We have a new Brother in Law!

GETTING TO THAT POINT WAS PERFECT! Brian and Ryan livin' the life!

Think Brian is sharing his "how to deal with the Ruhwedels secrets"? Only the Coronas will ever know...

The sand under our feet, the flowers on the arbor, the waves crashing into the rocks, the bride and groom looked fabulous. Aunt Barbara performed an amazing ceremony.



The Mexican food was an amazing dinner, the open bar was everything it should be, and the villa was a perfect backdrop for it all.


Everyone was all smiles - especially, Mr. & Mrs. Masury!

Photos from Robin Ruhwedel

The DJ played a great variety of music, and it was fun to dance in the wading part of the pool.
And to top it off, as the sun was setting...a pair of dolphins were swimming in front of us all.

Peurto Vallarta, Mexico

It's been a year of traveling, but we were really looking forward to this trip. Laura and Ryan were to be married on May 19, 2007. The Ruhwedel's used to travel here on Spring Breaks from school, and Sarah's been here since with friends. But as always, it was fantastic to be on vacation together.

We stayed at Playa Los Arcos, which is in the "romanitca" part of PV. It was a perfect place to be because everything was in walking distance. The pool and the ocean were wet, the sun hot, and the beer cold.

Brian and I had the mornings to ourselves. We enjoyed the local coffee shop and spending time with our books in the morning. We would venture out for breakfast/lunch depending on when we actually got moving. You know, vacation.

What was different this time, was every time we turned around, there was family...Mom, Beth, Aunt Barbara, Uncle Mike. You had to love it! Seriously, it was fun.

We took a morning and went scuba diving. As it is with scuba diving boats, everyone was pleasent and talkative. It is always interesting to hear where people have been diving - now Bonaire has moved up on our list. =) Then we spotted grey whales (or we think they were grey whales). One breached and then did it's lazy swim and blow and ended up 20 yards from the boat. It was so cool! For all the whales I have seen, I swear this is the closest that I have ever been. THEN there were areas of the surrounding water that was populated by smaller, black dorsel fins...Mantas! Now for all the diving that I have done, I still haven't seen a Manta ray. Over the next 15 minutes, we saw 4-5 of these guys, jump out of the water. CRAZY! I didn't know they did that. They were airborne, and I swear some came down on their "stomachs" and some on their backs. Mantas are definitely light on the underside, and we saw that side of them pointing up at the sun. It was amazing...and no, no pictures. We couldn't be distracted with a camera =)

The diving...definitely not our favorite location, the visability was poor, the water temperature was warm then cold, and our gear was...definitely rental gear. BUT we saw numerous moray eels, rays and even a guitar fish. Guess I will have to continue on my treck to see a Manta while scuba diving.

We love jet noise...

This guy showed his love at the show!

One of Sarah's friends came to town for a conference, which got Sarah looking around for things to do in the area when she ran into the Air Show at Langly Air Base. I was siked that she was interested in going to an air show.

When I was younger we used to go to the Abbotsford Air Show every year. I was always excited to climb into a handful of the planes that were on the ground, see the heat wave as the temperature climbed throughout the day, spend some time with family, and of course hear and feel the roar of the newest jets as they went ripping through the sky at break neck speeds.

We arrived at the show right as the action began at Langly Air Base, but there was a decent line ahead of us. However, before we could get to the back of the line a man and his son approached us with incredible kindness and gave us a couple of tickets. This man's son worked at the base, they were at the show the day before, and didn't want to wait in the long line to get in that day. So they passed along two tickets to the tent where there was food and drinks...we thanked them and had no idea what we had gotten into. Thank you again to the kind man and his son at the air show.

After watching the show from line for a little while, we got through security, and nearby the jet way where we saw how much some people really do like their jet noise. We stayed there until the first half of the show passed, where we saw a warthog, stealth fighter, stealth bomber, a few acrobatic planes, and of course the amazing F-15.

It was approximately noon by this point so we decided that during the break in the action we should check out the planes on the ground and see what the tent, where we had tickets for, was all about. The ground displays were great. My favorite was the F-22 raptor!

When we arrived at the tent, we found out that it was for friends and family of the people that worked at the base as well as the pilots in the show. It was wonderful and in hindsight we should have come over sooner, since they had chairs that we could relax in. The tent was fully catered by the likes of Carabba's, an Italian restaurant, along with a few other companies like Budweiser, hence the self serve taps on the side of the truck. As you can imagine, we stayed there for the 2nd half of the show. The 2nd half of the show was more of the jets that I love including the new F-22 raptor, but the real treat was a showing of the Thunder Birds!

For the roar of jets or air shows in your area check this state by state schedule.

Italy - Part III Venice

Venice is a magical city. If you have been there you know that pictures and words can only describe a portion of what Venice is really like. For those of you that haven't I hope that I do the wonderful city justice enough to entice you to want to experience it for yourself.

I (Brian) had never been to Venice until this trip. As we approached by train all of my preconceived notions were thrown out the window. However, soon after we hopped off the train I knew that something was different about the city of Venice. But, I couldn't put my finger on it until the first night as we were walking home from dinner and Sarah brought it to my attention. It was the fact that there was no regular city noise. All the noise that one could here was people walking, talking and of course the water in the canal. The city echoes with the excitement of people.

Along with the city being unique, the people in Venice were very friendly, especially our host Riccardo from the little bed and breakfast Corte Campana. He talked us through the area, shared some of his family with us, and seemed to be excited to see us wandering through the streets. Wandering the streets was the best, and in Venice, we seemed to be eating constantly. We would see a good looking panini shop, get one to go, and have to share. This allowed us to stop again, relatively soon, and try another one. The ingredients are fresh and the grill makes everything melt together into heaven. We didn't worry about what was inside, we looked through the glass and just pointed at what we wanted. We fooled ourselves into thinking we'd be able to find the same place twice...maybe it's a good thing we didn't. And don't forget the gelato!

I was in amazement every minute and I was trying to soak up as much of the feeling of Venice as well as the feeling of being on vacation that I could. In our bliss we went to the top of clock tower in St. Mark's Square, took the water bus to see the grand canal, and even fed the crazy pigeons! It was a fun experience having those little birds climbing on us and looking for another piece of corn.

Italy - Part II Florence

Before I get into how much we enjoyed Florence, this little story still has me smiling. Brian's dad met us at the train station, and we took electric bus "A" back to his apartment. He loves these little buses. They are cute, energy efficient and he thinks they're quiet. So, we all jump on the bus and start heading through Florence. Now on the bus, you can hear this high pitched noise that warns people the bus is approaching, because it's electric, it doesn't have the engine noise of other vehicles. Brian and I had to look at each other and smile, because he thought these little buses are so quiet, but for those of us that can hear that pitch of sound...it is anything but. =)
Okay....Brian's dad (we'll just call him Dad from here on out) was living in Florence for the first semester of 2007. He taught a finance and a new venture class for the Gonzaga in Florence program. It allowed him to live in Florence, enhance his teaching skills, build up stamina for his walking muscles, make use of his amazing eye for photographs and remember when he was a student at the Gonzaga in Florence program - and we benefited from all of these attributes.

Dad has a cute little apartment right past the park with the sycamore trees. It was perfect, with two Bert and Ernie beds just for us. Dad has been able to audit a history of Florence class, so as we perused the city, he knew all sorts of interesting things and this translated into him being the best tour guide in town!

Florence, itself is an amazing city. The history, the architecture, the artwork and the food are all incredible. It's easy to walk everywhere (although, Brian and I were sore after day 1 - but we pressed on to keep up with Dad). We visited the Duomo, David (which is still amazing to me) and the Uffizi. We went to Dad's favorite, the Medici chapel. The time, energy and money these people put into the remembrance of their own legacy was incredible.
Brian and I really enjoyed ourselves in Florence partly because Dad asked us to be apart of his teaching experience. Brian and I were the guest speakers for his new venture class. We spoke about our experiences working with start up and small companies and how that varies from other work environments. It was fun to talk with the students and to see their enthusiasm for the future.

Undeniably, the best part of Florence was spending time together, all three of us. We had no problem talking it up. We would talk while we walked and talk while we ate. You know you're on vacation when you can stop in for a late lunch, order a carafe of wine and stay for three hours. We talked about history, our interpretations of today and some of the future. You had to be there...maybe next time...

Italy - Part I ROME

It has been a beautiful spring in Williamsburg, and before time really gets away from us, we did want to post some highlights about our Spring Break trip to Italy. We flew to Italy, primarily to visit Chuck (Brian's dad) in Florence. It was Brian's first trip to the Italy, so we also spent some time in Rome and Venice.

We had problems getting to Rome, but we finally arrived a day later than planned. Being the flexible folks that we are, we just decided to visit Rome for the first day instead of the last. Brian was mainly interested in "Caesar history," so that is where we focused. We arrived late in the afternoon, but didn't waste any time...we visited the Colosseum, and then saw the Forum from the road. After the long day(s) of travel, it was nice to get out and stretch our legs, so we walked to the Pantheon. Since dinner is truly an evening affair, we sat down and watched the crowds of people enjoying our first gelato of the trip.

The Italians (and their visitors) are shoppers! The shops were alive at night, so we just followed the flow of people and ended up at the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain and did a few laps around Rome before we called it a night.

Definitely a great first day in Italy.The next day we planned to catch a train to Florence to visit Dad/father-in-law/Florence guru. In order to catch a train to Florence, we had to leave Rome around 1:00PM. We considered visiting the Vatican, but the line was hours long at 8AM. (One of the only times that spring break traffic was apparent to us.) So instead, we spent over two hours exploring St. Peters.

We visited Pope John Paul II's tomb, which really touched Sarah. We explored the main portion of the church at a leisurely pace and admired Michelangelo's Pieta. We climbed the duomo and had a great view of all of Rome.

Lunch was one of the major reasons we love Italy. A cut out of a place, only 10' by 10', serving hot fresh pizza by the ounce. mmmmmmmmm!

The train ride was relaxing, the country side was absolutely beautiful. We played a few games of cribbage (and I believe I double skunked him =), plus had time to read... It was great to be met by a friendly face.

We claimed the volleyball title!

It is official; the MBA students added another championship to the pile this year. Unlike softball, claiming the volleyball title for the MBA School was a combined effort of both classes along with Stephanie from the admissions office. What does winning the inter mural volleyball championship really mean? It means we got another t-shirt for weekend wear and a little bit of glory to carry into next year.