OUR BIG TRIP!!

Jared and I were lucky enough to move into a ward during Medical School back in Maryland 10 years ago where we met and became friends with some really great couples. We have kept in touch over the years and when we can, vacation together. The great thing about this group, is that the wives all get along, and the husbands get a long too. I didn't know it was such an anomoly until we moved and tried to find that again! We love to get together, and have such a great time when we do. These are great people and we feel blessed to know them and are inspired by them. One of the couples lives in England currently working for the Air Force as a Radiologist. They invited us all to come and volunteered to be our tour guides. They are so fun and Doug entertained us the whole week. The only thing better than touring Europe is touring it with your own personal stand up comedian! Thanks Doug and Missy for 9 unforgettable days.... and a tour of four countries (at break neck speed). In attempt to summarize something that is not summarizable (I think I just made up that word), I will break up my posts into the 4 different stops we made.

First up: PARIS
We got to ride the "Chunnel" to Paris from London which is where we flew into. We were able to tackle a lot in a short amount of time. We toured the louvre which rudely closed on us 45 minutes after getting there. Not before we caught a glimpse of the Mona Lisa however. We headed to Notre Dame Cathedral where we got some great pictures. We ate at a nearby cafe. I tried chicken and fries pronouned "frites" in France. Good thing for frites or I may have starved the first few days on our trip. We enjoyed our $6.00 cokes without ice and quickly learned to stop converting things to dollar amounts because you figure things out like your warm coke cost $6 dollars! I also learned how to squeeze into small bathrooms starting at this cafe. No "small" task for a 7 month pregnant lady. After dinner we enjoyed a walk down a quaint street and took pictures by the river. It was beautiful with the sunset behind us and Notre Dame in view. It was hard to believe that it was almost 11pm at this point and the sun was still setting. We got back on the Paris Subway with half of Paris smooshed up against us and traveled to the Eiffel Tower. The people were always nice to give me a seat on the Subway though. It was really cool to see the Tower at night. It is lit up in blue right now since France is becoming Presidents of the E.U. this year. It also has stars on it in a circle which I believe is the symbol of the E.U. Every half hour it lights up like a giant sparkler right now. Not sure if that was for the E.U. thing or for Bastille day which is the French independence day on July 14th of every year....some how we managed to be there for it!
I'll let you pick out the comedian of the group!
The entrance to the Louvre

Notre Dame Cathedral
The Whole Group


Paris day 2:
We woke up on Bastille day and decided to head to Versaille. First we loaded up on french pastries for breakfast. I can't think of a better way to start a day than eating a maple eclair filled with pudding. It was a beautiful day as we approached the gold laden gates and gigantic palace of Versaille. Thank you Louis XIV for this amazing edifice. We extensively walked through the palace enjoying the different rooms with interesting art work. All the women in the art looked the same. The men didn't look a whole lot different except they were slightly prettier and had longer hair. Interesting! The back gardens were equally impressive. With statues and cylinder trees lining all the walks. The grounds were filled with people dressed in all white. In honor of Bastille Day they dress in white. We chased down our pastries from breakfast with "Magnum" ice-cream bars for lunch.
We rode the subway to the infamous "Sewer Toure". Doug and Missy had heard it was really intersting and that it actually didn't smell. Why oh why did we believe him? So we all 10 trapesed down a stair case and found ourselves inundated with a fowl odor and rivers of murky water. After about 20 minutes of trying to be polite, we quit the charade and started plugging noses, and hiding our faces in our shirts. Terri had tears welling up in her eyes and kept gagging. After wandering around seeing some rats and smelling way more than needed, half of us darted for the stair case and to fresh air. Something I never thought I'd say in France! Relief came once back on the street, but we discovered our hair and clothes had not escaped the smell. YIKES!!
We walked to the Tower down the street for daytime photo ops and enjoyed chocolate crepes and more frites while veiwing the tower in daylight. Yes, we ate pastries, ice-cream, and crepes now. Yummy! After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to Sacre Ceour Cathedral. (Sacred Heart). A lovely town once you managed to hike up about 400 stairs to get to it. I really felt pregnant that day. This town was awesome! It has a cool cathedral with great views of Paris and is a artist haven. We loved all the art displays and vendors and ate some pizza for dinner. We were serenaded by a piano player while eating. He was amazing...ranging from Scott Joplin to ColdPLay, never pulling out a sheet of music. After rading a GAP store for bags....a long story, (Thank you Jared) we headed to the Arch de Triumphe. We went to the top and saw all of Paris. What a day!!

Versaille



Can you smell it?


Crepes and Frites rock!!
Sacre Ceour

Arch de Triumphe-Napoleon had it built to honor himself