Les Pics, part 2: the Sights, cont'd

Les Pics, part 1: the sights

The French Recap

Where to begin....

It all began with the 9 hour flight from Seattle to Paris where we all decided that we should have taken our 9-week French class a little more seriusly.

We landed in Paris, got through customs, and all that fun stuff, and jumped in the taxi to get to our apartment. Little did we know that we would be risking our life and safety by riding in a car through Paris. I don't think French cars have rear-view mirrors on them, or at least they don't use them. And, motorcyclist don't have to drive in a lane. Plus, apparently, a pedestrian walking in a crosswalk does not have the right-of-way.

45-minutes later after driving all over Paris we arrived at our apartment in the 6th Arr. on the Rue des Baux Arts (adjacent to the famed Ecole des Beaux Arts). It wasn't until we got to the apartment that we realized the we were located on the 5th floor (6th floor "French" as the rental company put it) of a walk up building. We carried our luggage (I carried Kelly's and mine) up 6 floors of steep, winding stairs. I will admit, though, that the view was amazing from the apartment. We could see Notre Dame, the Pantheon, and Paris spreading out.

Renting an apartment in Paris was the best decision. We were able to save money by cooking at home and eating out only at lunch. At the end of our week in Paris, we took all that saved money and ate at a nice French resturant near the Jardin Luxemburg. The aparment also had a washer and dryer so we didn't have to wear the same dirty clothes day after day. Unfortunately, the appliances weren't grounded so you got a serious electrical shock everytime to tried to touch your clothes in the washer.

Here's a travel tip: water + ungrounded appliances = painful shock.

We visited all of the typical Parisian sights: the Louvre, the Eifel Tower, Arc de Triumph, the patisseries, and McDo (French for McDonald's).

After Paris we spent 4 days in Nice, which isn't as nice as you would think. Nice was good, but I wouldn't spend 4 days there. We rented another apartment in Nice on the Rue Giofreddo near Old Town Nice. From Nice we visited Monaco, Antibes, and explored Nice itself. There really isn't too much to see in Nice so you kind of have to make daytrips from there. The really sad thing about Nice, is all of the cruise ship tourists who flock there. Most of the big cruise ships dock at Nice or near it on the Mediterrean Sea so there was an influx of puffy white tennis shoe tourists to get in the way.

Kelly ended up getting so bad food poisoning in Nice late Saturday night and Sunday morning. In case you're wondering, nothing is open on Sunday in Nice and everything closes at 9:00pm on Saturday.

Another, travel tip: don't get sick on the weekend in Nice.

Besides a few train blunders, a few bad bus rides, getting stranded on the side of coastal highway between Monaco and Nice, the trip was amazing and I want to travel some more.

We're Home

Steve and Kelly at Versailles
Bop, Beep, Kelly and Steve at Antibes on the Cote d'Azur

Kelly and I are home from our amazing 2 week vacation in France. I'll give more details later, but we had a great time with our friends, Beep and Bop. We rented an apartment in Paris' 6th Arrodissement (the Saint Germain des Pres area near the Ecole des Beaux Arts) for 8 days. Then we spent 3 days on the sunny Cote d'Azure, France's Mediterranean coast. There, we rented an apartment in Nice and made day trips to Monaco and Antibes.

We had a few hiccups along the way: I lost my cell phone on the flight to France, Kelly got sick in Nice, I forgot basically everything I needed, we got on wrong trains, Bop constantly fought MasterCard, and the 4 of us shared 1 small bathroom with poor ventilation (if you know what I mean).

It was a great trip and we'll post our pictures in the next few days.

For now, we're glad to be home where we can understand people and read the signs.

IT'S A BOY!!!!

Here is the profile

Here is one of his feet. He doesn't have 18 toes, he is just wiggling.

Here is his face. I know, it looks creepy.

Steve and I went to our first ultrasound today to see a little boy wiggling and moving and punching and sucking. At least, that is what the radiologist was saying. I couldn't really see anything. I did count 5 fingers on each hand though and he does have a spine, two legs and two arms, and feet. Here is our first baby picture.

Sewing is Fun

Last night I bought a new sewing machine at Costco. It is the most exciting thing ever. It's a Singer Model 4661. It comes with 10 different feet, it does 60 different stitches including 5 different button holes. You can set the speed to sew fast or slow (or something in between). It has a start/stop button on the machine so you don't have to hook up the presser foot if you don't want to. It has a contraption to thread the needle for you. You can set it so the needle stops in the down position or the up position. The best part is, it only cost $179.99. For all of you looking for a fun new sewing machine, I highly recommend this.

If anyone would like my old sewing machine, which is not nearly as exciting, let me know and I will give it to you free of charge.

Practice for Paris

Jennfier & Kelly at Crepe Cafe
The Mathletes at Crepe Cafe

The funny crosswalk guy in Vancouver, BC.

My sister and her husband visited us for a quick Labor Day weekend. We love it when people come out to visit becuase it's a good excuse to finally do all those touristy things we rarely do. Of course we checked out the Olympic Sculpture Park-my new favorite thing about Seattle, ate a lot of food, and walked all over the place.

After dropping the Brother-in-Law off at the airport we drove up to Vancouver, BC. Kelly and I love Vancouver, and if a certain ultra-conservative candidate and his sidekick are elected in November we may be moving up there.



Anyway, I digress. Sure, you can argue that Canada is basically the U.S., but their signs are in French and English. Plus, you have to show a passport and go through customs to get there. We practiced our French by reading the signs and pretending to order our crepes in French. Well, when I say "we" practiced, I really mean that "I" practiced my French. Jennifer and Kelly didn't seem interested in playing my bi-lingual games.



We stopped and had lunch at our favorite crepe place on Robson Street. Kelly ordered the most amazing Nutella and coconut crepe, while Jennifer and I had the banana and Nutella version. Besides crepes, we did a lot of window shopping in Yaletown and Robson. Unfortunatley, the US dollar isn't what it used to be against the Canadian dollar, so it wasn't the usual bargain shopping extravaganza that we're used to in Vancouver.



Kelly and I had a great time with Jennifer and Brad. We love having family visit and showing them our beautiful corner of the world.