The journey begins...

After Doug, our neighbor and pet care-taker, dropped us off at LAX, we were in for quite an adventure across the Atlantic.


Isabelle taking a nap on Daddy at LAX

The plane was delayed because of a broken windshield wiper. Do they really need one at 36,000 feet? They weren’t even sure that they had the part. Lucky for us, they found one two hours later and we boarded the plane. The boarding was a bit premature because we had to wait for a special glue to dry. We sat in the plane for another 1 ½ hours. It gave us time to meet our neighbors. All of them lavished attention on Isabelle. She soaked it up. Since the plane was three ½ hours late, it was well past Isabelle’s bedtime. After the take-off, which freaked her out a bit, she passed right out. I had to wake her after we landed. Several passengers came up to us during the immigration lines and through customs to tell us how good she was on the plane. Fingers are crossed for the flight back home. We made up two hours in the air. We had an incredible tail wind, so we weren't that late landing at Heathrow.

I was fine through the flight. I slept and held a sleeping Isabelle. Doug had 5 vodkas in 20 minutes – then he was fine. Michelle couldn’t eat the airplane food so she traveled on an empty stomach. She paid for it later. We’re buying her some Dramamine-like stuff for the ride home. Arielle had a fine time, but she couldn’t sleep.


The Eurostar train station

We gathered our luggage and went to the Tube (subway) station in the airport to the International train station that took us to Paris. TheTube was a lot of fun. It was fun to just sit there and listen to all of the different accents. The Eurostar train took us to Paris in 2 ½ hours. Traveling under the English Channel hurt all of our ears. They were popping like crazy. We all fell asleep; we were so tired.


Michelle and Arielle on the Eurostar

We took a crazy taxi ride to the hotel. Paris streets don’t have lanes, so people drive everywhere. It’s insane. Paris is a maze. It took us 20 minutes to go four miles through side streets. By the time we got to the hotel, we were exhausted. I don’t remember much after riding to the hotel. It was a blur. We all passed out for 9 hours.