Smith Family European Family Vacation--Days 7 and 8: Hello, Paris!

I'm a little behind, since we've been busy living.  Luckily (note the dripping sarcasm), Lucy threw up twice this morning, and I'm not feeling so hot either, so we stayed home from sightseeing today.  The upside is that I cleaned the whole apartment and have time to catch up on my blog posts.

We got up on Saturday and prepared to go for a nice, long loop around the city.  Every time Aaron and I have been to Paris, we do this loop and we love the sights and people watching that it affords.  All told, we walked about 6 1/2 miles that day, which is an extra big deal for little kids like Sawyer.



We started from our apartment and walked to the Arc de Triomphe, then headed down the Champs-Elysses.  We did some shopping at H&M and Petit Bateau.  Petit Bateau has just about the cutest, best quality children's clothes ever--and price tags to match.  Given that 80% of my kids' wardrobes are normally bought at thrift stores, I felt even more sticker shock.  But we bought some really special clothes that they will love for a long time.

Sophie, Lukas, Sawyer, Lucy and I spent a little while waiting for the others.  We had separated to shop.  Without thinking, I let one of the boys who went with Aaron use my phone.  We opted to enable international texting on our phones for just such eventualities, but it doesn't work if you don't have the phone in your pocket :).  Anyway, the younger kids and I parked ourselves on a bench and watched the parade of nationalities and personalities and fashion ideas come on down the road.



Just about the time I started wondering how to file a missing persons report in France, we finally found each other, and continued on to the Place de la Concorde.  I didn't know this until this trip, but this was the "Revolutionary Square" where many of the beheadings of the French Revolution took place.  To transform the meaning of this place, Louis-Phillipe decided to erect a 23 meter granite obelisk, given to him from the king of Egypt. It took two years to transport it from Egypt to France.






The day we were there, an energetic brass ensemble were playing music at the foot of the obelisk, so we stopped to listen.  Lukas and Sawyer ran up and put money in their open case.  Those two love to give money to musicians--pretty much anyone who asks for it.  There are a lot of people begging in Paris.  Many of them hold out a cup.  The first time Sawyer saw this, he said, "Mom, is that guy thirsty?"  That made me laugh, but also feel sad.

Damon doing some photo bombing.

We walked across the Seine, and then along the river and across a few streets to the Eiffel Tower.  We will go up in the next few days, since the line is really long if you don't have reservations.

Sophie and I being silly under the Eiffel tower.

Then we hiked home.  At this point, everyone was hungry and it started to feel like a death march.  It started to rain.  Several of our shopping bags started to disintegrate because they were so wet, so we had to stop and consolidate so nothing would get ruined.  Sawyer finally blurted out, "I'm so hungry I could eat all the people in the whole world!"  Since we didn't want to have to resort to cannibalism, we stopped at a fast food place near our apartment and bought a few Margharita Pizzas and Doner sandwiches.  We took the food home and inhaled it.  Then Aaron and I retreated to our room while the kids messed around taking funny pictures of each other.

I don't even know how to caption this picture...

Cute Sophie.

Blue steel.

Bottoms up.

Apples are a good modeling prop.

Aaron and a few of the kids went back to the Champes Elysses for more shopping.  The rest of us just lumped around watching garbage on TV (or working on blog posts, as the case may be).  But the TV was in French, so I'm pretty sure it was a cultural experience.  At least now the kids know how to say "sponge" in French.  That should come in handy.






On Sunday, we had to get up early (7 a.m.) to get ready for church.  The church building is over near the Hotel de Ville, so it took a few metro changes from where we are staying to get there.  We listened to someone translate the service into French for the first half of the services and the children went to Sunday school, where other children translated for them.  However, then the translator's microphone went on the fritz.  Since we weren't getting anything out of the meeting anymore, we decided to cut our losses.  We went to the Notre Dame and toured it.  They had a mass going while we walked around, and the music and atmosphere was amazing.  I love organ music in cathedrals.

Walking out the gate from the church courtyard.

The church building is the ground and lower ground floor of this building.  Cars park haphazardly in the courtyard.

Joan of Arc statue in Notre Dame.

Intricate stained glass in the cathedral.

After that, we had lunch along the banks of the Seine.  Then we went home.  A few blocks away from home, we realized that we both (Aaron and I) forgot our keys to the apartment.  I was doubly sad, because I had decided to wear attractive vs. sensible shoes to church, and said attractive shoes were not making my feet happy.  Although they did look fabulous, it must be said.

Damon and I went out to figure out how to call the property manager.  We didn't pay for a calling plan on our phones because we have a phone in our apartment.  Although, that only works if you can get into your apartment...

We went to three different convenience stores, and ended up at this little kiosk that sold cigarettes and pay-as-you-go phones, as well as (luckily!) calling cards.  Then we tried to call the number we had, but after several attempts, we couldn't figure it out.  We were just leaving the phone booth in frustration, when Aaron found us and let us know that the building supervisor had let us in.  Hallelujah!  My feet were so happy to come home and chill out.

Memorial honoring fallen soldiers at the base of the Arc de Triomphe.

Detailed stone carvings on the Arc de Triomphe.

After napping and eating dinner, we headed out (in sensible shoes for me, this time) to climb the Arc de Triomphe.  Well, in all fairness, Lucy, Sawyer and I got to cheat and take the elevator to the almost-top because of our stroller.  The view was beautiful, and we were up there when they turned the lights on the Eiffel Tower and to watch the sunset.  Magical.  Aaron and I tried to get Brendan to take a picture of us kissing, but he insisted that the first picture he took was good enough.  So it is not quite as artistic (or well-focused) as I would like.  But what can you do?  Knowing that you got to kiss the one you love on the top of the Arc de Triomphe in the City of Love helps to compensate for any photographical deficiencies.

Lukas looking at all the sights of the city from his vantage point on the top of the Arc de Triomphe.

Lights on.  Periodically they sparkle and flash.

With my love.

Then we went home and crashed.  The great thing about having such busy days is that we all sleep like logs.

Bon voyage!

Smith Family European Vacation--Days 3 and 4

The good news about day 3 is that I slept all the way through the night, and so did all my kids.  Yes!!!  Jet lag is the worst, so it feels great to be back on a better schedule.

The other great news is that we had my very favorite breakfast cereal in the world on Tuesday morning--Chocos.  Aaron and I (and perhaps Brendan got a diluted dose by nursing) first fell in love with Chocos when we were living in Germany for the summer in 1995.  I am really not a treat cereal lover, but Chocos are very, very chocolatey, and not too sweet.  They turn your milk deliciously chocolatey, too.  Mmmmm, mmmmm, good.  They are not sold in America.  We may have to stuff a few boxes in our suitcase.

We decided to drive into Munich and go to the Deutches Museum.  It purports to be the largest Science and Technology Museum in the world.  It was HUGE.  We have been to the Smithsonian and various other science museums around the world, and this was definitely the most daunting.  We probably only skimmed through about 1/2 of it. They had whole boats in here, for goodness sake.





The most impressive exhibit was a mining exhibit.  It was a warren of chambers and tunnels.  It literally took 20 minutes to just walk through (with kids like Lukas and Sawyer, who are 8 and 5 respectively--we don't exactly get to stand around and read every placard).  It went up and down four or five levels and was very, very impressive.  By the time we finally got out of the dark labyrinth, I felt relief that is probably only surpassed by real coal miners after a hard day's work underground.

We spend a lot of time at the "Kinder Reich" (children's kingdom).  The human-sized hamster wheel and extra-big Legos were a big hit.  Lucy was a big fan of the kid-sized toilets and sinks in the bathroom ("They're so cuuuute..." she cooed when she saw them).  After spending 6 or so hours there, including a suprisingly good lunch at the museum cafeteria, we went home.  Aaron's parents arrived, and we all sat down for a traditional German dinner of "Abendbrot."  Germans tend to eat their main meal at lunch, and just have a light meal of bread, cheeses, lunch meat and vegetables for dinner.





After dinner, I did some laundry in our impossibly small washing machine.  Granted, I have an impossibly large washing machine at home, but I would probably have to do laundry all day long if we lived here just to keep up.  Then I relaxed.  The rest of the family played a vicious game of Settlers of Catan.

My favorite quote of the day was from Sawyer.  We had just visited the museum gift shop, where he had bought an over-priced suction cup ball.  As we were walking back to the car, he showed his shopping bag to Brendan and said knowingly, "This is what I wasted my money on today."

Day 4 was our Bavarian castle day.  We got to see three castles all lived in or built by Ludwig II--Linderhof, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  It was amazing to see their opulence and marvel at the artistry involved, especially given that so much of it was done by hand.  We had a delicious lunch at a hotel restaurant near Schloss Linderhof, which included the very best Apfel Strudel I have ever eaten, bar none.



The kids' favorite part was taking a carriage ride up to Neuschwanstein.  And during the carriage ride, their favorite part was when the horses, shall we say, broke wind.  All the kids Sophie and younger giggled and giggled.  Silly kids.  They were also impressed when I was able to ask the driver what the horses' names were and tell them what he said in reply (Mary and Murrri.  They were a matched pair of mother and daughter).  Granted, that's about where my German ends these days.  We've watched a little German TV, and the only show where I didn't feel completely lost was when we were watching the kiddie show "Caillou." So I guess that means I'm about a 3-year-old here.





But most of all, what I've noticed the last few days is just how beautiful the Bavarian countryside is.  I am exactly half German and half English, and I get the same feeling when I drive in the country in England.  It may be that both these places are objectively beautiful, but I think it is somehow deeper than that.  I think that something deep in my DNA recognizes this land and feels some sense of belonging here.  At any rate, it is gorgeous just to drive from one place to another.






Unfortunately, on the way home, we missed a turn. I decided to do a U-turn on the deserted country road and pulled slightly onto the shoulder to give myself a wider turn radius.  Our right wheels immediately sunk 10 inches into the soft mud which was covered by only 1 inch of what I thought had been sturdy gravel.  We put branches under our wheels and tried to get out, but no dice.  After about 10 minutes of spinning our wheels and pushing (and just as panic started to set in), a truck stopped, and three orange-jumpsuit clad men jumped out.  Two of the three immediately lit up cigarettes, and then, with cigarettes dangling from their mouths, they go to work.  First they (and Aaron and Brendan) tried to push us out.  When they realized that was futile, they attached some straps to our car and pulled us out.  We gushingly thanked them.  They waved aside our thanks, hopped into their car and sped off.

Since we were back on the road, we made one more stop before we went home: a lovely church in the village of Wies ("Wieskirche").  It was hauntingly silent inside and very, very lovely.  It was a gorgeous end to our day.

Gute Reise!

Portland Getaway

Hello one and all,

The snow melted--and just in time.  We've had a weekend getaway to Portland planned for a few months, and were hoping/praying for clear roads.

Aaron's been hankering (yes, hankering) to see Jimmer Ferdette play some basketball in the pros, and since Seattle doesn't have a pro team anymore (sniff, sniff), the Portland Trailblazers are the closest we can get.  We stayed over night at a hotel downtown (thank you, Hotwire).  The kids loved swimming in the pool Monday morning.

We had a great day eating at some fun restaurants, shopping a little and doing some fun things for the kids.  Aaron and the kids went to the game with his brother and our nephew, and Lucy and I went to Target (a pitiful lack of imagination, I know) and picked them up when it was over.

All in all, a great little mini getaway.  And I've got the pictures to prove it :).


Sawyer didn't want to come in the pool at all.  Here Sophie is trying to convince him that the water's fine...

He had a great time throwing the ball around and lurking poolside. We probably need to get this kid some more swimming lessons.  He needs to feel the fear and swim anyway :).

 Lukas in midflight.  Most of my pictures of him are blurry.  His nickname is Forrest, because everywhere he goes, he's a'runnin'.

Lucy and Aaron exchanging some loves.


We ate breakfast at Tasty and Sons.  The food was scrumptious.  I forgot to take pictures of it because I was too busy eating...

 The interior of Tasty and Sons has a cool, urban loft vibe.  Loved it.

We stopped by the Doc Marten store.  I haven't been to a dedicated Docs store since I used to go to the one (now closed) in Covent Garden when we lived in London.  I deliberated about some pewter flats, ultimately deciding no, and took a picture of these gorgeous cushions.  I think Sarah from Modern Country Style has one in her dining room. I may have to shamelessly copy this style and make one for our family room.

 Cool old building.  I am a sucker for them!  This one was for sale, and I had a fun time imagining what it looked like inside, and how if money were no object, I could convert it into a block of posh flats.  Yes, I know I'm a little strange.... :)

 Lucy on the swings.  You can't tell, but she is actually swinging in this picture.  She is the most daring baby we've had and loves to go high on the swings.  Heaven help me!

 Damon performing feats of skill and strength.

 Sophie taking the shorter but harder path into the playground.  She's so cute.  And I really wish her jacket came in my size--isnt' it darling?

 We have been hemming and hawing about tile design for our master bathroom shower.  We stopped into Ann Sacks tile and saw this display.  Both of us love it.  Miracle!  I'm not sure if this color scheme is the one we will go with, but at least this is progress.  Woo hoo!

We ate lunch at Hot Lips Pizza and couldn't resist an opportunity to ham it up.

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.  Sawyer had a great time with this pulley and in the water engineering area (as you can tell from his shirt).

Cool view from OMSI out to the Columbia River at twilight.

Over and out,