Firenze

We began our southward journey shortly after our final breakfast at La Vignetta (our hotel on lake Como). Breakfast consisted of some delicious cocoa krispies-esque cereal as well as a marmalade croissant alongside a cup of Italiano ciocolatta, but that's beside the point. We got the car all packed up and we were on our way.

Hopped on the autostrada out of Cernobbio due south-ish where we would stay for a couple of hours. Soon after commencing upon the autostrada I busted out ye olde Gameboy Advance SP for some Pokémon Crystal domination. I started by capturing the red GYRADOS at the lake of rage and after that I adjourned to Mahogany Town to rid the town of Team Rockets presence. After quickly dispatching these Rockets I defeated Mahogany Towns gym leader and obtained the corresponding gym badge. Upon completion of these trivial bouts I initiated my journey to the small town of Blackthorn for some R&R before FLYing to Goldenrod to get the underground key from the Rocket member at the top of the radio tower.

Around the time I collected to key from the Rocket executive we were nearing our intended location in Firenze, so I saved and shut off the Gameman. We parked our vehicle in a piazza near our hotel and after some searching we were able to find our two star resort in what seemed like someone's apartment. We unloaded the car, got somewhat settled in our room and set off to see what we could see, but obviously not before stopping for a marvelous burrito/wrap at a nearby kebab shop STOP

Modena/Maranello

Day one in Modena:
GPS brought us to the wrong location initially, but that was eventually sorted out and we arrivened at our hotel at a reasonable hour. After settling in at the hotel we set out to explore the surrounding area and possibly find somewhere to eat. Returning from our walk, unsuccessful in finding a restaurant, we adjourned to the hotel restaurant where we enjoyed a rather splendid meal.

Day two:
Drove initially to the Lamborghini factory, only to be disappointed by the fact that it was closed until early January, much like Ducati. After this happened we ventured on to the Ferrari museum in Maranello, the larger of the two we visited. We spent plenty of time at this museum and took much pixurs of the Ferrari's through the generations, (check Facebook). Upon leaving the museum we were greeted by a woman wanting to know if we would like to drive a Ferrari, we contemplated this for a moment and came to the conclusion that we would very much like to. So we followed her back to their headquarters across the street where we filled out paperwork for driving a California, my father and I each for ten minutes. Dad drove first, with Juliann and I sitting in the back, we rounded the block and returned so I could hop in the front. Only mother and the instructor could fit when I drove since no one could fit behind me. We took off and I switched the car off automatic and turned the steering wheel dial to sport mode when the instructor wasn't looking. I can now say I know what 450hp in a Ferrari feels like.

Damiani Log

Just chillin at Damiani's, drinking the occasional cappuccino, eating croissants con crema, listening to the piano.  It is quite peaceful here, very laid back and no one seems to mind what you're doing.  Anyone can grab a slice of piano and no one asks them if they got permission or asks them to stop.

Everyone here seems to be an expert tennis player and when they they aren't on the court they are relaxing in the hot tub, sharing conversation.  We finally have a couple of rackets to play tennis with, albeit not our own rackets, they should still be able to get the job done until we are able to retrieve ours from Roma.

Hoping to have some church friends over this weekend for some maxin and relaxin, maybe some cards and definitely some hot tub.

This has been yore Captain,
Signing off

Light Refraction

A simple experiment demonstrating refraction of a laser beam through water.

The golden gate bridge as seen through tiny water droplets on a window.

" Refraction can be seen when looking into a bowl of water. Air has a refractive index of about 1.0003, and water has a refractive index of about 1.33. If a person looks at a straight object, such as a pencil or straw, which is placed at a slant, partially in the water, the object appears to bend at the water's surface. This is due to the bending of light rays as they move from the water to the air. Once the rays reach the eye, the eye traces them back as straight lines (lines of sight). The lines of sight (shown as dashed lines) intersect at a higher position than where the actual rays originated. This causes the pencil to appear higher and the water to appear shallower than it really is. The depth that the water appears to be when viewed from above is known as the apparent depth. This is an important consideration for spearfishing from the surface because it will make the target fish appear to be in a different place, and the fisher must aim lower to catch the fish." ~The very reliable source of Wikipedia ~