August 7. 2010
Let’s just say, this last day, my angst from being in so many lines comes out in this posting…just sayin’…

We get up, pack and load into the taxi, and make our way to say good bye to the Charles de Gaulle airport. We were so happily surprised as to find out that Jarom’s status on Delta allowed us two 70 pd. bags coming to Paris, but operating on Air France going home, they didn’t honor that, and charged us $100 Euro for each of our bags. Jarom didn’t give up once we got home, and fought for it back, and he did it!

We have a short flight to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and enjoy the most beautiful airport we’ve ever seen, and are sad we can’t enjoy it longer. Let’s just say, when you see pic’s, it’s hard to believe this is an airport. My new fave airline is KLM for sure, which we flew from Amsterdam to Atlanta. The tiniest details, from toothpick’s, yummy free snacks, fancy wrapped delicious meals with stylish plastic ware, not like the U.S. offers in the least. While in and out of consciousness, we enjoyed food and movies.

Then, my favorite line of all-the airport-international side. After going through a line for customs, and getting in a gigantic line to declare our bought cheese in the Netherlands, we wait and grab our luggage off of the carousel, come around a corner, where we give our luggage to someone else, ride a bus with no luggage, and wait for our luggage a second time on another carousel. Loved that part!

We anxiously arrive home, share gifts and eat Parisian baguettes and Amsterdam goat cheese we brought back, and visited and caught up on the wonderful times the girls had with their amazing Aunt Valerie and cousin Noah! They had a party week, sewing purses, making button bracelets, going to a movie, shopping, doing other crafts, eating cake and watching movies, painting nails, doing hair, and who knows what else they did, but they had fun and I’m so grateful to a sister to come hang out with my most treasured possessions and make sure they are happy and safe! The family goes to bed, and Val and I have a little time to spend together, chatting and laughing. Her and Noah leave at 5:30am Sunday morning, and all I know is, Jarom gave a great lesson in Sunday School, even though we had been up for around 24 hours with the time change, and little sleep. But we can’t really complain, it was definitely worth all the sleep deprivation, blisters, and 2 pounds I gained.

Monday school starts, and we are off and running, making wonderful memories back home. Now, how do we get a job to travel Europe with the family…

August 6. 2010
Hated getting up at 7:00 am again, even told Jarom to see if we can do the morning tour later, or just not go, but finally got up, got ready, and left at 8:30. We made it to the west leg of the Eiffel Tower, to meet our tour guide on a segway. We walked, while he rode back to the Fat Tire Tour office(not fair), and we were taught the in’s and out’s of the segway, practiced on our own, and got to know our group as we headed out for our segway tour of Paris. Luckily for us, we learned so much in our previous tours, we felt like the kids at the front of the class raising our hands with the answers, because we had learned so much in the previous days. We made our way around Paris, even passing but not getting to see a movie being filmed. Darnit! our guide said he even saw Leonardo and Johnny Depp just days before, but we couldn’t take the darn segways over there. I say leave the segway! We had a nice lunch at a cute little bistro out on the grounds of the Louvre in the gardens, and then headed back. We ended about 2:30, finished up a little more shopping, and went back to the apartment for a little rest and snacks. We wanted to eat dinner late, since our tour of the Eiffel Tower was at 10:30pm. We enjoyed a little nap, visited with the owners who live next door for a long while, and ran out the door hoping to not miss our tour. Jarom loved his yummy nutella crepe as we ran the distance, and reached what would be our first of many lines to make it up that beautiful but overly-crowded work of art. Here goes my description: First line, not bad because we had reservations and bought our tickets online. Met a couple of Russians, so Jarom really enjoyed conversing and freshening up on that amazing language. We then are let through, to head to another line to get in the elevator. We finally make it, squish in like cattle, and are let out at the second level, to get in another line for the next elevator. The symmetry and artwork of this masterpiece in my opinion is absolutely astonishing. To originally be built for the World Fair, and expected to be taken down after that and looked upon as an eye sore, and was fought for to keep it’s position in the city was a wonderful happenstance, or wonderful unplanned event for sure. We finally are in the second elevator chatting with a couple we met in our first line from Scotland, and we get out at the very top. We walk around the whole top, admiring the city and sites at night, and it’s absolutely beautiful! We pass and hear a couple who just got engaged that very second, and we all clap and congratulate them-they’re from England. So it gets better…we go get in line to go down, and after who knows how long, we make it to the first elevator…make our way down, and I refuse to stand in another line to go the distance to ground level. Jarom and I decide to take the stairs, which was totally a blast, as we got to enjoy the inner architecture of the Eiffel. We made it down eventually, three lined on the metro back home, walked up the hill, and fell into bed at 2:00am. Let’s just say, 5:30am came very quickly!