It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

August 10, 2012 We we ready to go home. I've found I can last in a hotel for about four days before I start getting squirrelly. It's not that there isn't anything left to see after four nights. It is just that I need something else. I don't always know what it is, but I know it's something. That's what made some of the last foreign trips work...we took of after a few days. Sure, I might have been able to last a few additional days in Paris earlier this year, but for the most part...four nights. The journey itself wasn't a huge deal. We went to the Nice Airport (NCE - not that it was a nice airport. Though it was nice. You get it...), flew to Heathrow without incident. There was a screaming baby on the flight though. Poor baby. At Heathrow, there was a bit of power shopping. Apparently, since we didn't end up purchasing a lot during the trip we needed to make up for it at Heathrow. It wasn't much, really. But a few gifts were purch...

August 9, 2012 I probably shouldn't say it was a shopping spectacular. We just finally went shopping. But we went after a loooooooong sleep. This was the first time we slept in since we got here. No excursions were planned. We didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time. It was just a day to chill. The only issue was that breakfast stopped serving at 10a. It was 930a when I realized the time. And I was still a ways away from being ready. Which meant I was running down to breakfast with no makeup and wet hair. Priceless. Of course, I wasn't the only one in shambles as many people seemed to use today as their sleep in day. Luckily, I didn't have to sit long in my unmade condition. We shoveled down our food and went along our merry way. After we got back to the room, I slapped myself together and we hit the road for some power shopping. We made our way back to Rue de Antibes where we knew the shopping would be plentiful. We started out pretty goo...

August 8, 2012 This was the last day of full on excursions. Well, this is the day before the day before we leave and we haven't had any down time, so this should be the last day of excursions. Mom was excited about the day. We were off to St. Tropez. On a boat. We were going on a boat to St. Tropez. Just like celebrities. Ok, not just like them, but close enough. We learned last night that our departure time was actually 15 minutes earlier than we were originally told. Considering we are always 15 minutes early for everything anyway, it wasn't a big deal. Though it was obnoxious when we were finally leaving 5 minutes later than the original time we were supposed to depart. Sorry, but if you're waiting for that one person and they're late...they're going to have to catch a cab. But I digress. We had a 20 minute walk to the port where we found our boat. Last night, several people who went on the excursion the day before told us to go to the upper leve...

August 7, 2012 I'd like to rescind my comment earlier about liking the food to just come my way without any selection. I mean, I guess it's not the fault of the restaurant this afternoon. Then again, if you're going to serve "steak" for a group, you need to make sure you aren't going to overcook it. Stay tuned for that story in a bit... We have a bit of a routine going on in the morning. Up. Shower. Breakfast. Excursion. Today, we had a bit more time to get ready. We are sleeping harder than we did at the beginning, but we are just so tired by the end of the day that the mornings are getting increasingly hard to get ready. Plus, now I have WiFi, so there's that added time in the morning. Our hotel is very nice. I do have to say. The rooms are big enough that we aren't tripping order each other. It's in a prime location. The beds are comfortable. Sure, it would be nice to have more than CNN International and BBC World to watch o...

August 6, 2012 Mom said it best. "I think we're going to have to detox after this trip.". Yep. Not an alcohol detox (though that'll be necessary too), but a food detox. I'd have thought she would have remembered this from Ireland. There is always food and we are always eating. It's glorious. I might have been looking forward to this day most of all. We were off to a winery!! We boarded a bus and drove Northwest to Les Arcs. Les Arcs is a small medieval town where Saint Rosaline was buried (and is still here...and mummified...more on that shortly). Rosaline lived in the 1200's when people were very poor and very hungry. She was the daughter of the landowner and was dedicated to helping the hungry. The story goes that she was taking food from the castle to the poor when her father stopped her to ask where she was going. He told her to open her apron and instead of loaves of bread falling out, roses were there instead. Her father realized she...

August 5, 2012 So this is the heat everyone had been warning us about. For weeks, Mom and I had been looking at the weather. 80 degrees and sunny. We figured we couldn't fail. The weather would be glorious. And it is. But it is hot. Sweat bib kind of hot. We all are just flat out sticky. But if everyone is sticky, then it isn't so bad. Right?? We both slept ok last night. I think each of us had a time when we woke up for a while. Mom had it worse than me. She said she was up for two hours. The good news is that after the day like we had today, we would sleep hard tonight. Breakfast was on the patio of the hotel. It was a normal buffet breakfast for a hotel. At least there was a selection of cheeses. The porridge was good. And Mom and I have decided to steal a thing of Nutella each day. Sure, we could buy a big tub on Nutella, but smaller travel-sized Nutella is perfect when you need a small amount of Nutella. Only because we have both learned we can...

August 4, 2012 (I think) On the map, it looks like we are halfway between London and Nice. At this point, I'm ready to get to the hotel. We started out at 4pm (Chicago time). The flight to London was at 8pm. And according to the iPad, it is only 7am. Well, in Chicago. It's 2pm in France. Considering I had about an hour worth of sleep on the first flight, I'm lucky to even acknowledge the other time zones at this point. British Airways has been a delight so far. We had plenty of room on the flight to Heathrow. Wine was served. I had a decent Chicken Curry for dinner. Though I have to admit, I don't understand the logic in serving curry on a flight. I know we're going to London, where curry is king, but curry reminds me of the line in Gilmore Girls, "You're going to have to burn the house down to get rid of the smell.". Yeah. On a plane. We all knew the curry was coming before it even came to our section. I also appreciated the in-fli...