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Argentina (July '08)

After celebrating Rocco's 1st birthday in San Diego, Mike Flynn drove us to Los Angeles where we boarded a plane to start our travels to Argentina. We flew from LA to Dallas then Dallas to Argentina... all this took 14 hours! To and from Argentina you have to take redeyes and luckily Rocco did sleep on both of those legs. After arriving in Buenos Aires, we met up with Matt and Nicole at the apartment we had rented in Palermo SOHO. To take advantage of our time there, we caught a tango show at Cafe Torini after Rocco played in a nearby playground. The second day there, we took a city tour which drove us all over Buenos Aires: the Pink House, Recoletta, La Boca (where Tango started), and many other places. We also visited Evita Peron's grave site - this cemetary is quite impressive. After the tour and Rocco's nap at 10pm, we headed to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Everywhere serves steaks and LARGE portions of it too. Day three we boarded a flight to Iguazu Falls. We thought we'd be at the airport only for a little while and at the falls by 5pm but unfortunately we did not arrive at Iguazu until almost 9pm. There was a full moon so we were still able to see the falls. The next day we woke early to hike the falls. Iguazu is much larger than Niagara and is quite impressive. After a full day of hiking in the heat, we headed back to the hotel before catching our flight back to BA. After seeing this massive piece of beauty, we took a day trip from BA to Tigre. Tigre is a river town about 45 minutes from BA where the locals go for a quick getaway. We took a river tour here and went to the Puerto de Frutos to do some local shopping. After arriving back in BA we were hungry so we headed to a restaurant our friend Gisselle Vinas recommended, Cabana las Lilas. This place was tasty! The next day was Matt and Nicole's final day and we still had one more day after that. We were going to go to Uruguay for the day but all the boats were sold out so we meet up with Matt and Nicole in San Telmo. It was Sunday so there was a large antique market and lots of musicians playing in the street. There was so much to see we pretty much spent the entire day there. It was also starting to get really cold out so we figured we should start trying to get Rocco back on schedule so we headed home about early. The next day was our final day but our flight wasn't until the evening so we went to the Children's Museum. It was an amazing museum... they had make believe everything there and Rocco loved it. It was a great place to wear him out before our long flight home!

 

European Vacation (June '08)

We have been very lucky and had the opportunity to visit Paris, France; Stuttgart, Germany; and Amsterdam, Netherlands. We traveled with a good friend of ours Nanci (from USD). We only had 10 days so we were on the fast track trying to get as much in at each one of these places. My mom's favorite was Amsterdam, she says it was very picturesque. My dad liked Paris and Amsterdam equally. In Paris, Naci and Ricardo went to the French Open (Roland Garros) to watch the women's finals as my mom and I caught up on much needed sleep (we totally felt the jet lag). From Paris, we took the bullet train to Stuttgart to visit with Israel and his fiance, Nicole. We were there for one short day before we drove to Amsterdam. We rented a house boat in Amsterdam which was walking distance to everything. We visited the Anne Frank house, the flower market, the red light district (and of course much more).

 

Raleigh, NC (Apr '08)

With my mom's busy travel schedule, dad and I decided to meet my mom in Raleigh, NC. This also allowed us to visit Uncle Chris, Aunt Sheri and my cousing Madison... this visit was LONG overdue. We had such a good time hanging out, visiting Duke gardens and Pulling Park. Can't wait to have them visit us in Boston so we show them around our town.

 

Puebla, MX (Apr '08)

My dad had a talk to give in Pueble, Mexico, so of course my mom and I decided to tag along. Grandpa Jorge has lots of family there so we got to visit with them. Cousin Luli's also goes to school in Puebla so we also had a nice visit with her in the park. It was such a nice trip!

 

Zacatecas & Guadalajara, MX (Sep '07)

In my second month of life we also went to Mexico for my daddy's work.  We went the weekend before my mom started back to work!  Like I said, it's been a busy month traveling and visiting family all over.

 

 Madrid, Spain (Sep '07)

Here are the first few pictures of my second month here on earth.  It's been quite a busy month... I had my first round of shots, I met Grandpa Valerdi for the FIRST time and we also went to Spain. 

 

 San Diego, CA (Aug '07)

The day before my one month birthday, I hopped on my first transcontinental flight with my mom and dad!  We went to San Diego to celebrate my dad's 30th birthday and to spend the week relaxing and visiting with family and friends.  We had tons of fun and saw tons of people.  I really enjoyed myself while there... I even gave my parents a break and put myself on somewhat of a schedule.  I had the eating, wake time, sleep time down while we were there.  It must have been the perfect weather that San Diego is known for!

 

 Greece (Mar '07)

Mom & dad along with me in the belly visited Greece for 10 days in late March/early April. They referred to this trip as their "babymoon". Not much planning went in to this trip but they took full advantage of their stay and enjoyed every minute of it.  Before arriving in Greece, we had a two day lay-over in London and a nights stay in Milan.  When finally arriving in Greece, we visited Athens our first night there.  That Sunday, we hiked up to the Acropolis and visited with Spiros, an MIT alum, and some of his friends Vanessa and Vassilis.  They showed us all around Athends.  The next day we took a 4-day cruise (Mon-Fri) from Piraeus and visited Mykonos, Kusadasi (in Turkey), Patmos, Rhodes, Crete, and Santorini.  In Santorini, we saw a cruise ship we had been traveling with hit a reef, the ship was evacuated then ended up sinking the following morning.  Friday, upon arriving back in Athens we shared a car with a mother and son who'd we met on the cruise and drove 3 hours to Delphi.  We spent the day visiting the ruins then met up with Spiros who invited us to dinner in his mother's home town of Arahova which happened to be 10 km from Delphi.  There we ate delicious food and watched an Easter parade there before calling it a night.  The next day we took a bus back to Athens so we could start our journey back home to Boston... enjoy the pictures! 

 

 
Thailand (Nov '06)

We spend 10 days in November with Matt Dente and Mike Flynn traveling throughout Thailand.  We visited Bangkok, Pitsanulok, Chiang Mai, Phuket, and Kuala Lumpur.  During our visit we all took advantage of a daily foot massage!