John and Bethenie: Girls Day Out!!

July 23
What happens when you put 5 girls in a boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea? One fun, interesting day filled with lots of different adventures.

Shannon called one day and said that she was wanting to do a girls day out on the water and asked if I would like to join, of course my answer was YES!! So, a couple of weeks ago there were 5 of us girls that all got together and rented a boat to cruise around in the Med and see one of the Islands.

We had the boat from 9am to 7pm so we met up at Shannon's house at like 9 to head over to the rental place, but with 5 girls and all of them put me having kids we were running a little late. We ended up getting to the rental place around 10 or a little after. We all went in another girl, Keeley's, car and when we got to the rental place her van decided it didn't want to work anymore. It would go in reverse, but would not go forward, so they ended up having to push it to the parking lot.

After Shannon got everything finalized with the rental guys, we were finally able to head out on the water and enjoy the day. They showed us how to drive the boat, where the gas was, and they let us know they gave us a little extra in case we needed it, and told us what time to be back.

We headed out of the little area and all started looking at different things we were driving by so we would be able to find our way back at the end of the day. We were all planning on going to the Island of Ischia, which is not that far off from the mainland. The fog on the water that morning was awful and we couldn't see anything around us, we finally made out the outline of what looked like an island and headed that direction. After we were going for about 30 or 45 min we decided to stop and enjoy being out in the middle of nowhere.

We finally started up again and continued toward the island. We drove for a couple more hours and finally came up on the island. Beth kept say "this island really looks like Capri," but we were all planning on going to Ischia, so she just kind of blew it off. As we got closer we decided to drive around the island before we parked to walk around. As we were driving around Beth was like this is Capri, because I am pretty sure that is the Blue Grotto. We drove up closer to the island and realized that it was in fact the Blue Grotto. That is when we realized we drove a really long ways out there.

We happened to worm our way up to the front of the line and get in the Blue Grotto. Beth was the only one of the 5 of us that had been in there and she was ok with doing it again, so we all climbed in the little row boat, paid the entrance fee and enjoyed.

Once we finished with the Blue Grotto, we got back in our boat and continued around the island. We only drove for about 10 min or so when the boat quick and Keeley said she thought we were out of gas. We checked the gas tank and sure enough, it was out of gas, good thing we had the little extra they put in the boat. We filled up the tank with the extra and tried to start up the boat again, and we got nothing but a clicking noise. We were able to wave down another boat, and one of the guys came into our boat and called the rental place and was able to get the boat going for us again.

We decided it would be best to head to the marina and get some gas before we ran out again. So we filled up the boat and the extra jug, just in case we needed it. Everyone we talked to that asked us where we were from called us "Crazy Americans" or "Crazy Girls" saying that the trip from Bacoli to Capri is dangerous. We didn't really believe them and were like we are fine. After we got the boat docked we headed into Capri to walk around for a while and get some Gelato.

After walking around for 2 hours or so we headed back to the boat and started on the journey back home. We weren't really sure where we were supposed to be headed but just took off in the direction we thought was mainland Italy. As we got closer we were finally able to make out Mt. Vesuvius and headed that way. We didn't realize till way later that we were supposed to be going way West of Mt. Vesuvius. We stopped a few times on the way back to swim and enjoy but then realized we were running late on getting the boat back.

As we kept getting closer to the mainland we noticed how far away we were from Bacoli. We finally made it back to the marina right as the sun was going down. We were all soaked and cold but were able to get everything unloaded and back up to the van. Since the van was messed up we all started calling our husbands trying to get some of them to come pick us up. John and Matt both said they would come to Bacoli and get us but it was going to take them and hour to get there, so we all went to a nearby restaurant and got dinner.

The guys finally got there and we all divided up between the two cars and took everyone home. We had an awesome time that day. Just about everything that could go wrong did but that is what made the day so much fun. I can't wait for another day filled with fun with all the girls.

Erica, Shannon and Beth ~ starting off the day