Wow! I'm 35.

I can't believe I'm officially out of my early 30s! Yikes! I'm 35 today and it actually....kinda....sorta feels like I'm 35. The boys couldn't wait to give me my birthday present so they gave it to me yesterday morning. They went all out this year and got me an iPad. It's awesome! I hadn't asked for one (because they're so expensive) but they got me one anyway. I love it.

Then JD and Ryan went over to Brooks' house yesterday afternoon and they went with everyone to Willie's Backyard to celebrate birthdays in Stacie's family. They got to play and have fun while me and Bud went out for dinner and a movie. We went to Pappasito's (my pick) and had some delicious steak and shrimp. It was wayyyyyy too much food, but it was so yummy. I had a watermelon margarita to go with it.

Then we headed over to the Palladium and watched "Trouble with the Curve" a new movie with Amy Adams and Clint Eastwood. Good storyline but the details were really kinda cheesy. We enjoyed Starbucks lattes and a brownie during the movie. Totally beats popcorn and a coke any day of the week. We got home around 11pm or so and pretty much just went to sleep. I know, boring old married couple. It's ok. I enjoyed it.

Today's my birthday and I woke up to a quiet house and spent some time playing with my new little toy, my iPad, and updating my blog. I also got a call from my daddy first thing this morning. :)

 

 

Happy Birthday To Me!

Home Sweet Home

I got home around midnight on Monday Sept 10th (Tuesday morning) and when I walked in the door, this is what I saw, taped to the door so I'd see it first thing:

I guess you could say the boys missed me. Since I was getting home too late and they'd already be in bed asleep, JD and Ryan each wrote letters to me and hung them on the door so it would be the first thing I saw when I got home. It was THE BEST welcome home gift ever! Below JD's note, you can see the individual pictures he drew -- one of them is us kissing, one is us hugging, one is him giving me a present, etc. Then he has little notes below them that say "I am so excited. Man, you are nice" and "I love you. Man, what a sweet mom" and "You are so sweet. Can't wait to see you." 

Ryan's note is the little round piece below JD's note. He's totally into using scissors, so his note probably started out bigger then got wittled down.

I love those letters and will cherish them forever!

Sunday at the Paralympics, London

I'd better complete my entries for my last days in London before time gets too far past me. I was keeping up my blog pretty well while I was in London, but then on Friday (or maybe it was Saturday??), the internet stopped working. So now I'm having to go back and remember. And if you know me, you know my memory stinks. Which is why I'm doing a blog -- to remember.

So Saturday we had a free day to ourselves to do what we wanted around the city. Sunday, it was back to the schedule. We got up Sunday morning and headed out to Olympic park and for the first time, we went to the basketball arena where they were playing rugby. We got to see the USA play against Japan for Bronze. What an exciting game!

 First, let me explain Paralympics Rugby. While it certainly has elements of what we all know as rugby, it also has elements of basketball, soccer, football and bumper cars. The guys play in wheelchairs and they use a round ball (like basketball or soccer). They throw the ball to each other as they head down field toward the other team's goal (soccer or football) but once they cross center field, they can't cross back over (basketball). What we weren't expecting was that they're sort of expected to score on every possession (basketball) unlike football or soccer where they have to fight for the rare touchdown or goal scored. All the while, they ram into each other in their wheelchairs, using them as blocking devices (bumper cars), doing it so fiercly that they blow out their tires. Right there in the middle of court, they call timeout and the pit crew comes out and changes the tire.

Rugby was an exciting game to watch and even more exciting because we got to see the USA win the Bronze medal. And if that wasn't exciting.....

We headed over to the Family Lounge to eat lunch (which was terrible that day!!) and while we were trying to decide what to do next and when to leave, a security guard walked over to us and said quietly "You're about to get a bird's eye view of Prince Edward. He's on his way in." About 1 minute later, there he was, walking through the door right behind us. I froze. I was totally starstruck. So everyone threw their cameras at me and walked over to him. Pictures? I can do pictures. Talk to a real-life Prince? Not so much. What am I gonna say? "So Prince Edward, how does it feel to be Prince Charming?" What a dork. So I just hung out in the corner playing papparazzi while the other girls hung around and talked with him. Kelli included.

Finally, Kelli motioned to me to move over and get in the picture. Uh-uh, I shook my head. Again, what am I going to say? She motioned again. And again. Finally I moved over a couple of feet, but still not close enough to talk to him. I was so giddy and excited, I just giggled when she took the picture -- with him over my shoulder about 4 feet away.

After the Prince Edward excitement, Kelli and I rushed out of Olympic Park and headed back to the hotel so Kelli could change shirts and we could meet back up with Cheryle (US Olympic Committee staff that was co-hosting our Hartford group). Then we headed to church. It's Sunday. What better way to spend part of the day than to worship God at the Hillsong Church. Kelli and I were so excited about getting to experience that. (It's not First Baptist Castroville, but it'll do. :)

Hillsong Church's music was awesome! It was like a rock concert. We walked in and the energy was amazing. The service is held at the Dominion Theater. They don't have shows on Sundays so Hillsong rents it out for their church service. The place was packed. At that point, I was really wishing Bud could be there - I know he would have loved the music. The message was good too. They had a guest pastor from America and his message was about unforgiveness. It was a good message. The rest of the service was uncomfortable though. They asked for money way too much - passing the buckets twice in the service, and even had their own commercial on how to tithe using your smartphone.

After church, we headed straight to dinner. We had a nice dinner scheduled for our last night. We ate at Jamie's which is Jamie Oliver's restaurant at Westfield Mall, one of the entrances to Olympic Park. I had black truffle risotto and Kelli had a steak. It was delicious. During dinner, I sat next to a Paralympic Athlete who won Silver in the Long Jump at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He now works for the US Olympic Committee and does keynote speaking. He's a great inspiration and it was so nice getting to talk with him. I learned that he was an Olympic athlete back in the 90s and was training for the Olympics while serving in the US Army. While practicing the hurdles for the 1992 Olympic trials, he fell and dislocated his knee very badly; his femur bone was sticking out the side of his leg. After 5 days in the hospital, the doctors recommended that he have the leg amputated, or live the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He followed the doctors recommendation and now he has a prosthetic on his left leg. That didn't stop him though - he's now a Paralympic medalist. It was so inspiring having the chance to talk to him.

As a mom, I've always feared something terrible happening to one of my boys. Strange as it may be, I've even contemplated what would happen if one of them lost a limb. Honestly, after having spent a week at the Paralympics, met some athletes face to face, that fear is diminished. If something like that were to happen to my boys, it would not be the end of the world. It could actually be the beginning of a whole new world for them. Not that I want anything like that to happen, but if it did, I wouldn't be so scared anymore.

Closing ceremonies were that night too (long day, I know). Coldplay, Beyonce, JayZ and Rihanna performed. What a production!!! I've never seen anything like it before. It was like a circus/parade/concert. Things were going on everywhere - there was always something to look at. Coldplay's performance was very good; the crowd really got into it. From what I hear, one of the best concerts ever (I'm not a concert go-er so I wouldn't really know). I also got to see every country's flag carried into the stadium. What an honor to experience something like that first hand.

Kelli took this beautiful picture. Definitely postcard-worthy!

The fireworks show was amazing.

I'm already a little sad that I probably won't have the chance to go to Rio de Janiero for the 2016 Olympics. This was such an amazing experience that I would recommend anyone to go. And if you have the chance to go, choose the Paralympics over the Olympics. I'm telling you - it will change your perspective on life. Totally worth it!

Big thanks to Hartford for giving me this chance of a lifetime. I'm honored and blessed.

Kids Say the Darndest Things #3

Ok let's pause for a quick intermission from the Paris/London trip. I want to capture a few things that Ryan has recently said that are just adorable and I don't ever want to forget them.

About a month ago, he was at daycare/preschool, eating lunch with all the kids. Him and JD were having a conversation, and their teacher, Mrs. Brown, told us that she likes to just sit there and listen to them talk and enjoy their little discussions. Here's what she heard:

Ryan: "JD, when is Jesus' birthday?"
JD: "December 25th."
Ryan: "Will there be a bouncy castle?

I just love his innocence and simplicity. Life is all about chocolate milk and bouncy castles.

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Then just this week, Ryan and Zane (his friend at preschool) were talking over lunch. Again, Mrs. Brown was enjoying their talk --- well, it was more of a disagreement. Something had happened between them and as a result, Zane was telling Ryan that he could no longer come to his birthday party this weekend at Pump It Up.

Zane: "You're not coming to my birthday party now."
Ryan: "Yes I am."
Zane: "No you're not."
Ryan: "Yes I am."
Zane: "No. I'm writing you off." (Where did he ever hear that by the way?)
Ryan: "I'll pray for you."

How cute is that? I'm just so proud of him and his precious heart. Instead of responding like a typical 4 year old (and typical Ryan) by saying something like "Yeah, well, I don't care. I'm gonna go to your party anyway" he said he'd pray for Zane. That just makes my heart smile.

Notting Hill - CHECK!

I can put check marks next to Paris and London on my Bucket List, and now I can also check off Notting Hill. Our London hosts gave us a free day all of Saturday so we spent it the best way we knew how -- a visit to a little London neighborhood, Notting Hill, filming site of one of our favorite movies, aptly named "Notting Hill."

Saturday was the perfect day for a visit to Notting Hill because it was market day on Portobello Road and all the street vendors were out selling clothes, jewelry, paintings, homemade crepes -- you name it, they were selling it. Kelli bought an oil painting of a red phone booth in front of Big Ben. It's all in black and white, except the red phone booth. It was painted by French students in Paris, so that was kinda cool because we were just in Paris.

For lunch, we stopped at George's Fish Bar in Notting Hill. We had another place in mind, but when we stopped a local passerby to get directions, he recommended George's instead. So we took his advice, and glad we did. It was really good. I ate the fish the way that the English do -- with vinegar. Sounds weird, but it was pretty good. We had chips (fries) on the side, as well as a traditional English side, mushy peas. They were exactly as they sound, mushed up green peas. Not too bad, once I added some salt.

          

Part of the reason we went to Notting Hill was to find the bookstore from the movie. In the movie, it was called the Travel Book Co but we knew that was a fictitious name, but we weren't sure what the real name was. So we ventured into a map store, seeking a friendly local that might let us in on the secret. So we started up a conversation with the map store owner/employee about Texas maps. They didn't have any in stock (we pretended to be disappointed) then we had him just where we wanted him, and broke the question: "So do you know where the book store and the house from Notting Hill are located?" He was kind enough to tell us exactly where, and off we went, with the disappointment of not leaving with an antique Texas map. :(

We found the Notting Hill Bookstore, which is the store that inspired the movie. It wasn't filmed in the actual store, but a replica was created in an empty retail space a few blocks over (which is now a shoe store). Kelli and I had to go in and find a book about Turkey (watch the movie, you'll understand), and of course the Notting Hill book.

Then posed for some quick pictures outside the store front as well. (Such groupies!!!)

 

We also tried to find the house with a blue door. We took pictures in front of several rowhouses that we thought might be it. Turns out later, we were on the right street, but didn't get the right house. It no longer has a blue door. Oh well. We tried. Guess we'll have to go back to Notting Hill some day to get the right house.



After a long day in Notting Hill (and a yummy street crepe, served like my Granny O'Connor used to make them with butter, sugar and lemon), we headed to Big Ben to find the famous red phone booth. And we found it! And so did the rest of London. It's probably one of the most photographed spots in the city. We had to wait in line for our turn to take a picture in the phone booth.

After a couple quick pictures, we got back on the Tube (London's underground subway system) and headed back to the hotel. We had more planned for the day. At 4:30, the wife of one of the guests that also won this trip was putting on a solo cello concert for us. They scheduled it at the same time as "High Tea" so we got to listen to a live cello concert while enjoying tea and snacks. The music was beautiful and the tea, cookies and sandwiches were a delicious afternoon snack before our long night of Paralympic events.

Michelle (famed cellist - she gets hired to do the background music for movies and video games - most recently, "Call of Duty") and her hubby Eric Hopkins

After our special concert, we headed back to the games and watched some more Track & Field. We finallly got to hear our National Anthem played in the stadium. It was the first and only time we got to hear it. It was awesome! We were also there to see a high jump competitor from Poland break the world record -- by ALOT! The record was 2.05 meters and he cleared 2.12 meters. That was really exciting because even after he beat the Silver Medalist (USA Olympian, Jeff Skiba), he kept going, trying to set the record as high as he could. The entire stadium was cheering for him. It was really exciting to hear 80,000 people cheering for one guy.

We got home around midnight, made some quick calls and Skypes to the boys back at home, then went to bed. Another fun-filled day awaited us in the morning.

Another Great Day in London

We had another really terrific day in London at the Paralympics. We started by watching a little Track & Field this morning where we got to watch the blind race. That is so amazing to watch. They actually run with a guide. The paralympic (competing) athlete and their guide hold onto a rope to keep them together. Then they race, listening to directions given by their guide as they run. The guides have to be really fast to keep up with the runner. When they get to the finish line, the guide (while still holding on) drops back a little bit. It's a requirement that the competing athlete crosses the finish line first. That was probably one of my favorite events to watch.

After track and field, we went over to take some group pictures before heading over to the Olympic Athletes Village.

Me and Kelli taking a fun, silly picture!!

It was such a privilege that we even got to go in the Village - rights to it are completely exclusive for the competing athletes and their families. To get in, we had to surrender our passports, which we got back on our way out. The Village is just incredible. They have a post office, beauty salon, workout facility, gift shop, a huge dining hall with foods from all over the world, among other things.

So not only did we get to spend some time in the Athletes Village, we also got to eat in the Athlete's Dining Hall. The Dning Hall is only available to the athletes so it was a complete honor to get the chance to experience that. I had some chinese food, pizza and yummy cinnamon coffee cake. Delicious!! At the end of our meal, a few of the Team USA athletes came in and visited with us. One of them, Sam Kavanagh, won the bronze metal in track cycling. He lost his leg in an avalanche in 2005 (his friend died in the avalanche). The avalanche broke his fibula and tibia bones in his leg and then he sat in his tent for 2 days until he was rescued. By that time, he'd lost half of his blood supply, had a terrible infection, and was experiencing kidney problems. He ended up losing his leg, but that didn't stop him. Shortly after recovering, he decided he wanted to become a Paralympian and started training, and now he is a Paralympic medalist.

Sam was a super nice guy. When I went over to get a picture of him with his Bronze medal, I spotted an old-fashioned London taxi pin on his lanyard. I told him that I loved it (I'm totally in love with these old taxi cars), and he gave me the pin. I was so grateful and excited about that one! Definitely my favorite pin yet.....and it came straight from a Paralympian bronze medalist!!!

Sam is in the middle, proudly wearing his Bronze medal.

After lunch, we were free for a few hours so Kelli and I headed to the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels. The Queen's crowns are so beautiful. The have a cubic zirconium crown ring here in the gift shop at the hotel. It's 70 Pounds which is like $125. I really wanted it. I even tried it on, but it's too big. So I guess the decision is made - guess I won't be wearing the crown on my finger.

The London Bridge - across from the Tower of London.

We came back after seeing the Crown Jewels and rested for about an hour or so, then headed back out to Olympic Stadium and watched the Women's Sit Volleyball. The USA played China in the Gold medal match. Unfortunately, even though it was a great game, the USA didn't beat China. So Silver it is. Which is still really cool.

Paralympic Athletes: A True Inspiration

I am in complete awe and amazement of the Paralympics. In my opinion, it doesn't get anywhere near the press it deserves. These athletes, who train just as hard and just as long as able-bodied Olympic athletes, are flying so far below the radar that most people in the U.S. don't even know about it. What a shame. Of all athletes, these are truly the most amazing and inspiring athletes I've ever encountered.

If you're wondering, Paralympic athletes have a physical disability and are classified according to their level of impairment (all explained here: http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/sports/). For example, the athletes might be missing one or more limbs, might be vision impaired, have cerebral palsy, or have acquired an intellectual impairment (different than the Special Olympics where they're typically born with the mental disability). It's simply amazing to see these athletes compete in their area of expertise, despite their disabilities. Because all disabilities are slighty different, the US Paralympic Committee classifies the athletes according to their level of impairment and puts them into groups where the competition will be most fair. That, in and of itself, is a really cool thing to learn about.

We watched swimming this morning, and there were men and women competing who were missing limbs, had cerebral palsey or other impairments. Depending on their disability, they either started on the blocks, or started in the water. In some cases, they had to be held in position by an assistant until the start of the race sounded. All the swimmers were inspiring, but specifically, there were two different men in separate heats that were missing their arms. They competed in backstroke ---- WITHOUT ARMS!!! Using just their head and trunk (and legs if they were able), they moved themselves in the water, and they competed against other swimmers who had their arms (but had other paralyzation or impairments). I was totally moved by that. I just sat there and watched in complete amazement through my blurry, tear-filled eyes. And what's even more amazing.....one of them even set a WORLD RECORD!!

Kelli, Sheryle Miller (USOC Staff) and I stopped to take a picture with the Olympic Torch.

We also got to watch Futbol 5 A Side (soccer, to us Americans) played by the blind. We watched the China vs Great Britain match. It's essentially a soccer match but the ball has a bell inside it so the players can hear it. The audience has to stay quiet during play so the players can hear the ball and hear directions being called out by their coaches and goalies. The goalies are the only ones who are not blind. I'm telling you - this was so intriguing and wonderful to watch. These guys play just like non-vision-impaired soccer players, they just do it a little more cautiously. They block kicks, they use their bodies to get in front of the ball, they dribble the ball all the way down the field. It's truly an amazing thing to see. We got to see the Chinese do a penalty kick (he was fouled by a GB player) and the coach first tapped around the corners of the goal with a metal stick so that the kicker knew where the goal was located. His kick was successful, but he didn't know it until he heard the roar of the crowd, then he commenced to celebrating. It was so touching. Again, found myself tearing up.

After that we headed over to women's Goal Ball which is played 3 on 3 (China vs. Finland). They are also blind and the ball is like the soccer ball with a bell inside. There's a goal at each end of the court, and each goal takes up the entire width of the court. One person on the team rolls the ball (underhand-windmill-softball-pitcher style) at the other team, and by listening to the ball, the other team knows where the ball is headed and they use their bodies to stop the ball from going into their goal. Then they pick up the ball and roll it back, trying to score. Again, the audience has to remain silent during play.

We are heading off to watch Men's Wheelchair Basketball tonight. I can't wait to see that.
I have learned so much about the Paralympics being over here. The sense of pride these athletes have is beyond anything I've experienced. The Paralympics officially started at the 1960 Rome Olympics, so it hasn't been long, but I'm so grateful these games exist for them. In their daily lives, I know they are probably stared at, considered "different," and probably pitied by many. But here.....here, they fit in perfectly, they are admired, and they are considered to be true inspirations. I'm running out of adjectives to describe the feeling I get when I watch these Games. All I can say is WOW! I am truly blessed to have been selected to be a part of this life-changing experience.

London Paralympics 2012

It's 8am on Thursday (I think) and I'm writing today about yesterday because it was such a long busy day that by the time I got back, I was too tired to write anything down. Our day began around 9:30 and we didn't get in until around midnight. We started with a bus tour of London and got to see lots of great places -- Big Ben (named after the well-liked man who was in charge of the building project, Benjamin something), Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, and of course, Buckingham Palace. We didn't get to go into any of these landmarks, but we took pictures from the outside. We ate lunch in one of the beautiful parks/gardens on the lawn, in the sun. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. Bright, sunny and about 80 degrees with a wonderful cool breeze.

Following the tour, we headed straight over to Olympic Park and watched the Gold medal men's double wheelchair tennis match between the USA and Great Britain. Needless to say, the USA fans were outnumbered by about 100 to 1, but it was so much fun anyway. We had a rowdy group of Brits in front of us and they had all kinds of fun songs and chants they sang (yelled) and all we had was "U.S.A.!!!" We answered their loud calls a few times with that, but I'm really quite disappointed that the U.S. hasn't come up with something else for us to use. It's my mission now to come up with something creative that we can chant and cheer during exciting games like that.

The U.S. team ended up winning Gold and it came down to the 3rd and final match. GB was seeded first, so it was really exciting to get to experience the "underdog" win first place. One of the guys that played had an electric wheelchair, which you'd think wouldn't be fair. But he only has partial use of his arms - neither had full range of motion functionality. He held the racket in one hand, controlled his chair with one hand, and actually tossed the ball to serve with his FEET!!!! So inspiring. It makes me think.....what the heck have I done with my life?! LOL!

I had my first pin-trading experience during the tennis match. Hartford gave us three pins to trade while we're here (pin-trading is a big thing at the Olympics) and one of them is the official Team USA pin. The nice British boy, Tim Jones, who works for the Int'l Tennis Federation, and I started talking about the pins. He said he wanted my Team USA pin. I didn't know, until later, that it's a pretty valuable pin. He "traded" me for his ITF pin. I was kinda excited about my first trade. Then he turned around and burst my bubble in a hurry - he had a pocketful of those pins and he just gave them out to other people around me. Are you kidding me?! I totally got ripped off. The more I thought about it throughout the day, the more upset I got. So, I'm on a mission today to find Mr. Tim Jones, and if I do, he owes me. Big time!!

Me and Tim Jones, the pin-thief :)

Afterwards, we headed over to the Holiday Inn where the US Olympic Committee is staying and enjoyed dinner there. A quick dinner. Then headed over to watch Track & Field (or as the Olympians call it, "Athletics"). That was so amazing. Seriously don't even know how to put it into words. I'm sure at some point in these athletes' lives, they were told they'd never be able to run or play a certain sport, etc, and here they are --- in the Olympics, in an arena full of 80,000 fans screaming for them, competing for the title of "Best in the World." I was so emotional. Every time someone would win, my eyes would fill up with tears. It was just so moving. We stayed until the last race, then headed back to the hotel and got into bed a little after midnight.....then up at 6:30 for another fun-filled day. Here we go!!!

I See London, I Saw France

We made it to London! After going to sleep around 2am last night (this morning), Kelli and I slept until about 9:15 then woke up, had some coffee, and headed out (with heavy luggage in tow) for the train station. We took the Metro (Paris subway) to the Eurostar Train Station and FINALLY got to enjoy a crepe, straight off a street vendor. Kelli and Christy each had a butter and sugar crepe, and I, of course, had a chocolate Nutella crepe. Oh my gosh!!! So worth the wait. I can't wait to go home and make crepes for breakfast. That's what we're going to have our first morning when I get home.

After enjoying our yummy crepe, Kelli and I boarded the train and headed for London. To get us in the London mood, we watched one of my very favorite movies of all time "Notting Hill." It helped us get into the spirit and now we are really excited about trying to find Notting Hill and walk through the neighborhood - maybe we can find the house with the blue door!

When we arrived in London, we were met by one of our hosts and led back to the hotel. We have a Hospitality Room available to us 24/7 (it has drinks and snacks and free wi-fi). At 5:00, we met for dinner and also got all of our Olympic goodies: two London Olympics t-shirts and a polo shirt, drawstring bag and trading pins.

Then we headed off to get our Olympic credentials, but they were closed when we got there so we've got to go back tomorrow. On our way back, we stopped and took pictures with some London police officers. I love their hats!! They look so cool, and so old-fashioned. We also spent some time admiring the St. Paul's Cathedral, which is where Princess Di and Prince Charles were married.

Everyone decided to split up at this point - some people headed to the pubs, some walked through parks/gardens, but Kelli and I went to Picadilly Circus (circus = roundabout circle drive). I had to buy a new straightening iron because mine completely blew up when I plugged it in to the adapter/converter in our hotel room. Yep, I plugged it in and it started smoking. Don't ask me why I did what I did next --- I tried straightening a piece of my hair and it totally scorched the ends. UGH!!! Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, the ceramic plates completely melted off the iron. I couldn't believe it!!! Now that I've mentioned it to a few people, it's apparently a known thing: you can't use U.S. hair appliances here, even with an adapter/converter. Would have been nice to know about 6 hours ago!

Anyway, London is great so far. I can't wait to see what the week has in store for us. My only complaint......way too much smoking here. EVERYONE smokes. You can't go anywhere without filling your lungs full of cigarette smoke. It's disgusting. Have the Europeans not gotten the memo about lung cancer? Someone should fill them in. On that note.....good night everyone! Sweet London Dreams!

Can you say Champs Élysées?

It's been my personal goal during my last two days here in Paris to learn how to properly pronounce this famous street name. I know nothing, I mean absolutely NOTHING, about the French language so it's been really hard learning how to say things in French. The words really don't sound anything like they're spelled. This famous street, Champs Élysées, is pronounced Chaunz-eh-leh-zay. I finally learned that (after practicing most of the day). We spent some time walking along this famous, upscale street today and it was so cool. We walked around the Louis Vuitton store - very impressive and very expensive. We also saw the new Abercrombie & Fitch that opened recently - we could actually smell it all the way down the street. It's so "pretentious," as Christy likes to say. There was actually a roped-off area where patrons had to wait in line for their turn to go into the store. Yes, I said wait in line....to enter the store and spend 80 Euros for a shirt!! And there were like 4 A&F models/bodyguards standing outside manning the line and gate. It was a little crazy to see.

 Outside the A&F Store. 

Backtrack to the morning...we actually slept in until 9:15 which I haven't done in years. Us three girls got ready, I had a couple cups of Christy's yummy coffee (which she made just for me because no one else drinks it) and we headed out. First stop was the Arc de Triomphe. Simply amazing!! This is the monument that Napoleon built to celebrate his conquering of Europe. The craftsmanship of these old structures is just awesome. It can't be put into words. Kelli and I paid 10 Euros each and climbed a very long spiral staircase with a couple hundred steps to the top (found out later that there was an elevator, or "lift" as the Europenas call it). I'm so glad we went to the top because the view of the city was simply beautiful.  Surrounding the Arc is the Star which is an intersection where 8 streets meet. It looks like everything in Paris ends at this one particular point in the city. It's also the most dangerous intersection in the world because of all the entering and exiting into this one place. And apparently, when accidents do occur, they don't even investigate fault; it's just 50/50 for those involved and they move on. Fault is too hard to determine because of the design. 

 

From there we walked down Champs Élysées and I just loved that. The true woman in me came out - I could have spent a whole lot more time and money there if I had it. We stopped at a beautiful little boutique bakery and had French Macaroons. Not the coconut macaroons we have in the U.S. but they're these wonderfully delicious little sweet cakes. From there, we toured the Notre Dame Cathedral. That place was so impressive that I really can't find the words to describe it. When we turned from the lobby and walked in the back, I turned and took one look to the front of the church and it completely took my breath away. I was completely awestruck and tears filled my eyes!! The beauty is simply overwhelming. I just can't believe the architecture and detail of the buildings they created back then. Our technology is so much more advanced today but we don't build anything remotely as spectacular as the things they did centuries ago.

For dinner Kelli and I had to leave Christy behind because she had to work. So we ventured out on our own. We headed to a fondue restaurant near the Red Light District (prostitution, etc) and passed the Moulin Rouge restaurant. That was kinda cool to see. We finally found our restaurant, Refuge de Fondues where we drank wine out of baby bottles (some kind of loophole to wine taxes) and shared our table with a couple of girls from Brazil. They were so friendly and so proud of their country. They'd been on a 3-week European trip and we could tell they were missing home. Then we headed back to Christy's flat and have been hanging out ever since.

Tomorrow we leave for London via Chunnel. That'll be another first for us. I'm hoping to get the chance to enjoy a crepe before I leave Paris so maybe I'll get to do that on our way to the train station tomorrow. We shall see. Until then.... Bonsoir (Good Night)!