4CarpenterHouse

We have been very busy getting settled in here in Sigonella.  Things are starting to come together.  The car arrived a few days early and we finally moved into our house.  All our personal    property that we shipped will come Monday 30th of June.  We are happy to be getting our house in order since we packed up in Middletown on May 5th.  We upgraded to a new camera (GoPro) so some the pictures will seem strange due to the wide angle effect.  We will get that adjusted and keep on sharing. Coffee bar in Motta, the closest real town to where we are living.  Enjoying a Sunday morning out.  This is the Navy pool which was located just outside the hotel on base that we stayed at for 3 weeks.  The family got to spend lots of time here cooling off and getting the kids out of the room.  The girls are complete "water dogs" they love swimming above or below.  Deanna testing the deep end.  Mark laying on...

We have been spending lots of time in and around water to cool off.  The summer weather is here in Sigonella,  temperatures have been in the mid to high eighties during the day and in the sixties at night.  We have two very nice pools close by, actually just across the street on both sides of our hotel.  One pool is owned by the Navy and the other in owned by the Sigonella Inn. The Sigonella Inn has the swim up bar with loud, loud music all day long.  The girls have found money and credit cards lost on the pool floor during their morning swims. The girls with their goggles. The Sigonella Inn pool is calm in the morning to mid day, after that is starts to get crazy with the Italian pool party groups. Dad resting Kestrel modeling on the pool side with Laurel behind in the kiddie pool area. We took a trip to the local beach yesterday to see how the Italians do the beach.  We found a public/private beach club that let us Americans i...

Last Sunday Deanna's Deputy Public Works Officer and his wife took our family out to a local Agriturismo named (Borgo Antico) for a late lunch.  It had great views and surrounded by citrus, olives and fields of wheat.  We were warned before lunch started about the large amount of food we were going to received, but we were unprepared.  The antipasti course had at least 15 different plates, then 2 pasta dishes, 2 meat dishes followed by dessert and coffee.  We were stuffed, a few small walks around the farm helped settle our stomachs.  Met several nice groups of guests there and had fun talking with everyone.  Below are a few pictures of the area.

We made our first big trip into Catania yesterday, with help from our sponsor.   Catania is the largest city near Sigonella and is about a 20 minute drive.  We agreed it had the feeling of a smaller version of Naples.  That being the traffic, people, markets and the food.  The girls were quite impressed by the crowds and crazy traffic, the parents just thought back to our Naples days and smiled. The duomo in city center A sampling at snack time.  It was a small coffee bar outside the Duomo with great people watching. We walked through the Saturday fish market.  It was quite impressive on the variety and quantity of seafood.  The local vendors really played it up for the girls (bringing out a live octopus to play with). Craft market on a small side street. Roman ruins, we walked down inside to explore the passages and walkways below. We stopped at a restaurant next to the Catania castle and ate alfresco out o...