John and Bethenie: Day 7 - Mt. Vesuvius and Peppe's

We had planned on hiking Mt. Vesuvius this morning, from what I had read it said to allow about 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours to hike up and back down. Then what I had gotten from listening to people that had already hiked it I was thinking it was going to be really hard. So we allowed plenty of time, by getting there early and not really having anything else planned that day except for dinner at 7:00.

So we got up around 8 that morning, got ready and headed up the mountain. We got there early enough that the parking lot was very full and most of the people that were there where from tours. So we paid and headed up the path.

There weren't that many people on the path which made it nice. The path started off ok then got really steep. We took a couple stops to take some pictures, drink some water and catch our breath. After about 25 min or so we came up on a souvenir stop and thought we were about half way there or so. Once we got on the other side of the shop we could see into the crater and knew we were at the top. We took a few pictures and walked all the way around the crater then headed back down. The whole hike, up, down and breaks, took us a little over an hour.

The view looking out between the two volcanoes from the parking lot

Not sure if these were weeds or some type of wildflower but they were everywhere

Bri and I at the start of the hike

The story behind the sticks we were carrying ~ there was this older couple at the beginning of the hike and they were making them and passing them out. We weren't going to take them but then the guy started yelling at us so we decided we better take them. But you give them back on the way back down

The view of Naples

View of Naples and looking back down what we had just hiked up

Bay of Naples

Inside of Mt. Vesuvius, and yes it is due to erupt anytime now.

John had to run into work for a little bit, since we had all day to mess around we headed straight over to his work. While he was there Bri and I ate and ran a couple errands over there. Once we made it back home we all took showers and relaxed for a while.

We knew there was a nice restaurant we wanted to take Bri to, but it serves family style and the more people you have the better and more food you get. So John and I decided we would do it with Bri and as a birthday dinner for myself. We invited a few different families and all met up on base to drive over there.

The ride over to the restaurant was a little interesting, it took us about 45 min to an hour and is only about a 20 min drive. The guy that was leading us all had his Tom Tom set up and it kept taking us in circles and wrong turns. We finally made it and the food was delicious and the company was great.

John Nunn, Gabe, Adam and Andrew ~ All the guys that were at dinner all work or worked with John