Shooting

I woke up this morning to news of a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida. The deadliest massacre in American history. Prior to opening fire the gunman declared his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  The FBI are tearing their hair out. World leaders tweeting their hearts out. Loved ones crying their eyes out.

sad that Steph and the kids will be waking up to this as well. Half a world away yet no less close to home.

Milan

Today we came to Milan. We were picked up by Paulo’s Dad and his wife at the airport. They dropped us off at Paulo’s Mom’s house and we ate dinner with a bunch of other people. We had pesto pasta and meat pasta. I liked the pesto. I had 4 servings of pasta. I was full. But I didn’t know that there was 2 other servings. So I just skipped the rest and had dessert. I had pistachio, stratiatella, and hezelnut ice cream. It was delicious! We stayed up and talked for a while and then went to bed. By the time we all fell asleep it was around 1:30! We had a really fun day.

image Today was really fun. We went to go see the one of the most famous statue’s in the world, it was created Micheal Angelo. I also got to get a charcoal picture of myself done. It turned out really good. When we got back to the apartment, we got to meet one of Lucas’s friends and his Mom. They went to the park but Julia and I stayed home, we were super tired from walking so much. And we couldn’t make much conversation because they didn’t know much English. Today  is sadly our last day in Florence, next we are going to Milan. So far  Florence has been my favorite place we’ve been so far. It has a lot of cool things to see and has been a really great experience.

Frank

Just got Frank to the ferry with seconds to spare to cap off a really great visit. It’s so easy to hang with him but, after 20+ years of being friends, I guess it should be. We played tennis. Ping pong. Poker. Ate. Drank. Went to the pool. Port Townsend. Biked around Ft Word. He helped me move a planter. We face timed with Steph in Italy. He’s really a great friend and it was fun to have him here for a few days.

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In Florence and left Capri

I was in Capri for three days and I was at a beach for a while and I jumped off a rock with my friends. I’m in Florence And I taught my friends how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. And we went to the top of a big mountain. The scenery was beautiful. We took a motor boat ride around the island of Capri. Then, we hopped onto a rowboat into the Blue Grotto. The Grotto is a cave that the Roman king Tiberius swam in. In fact, there used to be a secret passage from the king’s castle to the cave, but now it’s filled with rocks.