Adventures in Palmero

=Thoughts from Nathan:

I am going to blog tonight because I am wide awake because tonight I played at the Kids club. I asked to go there before I even got dessert at dinner. Mom and Dad said I must really love it there if I am willing to pass up ice cream. I got to play games outside on the back of the ship then I did the Flamingo Dance with cymbals. Then I watched Toy Story 2 until Dad picked me up. Tomorrow I am going to go back all day while my parents go tour southern Italy.

Today we made our first stop in Palermo, Sicily. It is a beautiful island with mountains and beaches. This was a do on our own day. So the big people decided that we should tackle the shopping in the city first before we headed to the beach. The city is very busy and filled with pickpocketers. Daddy almost got pick pocketed by a little girl but he was “being aware” and quickly moved his bag to the front of him. It was a super hero type move, actually. We walked up and down the same narrow side walk about 20 times, and I am not exaggerating. I about wore the tread off my crocs. I couldn’t figure out the point of all this aimless walking that the adults were doing, they never shopped, they just tried to get us across busy streets without getting run over by Vespas and cars. I even saw taxi drivers fighting with one another in the middle of the street. Mommy says that they don’t follow any kind of traffic laws here. Speaking of Mommy, this whole “experiencing Sicily” on our own thing wasn’t working real well for her. She was nervous, because of all the research she had done, that someone would try to steal something from us or that someone would steal us. Plus, she likes having a plan, and today there was NO PLAN!!!! Thus, creating confusion and disorientation, and a little bit of grumbling. Grampy kept reassuring Mommy that this was a fun way to experience the real Italian culture and it was an adventure. Mommy says she would like to save adventures for places where people speak English and she knows her way around.


After two hours of walking back and forth on the same street we finally found a bus station and got on the craziest bus ever. At first it wasn’t very crowded but the driver kept stopping and picking up more and more people. Some girl with hairy armpits came and sat on the same seat as me. The smell from all the stinky people was getting worse and worse. By the time we got to the beach there was about 500 people on a bus with 10 seats. Uncle Blake thought we were in Mexico. We were so excited to see the sand along with the other 10 million people that live in Sicily and decided to stay home from work today and go to the beach. I am sure the sand would have been beautiful if we could have seen it but there were people everywhere.

All of mommy’s frustrations left after her first glance of the gorgeous Mediterranean Sea. It was the most beautiful water mommy and daddy has ever seen. It was surrounded my really big mountains and cool looking houses. The water and our little patch of sand were fun to play in. We were not at a touristy beach; we were at the beach where all the locals hang out, another “authentic” experience. After an hour or so at Mondello Beach we decided it was time to eat. Mommy, Daddy, Grammy, Grampy, Madelyn and I decided we were better off trying our luck at eating on the ship versus finding a decent place to eat based on our prior “trying to find the bus station” adventure. My aunt and uncle were much braver than us and stayed in Mondello to eat.

We hopped on what we thought was the right bus to go back to the ship but the driver kicked us off and put us on another bus. My parents and grandparents totally looked like tourists, so the driver must have had sympathy for them when they got on the wrong bus. We had an uneventful drive back to Palermo and the bus wasn’t as crowded because every one was already at the beach.


When we got back to the Magic dad and I bee lined it to our stateroom because we were having sand in the swimsuit issues. Mom and Maddie set off for some drinks and time in the Mickey pool. At 5:00 we were in our room getting ready for dinner and we got to watch out of our giant circle window as we left the port of Palermo. It was so cool looking at all the boats and the island as we left.


Madelyn and Ally had fun meeting “Belle, Pocahontas, JoJo and Goliath, Daisy Duck and Goofy tonight. Madelyn has eagerly been awaiting her meeting with Daisy. Each character has a human escort to protect them from little kids, like my sister. Maddie saw Daisy from down a long hall and she bolted from my mom’s hand and headed to daisy like a bullet from a gun. The escort was behind Daisy and as he saw Maddie heading straight for Daisy he tried to jump in front of her but it was too late, my sister had her arms around Daisy and was hugging her like crazy.

After another wonderful dinner, where the beast and Belle did a dance, my parents went to a Magic show until Madelyn announced she was ready to go to sleep. By the way, I am being a nice big brother and letting Madelyn have the top bunk. I want to spare our neighbors her screaming tonight. Plus, I like cuddling up with mom and dad in the middle of the night. Ok, that is all for tonight. Tomorrow: Naples, will mommy survive????