Today we decided to rent a boat and ride up
the Emerald Coast searching for fun places to play. First, however we packed up our stuff for the
next day, then we took the bus down to
“La Grotta dello Smeraldo”, the Emerald Cave. It was an easy access trip because instead of
going down a million steps down to the water level like we usually have to do
each time we go anywhere. They actually
had an elevator!. Our guide looked like
a lumberjack and was actually pretty animated in his description of the
cave. It was pretty large and the bottom
of the cave was very blue. The blue is
caused by natural light that comes into the cave from a hole in the rock below
sea level. He took us around and told us
the facts of the cave with a mysterious voice.
The coolest part was when he used his oar to splash the water on next to
the blue spot and the whole cave turned into a million sparkling blue droplets. Then came the cheesy part of the boat
ride. In Italy everyone tries to find
Mary, “ the Madonna” or Jesus in everything from a piece of toast(actually
seen), a chip(actually seen) to a rock or even a stain. I’m not sure why, but someone put some
statues that were the same color as stalagmites at the bottom of the cave of
the manger scene and tried to make us think they were just created like
that. It was obviously fake, but it was
just funny that they tried to do that.
As we left, we passed by a giant group of Japanese tourists that Lucy
impressed with her Japanese and after we bought a bunch of fruit from an
awesome fruit vendor that gave us a bunch of free stuff, we headed to the beach
for an hour before we rented our boat.
At the beach we encountered the same crowd that was telling me that my
baby had rocks in her mouth as usual.
There was also an obese Italian man who told us we couldn’t put our
stuff in front of them, even though there was plenty of room. We had a small argument with him and the
people around us were embarrassed so everyone was being extra nice saying we
could be close to them. Then the rest of
his large family came over and they all started doting on my kids saying, “look
how blonde and beautiful these kids are!” to their fat father, and then I made
friends with their family. Aaah haah. He was pretty embarrassed. I ended up talking for about a half hour to
Laura, our neighbor, about the restoration of the church and she seemed really
interested. It’s so interesting to do
missionary work now that I’m not called as a missionary. As a mother of four, people have a lot of
respect for me here and it seems like they listen to me. It feels easier to share the gospel with
women. I feel like I really connect with
them, unlike when I was younger and single.
I kind of wish I could go on a mission as a young mother here in Italy
somehow. I just love sharing the gospel
in Italian. I think I will love going on
a mission when I’m older. After Justin
yelled at me 5 times that I needed to come right in the middle of my testimony,
ugh, we went and waited for the boat for 15 minutes. Double ugh.
We got on the boat and headed off on our epic adventure. We hunted down awesome places to jump off, found
a giant cave with a beach inside it, swam out in the middle of the ocean,
jumped off the boat, and caught tiny crabs.
Henry and I climbed up into an arch and jumped off into the ocean. It was probably about 15 feet up, which is a
lot for Henry. He’s a brave boy. We took a million photos of the beautiful
hillside and even let the kids drive the boat a little bit. The water was a perfect temperature, the sun
was shining, the kids were happy and we had a wonderful time. At 6pm we returned the boat and ate gelato on
the beach. I met some really beautiful
people at a restaurant that turned out to be the restaurant owner’s son, his
actress girlfriend and their friend who was a high fashion designer. They were pretty much the most beautiful
Italians I have ever met. I invited them
to our house in Utah to go skiing. The
actress girl said she was a snowboarder, so maybe I can convince her to come
out to ski. We waited for the bus for a
half hour and finally got home around 8pm and tried to go to our neighborhood
party, which we missed most of and put the kids to bed. I found Laura and gave her a pass along card
with the Italian information for the church on it. There really isn’t a ward around where she
lives, but maybe she would be able to go to Sorrento, which is about an hour
away. Just as we were finishing our
dinner of Buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes, we heard the disco party music
start. We even saw an Italian family
arriving at 11:30 with their three small children. My jaw was pretty much on the floor. Incredible.
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