Visiting Ben and Kensey in Prague

i've been away and it was amazing! gabi and i spent a week in prague, czech republic visiting ben and kensey who are living there. hmmm, that sentence sounded way too simple for what actually happened, so let me tell you the whole story..........gabi and i have had this trip planned for a couple of months anxiously anticipating the adventure spending time together with ben and kensey in this new-to-us magnificent city. the night before our departure, i was checking into our flights online and after getting gabi all settled and confirmed began my check-in process. as i put in my passport information a notice immediately showed up onscreen informing me that my passport had been denied. um, what? what? what? no way.........actually, yes way. when booking our flights weeks ago, i hadn't double checked my passport expiration date and if you're traveling to a country in the schengen territory, which includes the country of czech republic, your passport must be valid for at least 3 months beyond your intended duration of stay. my passport expiration date was just short of that. i couldn't believe it, i was heartbroken, there was nothing i could do. after the initial shock wore off, i hesitantly broke the news to gabi surprised to find she was actually fine with the idea of going on her own, "sorry mom, see ya!". well, ok, that worry was taken care of, sort of. next, prompted by the tears in his wife's eyes, my knight in shining armor of a husband stepped in thinking through all of my options. before i knew it, he had scheduled an expedited passport interview for me in denver so, i gathered all of the needed documents, attended the interview tuesday morning with the promise that my passport would be available for pickup early thursday afternoon. so paul rescheduled my flight, i filled two very long days with mindless activities, picked up my new passport thursday afternoon, went straight to the airport and early that evening finally boarded my flight to prague. yay!!! so i was a few days late? gabi got to spend one on one time with her brother and sister in law, we still got to spend a few days altogether and after gabi flew home, i got to spend one on one time with my son and daughter in law for the rest of my week. all was well. actually all was more than well. what an incredible time we had. ben, beginning to master this difficult language and kensey impressively asking and answering questions on the spot are also prague tour guides extraordinaire and already know this city so well and how to confidently maneuver the public transport around to the many popular as well as secret, subtle treasures alike. saturday morning farmer's markets, food, architecture, theaters, views, parks, restaurants, pubs, bridges, stories, ancient libraries, castles, monastaries, statues, on and on and on amid this fascinating city of spires. for instance, my arrival at the airport began, after a warm and welcomed hug, with a koblihy, a czech doughnut, handed to me as i've never met a doughnut before followed by a ticket to my first night's excitement - the opera don giovanni at the same ornate and luxurious estates theatre where in 1787 mozart first presented this masterpiece to the world! 

well, that's enough excitement for now, i am going stop here and save the second half of the photos for another post. more to come...........