Home Sweet Home

We made it!  We left our hotel early this morning.  We can walk through our hotel to get to the metro station.  We got to the airport without ever going outside.  That is pretty cool.  We thought we planned enough time to get to the plane.  We figured we would be an hour early.  We had about 30 euros left to spend, so we thought we could be slow and enjoy ourselves.  We were unable to checkin online for some reason.  We ended up having to stand in a LONG line!  We were in that line for at least 45 minutes.  Once we were through we had to take a train to our gate, then go through security.  That took a long time!  As we were walking to our gate we passed a macaroon stand.  My friend had told me to try one.  I thought I would pick up a few as I passed.  I asked for three and handed her the euros.  She said I had to pay somewhere else.  I wandered over there and had to wait in another huge line!  I was tempted to just leave the macaroons on a shelf and walk out of there.  I wasn't sure what to do.  Mike said, "Well, it wouldn't be a trip with you if we didn't almost miss our flight to stop and get a treat."  There was still a line when we got to our gate, so everything was fine.  The line was so long to board, but the Delta app said our flight had left while we were still waiting.

The flight home was non-stop, so that was great.  It wasn't as cool of a plane as the one we came here on, but it was still really nice.  I love the planes with tvs on the seat ahead of you.  I brought nice headphones and was able to watch a few movies.  The rating system was wrong on the plane though. I watched Draft Day, which I really liked, but I was surprised how bad the language was in it.  I looked up the rating when I got home and saw that it was PG-13.  That's what it said on the plane.  I just can't believe PG-13 allows so many horrible words in them now. Why do they do that?  The movie was wonderful, but the bad words make it seem creepy.  I also watched Billy Elliot.  The plane said it was also PG-13.  I didn't make it very far before I turned it off.  So many things I didn't want to see or hear.  I looked up that movie when I got home.  That one was rated R.  I decided to watch While You Were Sleeping instead.  I knew that one would be quite tame compared to the others.

The crazy thing about international flights is they feed you so much! Every two seconds we were being offered food.  This was an 11 hour flight, so a lot of it makes sense; but the flight over here was only 6 hours.  We got two meals at least!  Our flight to Hawaii was almost that long and we only got pretzels.  Weird.

It took us quite awhile to go through customs when we landed.  I was thinking about how you never see this part of the Amazing Race!  My dad was waiting for us when we finally got through.  We got home and all four kids ran out and gave us hugs.  Even Stockton.  It was great! My dad left soon after and they attacked him.  I'm glad he was able to stay with them while we were gone.  They seemed to like it!

Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen hugging my dad

My neighbor, Kristen, brought Jorja a new frog while we were gone. Her brother works at Cactus and Tropicals.  Several frogs came in on a shipment.  A lot of the other workers claimed them.  He said he needed one for Jorja.  How sweet!  Jorja is in love with this frog.  She has named him Horizon.  He is very jumpy.  He jumps so far that he practically flies through the air.

Jorja and Horizon

 Horizon

Jorja told me she was worried about her other frog, Boing.  She hadn't been eating and was no longer sticking to her cage, she was just hanging out in the dirt.  It wasn't until later tonight that we got really worried, but by then all the vet places were closed.  Hopefully she gets better, but I'm quite worried about her.

 Boing

 Jorja & Boing

We picked up a few souvenirs for the kids.  We got Jorja and Preston each a penny for their penny passport.  We also got them an Eiffel Tower medallion that we got in the Eiffel Tower.  Preston was thrilled!

Preston with his first medallion

 Preston with his and Jorja's medallions

 Jorja holding no medallions

 Stockton with a Calvin and Hobbs book in French

 Maysen with a cup from Disneyland Paris

Mike and I had such a fun trip, but it is so wonderful to be home!

Versailles/Disneyland

Mike and I got up early this morning and took the train to Versailles.  It takes about 30 minutes to get there, but wasn't too hard to find.  As we were walking up to the palace Mike said, "We need to figure out how to get tickets."  I told him that we didn't need tickets because of our 'All Museums Pass'.  Mike looked stunned and said he didn't bring his. Whoops!  He could have gotten in free, instead he had to pay 18 euros. The 'All Museums Pass' worked great for me.  I kept it in my pocket and was able to get into every museum free.  If it wasn't on the pass I didn't go in.  I had a 6 day pass and it cost 60 euros.  Mike's pass was a giant bust.  He could only go on Sunday, Thursday and Friday.  We ended up getting him a 6 day pass as well because you had to use the pass on consecutive days.  Once we bought the pass we were reading it. Most of the museums were free on the first Sunday of each month.  It was the first Sunday of the month.  Doh!  We only needed to get him a 2 day pass.  He used the pass a lot yesterday, but forgot it today.  So really, he only used his 6 day pass 1 day.  Whoops.

Anyway, back to Versailles.  It is gigantic and pretty.  Funny that it used to be a small hunting lodge.

Stephanie

 Mike

The chapel is really pretty.  This is where Louis XVI and Marie Antoniette were married.

Lower level of the chapel

 Upper level of the chapel

At one time the gardens had huge giant hedges, kind of like mazes I think.  (I have always loved the concept of hedge mazes.)  They had about 200 Aesop character statues scattered throughout.  Fun!

 Aesop statue

Here is a map of the gardens.  I think it is so funny that there is a dog face in the gardens.  I wanted to find it, but too bad it was being renovated at the time.  A lot of the garden stuff was covered because it is the off season.  Still, so funny about the dog face!

The ceilings were crazy here!  Man, Chelsea would be painting for years!

Stephanie

 Mike and Stephanie

This next picture doesn't show how cool the hallway was.  There were about 12 giant statues lining this simple hallway.  Can you imagine growing up here?  Crazy!  No wonder the royal family was so out of touch with the suffering of their subjects in France.  They lived in a fairy tale land!

 Mike

 Another ceiling

 Mike in the Hall of Mirrors

The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful!  Giant mirrors and chandeliers everywhere.  The huge chandeliers hung from the middle of the hall, all the way down.  Lining the sides were little chandeliers on pedestal.  The kings bedroom was just off of this room.  Imagine walking through this hall on your way to bed.

Stephanie

 Mike

This is the queens bedroom.  This is where Marie Antoinette was when the mob stormed the palace.  She escaped through the hidden door.

 You can barely see the hidden door in this one!

 Queens' Room Ceiling

 Mike in the gardens of Versailles

 Stephanie

While we were walking around the gardens at Versailles, I said to Mike, "My only regret is that I didn't use my time wisely.  I could have used the metro more instead of walking everywhere, then one  day while you were at your meetings I could have gone to Disneyland."  Mike said, "Let's do it!"  So we did.  We made our way to Disneyland.  We were a little disappointed because the park was closing at 7:00.  We got there at 3:00.  We decided to only go in one park.  We chose to go in the more MGM style park.  we went to buy tickets and they were closing at 6:00.  Yikes!  We decided to do it anyway.  I'm glad Mike talked me into it.  We had so much fun.  The place was practically deserted, so we got to ride everything we wanted.  We waited the longest for Crush.  I think that is what it was called.  We had to wait 15 minutes.  The ride is kind of like Spider at Lagoon, but in the dark and with Nemo characters around.

Stephanie at Disneyland Paris!

 Stephanie & Mike

 Stephanie

 Mike

Toy Story land was pretty awesome.  Disneyland is so much fun! Especially if you take away the lines.

Slinky Dog (kind of like Puff I think)

My favorite ride was RC Racer.  So much fun!  We rode this three times.  Twice we were in the very back once we were in the second row. The very back was a lot more fun.  I loved it!

RC Racer

 Mike

 Stephanie

Man!  This would have been a LONG wait!  So much fun to be able to run through it!

 Rainbow!

 Mike & Buzz

We needed the 3D glasses for the Ratatouille ride.  It was kind of fun.  I bet Maysen would have loved that one.

Stephanie

 Stephanie & Mike

I love Tower of Terror.  Mike was nice enough to ride it with me.  I have been on Tower of Terror when everything was in Japanese, and now when everything was French!  Haha!  The park was about to close and I wanted to ride it one more time.  We ran to ride it again, but got a little lost and ended up by the Aerosmith ride.  We tried that one, but it was not my favorite at all.  Reminded me of a faster version of Mike Tyson's punch out.  My head hurt!  I did laugh at the Studio C sign before we entered.

We were able to run and get on the Tower of Terror before the park closed.  I was glad, because I didn't want the Aerosmith ride to be my last ride.  This time we were in a different elevator and the movie was in English.  My first time!

Stephanie

There were a lot of shops and restaurants in the Disney Village they have right outside the parks.  They are open much later, which was nice because we were starving by this time!  We decided to eat at the Rainforest Cafe.  I remember seeing this in San Francisco wondering what it was like.  Jorja would have loved it!  Maysen would have too. Well, all my kids would have except Stockton would probably be indifferent to it.  Anyway, it was a nice finish to a fun day.  Reminded me of my kids.  I'm excited to see them tomorrow!

Stephanie

 Jorja & Preston love these pennies,

Jorja will especially love this one with a frog!

 Missing my Porge

 I got to eat next to a giant moving elephant

 Mike humors me

We picked up a few souvenirs before we left.  I had been keeping my eye out for a beach towel.  Never saw one.  Mike found one here!  I was so excited!  We also got a cup for Maysen, Mickey Mouse/Eiffel Tower earrings for me, and a Tigger jacket that I really liked.  We didn't get anything at the Lego store, but wow!  Lego's are pretty cool.

The Metro is right outside the park.  So nice.  It took a long time to get back to our hotel because it stopped at every stop on the way back. Luckily it didn't do that on the way there!  Today was such a great day. So much fun.  We got back to our hotel about 10:00.  At least packing to go home is easier than packing to leave.  We are going to be pretty tired tomorrow!