Lido

Obviously you can't just jump in to the canals of Venice for a swim. So what do you do when you're in Venice and in need of a swim? Take the vaporetto out to Lido. Here's a little map to give you an idea. (It is actually very informative for me too because I just got on the boat by our apartment and then off the boat when the sign said Lido. I didn't really know how the islands fit together until right now.) Yes, this is the site of the tragic loss of Caitlin's fan. As we were waiting for our friend's friend to meet us and show us the way to the beach, Caitlin and the other kids were sitting around, playing and eating gelato of course. When it was time to start walking I did not do the thing all good parents should do: check around where the kids were sitting for any lost and forgotten stuff. About 15 minutes into the long long long trek to the beach Caitlin realized the fan was gone. 

Say goodbye to the fan!

Ken gallantly ran back to find it, but alas, it was not to be found. And now we will never speak of it again.

We walked for quite a while to find the perfect spot on the beach. The kids were so excited to play in the water. I couldn't believe how warm the water was! It was like sitting in the bath tub. But the awesomeness of the temperature was kind of counterbalanced by the saltiness. I know, it's the ocean. But still, it seemed saltier to me than regular ocean. If that is possible. 

So after some initial cavorting in the water we headed up to this restaurant for some lunch. I might have mentioned this before, but we were a large group- There were 15 of us on this particular day. Somehow our meals always worked out. Restaurants always found room for us, kitchens wanting to close always accepted our orders, the kids (almost) always found something on the menu they were happy to eat. So here's part of our group. All those people in the background are with us. And here's Caitlin with her 25 lbs of pasta. She ate it all. 

Dylan ate pasta and clams almost every meal. And when he was done he would pull out this game. It's called Kanoodle and I saw it in several toy stores before the trip. I bought it because it looked reasonably fun and also small. It turned out to be kind of a hit. This is what all the kids were playing in front of the restaurant on Burano.  All six of them crowded together trying to solve the various kanoodle puzzles.

After lunch it was back to the water for so much more fun. One of the kids in our group brought this ball and when he was done playing with it Caitlin swam around hanging on to it for a really long time.

Dylan swam and swam and played chicken (which I sadly couldn't photograph that well since my camera lens wouldn't zoom out far enough.) and then toward the end of the day he kind of sat around in the water and rode waves.

After lots of swimming Caitlin needed to rest up for a bit. She went back out a few times after this.

There is one rule that I firmly believe in- but is hard to follow on vacations. Always leave 5 minutes before your kids fall apart. We weren't quite able to do that on this occasion. A lovely day on the beach kind of quickly turned into a huge melt down of both kids. We herded them back to the vaparetto as quickly as possible and got them dinner and gelato (of course!) By bed time they were happy again and already thinking back fondly on our beach day.