and he said

you have a view... can't you tell? and so we walked through the woods and agreed... hope he is right!

The Queen is Home

I don't know if it is yet another of my crazy obsessions, but today at 5:45am I was at Castle Island waiting for the Queen Mary 2 to come into port. I've always like seeing the ships come in and out of port and it is something I've done since I could drive. I would go to Old San Juan and see the now considered old ocean liners in the harbor. Actually, it even goes further back. Eileen had a friend who went to Spain for the summer and her method of transport was a ship. We were allowed too board the ship with her for her bon voyage party. Extremely cool.

Being big cruise people, I try to catch the rare visits of any of Cunard's ocean liners. Some of you might know or remember that the message that would tell me if the operation was a success was either "we are going on the world cruise" if I was screwed, or start unpacking, no world cruise for you. Really not a bad outcome, but I hope someday to do that world cruise on one of Cunard's ships. Maybe the Queen Victoria, or the Queen Mary 2

The Cancer Sweater

Finally finished the cancer sweater. Regrettable name, but it was started and finished during the last 9 months. Sometimes I never thought I would finish the damn thing, but I am thrilled with the outcome. Needless to say Paul is thrilled.

Funny/weird story about this sweater. Starting from the fact that fairy tales and fables are not my forte. When I was little, I was never read books to go to sleep so my knowledge of fairy tales/fables is strictly from cartoons. I thought that there was someone in a fable that spun yarn during the day and unwounded it at night so as to never finish the task. In my warped mind during the 7 dark weeks of April and May, I thought that I would die when I finished the sweater. Morbid I know, but my mind is weird (please no comments from the balcony section).

As we know, I didn’t die…DUH and I have my fairy tales screwed up. I was thinking of Rumplestinzkin

6 months ago...

Today is the 6 month anniversary of the surgery. I can tell you, that it feels like it was 10 years ago. In the last 6 months, we have had surgery, water in the lungs, pneumonia, a great summer and incredible trip to Europe, back to work and a possible mountain house. Not a bad agenda.

For the next 6 months, I am going to try to avoid the surgery, water in the lungs and pneumonia and concentrate on the house and a trip to New York to visit John. We also have Thanksgiving (this will be a good one)since there will be lots of Veuve Cliquot After that a great Christmas.

ok fine... I'll blog more often

I have been amazed at the amount of people that want to keep in blogosphere touch. I will be disciplined about the blog and make entries on a regular basis.

It turns out that every family seems to have their "issues" and mine is by no means an exception. Since the trip much has happened, I am back at work full time and loving it, (although there is some drama there). The commute is long but most of the people are too much fun and I did miss them.

The small drama and that is all I am giving it, is my mother... oh mothers... if the doctor tells you you need a valium.. PLEASE TAKE IT, it will do ALL of us some good. My victorian mother had surgery, and (it went as planned) she has made it into an Oscar/Emmy/Tony award winning drama/performance. When I went to visit her (with Eileen), from her supposed death bed (spare me...she wasn't dying) she was telling everyone what to do. No wonder I live 2000 away!

in conclusion

Make sure that you like your traveling partners, it makes a big difference.
Buy tickets ahead of time if you can on the web, you will save tons of time.
Try different things, food and places, you never know what will be a pleasant surprise.
Talk to the locals, they know a lot more than you do about the visiting city.
When in doubt... just do it.
Get the best guides you can afford, it makes the viewing experience a lot more interesting.
What they call a martini in France, is NOT what we think a martini is. (we have first hand experience on that one).
Dress appropriately, it sucks to not be able to go into a site that has a dress code.
Try to leave your cell phone home, it is a pain in the ass when someone calls and it is 3:00am (is that correct Eileen?)
Try to pack light... (that's a lesson for me)
The house wine in France is better than most wines you will drink in the US
Sleep when you get home, there are things to see out there.

Paris Day 4 - Last day

If Paris is were fashion is created... we must seek the boutiques and shops. Walked down past Maxim's to Place Vendome This is all about location location location... and right in there The Ritz.. From there we went to see the outside of the Opera House (as in the one for Phantom of the Opera). I would love to see an opera there... I can only imagine the tuxedos and the long gowns going up those staircases..

A quick cappuccino for energy and off to the August Rodin museum. Every trip has a surprise, this was it for me. Beautiful museum that we (I) would never think of visiting except by the insistence of my brother in law. Highly recommend a visit. After that, another fabulous bistro lunch, and back to the hotel for rest and packing.

My brother in law found a fabulous Italian restaurant in a small "locals" area. After dinner Paul had insisted that we had to take a Bateaux-Mouches cruise on the Seine. How touristy.. not with the masses.. eek... but it was sensational. The sun had set, the masses went to the second floor of the barge and we went all the way to the front on the first level. To see Paris at night illuminated (after all it is the city of lights) is just spectacular. As a farewell gift the city turned on the little strobe lights on the Eiffel Tower.. it was fucking magical.

Tomorrow we flew home... DAMN DAMN DAMN... I must start planning the next adventure and soon

Paris Day 3

Last night we decided to take it easy today. YEAH RIGHT.. We were off to Versailles. It seems funny to get there in about 25 minutes when in the 1700's it would take days to get there by carriage. We arrived at the entrance to the palace and all I could think of was... THAT'S THE LINE TO GET TICKETS??? We were told it was about 90 minutes from where we were standing, mind you, there was another hour line to get into the palace. I was about to start another revolution myself!

As we inch along the line, some shady character who spoke like 100 languages says.. in 10 minutes a private tour in english will depart for the King's apartments. It is 21 euros and I have room for 12 people. I have never moved so fast in my life. Shady or not, he was my ticket in and away from that infernal line.. the hell with the 21 euros. Within 15 minutes we were inside the King's apartments and a promise that we would not need to do the line to get back in to the palace.

The tour guide (once again we lucked out) spoke a) as if she was there during the time of the kings and b) as if this was her own home. She was incredible. The apartments were glorious and the fact that they found most of the furnishings after the revolution an incredible task. We also got to see St Louis chapel and then the palace itself. I knew it would be opulent and over the top, but when you walk through the Hall of Mirrors all I could think of was "my wedding should have been here!" it was jaw dropping even with all 4 million tourists.

Afterwards, we strolled through part of the gardens (the fountains were off). Life must have been sweet; until they guillotine part of course. We tried to eat lunch in several different restaurants but somehow the french waiters thought we were transparent. Very odd, but I guess very french.

When we got back to the hotel I was curious to see how much we had walked.. another 7 miles. A rest was needed and pronto. Dinner tonight was at a fancy place and i didn't want to land on my plate from exhaustion.

The hotel recommended a place called Chateaubriand. It was excellent, however, how did this puertorican end up in a high brow kosher french restaurant ..I'll never know.

Paris Day 2

We woke up early and were ready for what would turn out to be a 10 mile walk around the city. I strolled with my coffee (latte) down the Champs Elysee (very Parisien) Pass the Place de la Concorde site of the guillotine during the revolution. Strange to be standing in a place that I've heard so much about and were the knitter Madame Lafarge in a tale of Two Cities sits and watches the blade fall. Little further down the gardens of the Tuileries and finally the pyramid at the Louvre. I expected big, but that thing is enormous. It does fit in brilliantly with the exquisite structure of the Louvre.We didn't have time (probably years) to see the galleries but I wanted to see what I.M. Pei had done in the lobby area to move the millions of people that visit the place. Absolutely loved it!.

Next walk down to Notre Dame. As some of you might remember, Adam had a project to build a cathedral. Ed at work was the engineer, I was the architect and Adam did the report. He got an A...DUH! Now, I was going to see the real thing. HOLY CRAP.. for being built in 1160 or so. To say that it was very emotional is an understatement. Luckily, very short line to go in. I was in awe once again at the audacity of men to thing that those thin ribs were going to hold the walls up. Simply spectacular.

Next, walk back up to the Musee d'Orsay, but first a quick lunch.. a round of croque monsieur for everyone. YUM..

Finally got to the d'Orsay, a train station in its previous life, it was going to be demolished until it was brilliantly turned it into a museum. We spent some serious time in there. HINT FOR TRAVELERS... get you entrance tickets to almost all museums on the web before getting there, you will save a lot of time not standing in line.

From there off to Napoleon's tomb. This is one of those weird things that I had seen a picture in my 7th grade history book and i wanted to see it. The space is unbeleivable. Finally, back to the hotel and another lovely dinner (steak tartar for me)

Paris Day 1

Boarded a train early in the morning for our trip to Paris. It was almost incredible that we had made it, I expected to see the landmarks on the ride in, but that was not meant to be. The city would reveal itself slowly. After getting to the hotel 1 block from the Champ Elysees and unpacking it was time to start the daily walks. First, The Arc de Triumph very impressive, second take the subway over to the Eiffel Tower. Nothing says Paris like the tower. When we finally got there I was a mess, great monument, unbelievable human achievement and I was going to climb the damn thing… ok use the elevators was more like it. Best place to get your orientations of the city, absolutely spectacular. From there to the Trocadero area.. lovely.

Paul wanted to have dinner in Montmartre he had visited the area 20 years ago and had enjoyed it back then. Very cool neighborhood the Basilica of the Sacré Cœur right smack in the middle. Very bohemian and packed with tourists. As always, picking a restaurant seems to be the biggest challenge for our group. One was selected, food was good, but my steak tartar was excellent.