Dubrovnik, Croatia Day 2

We didn’t get to bed until midnight last night. We have the late dinner–9:00 pm. Following dinner, we found Dan & Dusty Hawk as well as several other friends. Paul sat and chatted with Dan and Dusty for a while–just laughing his head off at them and reminiscing. After dinner I came back and wrote about our day– thus the late night. Paul found a football game on and watched it, but I didn’t know that until today– I was out cold!

I slept like a log and when I woke up, I noticed the sun was up and so was Paul. I looked at him and asked what time it was– 9:30!!! I jumped out of bed and raced to get ready as our tour started at 10:30 am. When we got up on deck, I was blown away by the beautiful port we were in. Dubrovnik is a city built in the hills in the bay of the ocean. The port was surrounded by these beautiful mountains and an giant bridge off to the side of the ship. It was such a clean and beautiful looking town. All the buildings seemed a white/cream color with orange roofs–very clean and neat.

As we boarded our bus for the tour, we were taken into the old part of Dubrovnik– the city walls. This wall was built hundreds of years ago as a protection to the city. There are houses and churches inside the walls which used to be the town. The homes, businesses and churches are still occupied today and is a very bustling place. While walking the walls of the fortress, we were able to listen and talk to our guide a lot. Just as we entered the old town fort, there was a map that showed all of the destruction caused from the war that started in 1991. I asked her a lot of questions about the war. She was there during the outbreak and you could feel the pain of it in her eyes still. I knew it was important for me to understand what had happened here. She told of them going to the bomb shelters and living there for 5 or 6 days with no food, water, or power. The Bosnia-Serbian border is just miles away and the military had placed forces on the hill just above the fort while the ships in the harbor were firing on them as well. They were also being fired on from the air. The ships were blocking any humanitarian aid from getting through until finally (after five days) a Jewish group from Zagreb (the capital city) was able to get past the ships. However, all packages were gone through to take out newspapers and batteries for radios so they could keep their communication cut of and keep them in fear. It was so interesting to hear from someone who lived through it what it was like. It was hard for her to talk about it much because it is still very vivid. We also learned a lot about the history of the country. It was very interesting. Tourism is 85% of the economy in Dubrovnik, so they are very hopeful that our new president will help things out in America. (I told her that we weren’t too sure about that.) She said, "don’t tell me that! We depend on America." WOW! Do you realize how blessed we are and how the rest of the world really does depend on us in so many different ways??!! It was a big lesson for me. I was very touched by these people who have lived through a war. It made me wonder if they were the ones who, in the pre-existence, chose a "hard mission." Makes my life appear much easier. So today I am very grateful. Grateful for a good country in spite of its troubles and grateful to live where I live and for the gospel in my life!

You will love the fact that part of our tour was a "taste of the country." Our taste was at the "Wine and Bar Tavern" inside the old city. Paul and I thought, "this will be great to tell everyone that we attended the Wine Bar Tavern on Sunday." You’ll be glad to know we didn’t sample the wine, but got to taste some bread and cold cut appetizers and had a cute bottle of orange Fanta and some bottled water.

Upon returning to the ship, we took some pictures of the port, had a snack, then came to the room so I could work on this post. We read our scriptures and I started to fall asleep, so I had a cat nap. Then we got dressed and headed to dinner. We had dinner with Dan & Dusty, the Wittwer’s, Brian and Jen Paxman, and Spencer Egan. We had an enjoyable time. The entertainment tonight at 11:15 pm was an Elton John impersonator. He was good and it was fun to sing along with the fun songs that we know!

We just called the kids and got a little bit of an update. It appears Kallan and Britton lost. Kameron is still in– playing in the championships next Saturday. Jadon went up to State volleyball. He sang the National Anthem for the State game. Ticked that I missed that one!!! He said that Snow Canyon won state for a 3rd year in a row beating Dixie again (for the 3rd year in a row.) Mykelle said her team lost so they are headed to Arizona tomorrow for a Tuesday play-in game. Jadon said the primary program went well, but didn’t give details, so I’ll have to get filled in on that later. It costs us 40 cents a minute for the internet. We used Amanda’s SKYPE to call home. Just isn’t very cheap, but glad to hear voices and get back in touch.

Tomorrow we are at sea all day. Tuesday we will be in Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey.