Friday morning we were excited to hop on the train (a new adventure!) and head south to the little village of Chartres. We'd heard about the amazing stained glass windows and opted to go south instead of east to Versailles. In hindsight, we couldn't have chosen any better. But, I'm getting ahead of myself. Navigating the train station, after making a few transfers via the metro, was suprisingly easy. The only thing that was a little worrisome was no one ...

Today is a special day...grandson and grandfather share a birthday and a pretty sweet first name. When I went into labor 8 years ago, the night before my dad's birthday, 8 DAYS OVERDUE, I never dreamed what a special occasion it would become. Scott's dad had William as his first name, too, so there was never a question what Master Will's name would be. Here's a quick walk down memory lane...2001Just a mere 6 days old. 2002Believe it or not, ...

Ah, sweet Paris. We slept in a little and finally got moving. I was so excited to get going, I plugged in my hairdryer using the ADAPTER (read: not a converter) and subsequently blew the fuse and all electricity in our hotel room. I'm pretty sure the front desk muttered something about incompetent Americans. Scott just laughed. I did not. The maintenance guy arrived in a jif and we were back in business. That makes travel tip #2. We made ...

Today, we opened our eyes to this beaut...Mont St. Michel. This Benedictine Abbey (a prison at one time) sits on the northern coast of France on the English Channel. We were there during low tide, where the waves go out a full 9 miles before coming back in during high tide. It was a little chilly, but that made for some gorgeous blue skies. Our walk took us up, and up and up. I'm telling you, the stairmaster ain't got ...

After one long day (36 hours in fact) we finally arrived in Paris via Air France. I had about 45 minutes to get off my American flight, go through passport control, get a boarding pass and meet Scott at the gate. Whew. Travel tip #1: Fly Air France. They love to feed you. Hands down, our best flight. So, we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport and found our way to the rental car, our beloved VW Polo, or the ...

Well folks, our guest blogger has officially handed the reins back to yours truly. He was great, wasn't he? I'll have to do that more often.We are settling back into "the Texas way" and the assimilation is nearly complete. Burgers upon arrival at JFK airport, Chuy's for lunch today and a happy hour Sonic run this afternoon. Yes, we're almost 100%. Except for those piles of laundry sitting on the floor.France was more than we hoped for and better than ...