Day 2

Today felt much more like being on vacation. We were well rested and re-energized to start our day. We get free breakfast at the hotel and it's a big breakfast buffet. Typical European breakfast's, with lots of bread, cheeses, and sweet treats. They also have an orange juice juicing machine so we get fresh orange juice every morning! I love tossing the oranges in there, peels and all and waiting as the juice is squeezed into my glass. We sit on the terrace, looking out onto the ocean. Ahh, the small joys.

After breakfast we headed to the hotel's private beach. By private, they mean that they have a section of the beach that is only for hotel guests. However, we were very thankful for that because the "public" beaches were very crowded. The ocean was pretty rough yesterday but we dived in anyways and enjoyed getting rolled around in the waves. The view was beautiful and the sun was hot. We all got a little burned and Dan may or may not have spots all over him where I didn't quite get the sunscreen applied evenly.Whoops!

After the beach, we came back to the hotel for awhile to rest and clean up before heading into town that night. Dan and his friends had a welcome reception for their conference, which I also got to attend. I felt a little bit like a trophy wife as I sat there and listened to everyone at our table talk about their research and things I had no idea about. I don't mind being a trophy wife in Sicily. After we filled up on enough appetizers to be able to call it dinner, we walked down to the beach to watch the sun set and then walked around town a little bit before stopping at our final destination to get dessert. Some Italian friend's of Dan provided us with a list of things we needed to try while we are here and we are slowly whittling away at that list.

Tomorrow they all go to the conference and I am left on my own to explore the town some more, lay on the beach, and nap. It's a rough life, but someone's got to live it!