The American Family Goerss

Rome

My dad turns 80 this year, and he wanted to celebrate with a trip to Italy. It's a bit of a haul for us from Malaysia, but he kindly scheduled the trip when the girls and I had a week long break, so we made it happen. He rented a house for the whole family about an hour outside of Rome, and since our flight got in very late on a Saturday night, I figured the best thing to do would be to spend the night in Rome and drive out the next day. We also didn't want to waste being in Rome, especially since it was Elena's first time there, and Vivian didn't remember coming when she was three, so I booked us a private tour for the morning. I wasn't sure how jet lagged the girls would be, and I figured having a tour just for us gave us the leeway to go at whatever speed everyone was up for. The girls threw their coins in the Trevi Fountain, so they'll be back to see the rest of the city another time.

A driver picked us up at the hotel and took us to downtown Rome. Elena thought it was so cool to go backwards.

We met our guide in Piazza del Popolo. I took Elena for a quick rest stop, and Jeff and Vivian went into full photography mode. Jeff loves to take pictures, and Vivian loves to pose for pictures, so left unsupervised, they can take dozens. Jeff was especially proud of catching the bird in this one.

It is a lovely piazza, and we got an early start, so the lighting was interesting.

Of course, Jeff and Vivian can't resist a joke. They decided it looked like this fountain was spewing water onto her head.

After showing us all the roads that go to and from this piazza, our guide took us over to the Spanish steps.

We stopped to admire the fountain in front of them, and our guide explained that all the fountain water in Rome is clean and drinkable.

Elena thought this was great, so she went down and caught some for our water bottle. She drank it and pronounced it delicious.

Then, we posed, so that our guide could take pictures of us with the steps.

Next stop was the Trevi Fountain, and the girls threw their coins in.

By that point of course, they were hungry, so we got them some gelato.

We got back in the car and drove around Rome a bit. It was a Mercedes van, and I really didn't think it was going to fit down some of the roads we went down, but it made it. We circled around Piazza Venezia, and he dropped us off in front of the "wedding cake", officially the Victor Emmanuel II Monument.

Behind it is the ancient Roman Forum, and the roads are closed on Sunday, so we walked around, and our guide quickly go us through the ticketing area.

It's a spectacular place. The girls were especially impressed by the cobblestones which were part of the original Roman road.

Our guide explained how most of the Forum had been underground until recently. The part we were walking on was the level of most of the city.

The paths of the Forum were quite a ways beneath us.

We walked through the Forum, led by our guide who gave lively explanations of the history of the various areas, what they were used for, which ones were temples to what, etc. She was very engaging, but she especially won our hearts by explaining what all the various herbs and plants were to Elena. Elena became her little apprentice and collected all the things she pointed out. One of the most interesting was capers which produce a beautiful flower I had no idea about.

Finally, we made our way all the way through and approached the legend itself, the Colosseum.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of people there. The line to buy tickets stretched farther than we could see. We felt very fortunate to have our guide who had our pre-purchased tickets on her phone. First, we took a picture outside.

Then, she led us through the entrance with no line.

She could tell that Elena was fading. She tried to entertain her by pointing out the pillar and an arch pattern that holds up the many floors of the Colosseum, but we all figured the best route was the most direct one. Our guide had a quick chat in Italian with one of the guards and got us in the elevator to the top, so that Elena didn't have to deal with the steps.

Viv got her photo op as well. She would have made a fabulous Roman Empress.

Our guide got one more picture of us with the Forum behind us.

We did a quick pass through the gift shop, and then we went down the stairs and across the street towards our lunch restaurant.

Some Coca Cola and pasta pepped Elena right up. The meal was included in our tour and it had the standard pasta and meat courses. We couldn't eat it all, but we did our best, and then we rolled back to the car. We said a fond farewell to our guide, and then the driver took us back to the hotel.

We had been pretty out of it when we arrived the night before, but before we left, I took a picture of the impressive mural in the lobby and restaurant area.

The driver waited for us while we picked up our bags, and then he dropped us off at the car rental section of the airport, so that we could pick up our rental car and drive out to Lake Bracciano to meet up with my family. Our time in Rome was short, but it was definitely a lot of fun.

Our Fiona

We are so proud of Vivan's portrayal of Fiona in her school's production of Shrek the Musical. I know we're biased, but we are all convinced that she was the best part of the show. She worked so hard on it, and while we expected her singing to be fantastic, it was her comedic timing that really sold the whole thing. I saw it all three nights and loved it.

Another thing that made it really special is that they had a live pit orchestra made up of students. They did such a good job that I often forgot that the music was live. The rest of the cast gave it their all, and many of them were my former students, so I was bursting with pride all around.

The professional version of the musical is on YouTube if you want to hear the songs. These are some of my favorite pictures.

She was phenomenal, and it was an experience I know she'll never forget.

17th Anniversary in Singapore

At the end of August, Jeff had to take a work trip to Singapore. It was right near our anniversary which fell on a weekend this year, so it was perfect timing for me to fly down and for us to celebrate our 17th anniversary in Singapore.

There seems to be a Botero, St. Regis connection in this part of the world, and Jeff found a couple Botero statues at the one in Singapore.

I was glad he had told me, because my taxi driver wasn't sure where the hotel was, but as soon as I saw the Botero statue, I knew we were in the right place.

Jeff had prepared for me with roses and bubbles, which was a lovely anniversary touch.

His fancy status gets him complimentary evening drinks and appetizers. It was quite a spread, so that's what we did for dinner.

The hotel is walking distance from the Singapore Botanical Gardens, which we never made it to on any family trips, so after fuelling up on the huge breakfast buffet, we set off to explore.

As with everything in Singapore, it's beautifully curated and clean. There were lots of trees, so even though it was hot, we kept to the shade, and it wasn't too bad.

The paths meander through the huge park area. There are some birds wandering about, include roosters, which we weren't expecting.

There are also tons of interesting plants, many of them with labels and signs. One of the most interesting was the Cannonball Tree. It has beautiful flowers and fruits that are indeed cannonball like in shape.

There are also several water features. One of them is Swan Lake, and, sure enough, there were swans swimming around.

Just in case the birds go flying elsewhere though, there are statues to make sure everyone can get a bird picture.

Jeff got the double whammy of swans with the swan statue.

We found a path that felt very "land before time".

We also went for a stroll along the canopy walk.

There was also a canopy "web". I was not going to step out there, but Jeff went for it.

After our adventures, we got cleaned up and headed over to Marina Bay Sands. The main lobby has a hotel and lots of restaurants. It's quite a space.

There's also a mall attached. I had remembered from a previous trip that they had a canal with boat rides, so I wanted to go take a closer look. Unfortunately, it wasn't as romantic as I had remembered it.

Also, it was all sold out for the day, so instead we had fun window shopping. Eventually, we made our way up to our reservation at LAVO, which is an Italian restaurant at the top of Marina Bay Sands.

It's kind of a weird name, because it means "I wash", but maybe there's a story behind it we don't know. They had a drink made with pink dragonfruit though, so I had to try it.

They're also famous for their giant meatball with ricotta cheese on top, so Jeff had to try that.

There was some art next to us that seemed like a meatball cautionary tale, but that didn't deter him.

The best part of being up that high is, of course, the view over Singapore, so we went out onto the balcony after dinner to get some pictures.

We didn't get to Gardens by the Bay on this trip, but it's a family favorite, so we'll definitely go with the girls next time.

Before we knew it, Sunday rolled around, and it was time to head back to KL, but not without one final sight seeing stop. Singapore's airport is famous, and they keep raising the bar. The latest addition is the largest indoor waterfall in the world. They don't run it all the time, so we got to the airport right before it was set to start. There was quite a crowd.

On cue, there was a puff of mist, dramatic music, a booming voice, and then . . . water! Jeff got a video, and there was a little girl on the balcony with us who delightedly yelled water! right on cue. The video is too big to link here, but we got many pictures of the waterfall once it was going.