Adventures in Honeymooning

Well, we're already 4 days into our cruise, 9 days into our honeymoon, and 14 days into our marriage. The good news is that we're still talking, the bad news is that I'm missing the Western Conference Finals (I suppose she's worth it). I apologize to our rabid fans for my lack of postings to this blog, but I'm a little forgetful. So, let me recap...

May 15, 2008 - We were Maui'd in a beautiful ceremony at 5:30 PM Maui time at the Four Seasons in Wailea. We ate dinner at a wonderful steakhouse called Duo. Thanks to all who were able to share in the very special occasion with us. To those that weren't able to make it, pictures to follow upon our return to the States.

May 16, 2008 - We snorkeled. Mary, or "eagle-eyes Goldberg" as she'll now be called, spied an enormous sea turtle who came up for air within inches from my head. Goosebumps ran down my spine in fear that he might gum me to death at any moment. Luckily, nobody was harmed.

May 18, 2008 - Arrived back in LA at about 5 in the AM after a very bumpy, unrestful red-eye flight. This was our first time at home as Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg.

May 21, 2008 - Awoke at the early hour of 3 AM to get to LAX for a 6 AM flight to Rome. We ran into my family as they arrived back from Maui, which was great to be able to say goodbye as we flew off to Rome to begin our Honeymoon.

May 22, 2008 - Arrived in Rome at 7 AM after a short stop in New York the night before. Now, as I told my parents (and anybody else who would listen), the best way to get over jetlag in a new country is to NOT go to sleep when you arrive, but to stay awake until nighttime...no matter how tired you may be. So, of course, we ended up taking a "nap" as soon we got into our room...

May 23, 2008 - We woke up. Yep, I definitely live in a "do as I say, not as I do" world. Once we wiped the crusties out of our eyes, we hit the ground running. You'd be surprised how quiet Rome is before 7 AM. Turns out that none of the tourist spots are open until 9, so we walked...and we walked...and then we walked some more. By the end of the day, we say the Roman Forum and the Colloseum. We saw the Jewish Ghetto and the Pantheon. We saw some churches and a lot of stuff made out of marble. Boy, how the Romans loved their marble. We learned that the Roman Empire was built on the backs of the Jewish slaves taken from Jeruselum (nice handy work by the way), and that the Catholic Church stole, er...recycled, much of the marble used to build structures such as the Colloseum, et al, to build the Vatican. I'll tell you now that it was absolutely worth it. St. Peter's Basilica was extraordinarily beautiful.

Since we're accountants, I need to mention a little tidbit that we picked up about the marble used in the Vatican. These guys went all the way to Egypt to find a purple marble that is apparently the rarest marble in all the world. This stuff is so rare, it costs a mere 20,000 Euros, or about $38,000 per square inch. I guess what I'm saying is that the stuff ain't cheap and it's everywhere in Vatican City.

May 24, 2008 - We got up early again and watched the 2nd half of the Lakers game (live). Mary wants me to mention that this was at 4 AM Rome time. Later on, we decided that we had done a little too much walking the day before, so we bought tickets for a "hop on, hop off" open-air tour bus for the day. We boarded the motorcoach for the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps, which were both stops past the Vatican bus stop. This is also the day that we actually made it to the Vatican, so you can now understand why I told you about the order of the bus stops. All-in-all, we rode around the entire city (of Rome) twice in order to the hit the Vatican on the 2nd trip around. What I didn't mention yet was that the Sistine Chapel was closed for the day by the time we finally made it over there (no wonder the lines were so short, Mary).

May 25, 2008 - Since the Sistine Chapel was closed yesterday, we got up early to stand in line for it today. "But Eric," you say, "isn't the Vatican Museum closed on Sundays?" You'd be correct for 3 out of every 4 Sundays of any given month. However, in their infinite wisdom, the Museum/Sistine Chapel is open on the last Sunday of every month (except July). Not only is it open, but it's free of charge to enter. Bonus for us. It seems that poor planning and dumb luck have once again worked in our favor. For those of you who have not gone to see the Sistine Chapel, it is similar to the search for the Holy Grail. You're pretty sure it exists, but there are many, many twists and turns along the way. I'm not kidding, we almost gave up after looking for the "Candid Camera" cameras. We were sure they were watching us going, "ho long until those dumb Americans realize there is no Sistine Chapel?" We finally saw it, it was amazing, yadda, yadda. As we were set to leave the next day for the cruise, we wanted to finish off our Roman holiday with a true Roman experience. So, we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie in English at an American theater owned by Warner Bros. All I can say about the movie is, "eh."

By the way - Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad. We love you.

May 26, 2008 - Mary and I decided to make an adventure out of getting to the cruise ship in Civitavecchia. Instead of paying Princess $75/person to get us there, we did some recon and found out there was a train that would take us directly to the port for only 9 Euros all-in. What a racket Princess has going. Mind you, I did get a little nervous when we pulled up to the last stop and no cruise ships were in sight. Luckily, we found the free port bus as soon as walked out of the train station, and we were in our cabin within 20 minutes. I'm skipping our encounter with the rude embarkation agent because...well, it's my blog and Mary still sees red whenever I mention her. Once on the ship, we had some drinks, some food, and then it was off to dreamland.

That's all I have for today. Keep checking this blog for future installations chronicalling the life and times of Mary and Eric.