HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

So far the weekend had been very nice. We were able to get a few of the major projects done.
The pool is open
the Screen house is up
The Majority of th plants have been transplanted.
We enjoyed good company every night. Last night had the first fire of the season.

Today they are calling for afternoon thundestorms. So not sure how much more we will get done today.

I am still having problems with the lap top. what ever hijacker I have is tough to get rid of, and it is really slowing the whole system down. I may have to take the compter.

Hope everyone has a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BIG BIRD

The extra large blue heron is Back!!!!! He is once again terrorizing my gold fish pond. As of yet he has not entered into the koi pond. So once again the beautiful ponds are covered with netting. its funny because he did not appear last year. He must be on an every other year cycle.

I am slowly working on the Paris pictures.... There are just so many to sort through and then re size for the web page. Hopefully on a few more days.

Special Day

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA LU DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today Emma is 12!!!!! We are going to make her a nice bowl of pasta and a side salad for her birthday dinner. Those are her favorites.

The Cruise pages are up. There may be a few additions later. Working on adding the Paris pictures over the next few days.

Can not upload pictures

Ok, so I did a spy bot scan on my computer yesterday. Now I an not able to access the program that allows me to upload and change the main part of the web page. Hopefully tonight I can re-install the program and that will take care of things. Will keep you posted.

Cruise pictures almost ready

If every thing goes well today I will have the cruise pictures up and running. Some of the picture captions may be delayed a bit longer. I am hoping to have the pictures from the Paris portion of the trip on by Sunday night. I didn't realize how many pictures I took in Paris.

I guess the weather is not going to be too nice over the next few days, so I hope to get most of the computer work done. I have a bunch or previous travel pictures scanned, and they need to end up on here as well in the near future.

BACK TO THE GRIND

We have been back for 5 days now. It is already starting to feel like we had no time off at all. I went back to work on Thursday AM, Chris on Friday. Over the week end tired to get some gardening done, but it was a slow process.

I am working on getting pictures on the web page. I hope it will be running by the end of the week. I also still have to get the email list compiled and mailed to every one.

Started giving some thought for a Cruise next April. There is a nice eastern Med one that looks interesting.

Paris Day 3

Paris day #3
Oh my aching feet. We walked quite a bit today. Some of the metro stations are lager than airport terminals. We hoped the metro in the morning and headed to the land of the dead at the Paris catacombs. We walked down a very narrow spiral stair case made of stone. 186 steps down. We walked in dimly lit under ground passage ways until we encountered the land to the dead. Millions of bones pilled high. It was very interesting. We then had to climb only 86 steps out of the crypt. At the top of the winding stairs was the only defibulator I say in Europe.
Next we had a 17€ lunch at chez McDonalds. Then we took a very long metro ride to the Arc De Triomph, Then we waked down the entire Champ-Elysees. We stopped in a few shops along the way. We had some chocolate and banana crepes. Once at the bottom we crossed the river and Headed to Les Invalides. This complex is still a working veterans hospital as well as any army museum and holds Napoleon’s Tomb. The tomb was actually very interesting and best of all it was cool inside. The weather has continued to be in the mid 80s and sunny.
Right down the street was the Rodin museum. We toured only the garden area which was in full bloom, and saw the major sculptures like the thinker and the gates of hell.
It was no about 4pm, so we hoped on metro for the last time and Hit the Orsay Museum. We concentrated on, Van Gogh, Monet and Whistler. We then walked back to the apartment. Rested for about 45 and headed out to see where we needed to go in the AM to catch the bus to the airport. We also need toilet paper, we had been surging for, for quite a while.
Found the bus stop in 10 min. no stores with TP though. Madonna was in town and we ran into the crowds out side where she was performing. Finally found the TP but they did not give us a bag. So we had to go back to the apartment to but it away. Chris had to use it right away only to find out that it was paper towels and not TP.
We headed out and found a store that had the real deal. They were open late so we went to eat first. I was tired and my feet hurt so we picked the first place that looked good. Believe it or not we had one of out best and cheapest meals directly across from the louvre.
We had Vine, and amazing French onion soup. We split an order of escargots( in the shell), quiche lorrain, club sand which, a side of fries. For dessert Chris had some chocolate lady finger thingy. All this was only 41€!!!!
We picked up our TP and headed home. We packed and of to bed.

WED AM
Up at 5am Paris time.
Roissey bus to Charles deGaul Airport.
Flight to Newark. And here I sit waiting for my fight to Buffalo.
I consider this trip Over :(

second day in Paris

PARIS DAY#2
What a fast day. Paris is a beautiful city, and from what we have seen so far very clean. In the Metro there is not a scrape of garbage. At least at this time of year there is no smell either.
The Day started with us catching the metro to the Picasso museum. We were there for a little over an hour. It was very interesting, I did not know that he worked in many different mediums. We then walked back toward the river and crossed on to the Isle St Luis.
We found the cheapest café we could find. We had 2 “chez beregers” and a glass of wine a piece. Only 31€. We then crossed onto another island and the went through Notre Dame. It was a very interesting church put was over shadowed by the Vatican.
Next we traveled via metro to the Luvre. We managed to hit most of the major Items I wanted to see. We spent a little over 2 hours and we really only covered one wing. After trying to find the exit for some time we headed home. We rested for about an hour and a half.
We then headed to the efiel tower. We took the metro again to help save on some of the walking. The line for tickets was not too long and moved quickly. We then traveled up the tower by elevator.
After coming down we sat in the park in front of the tower. We waited for the light show to start at 9pm. I guess it was not dark enough yet because nothing happened. The first show must be a 10.
We left and took the metro toward the flat.
We had vine, chips and ham and cheese baguette.

PARIS

Well me have made it to Paris safely. However at a great cost. To make a long story short. I paid to have an extra suit case when I booked my tickets on line. What I did not understand, because it is writen poorly is that, you can have and extra suit case(for a fee) But it does not allow you to bring extra weight????? Then why did I pay this? So our third suit case cost about 283 US Dollars to bring with us. 1oo.oo more than our tickets. In hind sight I should have rearranged my luggage and throw clothes out. I would have been cheaper.

Once in Pais we some how bypassed customs. Dont know how but we just walked and claimed out luggage. We took the Roisey bus to the Opera and then a cab to the apartment. The hallway was SCARY. like hotel carter Scary. But the flat is self is nice and clean.

We walked around the Garden du tuileries, chris had ice cream. Stopped at a market to buy an eclair and some breakfast/lunch supplies.

Dinner was at a nice little cafe. Food is VERY expensive here a coke is 4.50€ so 7.50 US dollars. Water is about 50 cents less. WE will be eating in a lot here.

Ok it is Monday morning and we need to get moving to head out.

Oh yeah and the first 2 days of picture took like 40 sec to updload on the web site. you can now enlarge them if you like

THE FRENCH RIVIERA

DAY#15:Villefranche France.
We woke up this morning to the picture perfect seaside town of Villefranche. This is a small suburb of Nice. The village starts at the sea and stretches up the cliffs. There are many brightly colored buildings. As well as Miles of Stairs.
We tendered in and walked the village checking out the many stores and cafes. We looked in a grocery store and I was able to buy some bottled water in French. Finally getting a hang of this Euro thing too. We thought about hopping the train for the 10 min ride to Monaco but decided against it.
We walked to a local beach where we sat for a while. Then it was time to get our feet into the Mediterranean Sea. What better place than on the French Riviera.
Then we headed back to the ship for Lunch. We spent most of the after noon at the pool with the village as a back drop.
We had dinner at Le Bistro: escargots (double orders) I had the bouillabaisse again and Chris had the braised beef. After dinner we met our group for cocktails. About 9 pm it was time to start packing. Yikes!!!!! I REALLY DON’T WANT TO GET OFF THIS SHIP. A few people are doing the week Med circuit on the ship.
It is about 1030 now. We are supposed to meet at the bar for farewell drinks tonight but I am so tired. Tomorrow we must be off the ship by 730 to catch the transport to Barcalona Airport for out Flight to Paris. This is the part of the trip I have been dreading.
Well me ended up going for drinks and staying out until midnight. We laughed our asses off and said our good buys.

Tilted

DAY #14: Florence Italy…Pisa too
We started the day early, 530AM. We were supposed to be in port by 7am but we were late due to congestion in the port. Finally off the ship about 815. Taxi ride to the train station, then we whisked out way though the Tuscan country side to Firenzi (Florence). We were a group of 6. We hit a few of the major sites like the Dumo.
We then had lunch at a small outdoor café. We had proscuito mozzarella and tomato panini. Very yummy. Followed by a traditional Italian espresso. STRONG!!!! We used the bathroom there which was on the second floor. You had to climb a stone circular stair case with such low ceilings that even I had to duck. When coming down, I missed the last stair and fell directly into the center of the café. I was laying on my stomach but spread eagle. Luckily I did not get hurt. We then split up and went on out separate ways.
We walked a bit more on the crowed streets of Florence and decided that we would go to Pisa. We hopped on a train and off we went.
We walked the streets of Pisa which were beautiful and much less crowded. The architecture of the area was wonderful. We walked to the Piazza del Duomo and there it was the leaning tower!!!! It actually was more dramatic than I expected. I think it was one of my favorite sites. Taxi back to the train station and then the train back to the port.
Chris managed to find the most expensive gelato in Florence at €12,00 a cup. He also found a cannoli.
Once back on the ship we went to the pool and swam under the Tuscan sun. Then a quick tip to the spa therapy pool. We then met our usual group for cocktails. 12 of us went to dinner at the Grand pacific dinning room. In short we had a sea food salad, nicosse?(ahi tuna) salad, and we split lamb chops, sirloin steak and lobster stuffed ravioli. No dessert tonight as we were off to the CHOCOHOLICS BUFFET!!! The sculptures of ice and chocolate were great. Unfortunately after words we had to say good bye to our new friends Pat and Paul since they are sneaking off the ship a day early and driving to Germany before flying home to Vancouver.
As of now 1150 pm we have sailed 4700 from NYC

ROMA

DAY 13 Rome.
What a day!!!! Good? Bad? I just cant say. Did I throw a coin into Trevi fountain to guarantee a return? NO!
We caught an 8 am train from the port city of Civitavecchi Italy to Rome. We traveled the entire day with Brian and Renee, which made the day more fun. We exited the train at St Peters station and walked to St Peters’ square. We only had a very short wait to entire the basilica it self. Totally amazing!!!!! We walked around inside for about an hour. Next we went to the grottos to the tombs of the Popes. Of Course, Pope John Paul’s was the most crowded. St Peters tomb is there as well.
After leaving the Vatican walked to the Metro, stopping for gelato on the way. The metro was easy to figure out. Once the train arrived that was a different story. NYC sub ways are like a Disney ride compared to the pushing and shoving that went on here. Plus the dirty arm pit smell did not help.
We exited at the Coliseum. We walked directly into a large labor demonstration and parade. You do not want to be in the middle of flag wearing, and waving group of pissed off Italians. We did the out side visit of the coliseum since it was closed for the labor day holiday. Next we walked the outside of the forum since it to was closed.
We then took a taxi to the Pantheon. Also closed but it was the cab ride of death. NYC can not hold a candle to this ride. We have some video to add to the web page latter. Next we walked to what I really wanted to see. The piazza Novana. AH the four rivers fountain…. Covered in scaffolding and not running.
We found this amazing restaurant on the square for lunch. Chris and I had a glass of bottled water. 2 canned iced teas. An Parma ham appetizer. Pasta carbonara, lasangna and 2 chocolate truffle gelatos for desert. The bill was a whopping €71.00. That’s a little over $100.00 US. I guess we paid for wonderful food in a great location and an unforgettable experience.
We then walked to the Trevi Fountain. Beautiful every one should see it. I think every on did today. There were literally thousands of people there. The crowd leaving the fountain was suffocating. I really thought I might just have a panic attack. The pushing shoving and slapping. Yes 2 German men slapped Chris in the face repeatedly while he was trying to protect me on the stairs. Renee was getting ready to hit then with her water bottle.
We then hiked over to the Spanish steps. Covered with people and more scaffolding on the top. We found the metro, which was bursting at the seams. We squeezed into the train and headed for termini station. Once there we caught the express Euro star and got the hell out of dodge. The 45 min ride took us to the solitude of our floating palace…… Paradise.
It was an experience to say the least. I am glad we got to do it and we laughed on the train about all the funny things that happened. We had great company with us and that made the day wonderful.
So it was a fun day in its own way.
It is about 745pm now. We have just set sail. The next port is only about a 125 miles away. I think we are just going to do the buffet tonight and skip getting dressed up, and relax. We will meet the gang for drinks first