Happy Birthday Mike & Happy Fat Tuesday!!!

Today is my hubby's birthday.

Happy birthday Mikey!!!! I love you!!!!
Love,
Kimmy

It is not only Mike's birthday, it is also Mardi Gras aka: Fat Tuesday.

Since it was Fat Tuesday, I thought I would share with you some photos from our vacation in Venice. Six years ago Mike, Brandon & I were lucky enough to go to Europe for 2 weeks. We left San Diego on 2/23/03 and landed in London England on Mike's 50th birthday 2/24/03. We traveled with a tour group to London, Paris, Lucerne Switzerland, Innsbruck Austria, Milan, Rome, Florence, Venice, Munich, Heidelberg, Köln in Germany, Amsterdam and back to London. We were in Venice on Fat Tuesday 2003. This was not planned, it just happened to be. But what a great place to be.

Here is a photo of Mike & me on a gondola ride. Can you think of anything more romantic?

Brandon & about 4 other people were along for the ride. So we couldn't get too romantic.
Here we are on the Grand Canal. Doesn't that bridge in the background look just like the one in Vegas? lol.
A lot of the Venetians were dressed up for Fat Tuesday. I just love these costumes & their makeup.
St Marks Square. There were lots of people.

St Mark's Basilica. The people are ready to par-tay in the square.

No pigeons that day as there was too many people. We also went to a the small island of Burano. It is a small fishing village. Also the houses are painted in bright colors. We were there during the day for lunch, but you can see they had mask lights up for night time celebration.

Another photo of the main street in Burano. You could buy Venetian lace here.
A lot of people were dressed up riding the gondolas.
The many bridges of Venice. The highest bridge in the background is the bridge of Sighs. It is called this as on one side of the bridge was the courthouse & the other side the prison. The prisoners were taken over this bridge to prison & this would be their last view of Venice and so they would often sigh while crossing the bridge. Thus the name, the Bridge of Sighs.

Here is the view as your first come to St Mark's square & basilica. See all the people?

Venetian Gondolier. I love how he is dressed, don't you?
I love, love, love these costumes. So frenchy!!!

I was amazed how this girl walked around on stilts among all the people. She had the best view in the whole place.
These costumes were a little bizarre to me, but very colorful. They look like colorful aliens.
Well there you have a little peak into Fat Tuesday in Venice. They don't call it Mardi Gras in Europe, it is called Carnival like in Brazil. But Fat Tuesday, is Fat Tuesday in all places. They celebrate in Europe the entire week, but the biggest celebrations are on Fat Tuesday. We were just lucky to be in Venice on this particular Fat Tuesday.

Are you doing anything to celebrate? We will just be celebrating Mike's birthday. Not much Mardi Gras celebration here in Menifee.

Well I hope all of you have a Happy Fat Tuesday & I especially hope that Mike has a very Happy Birthday!!!