kids say...

There are a few ways to get around Venice when your bones are tired of walking over all the bridges. There are "vaporettos," which are basically buses shaped like boats. They are crowded, sometimes difficult to navigate, slow, you have to go on their schedules, but, they are cheap. Then there's the romantic gondolas, which I'm sure you're all familiar with. They are expensive and slow, but fun, I suppose.
 

Finally, there are boat taxis. They are sleek, shiny, gorgeous, fast, on your own schedule, and unbelievably expensive.
 

If you know anything about the Ramblin' Fam, then you don't have to spend much time wondering which form of transport we chose. The cheap ones.

 

Graham gazed in awe at the sleek wooden vessels with cushy seats as we stuffed ourselves into the "bus boats" and told him there was no way we could possibly afford to ride in a taxi boat unless he chose not to eat for the rest of the month. He understood and quit complaining.

 One day, we took the bus boats to all the surrounding islands (Murano, Burano, and Torcello.). It took forever, but we enjoyed it. As we were running to catch the vaporetto out of Torcello, we noticed the nice couple we'd just shared a guided tour of the church with in one of those fancy taxi boats. We smiled with envy and kept on truckin' until they demanded that we get into their boat with them.

And so, Graham got his taxi ride. Happy was he.

 

As we zipped across the lagoon, Tony and I discussed whether or not to offer to pay for half the cab fare. We certainly didn't want to pay because that would mean we would have to starve for the next half a month. Since they offered the ride and didn't mention anything about sharing the fare, we decided not to bring it up and to just say, "Thank you."

At the end of the ride, I said to Graham, "Wasn't that great?"

Graham said with a giant grin and loud enough for people in the next region to hear, "Yes! And it was FREE!"

Fast forward a few minutes.

Tony and I were strolling down the street, still on cloud 9 about the whole free boat ride thing (which resulted in twice as much time in Venice that afternoon for us than if we'd had to catch the slow bus boat) when Tony placed a love tap on my derriere.

Graham said, "Hey, Dad! That's not nice. God does not like you to do that."

We're not ones to usually state what God may or may not like, so I said to Graham, "How do you know that?"

He said, very nonchalantly, "Because. I'm smart."