O'Learys' in Essex

After five days in Washington D.C. we went to Essex, Massachusetts and stayed with our friends the O'Learys'. Essex, Massachusetts is about an hour northeast of Boston on the coast. We know the O'Leary's because my Dad grew up with Mrs. O'Leary in Talkeetna. They also have two boys, Bennett is 10 and Vaughn is 7 years old.

Playing at Patton Park. General Patton lived in Exxex, MA.

Down at the beach with Bennett and Vaughn.

Every day we would play sports with them at their house. We played wiffle ball in the back yard and basketball and street hockey on the driveway. My favorite was home run derby wiffle ball. I liked it way better than street hockey because I didn't have hockey sticks wacked at my legs and feet. My brothers favorite was street hockey. 

Bennett and I going head to head with the puck.

Bennett shotting hoops

Vaughn and I racing for the ball

The boys showed us their collection of Japanese erasers. They are mini erasers in the shape of animals, vehicles, sports equipemnt and food. We bought some erasers at the Silly Goose toy store. I got an elephant, penguin, seal, robot, soccer ball and a hamster. I regret not getting the dolphin. Later I traded the hamster for a puffer fish with Vaughn.

It was a blast staying with the O'Leary's. Plus, it was awesome seeing friends after being gone for 10 months. The O'Leary's usually come to Alaska in the summer but this time we visited them at their home.

We also made smores in their backyard fire pit.

Back in the USA

I was giddy boarding the plane in Paris bound for NYC. Standing in line on the jet way I struck up a brief conversation with a lovely NYC couple returning from their honeymoon in Paris. I was talking to a real American citizen, speaking real English, agreeing on how thrilling it is to travel internationally but so thankful we are to be heading home - back to the USA.

My feelings surprised me as days prior I was questioning if I even wanted to be back in the USA. I am fiercly patriotic and in love with my country but our adventure opened my eyes to the world, seeing new ways of life, new ways of thinking and that made me want to continue, explore more. From that aspect I was not entirely sure I was ready to come home. However, my feelings betrayed my thoughts as they usually do. I was excited!

The boys were equally excited. As we were disembarking the plane, on US soil, they were jockeying for who would be the "first one back in the US. The first one 'home." We left the plane saying thank you and goodbye in French never looking back.

We turned the corner into US Immigrations and saw a huge Stars and Stripes hanging proudly and we all squeeeled with delight! Full of American pride we marched past the long, long, long, que for "visitors" to enter my country then past the line for legal alien residents and went straight to the, shortest line of all, the que for U.S. Citizens!

Post number 37 opened and as we appoached the counter the immigration agent, a big black man with a wicked New York accent, was complaining to his fellow agent in post 36 how much he hates the new passport machines and thinks its absurd our government wasting so much money on new equipment when the old ones worked better, processed faster and didn't breakdown as often. We stood quietly in front of him while he finished his rant. When he was done he asked for our passports and processed us through. Listening to him made me smile, chuckle actually.

You see this is one aspect that makes our country the greatest on the planet. Here is a government employee sharing his disgust on wasteful spending which he is FREE TO DO. NO WHERE did we see a scene like this. EVERYWHERE else immigration agents sat quietly in their cubicles motioning the next traveler through doing their job with no conversation to their fellow worker, or to the passing traveler. Sometimes I would try to engage the agent in conversation but was usually unsuccessful.

We've been around the world visited 22 countries on 6 continents and we all agree that the United States of America is still the best country on the face of the earth; even with all our problems.

Our immigration agent as post number 37 turned out to be a friendly man who we had a lively conversation with as he processed us through with a "welcome home".

I took the opportunity give the boys some insight as to what they just experienced and it started a wonderful, thought provoking, how governments work conversation that I love having with my boys. God bless America, Land that I love!

Baguettes, Brassieres and Cigarettes

Four nights/five days in Avignon, four nights/five days in Normandy and five nights/six days in Paris has left me a bit bewildered at daily life of the French. How can a country consume so many baguettes, smoke so many cigarettes and drink coffee all day long yet remain healthy and beautiful? And our country? Well...


Baguettes
In France you can find a boulangerie or practically every street corner. Combine that with patisseries and you get an intoxicating fresh baked goodness smell wafting from their doors. One morning we could not resist and stopped in for breakfast. After ordering quiche, sweet pastires and coffee we sat down and watched what we dubbed "the great baguette frenzy." We witnessed a steady stream of people coming in empty handed and walking out with one, two or three baguettes passing up the plethora of delectable that we would have chosen. There were old men, young ladies, mom's with kids, husbands with their "list", old ladies, young men and every one in between buying baguettes. We figured the baguette frenzy happened everyday since we all know that baguettes are hard as rocks the second day and not worthy of eating. The boys and I were highly entertained watching this intriguing phenomenon and speculating what they did with all the baguettes.

Two baguettes in hand

Brassieres
Yes, Starbucks exists in France but the authentic choice is a brassiere. This is a cafe sort of place that serves espresso, cocktails, cigarettes and very, very light snacks that makes our American snacks look like a meal. Brassieres are teaming with people in the morning sipping demi-tasse cups of espresso, smoking cigarettes and munching on a piece of a baguette. Mid-day and afternoon it's the same scene. By early evening and beyond they are still smoking, munching and drinking but for some the espresso has been replaced with a beer or cocktail. Brassieres act as a sort of before work, at lunch, afternoon cafe break, after work/before dinner gathering spot. The "hey let's meet for drinks and a smoke" place. The coveted seats are the ones outside on the sidewalk. And when seated around the small round tables, everyone, no matter how many are in one group, sit facing the street not each other as if watching the stage performance of Life and People.

Smoking
Cigarettes are everywhere, and almost everyone in France smokes. Non-smoking is not part of their vocabulary. I think the only place in France smoking has been officially banned is on the Metro, TGV and busses. As soon as French folks in transit disembark from their journey they are lighting up. The brassieres sell cigs, as do tabac shops. The tabac shops are nothing more than a small stand on the street selling cigarettes, newspapers and a few other sundries. All the smoking became quickly annoying since as Americans, where non-smoking is en vogue, we are not used to breathing cigarette smoke in lieu of air. Our day at Disneyland was spent breathing more second-hand smoke than real Parisian air. And, a friend once commented that she knew she was back in Paris by the smell of smoke lingering in the air. I recently read an article about France's new smoking ban in cafes and restaurants but I am not to sure who is enforcing this and how because we saw no smoking ban in effect.

As to my original question of how French stay beautiful with this style of living, here's my theory how. Walk to metro/bus station smoking a morning cig, munch on your baguette on the ride, meet friends at the brassiere for a quick espresso and another smoke. Head to the office, work the morning, walk to lunch at another brassiere for an espresso, smoke and baguette. Walk back to work. Leave work and walk to a brassiere to meet friends for a beer, smoke and baguette. Hang out have more cigs and drinks. Maybe walk to a restaurant for dinner at 10:00pm or just stay and have another smoke, drink and baguette.

All of the above has a 0 caloric net effect since the walking and the caffeine jolt from the espresso speeds the metabolism to burn off the baguette. And the cigarettes have a negative calorie effect acting as an appitite suppressent. So by the end of the day, if they even choose to eat dinner, the French are in a perfect position to enjoy a small three course meal late in the evening with minimal effect on their waist line. Viola! C'est bon!

Paris

We stayed in Paris for five days and I was very disappointed with what I saw in the city. People told us that it is an amazing city. I happen to dissagre. Some people believe it to be one of the best city's in the world but I wasn't impressed. The first thing I didn't care for about Paris was all the dissorganized art museums. I didn't like them beaucuse, when we went to the Manet exhibit about one fourth of the paintings were not created by Manet him self but by diffrent artists. That doesn't make much sense to me when people are comming to see Manet.

The seccond thing I didn't like about Paris is all the long lines to see the atractions. We wanted to go to the top of the Efile Tower. When we got there about 300 people were in line. So we dicided not to go to the top. Two other long lines we had to wait in were the Louve and the Musee De Orse.

Eventhough I didn't like Paris much here are some pictures of the places we visited in the city for you to enjoy.

  

Here is the Notre Dame and its stained glass windows.

One of the famous rose window. They were a lot more beautiful in person.

Inside the cathredral

This carving above the middle door shows an angel, a demon and Christ above all. The line of people on the left are waiting to go to heaven. The line of people on the right are going to hell. In the middle the angle an the demon are using a scale to judge the peoples lives.

Here you can see the famous flying buttresses on the back of the cathedreal.
They also were more beautiful in person.

Cameron and I found this fun ride in the park behind Notre Dame. We had a blast.

 

Here we are at the entrance of the
Louvre with the glass pyramid in the background.

 I loved these crowns, they also had a crown for a young child.

Here are some of the armory items from the Greek empire.

Taylor was happy to see these coins from the middle ages. I thought they were cool too. We couldn't find out where they were from or the age because the description was in French.

You may be wondering why there is an obelisk in Paris? It was a gift from the Egyptian President.

We climbed the staris up the Arc De Triomphe.

This photo of the Eiffel Tower taken from the Arc De Triomphe.

On our second to last day in Paris we went to Disneyland. We had a lot of fun. I was so excited to be there.

The Bayeux Tapestry

Normandy is famous for its history, especially World War II. Most people only know Normandy for WWII. When we were there, we discovered something that was almost 950 years older than WWII. The Bayeux Tapestry. The tapestry is 70+ meter long or 87 yards, (that's almost as long as a football field),and tells the story of William the Conqueror ascension to the throne of England in 1066.


The story begins with Old King Edward of England living his last days with no heir, so he sends Harold Earl of Wessex to find William the Duke of Normandy. William at the time was at war with the Kingdom of Brittany and away from his Capitol, Bayeux. So, Harold set off into the English Channel to find William. When he was mid-way through his journey he encountered a storm. The next day he landed not in Normandy, but in Brittany. The locals took him captive, and brought him to their capitol. When William captured their capitol he found Harold. Harold told William that he was the Earl of Wessex, sent by King Edward to find him.

On their way back to Bayeux they encountered and defeated enemies. Harold showed a great amount of valor thus William knighted him on the battlefield. When the company got back to Bayeux William immediately summoned his half brother, the Bishop Odo to prepare the Cathedral Notre Dame de Bayeux for Harold's official knighting ceremony. Harold then swore his allegiance to William and that William would become king of England after Edward.

When Harold returned to England he found that King Edward had died while he was gone. The people had no idea that Harold had made an allegiance to William and they pressured Harold to become king. Harold accepted and thus broke his allegiance to William. When William heard of this he then ordered all of his men to invade England. At the time of this England was already fighting the Vikings in the north. When William came and landed in the south Harold diverted all of his men to fight William and his men. When William was ready he attacked Harold's 7,000 ill-equipped men with his 7,000 archers swordsmen and knights. William devastated Harold's army and Harold was shot in the eye by an archer. William then slowly started to conquer all of England. In 1066 William the Bastard (this was is name for real) became known as William the Conquer.

I have always heard of the Famous tapestries that the Normans made. But I never knew that there was a huge one that defined Norman history. I really enjoyed going to Bayeux and seeing this made it even better. The reason why there is no pictures of the actual tapestry is because it was prohibited. Instead here are photos of the cathedral where the tapestry used to be displayed.

Bayeux cathedral Notre Dame de Bayeux in the background



Cathedreal



 

D-Day

On June 6th 1944 American Rangers landed at Point Du Hoc. They came for one fierce mission and that mission was to sabatoge Axis anti-air guns to give Allied planes safe passage through the sky. The rangers were met by a heavy rain of bullets from the cliffs above. Even though there was heavy fire it only took the troops 30 minutes to scale and reach the top of the cliffs.



The cliffs

 Once they reached the top they found only empty bunkers with telephone poles sticking out of them acting as a decoy. The rangers took a closer look into the shrubs and saw several camouflaged anti-air guns. Quickly rangers paired up into groups of two. One man would sabotaged an anti-air gun while the other man would provide cover. After sabotaging the anti-air guns the total dead in both events was only 90 out of 225 rangers survived. From there on things got worse, Germany started to send reinforcements to fend off the rangers. On the other hand the rangers were expecting 250 replacement soldiers.

 The replacement soldiers coming by sea drifted miles away from their appointed land destination. Because of this incident the rangers were pined down and finally the replacements came to relive the rangers. From there on the troops conquered German troops by liberating small French towns until they reached Paris.When my family and I went to "Point Du Hoc" we were amazed at the site of the old smashed bunkers and colossal bomb craters. I felt like I was in "Call of Duty 2" my self. It was very cool to go inside the bunkers and see the small holes for guns to shoot out of and the large metal doors. We got to look down the face of the cliffs that the rangers had scaled years ago.

I thought it was cool to look down the same cliffs that the Americans had climbed.

Our Trans-Atlantic Cruise

For two weeks we sailed on a trans-Atlantic cruise with Royal Caribbean. We started in Panama and sailed to Curacao, Barbados, the Canary Islands and finally finished in Palma De Mallorca, Spain. Over the two weeks we did a lot of neat activities, art class, dancing, rock climbing.  I really liked this cruise because there were not alot of people so you could do more activities. The crew was really friendly and would always help us if we needed anything or just say hello in passing. And, the ship was in great condition and looked brand new, because it was refurbished a few years ago.

Our ship, The Grandeur of the Seas

We met professional dancers, lawyers, world trippers (like us), artists and tons other people. At first it was kind of strange seeing a lot of white people speaking English after eight months of traveling the world and hardly seeing anyone that looked like us or spoke our language.

Our dance instructors, Don and Aida. They rocked!

Everyone was really great and friendly and you got to know a lot of people. The crew was fantastic. The Captain would walk around and would interact with us and other people, our waiters were really nice and would intertain us with jokes. There were also activity directors that were really cool and made the cruise fun.

Our wait staff bringing us serving us our nighly mocktails.

The ship was built 14 years ago, but it seams like it was built only five years ago. The state rooms were really nice, just the right size, and none of the rooms were under the water line. The only thing that dates it ,are the elevators signs that light up indicating the floor you are on, the pictures are taken from the 90's and look like something out of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Other than that it was in great condition.

Over our 14 days we participated in so many activities that it felt almost like a summer camp. Right after breakfast we went to art class. Mr. Sherlock made it really fun and easy to understand. I never liked painting before but he taught me a lot and made it fun. Then we would hang out at the pool deck until 2:30 when dance class started. I learned tons of ballroom dances like waltz, samba, tango, rumba, meringue, foxtrot, bolero and two more that I cant remember the names of and I found out that I was very good at it too. At 3:30, after dance class, I would go rock climbing. It was awesome! There were nine levels and I made it to level six by the end of the cruise. I also went bouldering. After climbing I went to either bingorama or a world trivia game. I took second place overall in that game.


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My art class.

Mr. Sherlock our awesome art teacher

My favorite place out of all of our port of calls was Tenerife, Canary Islands. The whole island is one gigantic volcano that is the second largest mountain in Europe after Mont Blanc!! (only because the Canary Islands are part of Spain) Tenerife has still held on to its colonial heritage in a lot of places and the some of buildings have been converted into handy-craft markets.

Overall the cruise was fantastic! I would rate it a 9/10. The reason that I didn't rate it 10/10 is because the pool was small and there were only five teenagers on board, and they did interact too much in the teen room. (other than that it was Awesome!). The dinner menu was very good and most of the theater shows were great. If I had a chance to go trans-Atlantic on the same ship again I defiantly would. Some people might think that huge ships with 2000 people on it would be fun but I think less people is better because you get to know people. In that perspective it was way more fun than the Disney Cruise and it was a highlight of our trip.

Crossing the Atlantic on Grandeur of the Seas

My mind set going into our two week trans-Atlantic cruise was more utilitarian than pleasure. The idea behind the cruise was that it was a major cost saving way to travel to Europe from South America. Airfare per person for one trans-Atlantic flight was 50% more than one person's cruise fare that included lodging, food, transportation and much more. Robert and I decided we'd be foolish not to save money in this fashion so we boarded with minimal expectations.


Leaving Colon, Panama

 The first few days alternated being at sea and at port. First we visited Curacao. There we walked, shopped, visited museums and had lunch before returning to the ship. 

Off the ship in Curaco.





Adorable brightly colored port town.

Barbados was special because I met Cecelia, a friend of my Mom's from the 60's when Mom lived there while serving in the Peace Corps. We barely missed connecting with her that day. At just the last minute I spotted her and the sign she made. She's a lovely woman with a huge heart and I'm so glad we spent the day touring Barbados with her, her daughter and two grandkids.



My Mom's house.



Short hike to this view point.

After Barbados the cruise set sail for the Canary Islands off the Western coast of Africa with seven "Days at Sea" ahead of us. The best way to enjoy a week sailing in the middle of nowhere was to get involved and so we did.

Breakfast for Cameron.

Breakfast around 9:30am, rock wall, water color class, small lunch. Yes, small lunch as to avoid the ever popular cruise gorge fest that results in an additional five or more pounds. Then on to the pool for some sun and maybe a nap before ballroom dance class and the rock wall again. Plus, a random fitness class, a swim in the pool every now and then and one facial that I miraculously found time to squeeze in. And all this was before 5:00pm.





Watercolor Class


Watercolor class begins

 



Taylor working hard



Totally engaged

Done for the day. Will finish painting tomorrow.

Pool Time

There were times the ship was rocking and rolling across the Atlantic so much that the pool became a wave pool. This was Camerons favorite time to play in the water. Soon he had us all joining in.

Rock Climbing on The Wall

We began on the first at sea day learning to climb. Adrian and Christian were fabulous teachers and by the end we were attacking routes one through four. Five didn't exist and number six we just couldn't get all the way. Taylor and I both made it up half way before hands were slipping and leggs were shaking. No matter, it was a blast and something we all want to do when we get home.

Day one - route one.

Route three for Cameron and four for Ryan

Cameron waiting his turn.

Awesome Adrian and two cool kids.

Christian (Chile), Marne (USA), Adrian (Romania)

Taylor attacking route four.

 Ballroom Class

Of course I had Robert for my partner but the boys had their pick of plenty of ladies eager to be their partner. It was usually married ladies who's hubbies didn't show. The boys were a bit timid at first but after a few lessons with the fabulous Don and Aida they were leading the ladies as they should and instructing some as well. They soon became a hot commodity. I loved seeing their desire and confidence to learn the classic dances.

This photo below is of Don and Aida with my dancing boys. Our dinner table happened to be right next to theirs. Every night after a great lesson Aida would gush compliments on Taylor and Ryan about their budding talent, the class and maturity they exhibited at their age, and how overall impressed she and Don were with our boys.

   

The boys would weave and bob between all these activities and their own like the pool olympics, ping-pong, shuffle board and club time. No matter who was doing what, when, the plan was to meet in our rooms at 5:30pm to get ready for 6:00pm dinner.

 Baking Class

Ryan and another cruiser learning to make apple strudel from the ship's chefs.

C'est magnifique!

Pool Olympics

For the whole story check out Ryan's blog post.

The race is on!

Ryan won this challenge. Who can find a pair of men's shorts the fastest?

Cameron wins this one. Bring me one ladies bra. Guess a bikini top works too. No is was not mine.
Some lady wipped it off under her tank top and handed it to Cameron. Notice how he's holding it. It was hysterical.

Shuffleboard

Adrian from the rock wall challenged us to a game or two. Robert and Cameron vs. Adrian and Taylor.

We had three formal nights for which we outfitted everyone thanks to a shopping spree in Lima and a few additional items on Curacao. Dress shoes, khaki pants, dress shirts, ties and one cocktail dress and shoes for me that I found while in Curacao amazingly enough. All three boys were honestly looking forward to formal night and therefore leading the charge in their shopping endeavors.

Panama Camameron. Who's Jack anyway?

Our family with Don and Aida.

After dinner and sometimes even before dessert was served Cameron would rush off to his Adventure Ocean Club! Robert, Taylor, Ryan and I would head to the theatre to watch the nightly entertainer(s) perform or challenge the boys to a game of sunset beanbag toss. After the show the boys would check out their Fantaseas teen club and Robert and I would find other things to until 10:00pm when the boys curfew went into affect.

Robert and Ryan's turn

Tenerife, Canary Islands

The first port after a week at sea.

Pyramids in Spain? Who knew.

Hmmm, looks a lot like South American structures.

Proof the island is volcanic. Beautiful colorful layers.

Mount Teide. Tallest mountain in Spain and second in Europe behind Mount Blanc at



 Amazing thing is that we never tired of being on the cruise ship and actually found ourselves not wanting to disembark in Palma de Mallorca. We even threw ideas around like staying on the ship for one more week on it's first Mediterranean Cruise of the season. In the end we decided to stick with our original plan. Finish our last three international weeks in Spain and France.

Palma de Mallorca

Our port of disembarcation

This is what you do when you are off the ship at 8:00am on Sunday with luggage to haul around. Besides nothing is open  yet and probably won't be because it's Sunday.

After walking aound town window shopping because most places were closed, there was not much else to do but hang out. So that is what we did in this local park. Taylor sketched, Ryan played guitar, Cameron doodled, I wrote and Robert napped. Our  overnight ferry to Barcelona didn't depart until 11:00pm so we had nothing but time.

Our ferry to Barcelona.

Due to our last minute booking the cabins were sold out so these seats were our accommodations for the night. They made airplane seats look attractive.



And thus ends our cruise across the Atlantic.