The first 36 hours in Venice

Last night, we wandered around a bit, found some wonderful food (with a few surprises), and made some friends. We stopped for dinner at a nice place on the Grand Canal. I wanted to get something that Venice was known for, so I opted for one of their seafood specialties. The oysters I ordered came out on a HUGE rack with a tub of ice and 6 oysters on it. We were cracking up because that is not what we expected at all. The thing took up the whole table and I couldn't see Angie until I finished it. The waiters were a kick and really liked it when I ordered a second dinner. Then, the waiters brought another table a dessert and sang Happy Birthday. Obviously, we had to do this. Since Rebecca's birthday is closest, we chose her. I told the waiters her name and a couple minutes later...

We were officially the popular people at the restaurant at this point. If we weren't yet, then this action shot sealed the deal. Here's Angie fishing in the fresh seafood display.

Today, we went to the island of Lido per Angie's suggestion. She told us about when she, her mom, and friend were in Venice and mentioned a "3 person bicycle". Obviously, we had to try this. Rebecca and I were picturing a bicycle built for 2 with just a 3rd seat, so we were quite nervous about this plan. But, we didn't say anything and just went with it. To our surprise, this bicycle was close to the best invention ever made. It's like a golf cart with 2 sets of pedals and obviously no motor. Let me just tell you, we were the coolest thing since sliced bread while riding in this thing. Hills were a challenge, but if the 3rd person (the non-pedaller) would simply fling herself to the front, that would help with some of it. It had a hand break and the two pedalers were sorta hanging off the side a little, but that was all part of the fun. Also, only one of the stearing wheels actually did anything. This really bothered Rebecca when she was at the "dummy wheel".

As we made stops along our way, we had to enable the security system. This involved us chaining it to a pole. This thing was awesome. Here's a video of Reba and Angie rockin the Pimp Wagon.

We stopped at a "private beach" on the Adriatic Sea with all the real Europeans. After collecting some shells and cooling off, we were asked to leave. So we did, and rode around a little more in CTE (coolest thing ever), got some pizza, and hunted for gelato.

We returned our ride and aired ourselves out while eating gelato. (It's a LITTLE hot here) While walking around Lido, we found the reason to return there with MORE friends. This baby can fit 6 people. AND it has headlights and a bell that works. What more could you want?

Well, we're going to go suffer through another Italian meal and most likely round it out with some gelato while watching the Euro Cup semi-finals. What a rough life we are leading.