Just Cute.

Croatia Part III

Motovon was a lovely town we day-tripped from Pula.  An old town set on a hill with a wall around it, and known for their Tarfuti (Truffles).

We had lunch on the hill with a great view!  I got black truffle pasta, Aaron and Scott had Gnocchi with cheese and Timmy had little hot dogs and french fries.

 Cora: "Shout out to my grandmas and grandpas!"

Afterwards, we visited Rijeka on the way home.  Beautiful seaside town (the favorite city in Istria in most guidebooks).  Had a wonderful view from the top of this bell tower, from which Cora threw her ball.  It bounced nicely down onto the walkway, where a woman promptly picked it up and took off with it.  Sigh.  I had only bought it 20 Minutes before.

The little alleys were so charming.

Back at home, our host made us chocolate "pancakes" (crepes).  What a treat!

The next day, we headed for another swimming spot out by Premantura.  This cove had no wind and calm waters.  Bit cold, but nothing the wet suits couldn't handle.  It was almost hot with the full-body wet suit.  My kind of snorkeling!

Cora J was hanging in the pack pretty much the whole 12 days. 

The next day, we toured Pula in the morning.  The Roman Amphitheatre was pretty cool.

So was this gate entering the town. 

And that's pretty much it for Pula-town, so we're headed back to the beach!

We found this spot to swim that evening, which was a really shallow beach, making for warmer waters.  Lots of other swimmers out was a good tell-tale sign that it was a nice spot.

5 nights at this ladies apartment was heaven!  Karina was the best hostess!

We spent the other 5 nights close to Plitvice Lakes in Dresnik Grad.  We spent the first morning hiking by the Korena River, taking naps and then the afternoon in Rastoke.

Here's Korena Valley.

Caves under the waterfalls in Rastoke.

We had dinner at a restaurant , where you can go out the back and see the waterfalls running off the cliffs.  So pretty!

The fall leaves were really beautiful, and we had nice warm weather.

Next day we spent several hours hiking and lunching in Plitvice National Park.

The kids had a blast there!  

They were super excited about the hiking, waterfalls, boat and food.

The Park has unusual boardwalks that get you right up to the falls, and beautiful green water.

We finished the night off with a family sized pizza.  (9 bucks - not bad eh?)

The next morning, we tried to visit the Barac Caves, but they were closed, so we just hiked for a bit, had lunch, and went to get a view of Bosnia, across the border.

Good idea if you want to check a country off your list of places you've been.

Bad idea if crossing borders into unknown lands, and bullet holes in downtown

kind of freak you out.  (I won't say which of us what the interested one, and which of us was the 

freaked out one.)

Our wonderful hosts at the Sminov Apartments!

The morning we left, we got our tour of the Barac Caves afterall, which was a lot of fun!

This room was the most beautiful, and we got to see at least 7 bats!

We drove to Zadar and had lunch before flying out. 

This was waiting on our doorstep when we arrived home!

We have the BEST neighbors!

Croatia Part II

While going to the market, KT drove by a strange looking area with a parking lot, but couldn't really figure out what it was.  We went back to explore, and it ended up a real hidden gem.  It was a quarry.  But not just any quarry, the quarry where they had pulled out the stones for the roman amphitheater, walls, and whatever else they made.  This quarry had been in operation for quite some time.  And it made for some very shear cliffs and a unique landscape.  There were numerous climbing routes on some cliffs right outside of the quarry, and people had even glued/bolted rocks on the shear face to make some pretty gnarly looking routes.  

Aaron honed in on this boulder with some holds on it.

He was really getting into it, and ended up being pretty mad that we never made it back.  I told him that if he ever makes it back to the States, Macha would take him rock climbing for real.  Mom, don't make me a liar:)

Croatia Part I

We stayed on a peninsula right outside of Pula, Croatia.  We had a really nice apartment with a view of the ocean, and things couldn't have been better.  The first day we just went to the next peninsula over and just explored.  It ended up being a really good find.  We were in a cool forest/park, then suddenly broke through the trees to the coast, where there was a monument and the kids started working on their bad-guy stink-faces.  Aaron's really got it down!

It was a bit too rough to swim, but we stayed along the coast and did one of my favorite things: looking through tide pools for creatures.  So we went with our trusty sticks, and tried to poke at everything we could.  We found an entertaining little crab that came out of it's hole to attack our sticks.  At the end, we even came out with a few treasures.

We walked further down the coast and came across this rocky beach.  It was a good place for me to do some snorkeling, and the boys had a good time throwing rocks and yelling.  That seems to be a theme of their existence right now: throwing rocks and yelling.

We got out of there while we were still having fun (which was the motto of the trip) and had a nice quiet evening.  That is, until I had a Skype interview with Kansas State.  First interview of the season, and I was really surprised to get something so early.  Luckily, I had a white shirt and tie with me for church, so I was able to huddle in the corner of the apartment where we had reliable wi-fi and talk about how great I am.  An interesting twist while on vacation.

Bad bloggers...

Yes, we are becoming bad bloggers.  Maybe "becoming" is too soft a word.  We beg your pardon.  It will happen again...

But let bygones be bygones.  Some goingsons:

There was a high-jump competition in the square between the cathedral and the Rathaus.  Apparently it's pretty serious.  How cool would that be: competing in a sporting event in this backdrop?  Very cool.

My parents came for a fly-by visit.  My dad was in the World Championship for arm wrestling in Lithuania, and they graced us with a visit on the way.  We went through town:

then my dad and I went to Frankfurt for a regional leadership meeting for church with Elder Ballard and Elder Hallstrom.  It was very cool.  Meanwhile, KT, my mom, and the rest went to Trier and checked out the sites, with the roman gate being the highlight:

finally, it ended with a visit to stake conference (where I got to translate for the visiting leaders) and some rough-housing in my parents hotel room.  A brief visit, but a good one.

Then our friend Annie Balliff and her friend came by for a visit.  I met Annie first when she was an Au Pair in Germany, then she became a missionary in our area later on and was KTs companion.

Then my brother and his wife Janet came for a visit.  Janet ran the Berlin Marathon, then they toured some of the area where our ancestors came from.  Dan's really into genealogy right now, and is really tearing it up.  We took them around Aachen: sticking with our classic day trips that we know and love. 

 Then we went with them to see Burg Elz on the Rhein on their way out and our way to our next trip.