Although I am now writing this a year after it happened I wanted to at least make a brief post about this vacation. First of all it was pretty wonderful having this much family time. Eric had been deployed from mid-Oct 2009 until March 2nd 2010, followed by a flurry of activity with me having major surgery, us trying to do all the paperwork, running around and packing for a move across the ocean and then the unexpected devastating death of my mother on April 14th 2010. Not totally healed, TJ and I flew to Utah for her funeral, staying for three weeks help settle affairs and be with family. Eric stayed behind to prepare the necessary military work for our upcoming move. The return to Jersey was full of all those things that had been hastily left undone and then instead of making the flight to Vienna as a family, there was a screw-up at the State Department with TJ's passport which caused him and I to have to wait in Jersey for 2 weeks while Chip and Eric flew out as scheduled mid-May. With all of that we were definitely due for some family time1
Part two held special excitement for us as we were heading to Aviano, Italy where there was not only a military base that boasted a large Commissary (i.e. grocery store stocked with American food) and Base Exchange (think Walmart), our good friends from New Jersey, the Bathe's had PCS'd to Aviano AirBase the year before. Their son Trevor had been TJ's best friend since they were 3 years old and their family was like an extension of our family. The drive through more of Austria (which is where I'd love to have a summer home if I ever get super rich somehow) was wonderful and then crossing into Italy was just beyond exciting! I could hardly believe it possible that little ole ME had been to all these countries in such a short time and was now in Italy. This is a feeling I was to experience over and over again and doubt I'll ever really take for granted!
The Bathe's have a wonderful big Italian home on a quiet street, with 6 bedrooms and a good size fenced yard. During the 5 days we were their they showed us all around, taking us up the MT to the little ski resort they could practically see from their front porch, eating at wonderful restaurants (it was at one of these that I was first introduced to Sgroppino - yum) taking a day trip to the marvelous watery Venice and even spending a day swimming in the Adriatic Sea. We ended our time with a major shopping trip on base for all those American essentials we thought we couldn't live without and finally headed back for home. TJ was so sad to be leaving Trevor and Torie (Trevor's older sister who was sweet enough to play with the boys even though she was twice their age. TJ is a bit in love with her). We stopped in Gyor to pick Chip up at the kennel and were much relieved when we saw he was safe and none the worse for us leaving him for two weeks in a Hungarian kennel. Whew!
Driving back into Papa I felt my heart leap at the now familar sights of the church bell towers and the InterSpar water tower I was glad to be home!
