The Wilson's: June 2012

Trip to Venice with Mom

One of my favorite places in Europe is Venice, Italy. Just a few hours after Luke's karate tournament ended mom and I headed out to Venice for mothers day! We arrived around 11 pm and took a cab into Venice. Once we arrived in Venice we caught a water taxi to the island of Lido where we stayed. We got to our hotel around 1 am. It was so nice to finally get to lay down. We woke up to gloomy, rainy, ugly whether. Luckily I had packed my umbrella and at the water station mom got herself one too...I was a little worried that the vendors wouldn't open in the rain because the masks were the main reason for our visit! Luckily around ten the clouds disappeared and the sun, and vendors, came out. It turned out to be a beautiful day. We hopped on the water taxi and made our way to St. Marks Square.

Photo from the top of St. Marks Basilica.

Mom LOVED the manequins dressed in costumes from the 1500's.

Our gondola ride.

Photo of mom sitting on the gondola.

Self portrait.

Photo of the Grand Canal.

St. Mark's Square.

There was some kind of sailboat race going on while we were there.

Photo of all the water taxi's.

The American boat.

Mom is going to make this for Micah for Halloween.

This costume for me for Halloween.

View from our hotel.

View of the back of our hotel. Our trip to Venice was a quick one. We arrived at 1 am on Sunday morning, shopped ALL day Sunday and headed back to Germany Monday morning at 6 am. Venice wore me out, but we had an amazing mothers day!

USAFE Karate Tournament

The USAFE Karate Tech International European Championships took place while mom and Darrell were here. Luke competed in February and did well and was very excited to compete in this tournament, he couldn't wait to show Mimi Pogue and Papaw Wilson what he could do! It was a long day, but it turned out great! This particular tournament was for Karate Tech students only, the last one had Kuk Sool Won and students from other European bases. This tournament was a Karate Tech tournament only and was a world qualifier. The tournament started off with a "family" picture.

Family photo.

This is Luke asking the judges if he can begin.

This is Luke finishing. Apparently I didn't get any photos in between. :(

Luke placed second and his buddy Jacob placed third.

This is how much Tucker enjoyed being there ALL day long.

This is Luke in his first sparring match.

He won.

He did great!

His second match.

He won this one too.

His third match.

He was up 2-0. It only takes 3 points to win.

I think the officials misses a few points.

The kid came back and beat him 3-2. I was more disappointed than Luke was.

Second place in sparring.

Ta Da! Second place in sparring!

One proud little boy with two second place trophies. Luke qualified for the world tournament in Wales in August, although the jury is still out on whether or not we will attend. Luke really wants to go so we will have to see. Either way he has had an amazing year in Karate!

Trip to Trier

Trier is one of my favorite places to visit and has an amazing Christmas Market. It's only about an hour from our home so it was a perfect place to take mom and Darrell for a day trip while Luke was in school. Trier is a medieval village said to have been founded in 2000 BC, it is the oldest city in Germany. Trier has a few amazing attractions to visit, the first is the Porta Nigra or Black Gate. The Porta Nigra was built between 186 and 200 BC. During the Roman times it was one of four gates and is the only one that still remains. We toured the inside of the gate and from the top you can get an amazing view of the city.

The Porta Nigra.

Mom enjoying the view.

Me and Tuck walking to the top.

Tucker pretending to be a statue.

Mom posing with a Roman soldier, well the cardboard cutout of one. :)

The Cathedral of Trier is the oldest cathedral in the country. It was ordered to be built by Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine. Helena is credited with bringing religious relics to the church such as the nails used on Christ when he was crucified and the Shroud of Turin. The shroud is only displayed for the public every 10 years, and it was displayed during our visit!

This is the only picture mom got before she was told to turn off the camera. You can usually take pictures inside the cathedral and the ropes you see are not usually there. You can also tour the entire church, but because the Shroud was being shown church access was limited and photographs were verboten. They gave out post cards with a photo of the Shroud which we did appreciate since we couldn't take our own and we got to touch the glass box it was displayed in. I'm not completely convinced it's authentic, but it was still an pretty incredible.