This morning started like the others with a stop at 7-Eleven for breakfast before heading out. We got all sorts of breakfast treats. Then to the subway to Asakusa to see visit the Samurai museum, see the Senso-ji Buddhist Temple and finally arts and crafts. Starting at the samurai experience, Continue Reading
Japan Day 3- Shibuya and Tokyo Dome
Matt got up early to run a very popular 5K loop that circles the Imperial Palace moat. The plan was to take the subway to skip about third of the loop and jog back to the hotel, which was another 2 miles. Unfortunately, Matt was in the flow and absorbed Continue Reading
Japan Day 2- Shinjuku and Studio Ghibli
The Cordinas all were jetlagged and woke up early (somewhere around 4:30am with the sunrise). Melanie and Charles were the first ones up and explored the 7-eleven convenience store and took a walk. Then Matt, Belinda and Lily joined them for 7-eleven breakfast and smoothies. Then we all went on Continue Reading
Japan Day 1- Arrival
In March we figured out that all 5 of us were going to have 2 weeks of time at the end of July to go on a family trip together. Since Lily’s senior trip involved mountain climbing, Matt felt that Melanie’s senior trip should also include scaling a mountain. Thus Continue Reading
Greece
Day 5 – Wednesday: Traveling to Greece (Continued) The flight to Thessaloniki Greece and drive to the hotel was uneventful. Right when we arrived at the hotel, Lily also arrived and gave everyone a big hug. It was great to see her. We checked into the hotel and then went Continue Reading
Italy
Day 0 – Thursday/Friday: Getting to Cortona The morning of our trip we found out that our MSP to Paris leg was delayed, leaving us only 50 minutes to get through Charles De Gaulle Airport and customs. Fearing that was too tight and that it could get delayed further, Belinda Continue Reading
Safari
7/8/24 – The “journey” begins We had an early breakfast with everyone, before meeting up with our Safari guides and saying goodbye to James and Ari, who were not joining us on the Safari. Our drivers were Juma and Idona. The first day was a drive to Lake Manyara, where Continue Reading
Kilimanjaro
Our African adventure was during the summer after Lily’s senior year. Melanie had just returned from the Orlando volleyball tournament 2 days before we were to leave. Matt, Lily and Melanie met James, Aaron, and Ari at MSP and flew 9hrs to Amsterdam where we met up with Moody and Continue Reading
Day 7- Cherry Blossoms!
Our dream came true and we were in Washington DC for the peak of cherry blossoms. In just 24 hours they had burst out and every tree was full of white and pink blossoms. We started the day by walking to the National Zoo. Most animals were still inside, but Continue Reading
Day 6: Capital and Bike Tour
Today started with a pretty early tour of the Capital. We were out the door by 8:45 and started off at the US Capital Visitor’s Center. We were in a pretty long line after a large tour group, so we were a little worried about making our 9:30 tour start, Continue Reading