crashing through Europe

We spent the past two weeks soaking up some much needed R&R in Breckenridge after our Rick Steves “Heart of Europe” tour.  We hit some bumps on our journey -- by bumps I mean a Volkswagen SUV driven by a priest who blasted through a stop sign right in front of our bus.  We totalled a beautiful 50 passenger Mercedes touring coach and squashed the VW like a bug.  The priest was lucky (I refuse to say miraculously) to be alive with only broken legs.  I had the bad luck of having my seat belt and shoes off because I was about to put lotion on my feet; I went sliding down from the front seat to under the driver's legs/steering column.  I cut my big toe and punctured the inside back of my right knee.  As much as I love Europe, I’m not sure it loves me: this was the third incident there where I wonder if the universe is trying to kill me off!  Porlock in UK; a lyme infected tick in Finland; and a reckless priest in Poland!!  Come on, Europe, let’s be friends.  Always trying to look on the bright side: it did result in us having a nice evening with Rick, who stopped by to say hi to our group after the crash.  In all other ways the tour was lovely, with fabulous traveling companions and abundantly informative tours of Prague, Krakow, Aushchwits, Budapest, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Rovinj, and Plitvice Lakes National Park.  After the tour we spent four days wandering the back waters of Venice. Wow, we saw and experienced so much.    Pictures

In Breckenridge we celebrated Bruce and Mom’s birthdays with two fabulous dinners, fed Larry, my parents' pet trout, and visited with my cousins, James and Mollie.  We went gold panning, super sliding, and hiking with the kids.  For Bruce’s birthday I took him canoeing on Lake Dillon, where we watched osprey feed a nest of babies.  Pictures.  

This afternoon I have my “vitamins” at CC and then we are off to LAX for the last trip of the summer, Australia.  I have promised to stay away from salt water crocs, sharks, box jellies, snakes, funnel wed spiders, hormonal male kangaroos, cassowary, and any other Aussie beasties that are deadly.  

Every day is precious,  

Hugs to all, Michelle