I survived Paris! Maybe I need a shirt that says that. Will upload a pic or two later. But have much to tell.

We left on December 16th and headed to Chicago, the flight to was delayed for an hour and a half due to high winds in the Chicago area. Once we took off, the flight went smoothly and we landed at O'Hare a little over an hour later. We ended up having to hustle to the next gate to check in. After check in we boarded a plane heading to Manchester England. The flight was about 8 hours in length. I managed to get a little sleep, just a few minutes here and there. The two movies on the flight were "You've Got Mail" (which sucks) and "The Da Vinci Code" (which I had already seen in theaters). On the flight we got two meals, dinner and breakfast. I wasn't feeling well so I didn't eat much of the either meal. We landed in Manchester and ended up getting in the wrong line. We had to go through security, not customs. Once we got the right area and through security, we got something to drink. Mom got cheated out some money because the guy at the drink counter didn't tell her until she went back with the receipt that they didn't take euros. Anyway, we finished our drinks and headed for the gate. A few minutes later we on the plane to Paris.

Paris! The airport is freaking huge. Once we got off the plane, we headed out to get on a bus that took us to the terminal to get out luggage. We walked quite a ways to the baggage claim. All we had to do to get into the claim area was show our passports. After we got our bags we walked and walked then bought Mom a lighter so she could go out and smoke a cigarette. After that we walked around looking for the fictional tourist information office and some bus that would supposedly save us on a taxi and get us close to our hotel. Never found either thing. But we did find a place to have a quick meal. After we ate, we headed for a taxi stand outside. A couple minutes later we were in a taxi and headed towards our hotel. The hotel we were booked at was the St. James & Albany Hotel and spa. The place looked great online.

About a half hour and fifty something euros later, we were at the hotel. It was on a busy street and get this.....near the Louvre! Walking distance from the freaking Louvre. We went in and asked if it was possible to go ahead and check into our room. Thankfully we could check in. After Mom finished check in we headed upstairs. The room was very nice: high ceiling, desk, sofa, mini bar, TV, and so on. We set out luggage down, went to the bathroom and then headed out to get out first look at Paris. Then we went back to our room and rested.

After getting a lot of sleep, we got up, showered and got dressed. We head out and went to the Louvre. We found that there are several shops and restaurants in the building, and we ended up eating at this nice cafe. Cafe' Creme and pastries for breakfast made us feel a little better. Once we paid, we were off to the museum. After an attempt to pay at a automated machine, we found a place where we could talk to a human and pay with them. Then it was off to visit the Louvre. As expected there were a lot of visitors. We didn't stay as long as we would have liked, but we were still tired from travel. Before leaving we did see the Mona Lisa. I had to real desire to see it but I figured, since I am there, why not give it a glance.

We did some shopping at the Louvre gift shop and then went back to the hotel for a rest. In the afternoon we headed out for Point Alexander (think that's how its spelled), which was featured in the Sopranos episode Cold Stones. It was a long walk from the hotel and because I am overweight (something to work on next year) it was a hard walk. But it was worth it. The area was wonderful and I saw the Arc De Triumph plus we saw the twinkling lights on the Eiffel Tower. I got the Eiffel Tower light show on the video feature on the digital camera. Once we got back to the hotel, we went up to our room and ordered room service.

The next few days we visited the Louvre two more times and we saw the Venus De Milo. We also went to the Orsay museum, did a boat tour on the Seine, did three bus tours, did a lot of walking, took a taxi to the Sacre Couer, visited Notre Dame, bought some souvenirs, took lots of pics, ate great meals and did a lot of resting. The only down side to the whole trip is that there weren't a lot more restaurants in our area and not many places took American credit cards.

Our stay was great. In the ten days we had there, we did a lot of things. I could go on in detail but it would probably take up several pages and who wants to read all that. We never had a bad experience with a French person, they were all nice to us and we did enjoy our stay.

Yesterday morning we got a wake up call at 6 am Paris time. We got up and slowly got dressed. Before we checked out, we had breakfast in one of the hotels restaurants. After our meal, we headed back up to our room to retrieve our luggage. Once check out was complete, the bellman called us a cab. When the cab arrived, our luggage was loaded up and then we got in. As we were leaving, it was still dark despite being a little after 8 am. We got to the airport we went through the maze of lines through security, check in and then off to find the gate. Once there we did some shopping and then waited to board the plane. Thankfully on the way home we didn't have to share seats, it was just the two us together on the left side of the plane near the wing. The flight home was a ten hour flight to Dallas, where we would get a connecting flight back to Kansas City Missouri. Where we would get our care and drive back home to Kansas City Kansas.

The flight from Paris took off on time and we began our journey home. We had two meals, while good they were also forgettable. Once of the movies they were going to play, only wanted to play in French. So they scrapped that movie and played "Elf" as planned and "The Da Vinci Code" in place of the other movie. They also showed some TV shows- I Love Lucy, King Of Queens (which sucks ass) and Frasier. I did pretty well on the flight home, but the last couple hours, I was a little stir crazy. Once we got to Dallas, we retrieved our bags, went through customs, check in security and then off to the gate. Close to when we should have been boarding, we were finally told ( along with several other passengers), that the gate were at was wrong. So we hurried done to the other gate and found we could have taken our time because they were boarding yet. Once we did board, we happily took our seats. I spent much of the flight looking out the window.

When we landed and had gotten off the plane, we went to baggage claim. Once we had our bags we headed and caught a bus to the economy parking lot and got into our car. After struggling with our luggage, we got in an found our car started right up. We went to the grocery store before we went home. Everything was the way we left it. I turned the water back on, started the computer and did some unpacking. At eleven something I went to bed. Slept hard for three hours and got up to go to the bathroom and then went back to sleep where I slept another three hours. At five-thirty am, afraid I wouldn't wake up on time, I just stayed up.

Today I have unpacked, gotten the pets from the kennel, caught up on a few things but for the most part have been at loose ends. I imagine I'll be like that for a couple more days. Hopefully I can get a full nights rest tonight, cause I am going to need it.