip through Sicily, time kicking back on the Aeolian Islands, a jaunt to the Amalfi Coast and Capri where our days were spent walking and swimming and nights spent eating and drinking, and finally some days in each of Napoli and Roma where we did the design hotels, hot new restaurants, and hip bars. This trip to Rome was altogether different. For the stories we were researching we did a series of guided tours and walks (something we never do), and we stayed in the Vatican City and Via Veneto, where it's impossible to escape the tour groups and hoards of tourists. We were just two of tens of thousands of travellers clutching our guidebooks as we did the sights. Sure I was making lengthy notes and observing the people as much as the places, and Terry was carting around one too many cameras to be a tourist, but still we somehow got caught up in the flow. Like little leaves we floated down Rome's cobblestone streets, centuries of complex history surrounding us, and we loved it. For the first time in a long time I felt so exhilarated by a city, it was as if I was experiencing it for the first time. And it felt great. It felt good to be a tourist in Rome. But I'm not sure how many other cities I could say that about...
This was my Omlete with Hollandaise sauce on it this is there small portion, the large portion has 6 eggs.
And this was Nevada's egg scramble can't remember what they called it but it had everything but the kitchen sink in it.LOL Forgot to take photo of the bread we got but they were big too. Nope we couldn't eat it all either.
We've been on the road in Calabria, the 'toe' of Italy's boot. But with little internet access, so please forgive me for the silence. We've been researching and shooting a new guidebook, the first by a major English-language publisher to this little-visited region. (Ah, but how 'little-visited' is it? More on that soon.) Today the speedometer hit 2,670 kilometers as we completed our loop of the region, and with it most of our research of the area. We've visited every major city and all of the most interesting towns and villages. We've criss-crossed Calabria several times, and at one point as we drove down the gorgeous (albeit very narrow and extremely winding) road from Gimigliano to Tiriolo we could look to one side and see the azure-coloured Ionian Sea and to the other the equally alluring Tyrrhenian Sea. It must be Italy's narrowest stretch of land. So far (we still have another four or five days left), it's been a trip that has both exceeded our expectations as much as it has disappointed, and one that's confirmed many of our preconceived ideas about the place while being full of many surprises. But isn't that what travelling is all about? More on Calabria soon! Being on the road is exhausting and I desperately need some sleep.
And here is Precious i got a close up shot of her and thought it was a cute shot with her round eyes.
And then it changed to this
The first Greek settling was there on the left
Baia, the half-insel there was the preferite recreational place for Romans
If you been watching my blog you know that Sonic has been building next door to us, well Monday the 19th tomorrow they are hoping to open, I took this photo Sat night as they were putting this on top of the building, they have been working 7 days a week till almost 11 pm trying to get things done.
So today on Sunday afternoon i guess it was time to see who can roller skate, Son had fun watching the girls, they even had a few boys trying out. Once they did the skating up and down then it came to carrying trays while skating. Some really needed some good training. I am wondering how many will fall on there hiney the first few times. LOL 
Click on photos for better viewing
I didn't see what the bird was till i downloaded it. Do you see him Its a Blue Jay.
The cats were all circling this stinger, I thought at first it was a mouse they were after.
Ok so we have some strange cats, Casey lying there, while his brother Smiley is, well as you can see, He was kneading on him.My male neutered cats (brothers), Love each other so much, We think there a bit strange as the sisters don't have this kind of affection for each other. Does anyone else have cat siblings that are this lovable with each other?
Here is Cutie Pie on my lap, she is a wiggler and slobbers when she is wanting attention, most of the time you wouldn't know she is around but when she is wanting to be loved on she will make herself known.
And then here is Tittertat, my 35# cat that loves to eat anything and everything, guess that is why he weights so much He loves food particularly people food. 
While in Istanbul last week I picked up the May special 'Europe' issue of US Travel + Leisure with a feature on "Hidden European Neighbourhoods". The author writes: "Beyoglu is now reclaiming its status as Istanbul's favourite playground". Yet Beyoglu has always been Istanbul's commercial heart and its main pedestrianised street is the city's main shopping boulevard. Beyoglu is hardly "hidden" and it has always had a buzz about it, especially in the evening when it seems the whole of Turkey is out shopping, eating and drinking. The neighbourhoods that have experienced a renaissance in recent years are Tunel, Cukurcuma and Cihangir, considered the coolest by locals and the most interesting to explore for travellers with their cutting-edge boutiques, music stores, vintage clothes shops, antique stores, hip cafes and bars. Take a look at 'Istanbul, the Undiscovered Capital of Cool', which we published in April 2007. I'm in Rome this week, so it's amusing to read that Ponte, Parione and Regola are the eternal city's latest hot spots. These neighbourhoods are a hop, skip and a jump from Piazza Navona and their well-trodden cobblestone streets have always been the focus of tourist activity. While they're lovely, again, they're far from "hidden". Monti is much more fascinating, with its music school, funky boutiques, design stores, and laidback trattorias, while gritty San Lorenzo is the city's bohemian heart. But then the residents of Monti and San Lorenzo would probably argue their 'hoods have always been hip.
Around five years ago the glossy travel mags started talking up Croatia as the next hot destination and travel journos were writing about the country as if it had only just been discovered. The Croatian National Tourism Board saturated the global media with their 'Mediterranean As It Once Was' campaign and everyone bought it. And bought tickets to Zagreb. We spent the summer there in 2003, travelling the length and breadth of the country. What we discovered was something very different to what was being marketed. Dubrovnik was one of the most divine cities we'd ever seen, the islands were beautiful, the myriad walled towns were atmospheric, and the nightlife was wild. However, Croatia was far from untouched. It was easily as crowded with tourists as Paris, Rome or Venice for that matter. Indeed, the Italians had been vacationing in Croatia for many years before it was 'discovered' by the English-speaking travel media. In 2005, Croatia had 10 million visitors. Still, in 2006 National Geographic Adventure magazine voted it destination of the year. It just goes to show that one person's latest, hottest destination is another person's old favorite. Nothing is new to anyone, it's just new again.
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