Visit from the girls

The girls arrived on August 1st. They were quite jet lagged. In spite of this, Mark piled them into the car the next day and we took a 7 hour trip to the coast stopping several times along the way.

Medugorje
One of the places we stopped was a Medugorje. In 1981 6 teenagers saw a vision of the Virgin Mary and has become a great tourist spot...especially among the Catholics. The climb to the sight of the vision is VERY rocky and steep. Here Cara, Melissa and Megan are making the climb.









Here Megan is saying a prayer. The statue represents where the Virgin Mother was seen. You can tell by the vista that it is very high up. The view is simply spectacular.





The Coast- Villa Kukuljica
After we left Medugorje, we proceeded to the Adriatic coast. This area is known as the "Croatian Riviera" and they advertise "The way the Mediterranean used to be." We stayed at a small Villa. The owner speaks English and made our stay there most enjoyable. His mom is the cook and the food was delicious. We ate a lot of fish and Melissa had beef or chicken.














Cara took this picture from her window at the Villa. You can see that the water was right in front of the villa. This was actually a little bay off the Adriatic. The water was very blue and clear. Because it is protected from the winds from the surrounding mountains, occasionally yacht's would anchor there at night.
The first few days were overcast but that didn't stop our family from jumping into the water...


The water was a bit chilly, but it warmed up quickly when everyone got to jump on daddy!!

The next day we just relaxed, took it easy and read. The favorite novel of the week was, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince". Megan finished it, Melissa devoured it in a day, and I took 3 days to enjoy it.


As you may imagine, my family was getting a little perturbed that I took so many pictures. I did notice, however, that Cara seemed to be into taking pictures also. I asked my family to look a me for a photo and Cara turned the tables on me a got a picture of me taking a picture of them.

Dubrovnik
One day we went to the city of Dubrovnik. This city has it's beginnings dating from the 7th century. The old walled city has most of it's history starting in the 10-11th centuries. Mark and I had been to Dubrovnik when we took our cruise in April. This time we had more time to spend in the city. We all wanted to walk the wall around the city. The views were spectacular!! There was one small problem....there are only a few entrances/exits onto the wall making it hard to get off if needed.......and we needed to. As you can see from the following pictures, the sky was darkening and it was the middle of the day. There was a deluge of rain and no where to go. At times the rain was so hard it stung the skin! Being the troupers that we are, we did not seek shelter (really, there was no shelter to be found), we walked, and walked and walked until we found an exit. Needless to say, we were soaking wet. Mark's phone got so wet it stopped functioning completely. It took 2 days for my purse to dry out. It's was one of those adventures that will remain with us for many many years.


After Cara and Mark parked the car, they were looking for us in the old city. Here Cara caught Mark talking on the phone to me trying to find where Melissa, Megan and I were.
When Mark and Cara got to the old city, Cara took a photo of all the tourists in the streets. Dubrovnik has become a VERY popular spot.










Mom would have had a fit if she were with me. I had half my leg hanging off the wall to get the photo


Cara, Me and Megan


Melissa and Mark





Family Photo-Cara, Megan, Mark,Melissa, Me


Looking out at the sea. Cara looking out on the wall


Ominous clouds waiting to shower on us.





















Lunch at Dvork-
Mark had heard of this lovely restaurant called Dvork - which means "castle". The restaurant was situated on a beautiful stream. It was cool, refreshing and peaceful. The only thing it didn't seem to have.....was a castle!!











This is a picture of Cara in front of the window. The waterfall you see is the reflection of the waterfall in second picture.

Mostar


On our way home we stopped in Mostar. The bridge you see was built in 1556 by the Turks. During their most recent war, the bridge was blown up. After the war, the people of Mostar wanted to maintain some of their history. They went into the river below, got out as much of the stones as possible and rebuilt this bridge. It is quite a beautiful sight.

Lukomir, Bjelasnica

After we got back to Sarajevo, Mark took the girls on a hiking trip to a SMALL village called Lukomir on the mountain of Bjelasnica. Bjelasnica is the tallest mountain range and where the mens downhill skiing took place during the 1984 winter olympics. The village has about 10-12 families and only got electricity to the village about 2 years ago. According to Mark, doesn't look like they know how to use it yet!! Cara took these pictures and did a FANTASTIC job on them.












This is the village and a photo of Melissa, Mark and Megan
Talk about a breath taking view. Cara seemed to have gotten all the right aspects of this photo.






Melissa is resting and enjoying God's handiwork!!











White Water Rafting on the Neretva River

Our boat consisted of Mark, Megan, Cara, Melissa, Haris, Steve and me. Haris is a Bosnian and a friend of Mark's and Steve is a friend of ours and works for Mark on his project here.











Mark looks SOOOOO good in a hat, doesn't he????? LOLOLOL!!!! The Rafting company supplies all the equipment we needed including helmets. We could have worn wet suits, but we scoffed at the thought. However, as we later found out, the laugh was on us!! The water was VERY cold....VERY, VERY, VERY cold!!





The river ran through a canyon that was beautiful. I was trying to capture the magnificence but it didn't seem to work that well.










The rafting trip was not a very difficult one. Here is one area that we had to go through. That was another raft on our excursion.









Melissa can't stand it when I take her picture. Isn't she crazy???


For the most part we stayed inside the boat, but occasionally one of the children...hhmmm....decided he wanted to play and jumped off the side of the boat. He learned quickly what the term "cold water" meant.












Unfortunately, Megan sat right behind me on the boat and it was difficult to get a good photo of her. If I could only turn myself 180 degrees, this photo would have been perfect!









Cara was sitting across and behind me, so I did get a good shot of her.














"Motley Crew"!!!
We had a great time spashing each other with cold water, laughting and enjoying each others company. However, next time I go white water rafting, it will be with a wet suit!!








Fun times in our apartment


Melissa on the computer talking to Ian














Megan taking photos











Mark and Cara dancing to God knows what, but having a great time doing it!!


The girls go back to the United States.....

I had the most wonderful time with my daughters. I think they really enjoyed themselved also. One evening just before they left, Mark and the girls were playing cards in the dining room and I was on the computer in our bedroom. You might think I was being unsociable, but I was having the best time enjoying my favorite sound.....the sound of my family laughing.