Operation Only Child: After Action Report

Operation Only Child (OOC) was a success! It was even more fabulous than I had even hoped it would be to have my parents finally come visit me. Of course their original plan of just being lounge lizards with their grand-kitty, looking out over the bay, sipping on local wine and eating fresh mozzarella while I was "locked" in my basement office earning my regular paycheck didn't happen.

I mean, would I really allow that to happen? 
Do Neapolitans follow traffic signals? 
No.

Some of you followed the airline nightmares via Facebook posts- majorly delayed flights from the US to Amsterdam, Lufthansa strike the day we were supposed to return to Naples, luggage going MIA. Despite these events causing a loss of time on their trip, my fabulous Excel spreadsheet schedule didn't get too mess up. So what did we do? What didn't we do?

Day
1-4    Spent exploring Amsterdam, praying for some warmth and sunshine to force the tulips to bloom.
5    Arrived back in Naples to pick up Neeks and much needed groceries
6    Amalfi Coast and Sorrento exploring
7    Italian cooking class & the meeting of my coworkers over dinner and karaoke
8    Downtown Naples!
9    Rain cancelled the market trip, but Italian mall still experienced
10    Birthday BBQ
11    Drove 700+ miles to Nove, to go dish shopping before dinning and exploring Verona, after dark
12    Left Verona, arrived Parma for the "food tour" and then exploring of Parma in the evening
13    Left Parma, visited War Memorial outside of Florence before arriving in Sienna
14    Windy roads through Tuscany and visiting Montepulciano and Orvieto
15    Mom and Dad explored the town I live in and now know more of the locals than I do!
16    Departed Naples for the California homestead...without major delays or lost luggage.

Official posts will be made within the week and expect a guest post or two as well. The trip was fabulous, and a not so surprising thing I learned- I'm so thankful I'm not really an only child! Two parents and one kid is a terrible ratio for the kid, way too much attention, especially when said kid hasn't seen parents in over 6 months and lives 9 time zones away.