The last few days have been busier than I'd hoped. Much of the visiting family left yesterday and today in typical mass exodus fashion. Today was the hardest though. Mom left to go back to Victoria. As much as I've been planning all this, it still seems difficult to get it all to sink in. Now it seems the trip has begun. Yesterday the family went over to St. James for a visit to the farm market and outlet mall. An odd combination of shopping experiences i...

Somehow it seems like a week has already passed here....that either speaks to the amount of fun being had, or the number of family that have been pouring through my grandparent's house. But let's start at the beginning: Wed July 7th Last full day in Victoria, with desperate hopes that my passport would come soon. Well, after a long struggle with the Italian Consulate (give them at least 6-8 weeks to process your Visa regardless of what they say), I got notice...