My parent's have collapsed!

Well, it's hard to sum up the remainder of our trip although yesterday (the return flights home) would be described as nothing less than exhausting, which I'm pretty sure after Venice my parents would say the following week was pure hell! I think they had a great time, don't get me wrong, it was just very hard for them, the walking, the long hours awake, the endless halls of museums, the Tour di Catholocism (aka - church death-march), the cobble-stones, the high winding stairs of the Duomo, absence of caloric intake (my lack of fore-sight to pack snacks), the lack of public restrooms and their disappointment that Benedict didn't accompany us on the Church Death-March. After 27 hours of traveling yesterday, we were laid up in Chicago longer than we were supposed to be, apparently they were having problems with the lavatory of which I don't think a single person used in the 35 minute flight!

Looking back at it though, as we were driving out of Rome, I think the "negative" aspects of the trip started to fade in my parent's minds, all they could talk about was how amazing it was to actually see the pope and to see St. Peter's bones (more on this later). It made me especially happy to know that everything didn't just "suck", as their initial impressions had led me to believe, and they had some really great experiences in between the "suck" periods. I think I may have made my Dad finally see the superiority of red wines... okay, maybe that's a bit far but I think he's able to drink them without the usual grimacing choke that usually accompanied his intermittent swallows. It was also interesting to see my Dad semi-intoxicated on a nightly basis, having grown up and been privy to him being drunk once in my life.

I think though, I owe my parents a large debt of gratitude for them being such good sports with everything that was thrown at them. It was long hard trip, of which they've never experienced before, I really did punish them for all of our summer family vacations. Jenny and Sarah can back me up on this, when we were thirsty from walking all day long, July in Orlando is hell, through the amusement parks of Disney my Dad would casually tell us to, "swallow our spit" instead of buying us a $2 bottle of water. Or when we needed to go to the restroom tell us that after the next three rides we would be closer to the bathroom; the ride lines were each an hour long! Or going all day with only breakfast in our stomachs until we finished with the parks around 8pm, finally going to a restaurant to eat only to realize that our stomachs hurt as the food re-stretched them to size.

Well, it was payback time, although I didn't plan on it, the trip in Italy was interestingly cruel to them. Now that they're older, going to the restroom is much more frequent, kind of like when you're 8 years old! Also, my parents and Betsy and I being the cheap-skates we are, tried our best to get by on breakfast in morning and have an afternoon treat of gelato before eating dinner in the evening, of which I didn't and probably will never hear the end of.

They did great though, just like Bill and Laura a month before them, they put up with whatever was thrown at them and, aside from a little whining and crying, dealt with it as well as any other 58 year olds would. It was great to stand behind them and see how excited they became as they saw the pope bless the crowds below in St. Peter's Square! Or to hear my Mom actually ask questions on the tour of St. Peter's tomb, it really showed her interest in the tour. Anyway, I feel this is getting long-winded, like most of my posts, so I'll talk about our experiences tomorrow, accompanied with our "best-of" pictures we took along our trip. It feels good to be back, thank god for real peanut-butter and pretzels, oh how I missed you so!
-Ryan