Florida -- the Trial Run

On Oct. 1, I was supposed to run the Wine and Dine half marathon with a couple of my girlfriends. Since my foot is still broken, that obviously didn't happen. But I'd paid for my flight and my room and I was due for a little break from my life, so I went to Florida.

I've been to Florida several times before, and I've never been a big fan. But this was Disney, so I decided if I could put up with the people (I'm also not a big fan of large groups of people), I'd do okay. And I did.

It was the Magic Kingdom's 40th anniversary, and they're gearing up to open a New Fantasyland in 2012 that includes homes for all of the Disney Princesses (minus Cinderella, who still has a damn big castle). I didn't go on too many rides, but I did get to do the Toy Story ride (which is pretty much a large screen arcade game) because I ran into one of my student's parents at the front of Disney Hollywood Studios and she gave us her fast passes because the ride was broken, and her girls were wiped out.

We ate at the Prime Time Café in Hollywood Studios. I did learn that you should make reservations for meals about a month before you go down. I'm making them now for when we're down at Disney for Thanksgiving. I haven't told X-man that's where we're going. And rather than come home empty handed I stopped at the Kennedy Space Center shop in the airport and brought him home an astronaut's suit, so it wouldn't tip him off. I mean, he's not stupid. He's seen the photos of me at Disney. I'm just not sure that when I say we're going to Florida in November that it sinks in that we're going to see Buzz and Woody, because, let's face it, in this house, Mickey Mouse -- means nothing. But I now have an attack plan for our Thanksgiving vacation, and as long as everything goes right on our direct flight down from Bloomington, we'll be okay. :-) We're planning to be at Disney on Thursday and Friday and then to go to Sea World on Saturday. We fly home early on Sunday morning.

At school, things are going swimmingly. I got to be the stand-in director on Monday while my boss was out of town. I think it would have been more enjoyable if I also wasn't in my room at the same time. Our numbers were low, so it was okay for me to run around and make sure everyone else was okay from time to time, but I didn't want to abandon my teaching partner.

This week, X-man gets to spend the night at a friend's house while MacTroll and I take the train up to Chicago to see Carrie Fisher do her stand up "Wishful Drinking" routine. I'm rather excited about it. I've been a fan of Carrie's writing since I was 16, and lord knows I was a wannabe Princess Leia since the moment Empire came out.

Speaking of Star Wars! Disney revamped the film in the Star Tours ride at Hollywood Studios. Everything outside the film, was pretty much the same. But inside they had gotten rid of that Short Circuit-like robot and replaced him with a 3D movie with Threepio and R232, with some other Star Wars characters, which was nice. My favorite part of the whole ride was the jump to lightspeed. It was so cool, I was happy that they made us do it twice. :-)

And yes, I got a shirt that says, "Good, Bad, Fuzzy" with photos of Yoda, Darth Vader and Wicket at the end of the ride. It's not funny just because. It's funny because one of my favorite Han-isms is that he's fuzzy on all good/bad things. :-)

Island Adventure Highlights

I've had people tell me I was crazy for going to the Caribbean in the summer, but I prefer it. "It's warm at home," they've told me. Yeah, but seriously... the sprinkler and the public pool look nothing like this. 

Return from the Land of the Still and Quiet

X-man and I returned home from our five-day excursion to St. John in the U.S.V.I. It's his second trip down there in a year, and we were encouraged to visit again thanks to a wedding invitation for my cousin. Destination weddings are expensive, and our family plus my parents were the only ones able to really make it down. But the three of us don't turn down beach time in crystal blue waters -- ever.

This year was actually more exciting than last because my child who cannot float at the pool by himself without first somehow filling his swim shorts with air was able to float in salt water just find. He was a buoyant baby. Want to know how I know... perhaps the cutest thing I've ever seen him do (besides when he got his eyes tested for kindergarten) was throw on fins, a mask and a snorkel, dive into water head first, kicking his way out into sea. We stayed closed to shore, but some of the beaches easily got over his head. And he totally didn't care. When he had enough, rather than standing up, he swam back to shallower waters. Except the one time we saw a puffer fish eating a dead crab underwater. He was so excited at the size of it that he stood up, grabbed on to me shouting and pulled me under. Doh. I'm a pretty okay swimmer, so I got him calmed down and back into shore without too much trouble (that's why we didn't venture more than 40 feet away from the beach or over any coral with him).

I have pictures to show you, but they're in a camera in some luggage that didn't make the drastic gate change from D49 at one end of Miami airport (still my least favorite airport) to E-5. So, we're waiting on them to come home. One of these days, I'll be rich enough to afford a ticket from ORD to STT direct without having to make transfers. But since airfare for three was $1,800 and we got to go for free with MacTroll's miles, I'm not complaining. Our whole trip was maybe $800.

The wedding was lovely. We couldn't stay too much for the party, but X-man was full of his 1,000 questions at the wedding ceremony, which my parents found very entertaining. X-man went swimming at the pool at my Aunt's resort with MacTroll while I got some exercise walking around town. Then we dried them off and got them to the reception at Rhumb Lines. (Self service rum available. I made myself a coconut raspberry martini.) But you could also make use of the open bar.

Also, turns out my kid has the sweetest blood ever. Every night he'd emerge from his room at the house we were staying in with giant welts from mosquito bites all over his body. I sprayed him with some mosquito repellent but that stuff only lasts 3 hours, and, of course, the first night I got his arms and legs but forgot his feet... and no one likes bites on their feet.

The house itself was on the south side of the island, but it was at one dead end on top of a cliff -- great for cool breezes, but a kind of a distance to drive to the beach. The road this house was on didn't connect to our normal south end beach, so you had to drive all the way around the other side of the island and come back to visit any of our usual places. But the house was free thanks to a family friend, and we were very grateful for their hospitality and that X-man got to see my dad and stepmother for a few days. He's had the honor of vacationing with all of his grandparents this summer.

Our 18-hour trip home yesterday was very taxing. My child had enough brains to wake up at 7 a.m., pee and go back to sleep. His mother did not. I was was up at 6:15 a.m. I've showered, done some laundry and opened the mail. Wait, I even ate some oatmeal. MacTroll on the other hand, never made it to Austin. His day of travel stopped short in Dallas.

Mother nature really screwed us yesterday. But today, today is going to be a wonderfully productive day.

Good News and Bad News

The good news is that I am currently walking without a limp! So excited. I spoiled my feet today with a pedicure. The Hilton Spa was $70! That was insane, so I found a little place in the office building next store that charged $27. Since I'm in a major metropolitan area, I decided that was quite acceptable.

My feet are now soft as all get out (she did an awesome job on my heels and the callouses on my toes from running) and the massage was lovely.

The bad news is that I forgot the cord to my camera, so I can't upload photos and give you the review of the Ontario Science Center. It'll have to wait until we get home. But I can also give you a review of the Maple Syrup Festival that X-man and I are going to today.

And bad news for me, my kid would rather go to BK for lunch to play in their giant play place than paint with me at the paint lounge tomorrow. I guess that make getting artwork home not an issue (I was going to mail it.)

He's never been to a BK. But I don't think he'll care as long as he can climb.

It'll Do

We landed in Toronto at 2 p.m. today. X-man was pretty wiped on the way to the car, so when we got to the hotel in Markham (a suburb outside the city and where the Apple offices are), we had an hour of quiet time watching Canadian PBS. X-man was enthralled. Totally different, and yet, the same.

Afterwards, we took a swim in the hotel pool, which is strangely attached to a gym that operates out of the hotel. There were some tiny, tiny lap lanes set up in the pool, and it was filled with non-English speakers doing the slowest laps of breaststroke you ever did see for about 3-5 minutes at a time and then they'd get up and go into the hot tub for 10 minutes... Very curious. Maybe that's what's wrong with my workouts. But they were so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop when we walked into the pool area. And then boom, out comes my child, "CANNONBALL!" and into the non-lap swimming area he goes.

Yeah, he knows how to liven up the place. A few minutes later a Dad comes in with his two small children. A boy about X-man's age and a 2 year old in a swim diaper. I was the only one in the hot tub, so the dad brings them in with me for about 10 minutes. Then I climb out and he takes the toddler out and the five year old jumps into the pool, comes up near the wall and hand walks his way down the wall by X-man.

"Hi! What's your name?" X-man asks.

The boy just keeps on going.

"Hey! How old are you?"

No response.

MacTroll explains that the boy doesn't speak English.

"WHAT IS YOUR NUMBER?"

(So from birth, Americans innately think that to speak louder at people who don't speak their language will somehow help them understand.)

Then the boy climbed out and returned to his father.

:-) Markham is not a pretty place. It reminds me of Kankakee or the west side of Rockford. Sure there's stuff around here like a movie theater and a roots, but it's wide apart, and you get the feeling that although there are sidewalks -- no one has ever used them.

After swimming, we came upstairs and played Fireman Sam, i.e. we unplug the hotel phone and X-man gets fake 911 calls from MacTroll and I about emergencies in the area. Apparently, Fireman Sam was only into fires today, because when I called with an injury -- he said, "We don't do that and hung up." Great, 9-1-1 customer service, X-man.

We ate dinner at a stir fry place up the road that was decorated like a cave. It's called Fire and Ice. I got my heap of vegetables on and MacTroll got his beef and noodles going. X-man didn't eat much. He was way too tired. He could hardly sit up right. Of course, on the way there we passed a BK with a GIANT play place in it. X-man is demanding that we go back.

So between a hotel pool, the paintlounge, and the BK, Markham is apparently not a destination of choice for me, but X-man thinks it's just dandy. :-)

On my own turf

We're in our car hurling down I-90 at 65 mph to Rockford, keeping our eye on the cloud of pink ice moving toward us according to the iPhone. Tonight we sleep at my Dad's. Tomorrow we'll be in our own beds. :-)

WTF Paris -- Loosey Edition

1. Remind me the next time I'm in Paris to hang out on Rue Malakoff. They clearly know how to party. (Yes, the green container is recycling for the neighborhood.) 

2. Yes. This is sugar to put in my coffee...called Daddy.

3. I know I mentioned it before... but these are churros next to the ferris wheel. In a land of amazing pastry, why must you have this kind of crap?

4. At 35, my boobs don't stand up (not that they ever did). I guess it's a good thing I can get a silk screened t-shirt that will make me look like I'm 20. :-)

5. I'm sure all French people are rushing to Abercrombie and Fitch for a University of Wisconsin Badgers shirt, so they can run out and play American football -- in the spring...

6. I've seen people flock to the movie theater for Harry Potter, but the movie posters don't show anything uber exciting. So why were the four movie theaters we passed at 2:30-3:30 p.m. on a Thursday this packed?

7. This ad for a Wesley Snipes DVD was on EVERY street corner news stand. Why? Is Wesley big in Paris the way Germans love the Hoff?

8. Elvis is everywhere on the right bank near the Louvre. Yes, it's where there are a lot of American Hotels, so I get that they have an American diner with him, the Blues Brothers, etc. across the way from Hard Rock Café, but this is a store, down a side alley 1/2 mile away that sells only Elvis memorabilia. 

9. I love when the French rename American films. They're so much better at it than when we rename French films. I went to see this movie in the states where it's called, "No Strings Attached," but I like that the French cut through the bullshit and just called a spade a spade. :-)

 

9. These two go together, because, well, I live in the middle of farm land. And I have to say, apparently, we're doing it wrong. Gentleman Farmers of Illinois, you're supposed to dress like late 1980s early 1990s pseudo preppy college students. You know, that era just after the up collar polo but before the grunge plaid?

10. Why are public toilets in France always closed when I need to use them? And since I'm a tourist, why is it always at all the major tourist attractions, where at least 50 people need to pee every hour?

The Walk Around

We've been heading up and down the River Seine every day this week. Day one, since we just got here, we managed only 3 miles. Day 2 was 7 miles. Day 3 was 7 miles and 3 hours at the Louvre. Day 4 was 10.5 miles and standing around in line to see the Eiffel Tour at night. I had mittens on, but I was still so cold when the sun went down that my thumbs went numb. Day 5 was 5.25 miles back and forth to Napoleon's Tomb.

We managed to get back to the hotel to collapse and then head down the street to a pretty decent Sushi dinner a block from the hotel. We've kind of covered all the places that we wanted to go together. Today, we went somewhere I'm not wild about. MacTroll is a giant history buff. I adore history, but I don't really get excited about military history museums. He does. So today, we went off to Musée de l'Armée to see a history of military weapons, armor, canons, uniforms, etc., and Napoleon's Tomb.

Here's the thing about Paris, in my point of view, the whole city is surrounded by death. Everything is a historical marker from hundreds of years ago, lists of names of those that have died working for the greatness of France. I get it. Tradition. Recognition. But you mix this death and war obsession with the overall glumness of the people, and it gets downright depressing. If I were 18, I would love it. I could be all moody and wear black all the time. Seriously, it's no wonder these people had so many revolutions. You can tell in the other blog entry that I wore bright pink leggings to counteract the overall "urban black" that is everywhere. But after 5 days, I'm dying for something a bit more light hearted. So, tomorrow, I'm taking MacTroll on a train ride. Cause, why not get out of the city proper? Plus, I endured three hours of war museum today without complaint. I even engaged and asked questions about the history so, MacTroll could school me with his new found knowledge. Tomorrow is a bit of Loosey-style fun.

Tonight, I got a sample of lightheartedness when we took a cab to dinner (our first cab ride here) and he ran us through the Arc de Triomph circle. I giggled and held onto the handle looking out as little cars and motorcycles slipped through and around us within a foot of our taxi. MacTroll looked concerned. I thought it was awesome. I think, if I was here longer, I'd just hire someone to drive me in and out the stupid circle a half dozen times to take the edge off.

Our fancy dinner out, where I wore my long, silk, Calvin Klein dress (Thank you, Karen's Kloset) and 5" heels was less than 2km away, but in those shoes I wasn't up for walking it. We ate at a trendy restaurant called Pershing Hall. The reviews on google were either that people loved it or hated it. The atmosphere was a bit of an ultra lounge, but the other diners were well over the age of 45. And you'd have to be to afford it. We ate sparingly. We shared an appetizer and then we each got our main dish. And my scallop risotto was good, but it wasn't 42 Euros good. Ya know? Nor does a beer of any kind really improve to the 13 Euro level just because the restaurant has a very romantic and relaxing atmosphere, so while MacTroll had Heineken, I had water.

But damn, I looked pretty. :-)

We also ran into three groups of English speakers this week. The approached my husband when I ran back up to the room for sunglasses. "The Irene and Ed Show" (that's how they introduced themselves). They were from Toronto and were spending a lot of time on little bus trips out of Paris. The we ran into a family from New Jersey in line at the Eiffel Tower. They didn't bother to introduce themselves. :-) Then there were a slew of high school girls hoping to get to make out at the top of the tower. Sigh.

The best food of the day goes to the raspberry doughnut (or beignet de framboises) I had today. Seriously, you think how different can it really be? But the cake part of the doughnut was so soft and squishy that I literally started to suck on it to make it last longer. And the raspberry wasn't just Smuckers squirted into the center. It was a handmade filling, not a jelly or a jam. I loved it.

Notre Dame and The Eiffel Tour

We did a lot of window shopping yesterday all the way down the left side of the river. I'm cueing up a WTF Paris Blog for tomorrow that is pretty much all photos. But since Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tour are two of the biggest tourist items, I thought they could stand alone.

Notre Dame is on an island across the Seine River from the Louvre. And with all things this old and ancient I am as frightened by it as I am impressed. To go into the church is free of charge. But there are a lengthy set of rules you have to follow. The church houses a perpetual silent prayer. But they still have sermons of some kind in there because for a building that was built over a 200-year period, finishing in 1345, it had been crazily updated with large flat panel screens in areas where viewing the pulpit would be difficult. You can pay 10 Euros each to wait in line to take an elevator up to the top of the building for a view of the city and the river. We skipped that, since we were going to the Eiffel Tour later.

You can also pay a few Euros to get an audio tour of the building in various languages, too. Why does a church frighten me? You have to look at this sucker up close to really understand. Two hundred years of commitment, vision and hard work to sculpt (there is no other word) a building in commitment to God (with the big G) is awe inspiring. Really, this wasn't one man's vision. This was a collective community's devotion. But at the same time, it's totally not some place a carpenter would think God heard more of you than anywhere else in the universe, ya know? There's nothing modest about Notre Dame. There is only money, and the long list of atrocities through history that have been committed in the name of God that begins to flood through my head when I go into places like this. That and since it's Catholic, being told upon entry what all the rules are was kind of funny. They're on the door in big bold letters in many languages with pictorials. No hats, no flash photography, no food, etc. My favorite: Beware of Pickpockets.

Ahhh, Paris and pick pockets. It's definitely still an issue, because there were signs at the Eiffel Tower everywhere, too.

We arrived at the Eiffel Tower around 6 p.m. and by the time we got to the summit (13 Euros each), it was dark. The spot lights at the top of the tower had come on, and we got to see the vast view that is the city. From the Empire State Building in New York, you see a multitude of other buildings with height -- just height that's not as big as the one you're standing on. In Paris, you see all the old. You see how a height restriction makes the city sprawl out instead of up. And in that sense, it's a lot like Washington, D.C. (Thanks to L'Enfant.)

The first floor of the Eiffel Tour has an ice skating rink in the winter... and a restaurant. It's that big. The second floor has a little snack shop, some souvenir stands and two levels.  MacTroll is standing at the second level in the photo above. The summit is much smaller and has one guy, standing in a closet which has the neon words, "Champagne Bar" over it. Yes, for a few Euros you can buy a plastic cup of champagne and toast yourselves at the top.

I took this photo of the regular lights on the walk back to our hotel. This area was flooded with immigrants trying to sell everything Eiffel Tour from statues to key chains.

But once an hour for 10 minutes, they light up the tower in giant sparkly lights. We caught the tail end of it when we got back down to the ground. Sorry that it took me a minute to realize I wasn't taking a photo and had to turn the camera.

Eating in Paris

Usually when we vacation, I try to rent some kind of apartment so I can control food. But due to the awesome "free" that is our hotel, we're eating out, every day. Although, it's only been twice a day, because let's face it.. we woke up at noon today. Nice, right? I definitely haven't done that without being drugged post surgery or down with 104 degree fever since pre-X.

Anyway, we've eaten lunch at a couple of cafés this week. Day 1 was Le Terminus near Notre Dame on our walk back toward the Eiffel Tower. We had nixed a café on the corner, when I turned my head and saw this one. It was going to be our first sit down experience, and I was dying for someone friendly. The café itself is quite simple and cozy. So, we went in, asked to be seated in the back and ordered drinks, sandwiches and a side of fries to share.

One thing to consider: the exchange rate right now is $1 US to $.73 Euro. That means, one Euro is worth almost 30 cents more than a U.S. dollar. A single can of "coca light" (yes, this is for you Quigs) is somewhere between 4.5-7 Euros. So, yes, you're paying over $5 for a can of coke. Coffee is only 3.5 Euros, which I've switched to for now (because water sometimes is poured for free from a carafe and sometimes comes in a $12 Evian bottle, depending on where you eat). I'm also figuring this is the reason, I'm having so much trouble sleeping, since I'm not a coffee drinker by nature I'm high on caffeine.

In addition, I'd always heard that the reason French people are so thin is because their meals may contain a lot of butter but they're so small in comparison to American meals. Um -- no. My sandwich was as big as a 12" at Subway, on a real baguette. MacTroll was, of course, very happy. The plate of fries, easily two large servings from McDonald's. Sure, they were cut fresh from potatoes, but really, fried is fried. This is just a little less processed. Plus -- doggie bags, not really a thing here. The Lonely Planet Guidebook says so, so I'm going with it.

A 15% tip is automatically included in your check, so it's not really a reward for good service...

Last night for dinner, we at Le Galvacher. It got some good reviews on Google, was close to our hotel and had a giant cow on the sign for my beef-eating husband. We ordered off the prix-fixe menu. That is you order an entree (appetizer), a plat (main course) and a dessert or a cheese plate for a set price. Ours were $25 Euros each. Then we got a bottle of wine for $32 Euros and coffee afterwards. I ordered a vegetable entree with balsamic vinegar to start and then the salmon for dinner. My dessert was a small scoop of pear ice cream with a bit of brandy on top. MacTroll had french onion soup followed by beef hash with potatoes on top (basically meat loaf) and the creme brulée for dessert. It was a lovely dinner and we walked home happy in the rain.

Today for lunch we decided to eat closer to the Louvre. We went inside the Carrousel (which is a mall outside of the museum) to see what they had. At 2:30 p.m., we entered a very crowded food court. "Uh, this isn't why I came to Paris," I told MacTroll. So we strolled outside and hit Café Marly, an eatery next to the glass pyramids. In warmer weather you could sit outside and people watch, but in this cold weather we sat inside on some comfy pink couches. I had a tomato and basil penne. MacTroll had a chicken caesar salad. And we congratulated ourselves on the fact that while our French is terrible, it was a lot better than the poor Australians seated next to us, who were, for some reason, obsessed with NOT getting snails for lunch.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in a patisserie (bakery) for some snacks. I got a petite éclair and a biscuit (cookie). MacTroll got the black forest cake (admittedly I stole three whole candy cherries from his cake, because you know I have things for cherries).

The one theme that we seem to notice in Paris is that regardless of the type of eatery we sit down in, we always have to ask for the check. It isn't just a given that you want it delivered to you when your plates are clean. You always have to ask. And if you don't, you could be sitting there for hours. At the patisserie, we were seated by one of the guys behind the baked goods counter, this apparently angered the server (it also had a café element in the back of the restaurant), so she ignored us. I'm sure it didn't help that we were American either, since all the French-speaking tables got their service timely and with a smile (and even freaking hugs at one point).

Tonight for dinner, we did the prix-fixe meal at Le Verre Bouteille. They get high marks for being very friendly and welcoming, but the food was mediocre. I ordered the tomato salad and slow-cooked lamb on kidney beans. MacTroll got a walnut-encrusted goat cheese salad followed by a giant piece of beef and a potato layer casserole. Everything seemed overcooked, limp, without taste and just - meh. The wine made things go down easier though, as did the chocolate mousse that followed. :-)

It's late here. I had been hoping to make it up for breakfast at least once, but I don't think that'll happen now. Our room doesn't have any kind of way to make hot water, so I can't make my oatmeal. Instead of having coffee machines in the hotel rooms like in the states, they have a coffee vending machine down the hall by the elevators, and hot water isn't an option, even in the tea setting.

Below is MacTroll crunching on the last of his sandwich on baguette at Paul, Paris' version of Fast Food, since there aren't many places you can carry out (or take away) here.

Paris -- Day 1? Day 2? What day is this?

In true Loosey-travel style, there were some hoops to jump through in order to actually getting our butts "across the pond."

The first issue was that there was a winter storm warning on Sunday when we left Rockford. My mom had e-mailed to say maybe we should spend the night in Milwaukee because of the impending ice that was supposed to come our way. Except dropping off X-man in a semi-strange place after we told him we'd be with him the first night, wasn't going to work. Instead, we decided we'd just leave earlier for our flight the next day.

So, we rolled out of the driveway at 8:15 a.m. and drove to Milwaukee. Why did we fly from Milwaukee and not O'Hare? Tickets from Milwaukee were $854 each. Tickets from O'Hare (on the exact same flight crossing the Atlantic) were $2k each. You do that math. Even with the $1,200 in vouchers we had with American Airlines, it was still a deal to drive an extra hour to Milwaukee.

Except when we showed up in Milwaukee, all the United flights to Chicago were already canceled. All the morning flights from American were canceled. Our 12:40 p.m. flight was still up on the board, but when we checked in the agent warned us that it was "highly likely not to go -- or at least to be very late."

They gave us a bus voucher to go to Chicago. But, MacTroll thought it would be nice to, perhaps, see if because of the circumstances they'd just let us drive down and fly back and end our trip in Chicago (saving us four hours, but still giving us the tickets for the lesser price). He called the Executive Platinum Desk and voila -- done. It was only 10 a.m., so we had basically 7 hours to drive to Chicago before our Paris flight left. Snow was coming down in flakes the size of our fists, but it was wet and warm, so we figured, no problem. We did see a couple cars that had crashed due to slippery conditions, but both were heading north on 94. We were fine heading south. Not sure why.

We arrived at O'Hare at 11:45 a.m., parked in Economy E at $17/day and checked our bags inside before making our way to the new sushi place between the American and United Airlines terminals called "Wicker Park." It was good, but as all things in the airport are, pricey. I had the Hawaiian roll (mango, tuna, salmon) and MacTroll had some spicy tuna and some maguro. The miso soup was good, and we're both big fans of edamame.

After lunch we headed to the American Airlines International Flagship Lounge. It's at the end of the K gates, and there is an unimpressive glass door with the eagle logo on it. MacTroll was very excited. He hadn't been in since he went to Tokyo, six years ago. We walk in, the ladies at the desk basically kiss his ring, and then we head into the lounge area. It's all old 1990's leather chairs. "What's the big deal?" I think.

Then I come upon the "free" buffet. In order to get into the Flagship Lounge, you have to be flying first class or be Executive Platinum on an international itinerary. All the free fresh fruit and vegetables I could eat. There was also soup, sandwiches, chips, coffee, espresso, and an open bar that you served yourself with tons of different wines and liquor and beer. "Oh!" I exclaimed, thinking, Why did we just pay for lunch somewhere? Sonia, one of the employees, looked at my face light up at the pineapple and strawberries, and was nice enough to make me a cup of it to take on the plane when we left. (My guess is she doesn't get too many people who aren't used to the lounge, so she spoiled me.)

But between my surprise when we walked in and 4 hours later when we walked out to catch our plane (which was 30 minutes late loading), I was exhausted. I don't normally sit around on my ass. I'd read an entire book. I'd found another book I brought along unreadable and now felt stupid for having it in my backpack to lug across an ocean.

When we arrived at the gate, there was some kind of glitch in the system because the flight wasn't listed on the screen behind the desk and the screen in the hallway said that our flight had left an hour before we were supposed to board. Nice. Gotta love technology. It was still running on time, and the gate agent looked as confused as the passengers to all the weirdness.

Because of MacTroll's status with American, he cashed in his upgrades. He gets six or so each year, and usually lavishes them on my parents when they travel. Every once in a while a friend goes somewhere like Hawaii or South America, and MacTroll will put his name into their code and apply for an upgrade. It's not guaranteed (it depends on availability), but often times just having his account touch someone's trip will mean they don't have to pay for baggage check in. Go figure. So, MacTroll had applied for upgrades for us on the trip. According to aa.com, we'd gotten them and had seats, but when we changed our itinerary in Milwaukee, it had revoked my upgrade, so I had an invalid seat on check in. It wasn't a problem to fix because the plane was only 1/3 full. But it was just another thing to fix. It was also my first chance to sit up in business class on an international flight.

I'd never been on a 767 before. MacTroll and I sat down in these giant seats with controls that can adjust your seat to lean back like a La-z-boy or to lay "almost" flat to sleep in. The plan was: board, eat dinner, go to sleep. Except we sat in line waiting to take off at Chicago for 2 hours. Nice. No electronic items were allowed to be used during that time frame, so I started book 2.

Then when we got up in the air, I was not anticipating a four-course freaking meal. So, I watched an hour and fifteen minutes of a movie while dinner was served. After the movie, I changed into a pair of sweats, turned on my iPhone to some music, lowered my chair into the bed position and tried to sleep. Yeah, not so easy. I took a tylenol PM. Still not so easy. It was only 8 p.m. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to fall asleep, and then I slept for 4 hours, waking up at least once an hour to adjust my position or my seat. My back and my hips were very unhappy. Probably would have been easier just to lay flat on a floor with a sleeping bag and a yoga mat under me. But I was trying to avoid the Jet Lag of Sweden 2004, where I slept for 3 days straight before I finally figured out how to be awake when it was light and sleep when it was dark.

I woke up to breakfast being served. I didn't want to. I figured I had another hour to sleep. But it was noisy, and some people had opened their windows. So, I woke up and had some fruit and yogurt. The fog was extra thick when we landed at Charles De Gaulle. There was nothing to see, and then there was concrete. The other problem -- my feet had swelled to a point where I was lucky I was wearing my ballet slipper Keens, because I wouldn't have been able to put any other shoe on my foot. Plus, they give you bottled water before you try to sleep. I thought that was weird because it was just one more thing to have around. And then I realized it's because when you wake up every hour, your mouth and lips are completely parched on a plane. Ugh.

We got off the plane and entered a "special fast pass" lane for immigration for people in business class. But immigration was very quick for everyone. No questions. Just a very, very grumpy French girl stamping passports. It took 20 minutes to wait for the baggage, so by then, what was the point of getting through immigration faster? We got our bags and left the area-- no customs forms, but also, no welcome of any kind.

We walked down to the information desk, found out where the Air France Bus was that would take us to our hotel and got some Euros from an ATM. Then we waited 45 minutes for the bus, which took another hour to fill up at other locations around the airport. It's not a nice airport. It's very old and dirty. Maybe from the sky it makes sense, but from below it's a total pain in the ass to get around.

The bus was $24 Euros round-trip, which isn't a bad deal. Particularly when the sucker drops you off across the street from your hotel. What struck both MacTroll and I though was the number of poverty-stricken high rises between the airport and downtown. It was all very Cabrini-Green-esque.

We're staying at Le Meridien Etoile. They had a big check-in counter for the "Starwood Hotel Club Members." Since MacTroll was using points for us to stay free for six days, we strolled up and were met with a giant fanfare. They gave us a fruit basket, shook our hands, told us where we could use the gym (they have a deal with the Club med gym across the street) and ran over the other amenities, like free internet, etc. Then the general manager came out to welcome us. (Yes, this is a bit strange to us, too. I mean, MacTroll needs me to remind him to zip his pants before we go out, and I keep calling him X-man or Riley.) Anyway, afterwards, we go up to our room and then I start to notice how tired I am.

We both shower, because we're feeling gross from the travel. Then we get into new clothes and decide to walk down to the Arc de Triomph. It's about a mile from our hotel through what MacTroll likes to refer to as the "Scooter district." Every other shop is a scooter store. Seriously.

A cold wind kicked up and it started to drizzle, so we walked back to the hotel. Our hotel is across the street from a little mall that has a gourmet grocery in the basement, which is very handy. We headed over there and picked up some fruit and veggies to nibble on and then got an early dinner of MacTroll's favorite meal -- sandwich on baguette. That's when we started comparing notes on the travel experience so far. And outside of sleeping for 14 hours last night, that's what we've been doing on our trip. People watching.

It's funny how American Cinema has either made the French the devils (in war movies) or made them some kind of shining example of all that is romantic. I halfway expected to see what I see in the summer in Montreal everywhere in Paris. Pretty girls, short skirts, sky high heels. but no. It's still too "winter" around here for that. In fact, there seems to be a line. Most young French people tend to fall in that very pretty, feminine category. And then the segment of 30-40 seems to disappear from the city. My guess is because that group might be somewhere mothering in the burbs. And then there's a high rate of women in their fifties and older. In fact, all the panhandlers, minus the one guy from Yugoslavia who tried to "make" me today and a little girl who tried to approach MacTroll for money on our 7-mile walk, were all elderly women holding cat food cans.

Indeed, I don't know if it's the cold of the 40-degree winter, or just big city living, but most of the folks around here walk around with really somber looks on their faces. No one laughs or smiles. The crosswalks have the little guy in green to walk and a little guy in red to stop. The epitome of the French people we've seen so far is the little red crosswalk guy with his hands on his hips looking pissed off and impatient while he has to wait to cross the road.

Julia Childs talks a lot about her search for the warm and welcoming French people among the more traditional and stern folks in her book, My Life in France. Not mean, just -- stuffy.

The one girl panhandler who approached MacTroll asked if he spoke English, before she tried to pass him the little card asking for money for her immigrant family. He walked away asking me, "Do I really not look like I live here?"

I laughed. I didn't mean to be cruel. But it was very funny, and his cluelessness was entirely endearing to me. So I started a list of behaviors/characteristics MacTroll has that anyone can see he's not French.

1) You're blonde. And not a fake blonde. It's you and small children here with naturally blonde hair. Oh, and the one other guy who was clearly speaking German. (MacTroll has decided to answer all English questions now with "Nein.")
2) Your shoulders are twice as wide as everyone else's.
3) You're smiling and laughing too much.
4) You're looking around too much.
5) Your jeans are too blue.
6) You have a map in your hands half the time.
7) You read the names of buildings and then say things like, "Oh look, it's the Assemblée Nationale, that's where the National Assembly must meet."
8) You bitch about carrying around coins.
9) You give the thumbs up, like the Fonz, to symbolize that everything is good to wait staff.
10) You don't chain smoke cigarettes.

This is a list I'm sure we'll add to over the next several days, but I find it adorable.

On the other hand, there are some WTF moments.

Like, WTF is behind the idea that if you have a large open space in Europe, you need to put up a ferris wheel or a merry-go-round? Our favorite though, WTF is behind the churro portable snack booth behind the ferris wheel at the Champs-Elysee? (You know they didn't get that idea from Mexico. That's stupid American influence. WTF goes to Paris for churros?)

Or WTF is up with dumping your small car in the middle of the street?

Right now, MacTroll sighs every time we walk by someone carrying two baguettes home or if there's a woman with a short skirt and a little poodle. I guess in his mind, that's what everyone does here. And there does seem to be massive bread consumption (celiacs beware!), but mostly, they just smoke, and litter their butts, a lot.

Yes, this is the world's longest blog post. Tomorrow is Wednesday, meaning another 7 mile walk, now that we know where everything his. Hopefully we'll get into the Louve, the Carrousel (where the Apple store is at the Louvre) and Notre Dame.

I'll also try to do some more photos.

Interesting Vacations

It's the end of summer 2010. And I'm sad about it, so I'm already researching vacations for 2011. On the list of possibilities:

•My First Triathlon/My Next Triathlon family vacation at Lake Lanier Islands in Georgia in June.
•A 4-day culinary vacation to Paris for MacTroll and I.
•A Disney Cruise of some kind in the Caribbean.

Been on any of these kinds of trips? Have any suggestions?

I'm also viewing trips to the Grand Canyon and Portland, Ore., for when X-man is older. But those are ones I'd have to plan out myself... :-) These I just show up and people give me a loose schedule (like when to show up for my bread and chocolate tour of Paris) and the rest is free time...

Tomorrow, we're leaving for Kingsley Pines in Raymond, ME for a week. We'll be flying to Boston and then driving. (Yes, we are aware if we want to take alcohol for the parental happy hours we should stop in NH, so we don't have to pay sales tax. :-) It's a 2-2.5-hour drive to Maine.

On the way back, we're spending Friday night in Boston and then coming home on Saturday for the rest of Labor Day weekend. See you when we return!

By the seat of our pants

We just got back from a family vacation, where nothing really went as it was supposed to. I was supposed to be going up to compete in a Try-a-Tri, but that didn't happen due to my back situation. As it was, I was really glad I didn't try to push it because by just walking around on vacation and making it to the gym ONCE to do my back exercises, I had some rough spots...

Mostly, I had it bad the first day, the day after PT driving to Detroit to pick up MacTroll. By the end of six hours, my back was on fire. I ended up in the backseat for the rest of the drive. Then when we got to Toronto, I had a mental list in my head of all the things I wanted to do that I thought the boys would find fun. But I had over planned in all of my excitement. No worries.

We spent all day Friday on Centre Island on Toronto Island Park at an amusement park. Then we rented a Surrey bike and biked the other parts of the island (stopping to let X-man play at a park). We came back, got the boys some ice cream, returned to Centreville kiddie park and ate ice cream while X-man waded into the kiddie wading pool. When we got home, X-man was pooped. MacTroll ran across the street to a store and brought them back some food to make sandwiches for dinner. Then we played in the hotel pool (which had a toddler area with toddler toys next to it that X-man fell in love with -- why, I don't know, but he did).

On Saturday, we had to get up early to go back to the island. We were watching our friend Dri do the triathlon, and she did amazing. She placed in her age group and had a massive improvement over when she did the same race last year. She also inspired two other friends to do it with her. X-man watched Dri mount her bike and then he wanted to hit the beach. So, MacTroll took him to the beach to play. I went back and forth between the two trying to be as supportive as possible.

By the time we were ready to go, my back needed a break. We got on the boat and I got to sit a bit. Then when we got back to the room, we cleaned up and took off for Pickle Barrel for lunch. After lunch, we went to the Toronto Zoo, which is an insanely large zoo. I hadn't had enough to eat or drink, apparently, and felt like I was going to pass out by the horses, so we found me a veggie hamburger to eat in Africa and waited for my blood sugar to perk up before moving on.

After the zoo, X-man was done. He just wanted to go back to the room at the Westin and chill out, so we did. Then MacTroll went out for dinner with Dri and Ian of the North while X-man and I went to play in the toddler play area again (he's big into serving food lately, so we were in the kitchen for 40 minutes or so). Afterwards, we got a special snack and tried to watch Marmaduke on Pay Per View. But the TV crapped out. I called down to the front desk, but there were all kinds of parties going on that weekend, so  no one called back. We read books and went to bed.

On Sunday, I got up and worked out in the gym. I did my back exercises, showered and then we ate a big breakfast at the hotel buffet and got in the car and started driving. It was raining off and on, and my back started cramping... so we decided against spending the night in a tent on the grounds. So we drove right by the park and continued on to Ann Arbor. MacTroll cashed in some of his hotel points for a night at a Four Points Sheraton, and we wandered out out to eat at the Jolly Pumpkin. Then X-man had some Superman ice cream at Kilwin's.

The next morning we took off for Indianapolis, where we ate lunch at the City Café, and then visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Now we're home, a day early... It was kind of an impromptu vacation, and I'm glad we were able to be flexible, not just because of my physical limitations but because we could still come up with places we wanted to be and could enjoy as a family.

On the other hand, it makes MacTroll and I long for time when we can go to cities without having to scope out restaurants that will serve X-man what he wants to eat and us what we want to eat (because often times those are two very different things).

It would also be nice to sleep past 7:15 a.m. on vacation.

We came home to the full length mirror I had bought at Ikea lying broken and shattered on the floor. I'm not sure what happened, but we hadn't had a chance to mount it on the wall, so it must have fallen over thanks to a cat... Sigh. Guess I'll have to go back to Ikea alone some time.

So, not exactly as we planned, but still full of fun together time. We have one more day, and then it's back to the grind. The big surprise is that MacTroll doesn't have to travel on Wednesday, which is nice, because other than vacation, he's been gone the entire month this month, and had anticipated being gone the rest of the month, too.

Family Adventures

Last Wednesday, my family jumped in the car and took off for the mid-Atlantic, like we've done pretty much the last two or three Memorial Day weekends. We visit MacTroll's oldest brother and his family. We love them to death and miss when we were only an hour away.

The first day of travel took us 8 hours to get to Wheeling, WV. We stole my Aunt Anne's idea from last year and wrapped some presents for him to open every couple of hours on the way out. I also set up an iPod full of family friendly songs. The big motivation though, was booking hotels with swimming pools. When we got to Wheeling it was 4 p.m. We immediately checked in and changed clothes and played in the pool for an hour. X-man also really liked that we were overlooking the Wheeling Jesuit University Track. Oh, if only there had been a way to walk from the hotel down to the facility to use it. Instead, I ended up doing a Zone 1-3 run around the Linley school and up and down the main road. (Cough, hack, cough.)

We left the next morning and drove through the mountains. We were in Pennsylvania for a few minutes then back into West Virginia, then Maryland... then West Virginia. No, we didn't get lost. The state lines are just a wee bit random up there. Finally, we pulled into our friend Rita's driveway. Rita has a slew of kids toys, so we visited for an hour and X-man got to drive the "forbidden" battery-operated jeep. Afterwards we continued on for an hour and a half to MacTroll's brother's.

Since we've been here, X-man has been in heaven playing with his cousins. They've put up with a lot of whining and fussing during his difficult periods. We've played baseball, had water fights, played Legos, investigated new Wii games, tried our hand at some new board games, camped out in the backyard, made s'mores, gone to the Port Discovery Children's Museum, went to the semi-annual sale at Nordstrom's, eaten at the Cheesecake Factory and P.F. Chang's, road a carousel, picked 22 lbs of strawberries at a local farm, given X-man his first taste of fudge, I ran my first 10k and right now, the gang is extracting gallons of honey from my SIL's bees.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast we'll be piling our stuff back into the car and driving to Columbus, Ohio. We got a room near the Easton Mall, so I can go for a long walk (i.e. window shopping) while X-man and MacTroll take a ride in MacTroll's friend's new convertible mini. There's a pool at the hotel there, too. :-)

Oh, and as for the 10k. It was hot. 85 degrees. I took along my heart rate monitor and it says I was between 175 and 193 beats per minute the entire 1 hour and 11 minutes that I was walogging along. Yes, I was walking for portions and it was that high, and I clearly wasn't trying to break any land speed records. But I finished and then promptly replaced the almost 1,000 calories that I burned with a giant vegetarian lunch at PF Chang's... I really should have picked out that meal before we went to eat there. But I was hungry, really hungry.

Hope all of your Memorial Day Weekend adventures were as fun as ours!

I am a Poser Canadian

Okay, everyone knows I have a distinct love for Canada. If given the chance to travel just about anywhere and have free time -- I pick Canada. I don't care if it's cold or hot or if no one I know lives in a particular city. I'm not picky. And Customs and Immigration acknowledges their appreciation of my purchasing power and loyalty every time I cross over.

Once upon a time, I dreamed of living in the Eastern Townships and raising a bilingual baby. Oh, I miss those days. Then it turned into a dream to own a vacation home there and spend 6 weeks every summer in Quebec the way my grandparents spent the summers in Ontario on Lake Erie in Rondeau Provincial Park.

Then I learned from folks that I rented cottages from... and friends who actually own cottages... that they're kind of a big hassle and they sound like a great idea, but really it's just a second home to take care of, heat and fix up. Clearly, I have enough trouble doing any of that to my current home. So, I said... "Mmmm, probably better to just rent from other people."

But it looks like I might get to Canada a total of 4 times in 2010. That's right 4 times. I hope to visit Dri and Ian of the North late winter this year in Toronto. Then apparently there might be a trip for MacTroll back up to the area where X-man and I might tag along. I will return in August to dutifully try my best at a mini triathlon, and I hope to be running a 10k at Parc Fontaine on the Plateau in Montreal on Oct. 17th...

So, um, I better get out and do my run, because that's a serious number of Butter Tart trips up north!

Days 7 and 8 -- Family Vacation

On our way from Morro Bay to Anaheim, we stopped in Santa Monica for lunch. MacTroll loves staying in Santa Monica. It's kind of a weird divide between movie stars who shop two blocks from the water -- and normal people who hang out on the boardwalk and the beach. While we were there, there was a sand soccer tournament going on. But X-man wasn't interested. He wanted to play in the water. After 45 minutes we had to haul him off the beach to have lunch. He tried to make a jail break, but MacTroll caught him just outside the restaurant and sat him down for a talk. There were tears, but he returned to have some lunch before we took him on the ferris wheel on the pier and then back to the car. The whole thing took way longer than I thought -- 3 hours. We ended up getting to Anaheim an hour and a half later. 

I would HIGHLY recommend the Doubletree Suites on Harbor Blvd., about one mile from Disney for anyone who plans on going to California. They are really kid friendly without being overwhelming. They are also very clean and relatively new. The suite had a living room with a TV, desk, fold-out couch, game system, comfy chair and plenty of room for bags. The bedroom was two queen sized beds, closet and dresser, and then you could both access the bathroom through a common walkway. So, X-man could watch bad cartoons on the couch in one room, while MacTroll was on the internet, while I could close the doors, pull the shades and lie down for a bit in the bedroom. There was also a dining room with great food options where kids ate free all day (up to age 12). We particularly liked that we could walk from our hotel to Disney without any hassle. 

That night, MacTroll ran out to the store and brought back fresh fruit and some bread and cheese, and we snacked and hung out before going to the pool. We swam for an hour and then took baths/showers and all climbed into bed in preparation for Sunday -- our day at Disney.

KTDID came over to our hotel and we walked up to Disney. Prices to get into one park for one day are $69 for adults and kids 12 and up or $59 for kids 3-9. The key height, as in other amusement parks, is for your child to be at least 40" tall. X-man is 39 1/2". So, we called him 2. Since he was in a stroller, I don't think they cared. Plus, I'm pretty sure we purchased $60 worth of crap and food to make up for it. X-man didn't blink once when going on any of the rides. His favorite were the Tuck and Roll bumper cars in the Bug's Life area. The waits were also very short in the kid area -- we didn't wait any more than 5 minutes for anything. In a lot of the kid-friendly sections they did a great job of entertaining the kids while they were in line. Flik's voice was around a lot of the bug rides. The Muppet 3-D had an intro TV show made up of shorts while you waited for your movie. Monsters Inc. had a million things for kids to look at and another TV set to shorts. The same cannot be said for the rest of the park. We waited 45 minutes for Mickey's Ferris Wheel, which is too long for little kids. By the time we were done with the wait at that one ride, we headed over to a kids climbing area, so X-man could have some gross motor while KTDID and MacTroll had lunch (X-man and I ate earlier at the fruit/vegetable stand while KTDID and MacTroll went on the Tower of Terror). 

X-man was really excited about meeting Lightning McQueen, and he picked up an aviator cap with mouse ears and some aviator goggles. He looks very cute in them.

At 4:45, we lined up in the main area and found comfortable seats for the Pixar Parade at 5:15 p.m., where there were floats from EVERY Pixar movie. X-man was so very excited. He cheered and screamed. And when the parade was done, he was sad that it was time to go. We took him to the Lego Store in Downtown Disney and let him build a bit, before walking back to the hotel. We had left the hotel at 10:30 a.m. and we got back at 6:30 p.m. 

We ordered room service and played in the room building with couch cushions and playing hide and seek. Then KTDID and I got some hot tub time before she took off for home. 

Then we all fell asleep for an uneventful plane ride home. So we're here, and I'm lazy about pictures -- so if you'd like to check out all the photos from our trip take a trip over to X-man's web site. :-) 

Days 5 and 6 -- Family Vacation

Thursday and Friday were interesting days. Thursday was the first day MacTroll was going to be available to spend any time with us. He taught his WWDC session in the morning.

X-man was not in the mood to explore the city on Thursday (I was going to take him to the cable car museum). So we stayed in the room and watched a morning of PBS cartoons and then walked down to the Yerba Buena Play Place. X-man got a chance to run around for an hour before riding the merry-go-round. MacTroll met us for lunch, and then we got in the car and went to the California Academy of Sciences Museum.

X-man, of course, fell asleep on the way there. So, he ended up sleeping in the stroller the whole time we were there. Structurally, CASM is awesome. It's amazing architecture and exhibit design. It's a green museum to its core and the whole museum focuses on teaching about evolution and climate change. Financially, CASM is completely overpriced. Even though all kids under 7 are free (and they'll get a kick out of the rainforest sphere and aquarium) the adult price is $24.95, and you just don't get anything extra than you would if your family decided to go to a good aquarium or zoo. But man, the work they did on the building is amazing. From the basement aquarium all the way up to the "green roof."

X-man woke up as we were leaving 2 hours later. He was upset that he missed the museum, so we took him back to the Koret's Children's Quarter to play. He got an hour and a half there before we headed back into town.

MacTroll apparently got some sucky work news and was in a mood the whole rest of the night. So, I got ready to leave on Friday a.m. and we went to bed early.

On Friday a.m., it was like MacTroll had a fire lit in his ass. We had to be in Morro Bay by 5 p.m. so I could go to a Nia class with my friend Robin. But it was a 3-5 hour drive (depending on which highway we took). But X-man and I took a while to get ready, so we left late.

As it turned out, we took the Pacific Coast Highway for the views, but I ended up getting carsick, so MacTroll slowed down and we had to make frequent stops -- making our drive last 7 hours instead. And that wasn't just the only pain -- we stopped at 3:30 p.m. so I could use the bathroom. There was no cell connectivity, so we got a snack and sat down while MacTroll used a payphone (hooray for 1-800 number conference calls). Of course, I'm sitting at a picnic table feeling nauseated while X-man tries his first ice cream sandwich of the season. In the end he's covered in ice cream and then -- I smell the poop blow out in his diaper. So I'm feeling sick and I have to look for a place to strip down my kid because the bathroom was not really diaper changing friendly, and I've got my hands and kid full of ice cream. Something isn't going to go right -- and it doesn't. I somehow lost my cellphone.

When X-man is all clean and MacTroll is finally off the phone at 5 p.m. we get back on the road. I'm all annoyed about losing my phone, and five minutes after we're on the road and MacTroll is trying to get us to Robin's -- Mr. Policeman comes over the rise -- and MacTroll gets a speeding ticket. Apparently, California reports to all 50 states -- and had an online driver's program that MacTroll will now be taking part in.

When we get to town, I call Robin and apologize and decide to go get some dinner with the boys rather than go to the class. X-man is in a terrible mood. He's whiny and pissy and wants to play on these grocery store kid ride things, but MacTroll is starving. Our hotel was a total rip off. So if you're in Morro Bay, the reason everyone is there camping or in an RV is because hotels that should charge $65 charge $180 giving you a false sense of security.

So, MacTroll carried out dinner to a park across the street. Where X-man refused to eat anything, but finally caught his bubble (i.e. sat quietly) and let MacTroll eat in peace. Then I escorted the child back to the stupid ride-on toys that we don't put quarters in, leaving MacTroll with carrying X-man's leftovers and the diaper bag.

Robin swung by and picked me up at 8 p.m and we headed downtown for drinks and dessert. In the middle we get a call from MacTroll asking me if I took the diaper bag -- ruw roh. There was nothing in it besides the potty seat, diapers, wipes and snacks (all replaceable). But Robin and I swung through the park and the bag had moved from under our table to under a bench. It had obviously been rifled through, but nothing was missing.

It had been a long, bad day and a half. So, we took to our beds in the crappy hotel and slept hoping Saturday would be way better (which it was).

Coming up: Days 7 and 8: X-man meets the ocean and we arrive in Anaheim.

Family Vacation -- Day 4

On Wednesday, X-man and I drove to the Koret Children's Quarter in Golden Gate Park. It has the honor of being the first public playground in the United Sates. In the last couple of years it went through a major renovation (like a couple million dollars) and became a playground that mixes ordinary playgrounds with public art.

On Wednesday at 10 a.m., no one was there. X-man and I had a ball running around exploring. He tackled the toddler park, then the big kid park and then he found his all time favorite thing -- a couple of slides built into a hill that were made of eco-friendly concrete. He went up and down and up and down for over 45 minutes. When he finally got tired of climbing, we headed over to the giant sand pit with tunnels to crawl through and a large wave sculpture for the kids to climb.

Out of the 10 adults that were in the park with their kids, 6 of them were nannies. I'd say this is the thing I noticed most about our stay in California. There's a clear economic divide between what is normal at home and what is normal in a giant, ritzy city. The Nannies all carried crazy large fancy bags and wore designer jeans. They were at least in Converse shoes, where as the mommy that was in tow (who spent the entire time on the cellphone) was in crazy heeled boots.

After the park, we drove over to the San Francisco Zoo. X-man's favorite part was riding the "Little Puffer" steam train. It makes two loops around the track and on the second run, you go through a tunnel and the engineer blows bubbles at the car like in Willy Wonka. We saw gorillas and mandrills and pet/brushed some goats in the Children's Museum. The facilities for the animals were recently updated for the most part. They also had awesome lunch options. And for the first time, when I picked up my side salad and fruit salad with a water, X-man asked to have fruit salad, too. Then he asked for chips -- but he picked pretzels. So I'm feeling pretty proud that he's learning by the food we're modeling.

We drove home around 3 p.m. and X-man fell asleep, which was too bad because there were some awesome views of the ocean, then the city and then the bay. We got home and I put him in the stroller and he slept all the way up to the room for another 2 hours of nap.

That night, MacTroll was supposed to be back at the hotel to release me at 4 p.m. to go out on my own after being a single parent for 3 days. But he didn't get back until 6 p.m. And he brought friends with him. They took X-man out to dinner (3 dads!) and I got to walk around and find that all the stores I wanted to go to were already closed. I did hit one gift store and picked up something for a friend having a baby. But the only thing open to me was the scary mall. And by scary I mean the mall with those spa people who bother you every 10 steps. Where there were no people in any of the stores. Where the sales people attack you and bother you like freaking 3 year olds demanding, "Are we there yet?"

But when I returned to the room at 8 p.m. the boys were still gone. I took a shower and put on my new heels that SuperShanna picked up for me from Nordstrom's and a pair of black capris I bought with Quigs and the new shirt I got with Rogers (pre-shopping rocks). And I went and stood on a street corner (yes, that's funny) and met a friend of mine for drinks. It took a while to find a bar that wasn't overrun with uber loud music, but we did it. I dragged my butt home at 12:30 a.m. It was awesome.

Tomorrow Day 5 and 6 -- the Total Family Curse.

Family Vacation -- Days 2 and 3

On Monday, MacTroll went to work.

X-man and I went out for breakfast at Café Bellini where we both consumed fruit bowls. Then we jumped aboard the trolley car and headed down to the waterfront at Fisherman's Wharf.

One of the brighter things I did for this trip was purchase a "City Pass." City Pass is a tourism group that goes into major cities and gets major tourist attractions to invest in selling more tickets at a discounted rate. In this case, I bought myself unlimited free trolley rides ($5 each way for adults), unlimited bus fare $1-2 each ride, and free tickets for myself to SF MoMa, The Aquarium by the Bay, the Blue and Gold Boat Tours, the California Academy of Sciences Museum and the Exploratorium Children's Science Museum (you could also choose the DeYoung Museum) for $59. All of these purchased separately would have been over $115. They also have kid options, but most of the museums are free for kids under 5. The only exception in this group was the Aquarium.

Once we arrived at the Wharf, X-man and I wandered down and got our tickets for our boat ride. The large boat takes passengers out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge (or Superman's Bridge -- if you're X-man and love the 1978 movies). Then it comes back toward the city around the back of Alcatraz.

X-man loved the boat. He also appeared to enjoy the 100 or so French Grandparents that were on a tour and snapping photos every 2 seconds while speaking rapidly in their native tongue. He, of course, being Mr. Social tried to communicate with them in their special language -- Spanish -- Dora and Diego style.

After the boat ride, we went to the Aquarium, which had only one thing going for it -- you got to walk in two tunnels that were under the large tanks. X-man really loved walking through the rays and sharks, but it's not worth the usual price of admission $15.95 for adults and $8.00 for kids 3 and over. (This will be a reoccurring theme, which made me happy I had a City Pass).

After the aquarium, I tried to get X-man to walk back to the Cannery where the Ghiradelli chocolate store is. But when we got there, he declared himself too tired to go on, and we got back on the trolley and rode it back to the hotel. When we got to our stop, X-man was fast asleep in my lap. He stayed asleep for the 1 block I carried him, the elevator ride up to the 9th floor and then he slept for 3 hours on his bed.

On Tuesday, X-man and I went to the Exploratorium to play. Kids 5 and under are free there, but they should raise that number to 7 and under. If your child does not have a firm grasp of reading, it would be difficult to participate in any of the experiments. The one exception was the light and motor areas. X-man was particularly good at playing with light exhibits that required you to use mirrors and prisms. He also naturally put together the electronic connectors to make a battery light up. But there were a lot of older kid school groups there that did not have patience for a 3 year old and pushed him aside, tried to steal his chair out from under him or tried to tattle on him to me.

The pre-school/toddler/baby area was terrible. IT consisted of two couches, a puppet theater with 2 puppets, some waffle blocks and a bead table. If I were traveling with multiple kids, there would not be enough there to keep little kids busy. However, as your child gets older they'll go nuts over the experiments.

After the museum, I drove X-man across the Golden Gate Bridge. We were going to go to Muir Woods for a visit, but in the middle of the bridge I feel little hands reach around my face and announce, "Surprise, Mommy!"

I nearly crapped my pants. Since we rented the car seat from Hertz, we had to choose between a convertible baby seat that maxed out at 40 lbs and 40 inches or upgrade to a booster for kids over 40 lbs and 40 inches. Since X-man is exactly 40 lbs and 40 inches... we had to make a decision. So, we chose the booster. And guess who managed to undo the seatbelt and crawl out of his seat in the middle of the bridge. The first exit on the other side of the bridge is Vista Point. Other families were there to take photos of the city. Me, I was explaining to my kid what would happen if we were in an accident and he wasn't buckled in. If the trip to the hospital didn't scare him, the idea of Mommy going to jail and leaving him unattended appeared to do the trick. We haven't had a problem since. Still, it was enough of a scare that I didn't want to drive any more, so I turned around and took us back to the hotel.

That night we ate out at Chevy's. Where they conveniently have the caloric content of their meals on the menu. Nothing there is really under 1,000 calories. There is, however, a new chicken avocado salad (for 510 calories) that they claim to mix at your table. Yeah -- no. It comes in a bag in the back and the only mixing they do is of the guacamole. No way to separate the chicken and cheese or dressing. When I asked the guy if they could basically bring me a bowl of lettuce the reply was no. So I just shrugged, handed him the menu and said, then I'm not eating anything. It was annoying and stupid. Chevy's now had the honor of being the first place that couldn't help me out with my health needs. So they suck.

Tomorrow: Day 4 -- Hitting the Children's Playground and the San Francisco Zoo before Loosey finally gets time to herself to go shopping and have drinks with an old friend.

Family Vacation -- Day 1

We left for California on the 6:45 a.m. flight from Champaign to Chicago on Sunday. I was really worried about getting X-man up and to the airport, as the last time we left that early to go to Philadelphia, he was a complete mess on the short flight.

This time it was light when we woke him, which helped a lot. We got a kid who firmly believes in sleeping when it's dark and waking when it's light. My body agrees with him. He was very excited to pull MacTroll's new cow suitcase all the way to security from the parking lot. When we got into the terminal, MacTroll gasped. In front of us was a brand new X-ray machine for luggage at the airport. Now, MacTroll flies out of Willard every other week. Upon seeing his happy surprise, the TSA agent (who immediately recognized MacTroll) struck up a conversation with him about the new addition. I lead X-man over to the check-in to keep things moving.

Between flights we hung out at the Children's Museum display between the American and United concourses so X-man could play. He ran a lot of sillies out before we boarded our plane. We road in the business class. MacTroll had gotten X-man and I seats at the very back, so X-man couldn't annoy people behind us, and MacTroll got upgraded to the seat in front of X-man in case there was any kicking. I think I annoyed the flight attendant with my constant refusal of food, since I'm on my restrictive diet. I packed a fruit salad, several apples and a couple of the approved Benefit bars for the trip.

X-man didn't sleep the whole flight, which was a tad annoying. He settled down with the iPod to watch Shaun the Sheep for 40 minutes. And the rest of the time he and I were playing space shuttle and cars and coloring together. He was very fond of all the trays he could pull out and put things on.

When we got to San José, we rented a car and drove to visit MacTroll's brother's family in Belmont, Calif. Within 15 minutes of pulling out of the airport, X-man fell asleep. He ended up napping on one of the beds for 2 out of the 3-hour visit. So he didn't get much playing in with his cousins.

Afterward, we drove into the city and checked into the Westin St. Francis. We got a junior suite with points with a rollaway bed. It's an old hotel with smaller rooms that have been updated. But it's close to everything. We walked over to the "show" (WWDC) and then to dinner at a California Pizza Kitchen (because I can eat there) and had dinner with one of MacTroll's colleagues from D.C. Then we played at he Yerba Buena Play Place, which had a number of large slides, a huge sand and water table and a climbing area.

Coming up: Day 2 and Day 3 -- Trolley ride to Fisherman's Wharf, the 3-hour nap and why I hate Chevy's.