Naples Vacation

A week ago Erin and I and Erin and Nate Pabst all left work early and headed to the airport to catch a plane to Naples Florida. (FYI - to avoid confusion I will refer to Erin (girl) as "Pabst" from now on) Several months ago we had found a really cheap flight to Naples, and since Pabst's parents live there thought it would be a great place for a quick vacation. I could go on and on and on about Pabst's family. Her mom and Paul are such amazing people who opened their home and lives to us. They were so generous and showed us a great time. Thank you!! Paul's family (extended) was amazing as well. Altogether it was an awesome time. Here is a rundown of events (sorry its so long):

Thursday

We arrive late that night and head to Paul and Debbie's condo and just chat and get ready for bed.

Friday

Busy day. Debbie fixes us an amazing brunch and we head out to see the cute city of Naples. Really neat Italian influenced architecture and shops. Then we go get lunch at a little restaurant called Riverwalk which looks out over the water (Thanks for treating us to lunch Debbie)

That afternoon we head out to the beach and cookout on the beach for dinner. We had an exciting battle with a racoon which you'll have to ask Erin about. :) We then headed back to the condo where we enjoyed the rest of the evening just goofin' off. It was fun!

Saturday

We got up Saturday morning and Debbie, Erin, Pabst, Nate, and I headed off to Ft. Myers (about 20 minutes away) to see the beach.

It was really cool because it was a very crowded place... people everywhere. There were also pelicans all over the place that would let you get right up next to them.

We then played putt-putt golf where we all got extremely sun-burned.

That afternoon we went to the pool at the condo and just goofed off.

For dinner we went to the best pizza place I've ever been to. Paul's sister and her husband and daughter came with all of us to. The restaurant, ZaZa's, is owned and operated by Joe DiMaggio's nephew who is one of the top chefs in the world. In fact, he was the chef for the Rat Pack. Pretty cool huh? Anyway, Marco (paul's brother-in-law) is really good friends with him and they brought out soo many things for us to eat. We had 3 exotic types of pizza (one had lamb and curry and feta cheese :)), we had spicy calamari, amazing bread, and cheesecake, and tiramisu, and canolis. Thanks to the Bazelgette's and Bronzini's for showing us a good time and treating us to dinner. Erin, Nate, Pabst, and I went back home and stayed up way too late... til about 4 am just laughing about the nights events and enjoying vacation.

Sunday

Sunday was our rest day. We got up early and went to the beach until about 3:30. We mostly rested at the beach but we also swam in the ocean and made some sand art :)

Nila and Emily came with us too. We then headed home to get cleaned up for church which was at 5 p.m. Paul and Debbie started a new church in Naples and have grown from 10 to 60 people in 6 months. Paul is such a biblically grounded man of God and Debbie is such a wonderful pastor's wife with such a caring heart. They meet in Marco's art gallery (check out his amazing work at http://www.marcobronzini.com/). Paul and Marco met years ago when they both attended the Royal Academy for Art in London. It was really neat to go there because the people are so on-fire and Erin, Pabst, and I led the music. It was very impromptu but I really feel God used it because the people expressed how appreciative they were and how worshipful it was. The whole crew then headed over to Marco and Nila's house where their ENTIRE family greeted us and we had a wonderful dinner and time of fun. And since Pabst knows DAvid Cook from American Idol really well, she was a big hit with her cousin Rebecca who is a HUGE David Cook fan :) I can honestly say that I have never seen a family who gets along and builds one another up like this family... and thats something given how close I am to my family. But, Paul's family would never make fun of a poor ugly child's snaggle-tooth :)