The Wedding & Honeymoon

Lana and I got married on October 6, 2007 here in Sacile, Italy. It's great being married to such an awesome woman and we're both enjoying married life! I had family members from both the USA and Canada and Lana had family from Germany, England and Scotland as well. It was definitely an international wedding with Lana's dad wearing a Scottish kilt, her mom and aunt wearing German dirndls and an uncle of hers wearing German lederhosen. My family flew over a week early from the US to enjoy Italy and do some site seeing before the big day as well.

We didn't exactly have nice weather on our wedding day...we woke up to thunderstorms and driving rain. But in Italian tradition they say, "Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata" which translated means "A bride who is rained on is a lucky bride." Thankfully during the wedding service the rain stopped. As Lana and I were walking around town after the wedding for pictures, all the Italians kept saying, "Que bella" with smiles on their faces meaning "How beautiful!" I agreed 100%!

After the wedding and reception, Lana and I spent the night at a nice hotel close by at the base of the mountains before jumping in the car the next morning for our honeymoon on the Island of Sardinia. The island is off the west coast of Italy, so we drove down through Florence and did some sightseeing on the way. The first night we spent in San Gimignano, which is a great city from the Medieval times. The next afternoon made our way through Siena before catching a night ferry from Piombino to Sardinia where we spent a week enjoying the sun and beaches. We started our time in the north at Castelsardo, moved west on to Alghero and then finally over to the east coast at San Lucia and Cala Gonone. I highly recommend Sardinia...especially the northeast coast! The water is so blue and clear...it's really amazing to see. We rented a small boat for a couple of days in order to take advantage of some of the great beaches you can only get to by boat. A lot of the east coast has cliffs, so the beaches are otherwise unreachable. On our way home we stopped in to Pisa to see the leaning tower as well. It was a great week and a great way to start our married life together! Here's to many more years together with Lana!

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Wedding; Honeymoon

Flying Around The Mediterranean

This summer has come and gone very quickly! It doesn't seem too long ago I was stepping off the plane after being deployed in Iraq...

The beginning of August I volunteered (not a tough decision) for a 5-day cross-country in the F-16 throughout the Mediterranean region, and thankfully I was one of the 4 pilots allowed to go. Our route of flight took us through Sicily, Crete, and the a couple different places in Spain. As we flew from place to place, I remembered the fact we were flying over many of the places talked about in Biblical time...specifically as Apostle Paul traveled around. Here we are approximately 2000 thousand years later retracing some of the same territory in an F-16! We didn't spend much time in Sicily other than to get gas on our way to and from our different locations. Flying to Crete was my first time in Greece and I'd really like to go back to visit Athens or Corinth if I have time. We flew into a US Naval Station, Suda Bay, on the island to leave our jets so we could enjoy a night out on the town checking out some sites.

After one night in Crete, we took off to head over to Spain for three days hitting Sicily on our way for gas. Our first stop was a the Spanish Air Force Base, Torrejon. We used to have F-16s stationed there back in the early 90's, but they've since moved elsewhere. The Spanish military was very hospitable and gave us a ride to our hotel in downtown Madrid. Madrid is a cool city, but I need more time to check everything out. Lots of history and great buildings. After a night in Madrid, we were on to another Spanish / US Air Force Base (USAFE) called Moron. We spent a couple days there so we could fly against the Spanish Eurofighters at the base. It's a very capable aircraft and much newer than the F-16. It was great for me to see something different since the last time was during the B-Course at Luke AFB. Of course, we think we kicked their butts...but, we didn't get into the classified stuff in our debrief to really see the outcome. Hopefully I'll get the chance to do the same again before I leave Italy. While at Moron we stayed in the nearby city of Seville. I personally liked Seville better than Madrid because it was a smaller and very nice.

Flying around the Mediterranean in the F-16 will be one of my highlights while here in Aviano, and I hope to do it again next year. I've done some other traveling since getting back from Iraq and I'll try to post some pics on here in the near future. I hope all you flyer types are doing well...congrats to those I've talked a little with about getting at pilot slot to OTS! Keep up the hard work and Buzzards Rule!

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Cross-Country Sep '07

Cinque Terre, Italia

Over the Labor Day weekend, some friends of mine from the squadron and I decided to take a weekend trip to Cinque Terre, Italy. The drive was only about four hours, so it was an easy trip. We parked the car in a town called La Spezia just to the south and took the train 10-15 minuets north to a town called Monterroso. Cinque Terre is made up of five (cinque is Italian for five) small towns/villages along the northeastern coast of Italy, which is very hilly and has some nice cliffs. Monterroso is the one farthest north, which is the town we spent most of our time in. You can actually hike between all five towns over the course of a day or two.

The second day we were there, we decided to hike from Monterroso to Vernazza which is the next town to the south. The hike took a few hours through the hills and vineyards along the way before we arrived. Vernazza is a smaller town packed into the hills around a small harbor which has a small pier to break the waves of the Med. The sun eventually came out and we were able to jump off the pier and enjoy the water for the afternoon before catching the train back north for dinner and an evening out on the town. The next day we spent at the beach again before heading home on Monday. As with many places in Europe, I would highly recommend Cinque Terre if you're in the area. It's a cool place to see and what you would picture Italy looking like.

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Cinque Terre

The Prosecco Road

Living in Italy, it would have been a shame if I had never visited a local vineyard/winery before I left. I had the chance to take a Saturday trip with some friends of mine from the squadron and Lana to a region of northern Italy known for their prosecco...white sparkling wine. The region is also referred to as The Prosecco Road. One of my friends, who speaks good Italian, had met the owner of a vineyard and he invited them back the next weekend with whoever he wanted to bring. It was a scene right out of a movie with vineyards all around through the hills. The owner explained the process of making procecco in his winery and then took us to a villa up on one of the hills for a tasting. As we overlooked the valley, he said, "The vineyards to my right are mine...the ones to the left are also mine." The vineyards seemed to go in all directions and they had been in his family for over 150 years. It was a very enjoyable day of enjoying the grapes and local culture around the area...hopefully I'll get the chance to do some more things like this. Until next time...

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Our New Apartment

Soon after returning from Iraq, I told my Italian landlady that Lana and I would be looking for another apartment to start our new lives together in. It didn't take too long before I found a great place just on the other side of the central square here in Sacile. Our squadron flight doctor actually told me about since I had mentioned to him in church one day I was in the process of looking for a place. It is a much newer and nicer place than the one I used to live in and has a great balcony over the river with the big Catholic church on the other side. The view is one of the best there is in town. The church bells are a little loud sometimes, but I've since gotten used to it and actually enjoy the sounds now. It was a little bit of a pain having to go through the whole housing contract thing again, but all my utilities are now switched over to the new place and working. There are many conveniences we're used to in the USA that don't exist here, so it can try your patience. I couldn't just call customer service and have a guy at the house the next day, but after a few weeks we had electricity, water, gas and internet all working again.

In addition to apartment searching, Lana and I have been working on wedding plans. We decided to get married here in Italy with family and friends that can make it. We're both looking to married life together and are eagerly awaiting October 6th, the wedding day!

Well, that's it for now...I just found out not long ago that I'm going on an F-16 cross-country in the next couple of weeks around Europe somewhere, so I'll post all of that next time I write something.

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New Apartment