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Special Bonus! Seattle, WA

Seattle, WA

So now that I’ve had time to go through all my brother’s and mom’s pictures, I thought I would put up some more photos that actually have me in them. Enjoy!

What a Nightmare

What a Nightmare Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia, PA

So today was the day I was flying home to Seattle. And it was the worst travel experience of my entire life.

I’ll start with the good…

• Left the hotel, then navigated the metro and the RER to the airport. Check.
• First leg of flight to Philadelphia left on time. Check.
• Watched three great movies (Chronicle, New Year’s Day, Unstoppable) and a couple TV shows to make the 8 hour journey to Philly really “fly” by. Check.
• Arrived in Philly with plenty of time for the one hour sluggish journey through customs. Check.
• Enjoyed my layover by having Wendy’s again and having a couple beers at the best airport bar ever (30 beers on tap!). Check.
• Second leg of flight to Seattle left on time. Um. Well…

Now for the bad…

• First the plane coming in from Las Vegas arrived 45 minutes late.
• Then after we boarded, we sat on the runway while they looked into a maintenance issue. Apparently it must have been the air conditioning system because it was 86 F outside, and we were roasting on the plane.
• We were told a couple times, “just waiting to sign some paperwork, then we’ll be on our way.”
• Then we were told we needed to change planes. So we de-boarded, went to a different gate, and re-boarded. That took about an hour.
• Next announcement – “just waiting to load the bags, then we’ll be on our way soon.” I could actually see them loading the bags from my seat, so I knew this to be true.
• Next announcment – “just need to top off the fuel, then we’ll be on our way soon.”
• Next announcement – “well, there’s some storms in the area and there’s a ground stop on all flights.” Apparantly there was a huge line of thunderstorms that practically covered the entire east coast. And it was 60,000 feet high. So we couldn’t fly above it, and we’d been delayed so long already that there was no longer time to fly around.
• Next announcement – “it may only be 20 minutes until we can take off, you never know with storms like this.”
• Next announcement – “we’ll be delayed at least an hour, so we’re going to de-board the plane.” Again.
• Then I sat in the airport for a long time. About every 20 minutes they would announce that it would be at least an hour.
• Then they finally just cancelled the flight. Not that they ever announced that. I just overheard other people saying the gate agent had said it was canceled. I got out my netbook, got online with the free WiFi at the Philly airport, and confirmed it was indeed cancelled. I was so exhausted by this point that I preferred that option to having to sit through a six hour flight to Seattle.
• While waiting in the non-moving customer service line, I put to good use all the travel savvy I’d gained while working for Expedia. Yes, that Expedia – DOT COM! I got out my netbook again and used Expedia to search for hotels near the airport. I knew they might be packed because pretty much ALL the flights that night had been cancelled. And indeed, I first called the Marriott that I could see from the line, and they were full. So I searched for the cheapest options, found a place near the airport, and made a reservation.
• I’d overheard people saying the first flights available for re-booking were Thursday morning (it was Tuesday). There was no way in hell I was going to be stuck in Philly for a whole day. I would literally go crazy. I’d had the experience of being bumped on a flight before, and I knew that you didn’t have to rebook. You had the option of getting a refund. So I went back to Expedia again, searching for flights to Seattle the next day. And Delta had flights for a reasonable price. Thankfully my airline (US Airways) had a modicum of customer service, and someone handed out a card with a phone number to call for re-booking. So I called, asked for a refund, and quickly booked the flight on Delta the next day.
• I started to leave the airport when I remembered that I had not selected a seat on the Delta flight when I booked. And I knew without a seat assignment there was a possibility of getting bumped. So I sat down again and made sure I had a seat assignment.
• I finally left the airport at 11 pm. I’d arrived at 1 pm. I had to take a taxi to my hotel because part of the reason they were cheap was that they didn’t have a shuttle. I didn’t care.
• When I got to the hotel, I checked in and as I was walking to my room I realized I was finally getting better from better sick. My sense of smell had returned and it was not pleasant. But the room was actually pretty awesome. I was at an Extended Stay America, so it was more like a small apartment with a bed, couch/TV area, pretty big kitchen, and big bathroom.
• The thing that really sucks about having a flight cancelled and being stuck overnight is that you’re not allowed to pick up your checked luggage. So I had nothing. Thankfully hotels know this and stock all the basic toiletries. But I had not had any foresight and had not packed my charging cords in my carry on. My phone was at 5%. Thankfully I’d barely used my netbook and both the airport and the hotel had free WiFi.
• By the time I got settled it was after midnight. Meaning it was morning in Paris. And my body still thought I was in Paris. So I kind of didn’t feel like going to sleep. But once I forced myself to lay down and shut my eyes, I quickly crashed.

Rather than write a separate blog about the next day, I’ll just continue my journey home here:

• I woke up after only 4 hours of sleep and was wide awake, but still exhausted.
• My flight didn’t leave until 2:30 pm so I had some time to kill before check out at 11 am. I watched the French Open on TV, feeling surreal that I’d just been there two days before. I managed to take a couple naps before having to leave.
• I ended up sharing a taxi to the airport with another woman who’d had my same experience. Except she was headed to Europe and had been forced to changed her whole itinerary because of her delay. It made me feel not quite so bad. Neither of us had cash so I just offered to pay the taxi fare.
• When I checked in at Delta the computer gave me the option to change my seat, and for some reason there were lots of window seats available when there had only been middle seats the night before. So I thankfully changed. Actually, I think it was the “Economy Plus” seats that they try to sell for extra money. They must open them up the day of the flight if they’re not sold. I even got an exit row on the second leg of my flight. Yes, my flight was not direct. I had to go through Minneapolis.
• I was really starting to despise the Philly airport by this point. I hope to never go there again. I will gladly pay more for a flight in order to avoid this airport. It’s a bit of a dump and will forever bring up bad memories.
• I was really nervous while waiting for my flight to leave. I kept expecting everything to go wrong. But everything went right. No problems. Left on time, landed on time.
• I arrived at Minneapolis and was thoroughly refreshed by the niceness of the airport. I quickly found a Subway to get food at, and slowly made my way to my gate.
• Only to be confronted with another delay. Seriously. At first I didn’t really know what was going on, but then there were some flight attendants sitting near me. I overheard them talking about how they had to bring out a plane from the hanger for us to use. And they knew what that meant, it was probably broken. That’s when I started to get really frustrated. It seemed like something was preventing me from getting back to Seattle.
• The really annoying part about waiting at the Minneapolis airport was that they didn’t have WiFi. Period. Not even to pay for. And my phone was dead by this point. I felt so disconnected and helpless. But thankfully I managed to borrow someone else’s charging cord so that I could juice up my phone a little and make sure I had a ride if and when I ever made it back to Seattle.
• After what seemed like eternity, and many “we should be boarding soon” announcements, we finally got on the plane. But I’d been through this before only to be jerked around again and again. So I couldn’t let myself believe that we were actually leaving. Sitting in my seat at the gate, I just kept looking outside, trying to will the plane to move.
• When we finally left the gate, I was in disbelief. But then, we backed up and stopped. Forever. It was torture.
• Thankfully we finally started moving again, and not until the moment we left the ground could I start to relax and finally realize that I was really going home. Then, of course, I started to think about the fact that the only bad travel experience I’d never had at this point was having a plane being diverted from its destination. It would seem kind of fitting after everything I’d already gone through.
• I was really exhausted by this point. The flight was supposed to have left at 5 pm and didn’t actually take off until ~7:15 pm. I spent most of the flight trying to sleep (after the beverage service anyway), and I must have succeeded. Because it was the quickest 3.5 hour flight ever. I had just become more “alert” and was starting to settle back down for another attempt at a long nap when they announced we were starting our descent and would be landing in 20 minutes. I was in shock. I couldn’t believe I was finally making it to Seattle.
• When we finally came down out of the clouds, because it was rainy of course, I saw the edge of Lake Washington and then downtown Seattle. I have never been so happy to see home.
• We finally landed and taxi’d to the gate, only to have yet another delay. We had to sit on the tarmac because there weren’t any people at the gate to guide the plane in. I was incredibly antsy. My journey had been so long and so filled with frustration and despair. And the end was so close. I could taste the freedom. I think that’s why this journey had been so hard to handle. I had basically been trapped, constantly kept on the edge, thinking that I would be on my way soon. Only to be delayed. Again. And again. And again.
• We finally made it to the gate and I sprinted off the plane. Thankfully I didn’t have to wait for my bag. It had been flown to Seattle earlier in the day by US Airways. I only had to find their office in the baggage claim area and pick up my bag. Which was thankfully there. It was about the only thing that hadn’t gone wrong on this trip.
• I ended up getting home ~10:30 pm, almost exactly 48 hours after I had woken up in Paris and begun my journey home. It may be awhile before I travel again.

A Real Tower Climb

A Real Tower Climb Paris, France

Paris, France

So I know I’ve been back in the States for two weeks now, but I wanted to at least put up some brief blogs about the end of my trip. Oh, who’s kidding, I’m sure they won’t be brief 🙂

This day was our last day in Paris and we spent most of it at the most iconic sight of them all – the Eiffel Tower. To give you some background, there are actually three levels on the Eiffel Tower that you can visit. There are two levels near the bottom that are served by two different elevators, in two of the four “legs” of the tower. The other two “legs” have stairs that you can take up and down. And then there’s another elevator that takes you up to the tippy top.

Lines for the elevators at the Eiffel Tower are notoriously long, so we decided it would be more efficient and much more fun to climb the stairs. That turned out to be a very good decision because one of the two elevators were broken, resulting in even longer lines than normal. It was a bit of a wait even to go up the stairs.

The first time I was in Paris three years ago, I had actually tried to do the stair climb two separate times. Unsuccessfully. The first attempt was my first day in Europe, but I had my huge backpack with me and wasn’t allowed to climb (it was too big). The second attempt was at the end of my trip and I arrived at the tower 20 minutes too late to take the stairs. I was forced to take the elevators.

So I was super excited to finally do the climb. But I was worried how my legs would handle it, because I hadn’t been doing much walking or stair climbing since my illness. Thankfully they handled it surprisingly well. We went pretty slowly of course, and took a long break at the first level. I actually wasn’t impressed with the views at the first level because I knew there was much better to come.

When we climbed up to the second level I was surprised again when I started to get a little nervous about the height. We were climbing up the inside of one of the legs. Near the bottom it was pretty wide and full of lots of steel beams. But it got narrower and narrower as you went up and I started to feel much more exposed. Plus, if you stopped you noticed the tower shaking a little bit. By the time we got up to the second level we had climbed a total of 670 steps. Now that was a real tower climb! Much more awesome than the office tower climbs they have in Seattle!

It was actually really surreal being on the second level of the Eiffel Tower again. Three years ago, probably the most memorable experience of my entire 45 day trip took place there. I stood in one corner of the tower for about an hour, watching one of the most incredible sunsets of my life, the sky awash in pink clouds above the sparkling lights of the city and the flowing water of the Seine. And then staying as the sky turned to night and the tower burst out in sparkles. Being there again was kind of like deja vu because the setting was so different. It was midday with clear blue skies and intense warm sunshine beaming down onto the bright white city.

We had to wait in line to take the elevator to the top, but it wasn’t too bad of a wait. Except we got really annoyed when we got to the end of the line. There were actually two separate lines that merged together right before getting on the elevator. And just as we were about to go inside the door to the elevator, an annoying woman from the other line tried to make our line wait so that her party of 20 Italians could all go in together. Derek managed to squeeze by her, at which point the woman literally blocked the door with her body. I actually shoved my way past her and had an angry old man give me a dirty look and yell at me in Italian. I didn’t care.

When we finally got to the top our annoyance melted away as we took in the amazing views. Rick Steves says he likes the view from the second level better, because you’re closer to the buildings. But just this once I have to say that he’s crazy. The view from the top is just spectacular.

We stayed for quite a while, taking in the views, before heading back down the elevator. Then we walked back down all 670 steps to the ground.

We were all famished by this point, so we went over to the Seine and found a place that sold Croque Monsieurs. Then we went and found a shady spot in some grass to eat. I laid down for a little bit and just relaxed in the warmth, knowing I would be back in rainy Seattle soon. That’s when I started to get exhausted. I was still not completely over being sick and I’d pushed my body a lot with all the stair climbing. But it was our last day in Paris so we couldn’t quit the sightseeing yet.

Our next destination was the Paris Sewer Tour. There actually wasn’t a lot left in Paris that we could do. It was unfortunately Monday, and most of the things we really wanted to do were closed. The sewer tour was pretty close by and was supposed to be pretty quick, so we walked over. It actually wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be. I’d never been in a sewer before, so I guess it was cool to see what they really look like. But otherwise it was unimpressive. I was glad, however, that my nose was still congested because apparently the sewer can be a little stinky. But I couldn’t smell anything.

Our last stop of the day was the Luxembourg Garden, which was also unimpressive. It has a cool-looking palace that’s now where the French Senate meets. And there were lots of people sitting on the grass in the sunshine. But otherwise not that interesting. Especially because I could barely walk by that time. So we didn’t stay long.

We went to dinner at a pizza place right down the street from our hotel. And thus ended our adventure in France.

P.S. If you’ll recall I ended my last blog by asking what song the title was paraphrasing. I’m sure you’ve all been on pins and needles since then, wondering what the song is. So I suppose I should tell you. The title was “Sometimes Dreams Really Do Come True”, and it’s paraphrased from “Somewhere Over Rainbow.”

Here’s the lyric:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Sometimes Dreams Really Do Come True

Sometimes Dreams Really Do Come True Paris, France

Paris, France

Today was the day I was most looking forward to on the entire trip. Today was the day I went to the French Open.

I used to watch Wimbledon in the summers when I was growing up, and loved watching Stefi Graff, when she was winning about every tournament, and Andre Agassi and Jennifer Capriati before they were good. And then I kind of stopped watching.

But for the past 10 years or so I’ve been a huge tennis fan, watching all of the grand slams. At least the men’s games. I don’t find women’s tennis that interesting, partly because there haven’t been any dominant players for the last 5 years or so. But also because the women tend to just hit the ball back and forth for a long time. It’s kind of boring.

But men’s tennis can be very exciting to watch, with long rallies of amazing shot after amazing shot. And it’s incredibly suspenseful at times. Momentum can change on a dime and a player that looks completely out of a match can come back and win.

So I’ve been dreaming about going to a grand slam for a long time. And today that dream finally came true.

I had planned to arrive at 10 am when the gates opened, but that didn’t work out. The subway ride was about 30 minutes like I expected, but it was about a 10 minute walk to the gates. And then a 10 minute walk to the end of the line. By the time I got inside the grounds I went straight to my seat and made it just before the first match started.

I knew that my seats were in one of the ends of the main court (Court Philippe-Chartrier) and in the 17^th row. Which I was glad about because it meant my view would be similar to what I was used to seeing on TV. What I didn’t know was that my seat was almost exactly in the center and just a couple of rows below the TV camera. So my view was exactly the same as I was used to. That meant I spent the entire day feeling very surreal, having to remind myself that I wasn’t watching TV, that I was actually there in person.

The other great thing about my seat was that I was only in the sun for about 45 minutes. It was another hot day, with temperatures expected near 80 F. And humid, meaning it felt pretty warm. But I was on the south side of the stadium and high enough that I was in about the 2.5% of the stadium that was shaded.

So I ended up being really lucky with the matches that I saw. They were all competitive matches, at least for most of the sets. That’s pretty good since it was opening day of the tournament. Normally the opening round matches can be pretty lopsided. And I would be seeing the best players of the day.

I was also lucky because the two women’s players that I saw were 2 of 3 women’s players that I was actually interested in seeing.

So here are the matches I saw:

1. Samantha Stosur: an Australian player that was a finalist at the French Open two years ago and won the US Open last year. The first set was competitive, with lots of good shots and both players breaking serve. But Sam ended up taking the first set and then winning the second set easily.

2. Juan Martin Del Potro: an Argentine player who won the US Open three years ago. In the last seven years he’s the only player to win a major other than the big three (Federer-12, Nadal-10, Djokovic-3). Since then he’s been troubled by injuries and not as competitive. But this was an excellent match to watch, with lots of amazing shots. I even got to see a tie breaker for one set, and I also got to see an injury time out. Del Potro was having knee trouble and had to get it re-taped. So the other player actually won the set after that. But then Del Potro managed to come back and win in four sets.

3. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: a French player that was a finalist at the Australian Open a few years ago. This match was amazing to watch only because it was a French player. So the stadium was packed and the crowd was really into it. The play itself was not quite as fun to watch. It was funny, though, because people in the crowd kept yelling what I thought was “Edge-O” at first. I just figured it was some peculiar French cheer. But then I realized they were actually saying “Eh-Jo”, which probably means “Go Jo” or something. This match also went four sets.

4. Venus Williams: if for some reason you haven’t heard of the William’s sisters, Venus and Serena are US players that used to be incredibly dominant in all of the major slams. Venus has won Wimbledon five times and the US Open twice. But nothing in the last three years. This was another fun match to watch, with lots of good shots. It went three sets, with both players getting a couple of breaks in the third set. But Venus managed to pull it out.

The only thing I didn’t like about the French Open was that there wasn’t much time between matches. As soon as one match was over, they would sweep the clay court, bring out the next players, do a coin toss, and then have some warm-up shots for about 5-10 minutes. Then the next match would start.

So there wasn’t a lot of time to leave the stadium. But I needed to leave to get food, and I wanted to leave to explore the grounds more. But I also knew that this would likely be the only time I was ever at the French Open, so I felt like I should watch as much tennis as I could.

I ended up just leaving the stadium a few times for a short break. First I left after the Sam Stosur match to get some food. I wandered over to the second largest court (Court Suzanne-Lenglen), where there was a huge TV screen showing one of the other matches. I sat on a narrow strip of grass, eating my jambon & fromage baguette (i.e. ham & cheese). By the time I got back to center court I’d missed the first 5 games of the Del Potro match.

I also left the stadium in the middle of Tsonga match, partly because it went long enough that I start to get sleepy. And after Tsonga went up 2 sets to 1, it was pretty obvious he would win the fourth set. So I went and wandered the grounds.

When I left the stadium, I saw a guy walking towards me that was holding a tennis racket, and he looked really familiar. Then I realized it was Justin Gimelstob, a former US player who is now a broadcaster. He was really tall. Then I looked over to my right, into the entrance to the media area, and there were Chris Fowler and Mary Jo Fernandez! Mary Jo is another former US player & current ESPN announcer. And if you don’t know who Chris Fowler is you don’t watch College Gameday on ESPN. He is the main anchor. He’s also the main anchor for all the tennis grand slams. It was very cool!

By the time the last match was over, I was actually getting very sad. I didn’t want the tennis to end because I didn’t want to leave. It had been an amazing day and an experience I will cherish forever. Except that now I really want to go to the rest of the grand slams!

P.S. My title today is paraphrasing a lyric from a very famous song. Any guesses?

The Prettiest Chateau and the Speediest Train

The Prettiest Chateau and the Speediest Train Paris, France

Paris, France

Not a lot to report again today, although I was feeling much better. But still not a lot of energy.

So we went to the prettiest chateau of them all today – Chenonceau. It’s built over the river Cher. Literally. There are drawbridges on both sides to cross from the river bank to the chateau.

It was another long walk from the car to the chateau, but this time it was shaded. And we learned the art of walking slowly.

There were a couple of gardens on either side of the chateau, and the inside was again not that interesting. But the beauty of this chateau is in the exterior. We spent a lot of time walking up and down the river banks.

After touring everything, we basically spent the rest of the afternoon on the grounds of the chateau. We needed to catch a train to Paris at 5:30 pm in nearby Tours, and none of us really had the energy to do anything else today (my Dad and brother were both a little sick too).

First most of us got ice cream and sat at a café near the chateau. Then Derek got a sandwich near the car park and we sat on a bench in the shade for a very long time. Then we went over to a grassy area next to a small canal until it was time to leave.

We made our way to the train station in Tours, where we were dropping off our rental car and catching the high-speed TGV train to Paris. It went very smoothly.

The train ride was awesome, except that the air conditioning wasn’t working until the last 5 minutes. So it was warm. But the train went very, very fast. The TGV goes up to 200 km/hour. We’re not sure if ours got quite up to that speed, but we were definitely not in the slow lane. When we went under a bridge it went by so fast that you could literally blink and miss it. And if there was vegetation near the rail line, you couldn’t really see it. It was just a blur.

The advantage of taking the TGV to Paris was that the train ride was only an hour. If we’d driven it probably would have taken 2.5 hours. Plus, our hotel for our last three nights in Paris was only a block from the train station. We arrived at the Gare Montparnasse train station and then walked over to the Hotel Arcadie. We were again shocked that we had a huge bathroom with a bath tub!

We were all so tired that we didn’t want to go out anywhere for dinner. Plus, most of us couldn’t taste anything and had sore throats. So we just went to a little Italian place right by the hotel.

Relapses Suck

Relapses Suck Amboise, France

Amboise, France

Not much to report again today. I didn’t sleep well and tried to act like I was all better, so I exhausted myself and had to spend the rest of the day in bed.

My fever was still gone, but my sickness had turned into a bad head cold. It had also been very warm in our hotel room last night. So the combination of not being able to breath and having a fan blowing on me the whole night meant my throat was really dry and I couldn’t sleep.

When I got up in the morning I was extremely tired, but assumed I would still feel better and have more energy than the day before. That’s generally how recoveries work, right? So we headed off to see the chateau at Chambord, the largest chateau in the Loire Valley.

The walk from the parking lot to the chateau seemed extremely long, most of it in the sunshine where it was already feeling very warm. Heat has a tendency to zap you of energy, but when you’re sick it’s even worse.

Touring the interior of the chateau was again not that interesting for me. It was hard to drag my feet around, especially up the stairs.

By the time I got to the fourth floor terrace level, I was completely exhausted. The views were incredible, especially the architecture at the top of the chateau. It was extremely beautiful. At least that’s what my brain was trying to tell me. My body was telling me to sit the #%!@ down. So I couldn’t really appreciate it.

By the time I made it back to the car, after another long walk through the draining sun, I was spent. I didn’t want to move. Thankfully my understanding family took me back to our hotel where I collapsed on the bed and tried to sleep. But still couldn’t.

Later in the evening I was starting to feel better, at least sitting up in bed. Although I still didn’t want to move. But I remembered a gelato place that was in Amboise and was thinking that maybe if I went and had some it would make everything better.

So I managed to walk over there and the gelato was indeed very refreshing. But not very satisfying because I couldn’t taste it. I even managed to walk out to the river, where the water had inexplicably risen overnight. There’s no way it had rained anywhere near us since the night before.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and I managed to do three blogs in one day! Of course, there hasn’t been much to write about recently so they weren’t very long.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I left the SD card for my camera in the hotel room this morning. Which meant I couldn’t take pictures with my camera, only my phone. But I was so out of it that I really didn’t care.

I’m Alive. Kind Of.

I'm Alive. Kind Of. Amboise, France

Amboise, France

Drive to the Loire Valley

Thankfully my fever had finally let up this morning and I was feeling better, although still pretty tired. That’s because we had a 3.5 hour drive to the Loire Valley, where we would be staying for two nights to see all the chateaus.

The drive was thankfully very easy, on highways most of the way. I spent most of it resting as much as I could.

Chateau Villandry

This was our first stop of the day. It’s the chateau with the best gardens in the Loire Valley, and wow were they amazing. It was actually really warm out, supposed to be 82 F today, and it must have been pretty humid too. I didn’t have much energy as it was, so it was a slow walk around the grounds with several stops on benches to rest. But it was well worth it.

There were actually quite a few sections to the gardens:

• Ornamental Garden: there were four sections representing different types of love – tender, passionate, fickle, and tragic
• Water Garden: very peaceful with benches overlooking a huge reflecting pool
• Sun Garden: had a Cloud Room full blue and silver flowers and a Sun Room full of orange and yellow. Very cool.
• Herb Garden: small, but interesting
• Vegetable Garden: normally vegetable gardens are just functional, but this was the best of them all, full of amazing geometric patterns. Made mostly of cabbage

The Chateau itself wasn’t that interesting, Rick said not to bother going inside so we didn’t.

Chateau Azay-le-Rideau

Our next chateau was nearby and didn’t have any parking close, so I got dropped off at the entrance and picked up when we left.

This one is famous for the reflecting pool that surrounds the chateau, and it was indeed very picturesque. The exterior of the chateau was quite ornate. There were quite a few frogs that were making a ruckus in the reflecting pool. I got an amazing picture of one just as he jumped from a lily pad. Sometimes great photography is just a matter of lucky timing.

We did tour the interior, but it was pretty lame in my opinion, compared to all the grand palaces I’ve seen in Europe. The only interesting part was that we got to see the attic. They had just opened it this year.

Chateau de Chatonniere

We were all dragging from the heat by this point, but Rick had described this chateau as “exploding” with color in May when the flowers are blooming. We all love flowers and gardens, and this one was also very close so we decided to go.

Unfortunately it looked the gardeners had all quit because most of the gardens were very overgrown and scraggly-looking. And I would not in any way describe it as “exploding” with color. So we were all disappointed and took a very quick tour before escaping the oppressive heat.

Amboise

This was our destination for the night. All of the chateaus we had seen today were on the west side of the Loire Valley, and Amboise was on the east side of the valley. We’d be staying there for two nights while we see the eastern chateaus. It was about an hour’s drive and we took advantage of the car’s air conditioning to cool off. We all felt refreshed by the time we arrived.

Our hotel was right in the center of town and it was actually half-timbered! I realized I’d never been inside a half-timbered house before, because I was surprised to discover that even the inside walls were half-timbered. And the ceilings of our rooms had timbers too! Very cool.

We went out for dinner at a place called Le Reserve and I was actually really hungry for the first time since getting sick. I got pasta with salmon, which I had assumed would be cooked. Some of it was, but some of it was also raw. At first I wasn’t even going to try the raw stuff, but I figured what the heck and tried a piece. And it was actually good!

After dinner we walked out to the Loire River to watch the sunset. It was a beautiful hazy night, and still very warm out. I was surprised to find that I was finally feeling like myself after being sick. I actually had energy and wanted to walk for a while. But the setting sun just calls for you to stop and slow down. So we sat on the edge of a levee and relaxed in the waning sun.

Afterwards we walked back to the hotel and blogged before bedtime.

Special Sneak Preview!

In case I don’t post anything tomorrow, I wanted to let you know that I will be going to the French Open on Sunday. So in case you are planning to watch, feel free to look for me in the stands. I’ll be on center court, in one of the ends, in the 17^th row, wearing white.

Argh.

Argh. Locmariaquer, France

Locmariaquer, France

Not much to report again today. I was still really sick. But I managed to force myself to
go in the afternoon to see the one thing I really wanted to see near our hotel.
And that would be the standing stones at Carnac. It’s the largest cluster of
standing stones in the world, with over 3,000 scattered over the area. They’re
called “alignments” because they’re arranged in straight rows.

It was really quite astounding to see, it kind of put Stonehenge to shame. The fields
of stone just went on and on. But I had zero energy, so we didn’t do much
walking. Just drove a few places where we could see the alignments well.

Grrr.

Grrr. Locmariaquer, France

Locmariaquer, France

Unfortunately I don’t have much to report for today. The scratchy throat I had last night was turning into something pretty bad so I was pretty out of it in the morning.

Fortunately we didn’t have much planned for our two days in Locmariaquer. Originally we had planned to go to Western Brittany today to meet one of my mom’s cousins from England. But we got our signals crossed and he couldn’t make it. And none of us felt like driving a ways just to see another couple of medieval towns.

So I managed to go out for a little while in the morning. We went out to explore the peninsula near us. The whole area is littered with megalithic sites like dolmens and standing stones. Unfortunately we weren’t very successful. We only found one dolmen. But we did see a cool duck called a Shellduck. That would be the only picture I took that day.

We went back to our hotel for lunch, and I went to lay down when I was done because it was pretty evident I was developing a bad fever. I spent the rest of the day in bed, but managed to make myself write a blog in the evening.