Monday in Paris

Well our second night of sleeping was better for Grace, worse for me.. Woke up (WIDE AWAKE) at midnight....couldn't fall asleep again until after 3am...and G woke up sometime between 2 and 3.. Needless to say, we didn't get up again until basically lunch time.. But we're on vacation.. It's ok to sleep in.. And since the clock is not set in the apartment and my cell phone is dead (and didn't convert to local time anyway)...my sense of time is all distorted...It's weird not knowing what time it is, but not really caring at the same time.. It's also strange not checking for text messages every 5 minutes...I finally figured out how to set the laptop to local time so I do actually know the time when I am in cyberspace...
The first thing on our agenda today was the grocery store...We have an apartment so we can actually save on breakfast/snacks/drinks...So we headed to the store down the street to get some essentials..(in my life that is peanut butter, bread, diet coke, cereal, milk)...It's amazing going to grocery stores in other countries.. First of all, if you want to use a large cart it will cost you 1 euro. So we used a basket. The first thing we saw was an entire aisle of yummy refrigerated snacks- chocolate mousse, pot de creme, rice pudding, flan, etc... I wish I could take them home! The cheese section is also amazing but Grace wouldn't let me linger..she says "I HATE CHEESE". There is even an actual cheese shop on the corner I haven't had the chance to go in yet. France is heaven for wine drinkers..There are wine shops everywhere. Sadly (or luckily) for me I don't really care for wine. At the checkstand the cashier got angry with me because apparently you are supposed to weigh your produce (in this case, 4 bananas) and get a sticker with a price before you get in line. And unfortunately she didn't speak English (and I don't speak French). So she had to do it for us.. C'est la vie. Now I know.
After unpacking the food and having a snack we set off to try to catch the Batobus to the Eiffel Tower (even though now it was nearing 2 and the Batobus only runs until 4:30)..We walked down to the Seine at the Hotel de Ville..Then we waited at the place to catch the boat but got tired of waiting so G suggested we take the Metro instead (which is cheaper). We had some leftover Metro tickets our neighbor Tesa gave us.. I am not sure if 5 year olds have to pay but I did because I'd rather not get in trouble for not paying for her (and it's not worth trying to ask when you don't speak French). We had to change trains and somehow we screwed up and exited the station so we had to use two more tickets! (Lesson number two of the day)...The next train took us to the Trocodero station where we exited and got our first view of the amazing Eiffel Tower. We made our way to the tower (first taking some pictures and letting G ride a carousel) and waited in line for tickets.. The top of the tower was closed (lame)..but G was having a hissy fit saying she changed her mind and didn't want to go.. Well for me this one was non-negotiable. She reminded me of when I was a kid waiting in line with my dad to ride a roller coaster at King's Dominion and deciding I was too scared to ride it. My dad said "Tough. You are riding it". And I did. And I was fine. So we got to go to the second level and the view was amazing.. Even though it was an overcast day. After leaving the Tower we were walking to the nearest Metro station but decided to take a bus instead (they use the same tickets). We caught a bus that took us to the Opera house past the Place de la Concorde and Place de la Madeleine. I wanted to show Grace the largest Department store in Paris- Galleries Lafayette. It was all lit up for Christmas and had amazing Christmas window displays (like Macy's in NYC). We had dinner on the 6th floor (there are many restaurants in there- we wanted sushi but settled for chinese because the sushi restaurant was closed. I did not tell her there was a McDonalds on the 5th floor). Then we checked out the kids floor. Found a baby gift for our new niece who should be arriving tomorrow and then splurged on an outfit for miss G. It will have to go under the Christmas tree.
When we left the shop we finally saw our FIRST CAT! He belonged to an old woman who was homeless and he was wearing a jacket and sitting on a carrier. We gave her all our change and she kissed Grace's hand and let us pet her cat. I wanted to take a photo of him (he was a handsome brown tabby) but I didn't want to be rude. We got back on the Metro to the Marais and found our way back to our neighborhood. Grace decided she wanted ice cream so we found a cafe that was still open and she got framboise glace and I got a melted (death by) chocolate treat with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Grace wants to play a game of Old Maid that we bought at the store tonight so I have to wrap this up...3 advil and 1 ambien should = a good nights sleep. Let's hope. Until tomorrow...

A Sunday Stroll in Paris

Well our first night of attempting to sleep in Paris was terrible- between the crowds and the cars below the hotel and Grace not being able to sleep until well past 3am there wasn't much sleep to be had.. In the morning we took a walk up to the Rue des Abbesses and found a cafe to have some breakfast. We sat outside at a tiny table on tiny chairs and had eggs (omelet with cheese) with salad (?!) and bread of course. While playing with her straw, Grace accidentally splashed some hot chocolate on the woman's black suede boots who was sitting next to us. She was talking on her i-phone and gracefully pulled out some wipes to clean her boots. When we left she spoke in perfect English and told Grace to have a nice day. We have been treated very nicely here. The cafe's are a great place to people watch- the Parisians are very stylish, beautiful and fit. So are the dogs. I have challenged Grace to try to photograph every dog we come across.. So far the Jack Russel Terrier seems to be a favorite here. We did meet some cute apricot poodles whose owner stopped to let G get a picture of them...We have also seen bull terriers, a boxer puppy, a dachshund, shih tzus and a yellow lab or two.
We got back just in time to catch our cab to the Marais district. We had instructions to meet Chris at the Cafe Charlot at 1:00 where he would walk us to the apartment we are renting for the week. I think Chris is an ex-patriot...and he is very fond of this cute apartment.. If anything is spilled on the (antique) rug he wants us to notify him right away. He also wanted to make sure that Grace was past the 'writing on walls' stage. (Normally he does not allow children in this rental). Anyhow, to get to the apartment you enter through two huge red doors, go through an iron gate, down a hall, through a courtyard and then you see it.. It's a studio apartment with wood beam ceiling, stone walls and wood floors.. Super cute and cozy. Grace is happy it has a big tub. After showing us how everything works and going over a local map where the best restaurants, bakeries, cheese shops, etc are located we were free to unpack. Grace wanted to take a nap but I knew if that happened we would probably end up awake all night so I decided we'd go out and explore the Marais. We checked out the nearby food market that has all kinds of ethnic 'fast food' that you can take to go or eat there. We walked to the Picasso Museum and found out that it is closed for renovations until 2012. The Picasso Museum was the highlight of my previous short stay in Paris 19 years ago..it is even better than the Picasso Museum in Barcelona. We came across the Musee Carnavalet and checked out an exhibit on the French Revolution. Then we walked to the Centre d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou and the Stravinsky Fountain. On the way we stopped for crepes- sucre and chocolat...Our feet were getting tired so we started heading back (Grace really wanted to go see the Eiffel Tower all lit up but I wasn't really in the mood to navigate the Metro so we'll do that another night)..we ate at a cafe on the corner of our street- we shared tomato and mozarrella salad and penne with tre fromages. Grace took a bath when we got home and I made her go to sleep before 8... Now look who has the jetlag! It's only midnight although it felt like I slept all night....She is snoozing away next to me...I might need to watch a movie on the laptop...

France, at Last

First of all, I want to apologize for my lack of blogging....there really is no excuse to go 6 months without blogging about SOMETHING... So I am back. And blogging from Le Chat Noir Design Hotel in Paris, France where Grace and I are spending the first night of my "I'm turning 40 and freaking out vacation". We both are suffering from some serious jetlag.
The last couple days were a whirlwind of events...I worked right up until it was time to leave (of course). On Wednesday my friends threw me a surprise birthday party at the Spaghetti Factory. After work on Thursday I got my hair done by Aura at Azarra Salon... I now have awesome cherry RED highlights- ooh la la! Then we raced home to pack (no I had not started packing) and get up to the Doubletree hotel in Seatac for about 5 hours sleep before the 5am airport shuttle. We left poor Asya with a house that is a complete disaster and a million dogs to take care of for 10 days..
We flew out of Seattle at 7:15am directly to NYC...We had some lunch there and then tried to find a mailbox to mail two bills THAT ARE DUE THIS WEEK (including my vet license) only to be told that there were no mailboxes in that particular terminal. (And the other terminals were a train ride away).. That's what I get for procrastinating.. So since I didn't want to miss our plane I figured I'll deal with that situation from France... Our next flight was a 7 hour flight from JFK to Charles De Gaulle. The plane was older (no individual TV screens on the seats in front of us- luckily the movies weren't exciting)...but the service was friendly and they fed us- twice! (and didn't charge for checking bags). Grace slept for a little bit..I tried to doze off a few times but wasn't too successful because Grace was awake and bored. We landed without a hitch, found our bags and our pre-arranged shuttle and headed into Paris. The shuttle was full and we got to ride in the front seat with the driver. He pointed out the largest futbol (soccer) stadium built for the World Cup and the Eiffel Tower off in the distance. We also saw some markets he said were open Saturdays/Sundays and Mondays. Our hotel is on a somewhat seedy street- Blvd de Clichy- between Place Pigalle and Moulin Rouge..lots of SEX shops (the window shopping on this particular street is interesting)...but the hotel is great.. Very clean and modern decor (red, black and white) with the Steinlen black cat everywhere. Luckily we were able to check in early as we were EXHAUSTED and it was raining outside. We have a corner room on the second floor. We napped for a while (5 hours?) and then I made G get up so we could find some food and an adaptor so I can plug in the computer and phone.. She was super tired and cranky...outside it was a bit windy but not too cold and the rain had stopped. We went to a big store across the street (the MONOPRIX) and bought diet coke, chocolate milk, chocolate mousse, Kinder eggs, mangos and a miniature pineapple. Grace also found a Disney Princess advent calendar. I got thrown off by the cash registers because they display the cost in francs and euros and tried to overpay the woman. Luckily she gave me back the extra money I was trying to give her! Grace wasn't up for doing anything else except getting some dinner. We walked down to the Moulin Rouge to take a photo and she pointed out a building she thought was a restaurant across the street but it was actually a LIVE SHOW place.. We went into a souveneir shop and bought the adaptor we needed and some postcards. Even though there were many little street vendors selling crepes, sandwiches, gyros, hot dogs in pastry wrapping, we ended up at the Golden Arches for dinner (lame I know but it makes this particular cranky 5 year old happy to eat chicken McNuggets and french fries).. In my mind this vacation actually starts TOMORROW (Sunday).. today is a day to recover from the plane ride and try to get used to the nine hour time difference..
We fell asleep at 8 but G is suddenly wide awake at 11pm... all kinds of activity is going on outside- lots of car honking and cheering.. Lots of people in the bar across the street. I tried to tell her to keep sleeping but she is drinking chocolate milk and watching the only cartoon on TV- a cowboy themed show (in French). Tomorrow we will hopefully walk up to the Sacre Couer/Montmartre area in the morning before getting a cab to the apartment we'll be in for the next week... au revoir for now!

Memorial Day Weekend

Grace & I were invited to spend the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend hanging out at the Fox Island Yacht Club with some old clients of mine (before I started my week of 3 very busy graveyard shifts). We had perfect weather. We took out the kayaks and rowboat and BBQ'd burgers, corn on the cob and ate watermelon, bean salad, and broccoli salad. It was a great afternoon!




katy with her corn

City of Angels

Grace and I got lucky enough to get a few days off in a row (which won't happen much in the future as my days off now are usually Tuesday and Thursday) so we took advantage of our flight benefits (thanks to Steve's job with Horizon Air) and flew down to Los Angeles. Our plan was to meet a couple of new babies, to go to a Kimya Dawson show and to hit Disneyland. I worked until midnight the night before our 6am stand-by flight and ended up packing and cleaning until it was time to leave the house at 4am. We got on the flight and were seated next to a Romanian/Transylvanian surfer named George. He and Grace were making great conversation across my sleep-deprived stuporous self. The weird thing was he looked remarkably like my brother Billy (only with a Romanian accent and a larger nose). If I wasn't so tired I am sure I may have been a little more interesting to talk to than a 5 year old. Or maybe not. Grace is pretty engaging.
We landed at LAX and headed to AVIS and got our rental car- a little blue Kia Spectra- and drove to West Hollywood. Our hotel was off Santa Monica Blvd- within walking distance to the Troubadour where the concert was that night. I had researched the hotels near the venue and read a lot of reviews and wasn't disappointed with my choice. The LeMontrose Suite Hotel was one of the nicer hotels I've stayed in and the customer service was excellent (and the bed was SO comfortable!). They had a roof-top pool and hot-tub that we made sure to take advantage of. We tried to take a little nap but I was too excited to sleep so we headed out in search of food and to check out the neighborhood. The weather was perfect. We decided to eat sushi and then Grace saw a nail place and wanted to get a mani-pedi- so we indulged in a little pampering- she picked yellow polish with silver sparkles and they painted red flowers on her thumbs and big toes. Later our friend Lindsey tracked us down at the hotel and introduced us to her new baby, Hunter. We had some room service (turkey club sandwiches) and they decided to come to the show with us. It was Hunter's first concert and he seemed to really enjoy it! The opening act was a bit R-rated (Andy Milonakis) and loud but Grace was too exhausted to notice. She fell asleep on the bench before Kimya went on. I was able to get her to wake up briefly and she called out to Kimya in between a song- Kimya heard her tiny voice and said "Is that Grace?" and ended up inviting her on stage to sing a song with her! Grace picked "Alphabutt" (even though Kimya had already performed it) and I managed to get most of it on video! Grace got a huge applause- she did great! Lindsey wanted to get a picture of Hunter with Kimya after the show so we went down and introduced them to her afterwards.
The next day the sun was shining and we wanted to go down to the beach but when we got there we discovered there were strong cold winds- the sand was blowing right into our eyes.. So we took a photo and got out of there! We headed north to Tujunga to spend some more time with Lindsey and Hunter- we went to the 'Golf N Grill' and ate Mongolian Grill and played 18 holes of miniature golf! It was fun :) We also got to watch some episodes of 'The Dog Whisperer' that featured their dog Curley.
That night we went in the hot-tub and prepared to check out the next day and head to Disneyland! It wasn't too bad of a drive to Anaheim, we found the parking garage and then took the tram to the park. We had to go through security then wait in a long line to buy our tickets, then wait in another line to enter the park! Finally around 11am we were at Disneyland! I let Grace choose the rides- first on her list were Alice In Wonderland and the Teacups. The lines were long... After those rides we headed to the new Finding Nemo ride and waited over an hour to board the submarine. We checked out the Tree House and went in the Haunted Mansion (a bit too scary for Grace) and waited in really long lines to meet Minnie and Mickey in Toontown. Despite the crowds, we had fun.
We left the park by 7 to head to Riverside to visit our friends the Standerfers.The Standerfers are friends of mine from my Pullman years (they were both in my wedding) and they have a 6 yr old son and 5 mo old new baby girl. They gave us a warm welcome and settled us into Jackson's room for the night. The next day we hung out and let the kids play and just caught up. It was nice to spend a relaxing day with a friend. They took us to a sushi place for dinner since both the kids are sushi fans and later we watched "Bedtime Stories" on DVD and made the kids a fort.
Saturday was our day to head home- we got on the standby list for a flight out of Orange County and the Standerfers decided it would be fun to have lunch together at Fashion Island which is close to the airport. We checked out their awesome koi pond and let the kids play in a little kid fountain then ate fish tacos at Wahoo's. Fashion Island is great for people watching- lots of real 'OC' people strutting around in fashionable clothes with fancy dogs. We only went in one shop (This Little Piggy Wears Cotton) but I didn't buy anything (hard to believe, I know!) Then it was time to part ways...we said 'see ya later' and went to the airport. When we checked the standby list I found we were number 9 & 10 (of 10) so I figured we would be camping out for a later flight. But we got lucky and the huge family in front of us on the list weren't all able to get on the flight so they decided to wait. An old client of mine was sitting in the row that Grace was in (we couldn't get seats together since the flight was so full)- and so she offered to switch seats with me so we could sit together... small world!

Road Trip

Grace's first day of Spring Break we loaded all the dogs (Rocky, Raven and Kipper) into the truck and headed West to Ocean Shores.. We drove on the beach, played in the sand dunes.. and flew our kite.. It was windy but fun.. Then we discovered a cool art gallery where Grace got to play with a million rubber duckies.. Later we had dinner with our friends Katie & Kraig in Montesano in their historic home with their dogs Penny and Lucy..It was a great day off!