Trip Day 4

Sorry the trip posts are taking so long, we've been busy this summer!

To continue from where I left off, we were in Paris, got back to our hotel after a looong day, and were ready to pack up, rent a car, and head out the next morning (run-on sentence?).

We woke up and Johnny headed out to pick up our rental car while I waited at the hotel. He had to walk to the metro station, hop on one to the other side of town, hop off, and walk to the car rental place. I had thought it would probably take about an hour. After an hour and a half I went down to the the front desk and asked a very nice, very french concierge to call the car rental place and see if Johnny ever showed up. Johnny hadn't been by yet so the nice concierge comforted me by saying, "Don't worry, if he's not dead he just left you for a french woman." Perfect. I headed back to the room and started putting a plan together for what I would do if this was true. (My plan may have involved a shopping spree and strawberry tarts).

Luckily, he showed up after 2 hours and we headed to our next stop, Versailles.

We hadn't planned on spending the entire day here but after waiting in one line for an hour and a half to buy tickets, then waiting in another line for 2 hours just to get in, we decided to take our time. Side note: Johnny's foot was still injured, so walking around the palace and gardens was a slow process anyway.

To say this place is gaudy is an understatement, but I LOVED every room and reveled in the flamboyance. My favorite part was all the gold and the painted ceilings, as you can see from the photos...

I'm not that into floral decor but thought this bedroom was amazing. The golden statue reminded me of the three chubby boys I left at home.

Hall of Mirrors, pretty snazzy

Proof we were there

These paintings walked you through the history of the kings and queens and were beautiful.

The gardens and grounds around the castle:

(same view, 3 hours later)

I think the square trees are the greatest, I want to do the same around my house...

It was a great day!

Drake Update

Two weeks ago we were sitting in church, trying to keep the boys quiet and in their chairs. Drake was having a hard time sitting forward and preferred talking to our neighbors sitting behind us. He was giggling and making funny faces when out of the corner of my eye I saw him stick his hands down his pants. I turned to him just in time to see him pull his pair of green Thomas the Train underwear out of his pants and hold it high above his head, beaming, waving it like a flag to the people behind us like he was surrendering to save his life. My hands flew to my mouth and I started making a choking/stifled laughing noise, which was also being made by the family behind us. Drake leaned in to me and said, "Look mom! Like goofy does!". It was probably the greatest thing I have ever seen. I checked to make sure he hadn't magically removed the underwear he was wearing then hid the spare pair in the diaper bag.

I wish I had the whole thing on video.

Drake's been on a roll, saying things to surprise everyone. A few sayings from the last week:

While swimming in the pool with Mimi:

"Mimi, when we find the purple flowers we'll say, 'Ahoy purple flowers!"

Drake: "You smell like something."

Mimi: "Does it smell good, or does it smell bad?"

Drake: after taking another big whiff, "You smell like toast."

I gave Drake a dollar. He said "Mom! I need more dollars!" I asked why, he said "My birfdee is in Otember and I need to buy a cake!"......."a cake WITH candles!". Don't worry, I don't make my kids by their own birthday cakes - unless they want to - and I let them blow out birthday candles. He's making me feel like I've deprived him of this tradition for 3 years.

While ordering sandwiches at Kneaders Drake shouted from the back seat "Chicken nuggets and a number one!" I said "Drake, we are at a different place to eat". He replied, "Mom! Chicken nuggets and a 1 with extra sauce!". I may get fast food for lunch too often.

The other night we were at Johnny's softball game. Drake enjoyed shouting from the stands, "You MONSTER ROCK Dadda!" and "You can hit the ball I think!", but my favorite quote of the night came when he asked my dad to take him to the bathroom. Running to the potties he yelled, "Come on Pappa, we can DO this!!!" I picture him someday being a motivational speaker for Flomax.

Trip - Day 3

This day started pretty early. Our train to Paris left at 5:15. We got in a taxi outside our hotel in London at 4:30 and headed to Kings Cross Station.

After he dropped us off, we realized we were at the wrong place and had to run to the Euro Star station 5 min away. This was a little problematic considering Johnny's newly injured foot. It all worked out though, and two hours later (both sleeping almost the whole ride) we made it to Paris!

Our hotel was near the Arc de Triumph, so after dropping off our luggage we headed back towards the Arc and stopped for some breakfast. This was the first of many strawberry tarts and quiche for us.

The Arc de Triumph, encompassed by the round-a-bout from hell.

We couldn't have asked for better weather! 75 degrees and blue skies the whole day.

City pano from the top of the Arc.

View of a cute cafe and the Champs Elysee, with the Louvre in the background.

Because Johnny couldn't walk, we had to find an alternate means of transportation. In London we had seen people on rental bikes, so we looked for the same kind of system here. These were Velib bikes, and they were awesome. This is how we got around.

Johnny doesn't look too happy in these pics because it took me 30 minutes to get it set up on the tripod and self timer, then take one of us both riding. For some reason I kept tipping over.

Next stop, the Eiffel Tower. The lines were AWFUL, so we decided to come back later to go up it.

We then got some lunch. This was the best meal I ate while we were there. Toasted cheese on bread, with an egg over easy, french fries, and a salad. So simple but sooooo good. Johnny got a salmon salad sandwich. He ate a salmon something every meal. His breath always smelled like fish.

A little lost looking for the Luxembourg Gardens.

Johnny rode slowly through the gardens while I walked and took photos. The place was a mad house because I guess on sunny Monday's the French don't work.

Cute street on our way to Notre Dame

Notre Dame

The place was so dark I had to do time-lapse pictures, which worked out because it brought out the pretty colors!

View from the grounds around the cathedral.

There was dinner in there somewhere, then biking around random places, then we stopped to take some photos of the Eiffel Tower from a distance.

We then went back to the tower and realized we were 15 min too late to be able to go to the top. We walked around it while the sparkly lights when off and Johnny said romantic things like "I want to train our kids to sell knick knacks like Egyptians"

Then we rode down this busy street, headed back to the Arc, and to our hotel.