Skunked

It finally happened, and by finally happened I mean something I hoped to never happen happened.

Sadie got skunked Father's Day weekend (Saturday night).

On Saturday evening Kevin let her outside one last time before bed, and then when he went to let her in he was calling for me to come outside.

At first we weren’t sure what happened, the whole yard smelled and it was not the ‘skunk smell’  that I’ve smelled before, but more like fire, or as Kevin said a matchhead – a very sulfury smell.

We also noticed Sadie was, not foaming at the mouth, but had what looked like bubbly liquid dripping from her chin, and wiping it off we’d see more so its from her – seems to be drool or mucus trying to get the spray out, she essentially got maced.

We were all outside until we could figure out what to do – got her some water so she could get the taste out of her mouth, poor thing drank and drank.  we kept her on a leash so she doidn’t get into anything else, and do searches for how to fix, especially late at night.

Google was a godsend – tomato juice is always what I’ve heard, but NOT what you want to do, there are a few remedies, we went with the one we had on hand – equal parts vinegar and water, sponged all over her while wearing gloves, wait for 10 minutes, then rinse it all off and then we also gave her a regular bath.   Hydrogen peroxide is better, according to google, but we didn’t have it (we do now) and we’ll have to watch we don’t bleach her fur.

It was a late, stressful night for all of us, but we managed, and now a little more about skunks, including, I now know they are ‘crepuscular’ (active at dusk).

don't recommend....not fun

Birthday fun

It is almost my birthday, with covid concerns (and also the tough to predict baseball schedule - GO ASTROS!)  I did not try to put together any big plans, but very happily celebrated with my husband on Saturday.

The winery we are members of has built out a new location, including vines!  As part of our membership, we were able to enjoy a bottle of wine and a chef-created charcuterie tray in their outdoor area.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon and to show Kevin the winery (I've seen it a few times, both with curbside wine pick up and popping in once they allowed visitors inside, but it was his first trip and my longest).

the item that looks like raisins are tart cherries - and they are delicious, as are the spanish almonds and the other meats and cheeses we forgot to ask about.  wine is a sauvignon blanc.

The winery has chickens to keep bugs off the vines, they are funny to watch.  They also look to keep the chef's well stocked with eggs!  We had a scary moment when a hawk seemed to be hunting them.  The chickens hid, and other members made sure the owners at least knew they need to keep an eye on it. 

We were also able to watch some demolition in process across the street - interesting reminder we are still in the city. I am not sure what the building was that they are demolishing but they have been busy (pretty sure it used to look like the one on the left).  We will have to see what it looks like next time we go.  If you find yourself in west Houston, go check out Nice Winery!

Vacation - eating

This post is still a work in progress, but trying to capture the places we ate (or considered)

Ouray, Colorado

Red Mountain Brewing -- we actually went here twice; sitting at the bar once and outside once.  try the red ale or everybody's ale; good menu

The Outlaw -- we also ate here twice; lunch menu is pretty small but dinner menu was really nice to have some options besides burger/sandwich/pizza (K and I each had salads and pasta)

Ouray Brewery -- only burgers, but again rooftop views

Imogene Bar - they have food, but we only got drinks here, the rooftop bar gives some nice views

Goldbelt

Mineshaft -- we did not eat here, though we planned to, but it seemed more like an eating area connected to a motel than a "restaurant" and "tiki bar"..it may be amazing, but we chose to go elsewhere

I wish we'd eaten at the Thai place, but it just seemed too hot - it was always busy!

Distillery - we did not get there, it was not open the days we had time to go - check the schedule and plan accordingly

Other towns

Brown Dog Pizza - Telluride, CO   - they are only open for takeout right now, which is a shame since we'd really liked this place the last time we were in town; still a good pizza - and we could get beer to go too.

Joe's Pasta House  - Albuquerque, NM  - one of our best meals of the trip; great Italian food

Bricktown Tap House & Kitchen -  Wichita Falls, TX -- we actually ate here twice, and had pizza both times.   We got the honey on the side the second time, but it came too late to try it ON the pizza, we had it with just remaining crust.  I need to try this 'honey on a pizza' craze and see if I like it.

We also had our share of fast food (Whataburger, etc), but tried to eat local when we could.

Vacation - offroading

We planned this trip to be able to offroad, and offroad we did!

I am very glad my brother decided to join us, as it is more fun (and safer) to offroad with another person (and another car), and we were happy to let him take the lead on many of the trails.

Kevin and I did Yankee Boy Basin on our own (my brother had not arrived), and then did 2 days of offroading together.   (my brother did YBB by himself after we left, and oops - we thought we told him we stopped before the top, but he went up to the top thinking we'd already done it with no problem.

We brought radios so we could communicate between the cars and I was working as navigator for both vehicles.

Our days of offroading with my brother:

1) Last Dollar Road  (to Telluride) and Imogene Pass back from Telluride to Ouray

2) Engineer Pass and part of the Alpine Loop (we'd wanted to do the whole thing, but thought better of it after seeing how long - time and concentration wise - the first day together took.)   

All the views were great, but i would NOT do the start of Engineer Pass again -- the first 5 miles were so torn up from ATVs it was just rocky and bumpy (and I thought several times we'd not be able to make it through...but slow and steady we did).

We saw some amazing sites, and even got to have lunch overlooking a ghost town (Animas Forks).

The offroading community can be a lot of fun, we would talk to people about what roads they'd taken or mods they'd made, and even asked a woman we'd seen on the trail (we saw her again  in town) if they ever found her brother (they did, but not the day we saw them).    We also had some 'cautionary tales' -- a kid staying at our motel broke his axle on a trail, he had a good attitude about it, but knowing how far from home we were we were sure not to take that trail (we never would, its for "experts" and mentions only take it if you are expecting damage - Poughkeepsie Gulch if you are interested).

My photos don't do any of scenery justice, and I did make sure to stop and just take in the view (and the drier air).

We also visited Box Canyon falls, and even found a used book sale in town -- we found some great finds, I even found a 4WD book we put to immediate use.

Vacation 2021

We had a great summer vacation -- part of me wishes I could do the "what I did on my summer vacation" presentation now (that I hated as a kid!).

We went back to Colorado to enjoy the mountains and do a good amount of off-roading, and while it was warmer than we wanted it to be, we had a great trip.

I had intended to take notes about what we did each day, but only managed to do it our first full day in Ouray.  

I will try to fill in what we did (and where we ate - as that is what I look at to share with others).  I will break it into several posts.

The first couple of days of the trip were mostly just *lots of driving* - we decided to break it into more days this time - we left late morning after we'd boarded the dogs, and had 2 nights on the road (Wichita Falls, Albuquerque) rather than trying to have only one night on the road.

After arriving in Ouray, Colorado, we needed a break from driving, so for our first full day we took in some of the sites in town.

We hiked up to see Cascade Falls....the elevation is no joke. We did learn our lesson from last time - we parked in the parking lot and then hiked up to the falls (years ago, we tried to walk there from our hotel  - our sea level lungs were not having it). It is a great waterfall, and a short hike. A family who had hiked up there was having a picnic, and their dog ate the dad's sandwich while he was handing out the others....poor puppy, and poor dad who had no lunch.  We also visited the Ouray County Historical Museum -- if you go, take my advice and start in the basement (the mining exhibits are really interesting and unique to the area), I went to the basement last (first floor, then second, then basement) and wish I'd started at the bottom to have more time in that area. I thought it was an old house, turns out it was built as a hospital (and ran as one until the law said it had to have an elevator to continue).

We had really good Italian food that night, at a place called Bon Ton, we were lucky to have read that reservations were recommended.  We saw many people turned away since they were booked that night.  I am not sure how much of that is that they are always booked vs staffing challenges coming out of COVID (we saw several examples of that throughout our trip).  

I love that the town is small enough that we could walk up to Main street from our hotel to eat/shop/just see the town.  We did that nearly every evening.

This blog has already come in handy as I was able to search back and find when our last trip to Ouray was and the name of the first off-road trail we took (in a rental car), so we could find and do it again - Last Dollar Road.

COVID one year later

I keep finding myself wondering how have we been living in COVID reality for a year AND how has it only been one year?   It seems so much longer in many ways.

This week March 12 makes it one year since COVID became very real (and close to home) for me in ways that the Houston Rodeo closure, NBA games stopping, and all the national headlines can't match....

It was Thursday of Spring Break for my university, and all staff had Friday off.

We had a last minute 4pm meeting to discuss what it would mean to extend spring break a week and shift all classes online, they needed input from all perspectives. It was a surreal meeting to be having, and I remember that a few top level folks were out or off-campus that day and had to try to call/video call in (if you had told me that was how all my meetings were to be conducted for the next year...I don't know if I'd have believed it). 

The meeting went late, and I met my hubby (on his spring break) for dinner, and just remember trying to make sense of it all. After dinner I went to try to buy some extra food before everything closed. I went to a Target right next door and was not expecting to already have hurricane-prep level bare shelves.

One year later, I am really fortunate to be able to say that my family is still safe and well, and definitely missing time together.    Video calls help, but they are not the same.    

I also know how fortunate I am to be able to have kept my job, and found some good things about working from home -- though I do hope to one day make my dining room a dining room again....

We are not at the end of it, but knowing that we have hit 100 million vaccine shots given gives me hope.

Table

   

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Over Labor Day weekend, we got Kevin a table for his office - it will give him more desk space and he can use it for studying/playing chess since he's gotten back into chess again...I don't understand it, but he loves it.

We were really pleased to find a used table that will work really well - it is even adjustable height! - on facebook marketplace, and it just fit in our big SUV.

He had been using a card table, that I can now use for jigsaw puzzles (I had used our formal dining table but it is now my work desk).  I am more excited about being able to puzzle again than I probably should be

We are trying to make the best of being at home so much due to COVID.  

It was really not the Labor Day weekend we had envisioned, but we are trying to do what is safe.

Back to School...2020 edition

The first week of the semester is always busy for both of us, since we both work in higher education.  We knew this year would be different with COVID (we are both still working remotely full-time - Kevin's classes are all online this term), and then 2020 added an extra layer of craziness by having us need to watch not one but TWO storms in the gulf (and right at the 3 year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey).

Marco ended up fizzling out, but Laura became the storm to watch and we nervously waited and watched.  Houston was lucky that it went east of us (as a CATEGORY 4), but it made for a nerve-wracking week, and my thoughts are with those who were impacted in Texas and Louisiana, including some members of my family.   Everyone is safe, but dealing with damage (and a delayed baby arrival!)  I also hate that part of me is relieved when a storm goes to another area, and not us.

We had a few days off because of the impending storm.  With my 'office' literally steps away (I took over our dining room), I actually did quite a bit of work (our busiest time of year is fast approaching) but enjoyed the fact I could work on a projected uninterrupted (no meetings to log into and email responses could wait) and work when I want, take time away from screens when I wanted.

I have been dealing with hurricanes my whole life, and don't think I ever get used to them, and some of my hurricane prep is a bit random.  I do what I can - car is gassed up, have some cash on hand, plenty of food and meds for us (and the dogs), flashlights, batteries, catch up on laundry just in case we lose power, etc.    I also do somewhat silly things that make me feel more prepared - for example, I was trying to use up some random freezer/fridge things in case we lost power, and this week I baked cookies so if the power went out we had cookies and not raw dough (desserts are needed!)   They were delicious :)

Taking a trip -- Pandemic edition

We are taking a trip...I'm not sure if it's a good idea or a bad idea (in the middle of a pandemic) but we are working to be safe and it will be a physically distanced trip. Work has been tough this year, so I think the time away will do me good...even working remotely it's good to have time to unplug...I'd argue even moreso since everything is done on the computer...having to schedule a zoom session or phone call instead of popping into someone's office, and none of the informal interactions that break up the workday. I know I am fortunate to be able to work remotely, and still be fully employed but its tough... I am unsure how much I will put on social media as I don't need the judgement and really just want to unplug and reconnect...yes I know I am with my husband 24/7, but a lot of times we are working in separate rooms or just occupied with the new "normal"....

Happy 1st Birthday!

Our youngest niece is a year old!   We celebrated virtually since we couldn't be together.   I was sad that we couldn't see her in person (and eat some homemade cheesecake!) but glad we were able to participate in her special day.

Her smash cake became a take every tiny piece and drop it on the floor (her mommy and daddy got a few bites into her mouth), but she certainly had fun doing it!     Sister was smart and put a tablecloth down under the highchair, for easier cleanup.  Even doing that some of the cake got on the carpet, and a few pieces on the wall!

I am so thankful for video messaging so we can see her as much as possible, she's no longer a baby but a full out toddler.  We even saw her walk around in shoes yesterday!    She can walk, and kinda run.  

We love you and look forward to celebrating future birthdays in person!

COVID-19

It has been a confusing and scary time with rapidly changing rules and decisions of what to do - Should I go to work?  Can I get ok'd to stay home?  What should we tell my mom (in her 70s) to do? Where is all the toilet paper at the stores?  What do the closures mean to those who work at those places? 

 It seems like it has been a lot longer than it has been....hard to believe that in our community it really only started effecting daily life I think 3 weeks ago?   The days blur and I don't really know...

For me, it really started to feel real when on March 12 we had a meeting (I work at a university) to try to plan for taking all coursework online (at that point only for a few weeks), and what questions there are for a variety of areas.   The school was at the end of Spring Break (staff actually had that Friday the 13th off).  That night I met my husband at our local sushi place and was thinking I needed to pick up some stuff, I stopped at the Target in the same shopping center and grabbed a few things (TP was already gone).

This was my view walking into the grocery store that Sunday, March 15, to try to grocery shop.  This (and the TP aisle) were the emptiest but it was anxiety inducing.  

The next week Kevin was on "extended Spring Break", and my school had no classes (to allow faculty and students time to transition) but our offices were still open.   I did a mixture of working remotely and working in the office.  That Friday while in the office we found out we were transitioning to telecommuting (at this point through 4/3), except for a small set of 'essential' staff (I've never been so happy to not be 'essential'). 

This entire week I worked remotely, using both our big set up (two screens, dedicated room) and my work laptop in the dining room when my hubby needs the nicer set up.  I've also been helping him test some technology to be ready to work with his students remotely.  Our attempt at a 'green screen' was a fail....

The county (Harris) ordered a stay home order on March 24.

We are trying to make the best of us.  We are fortunate to be staying busy, and trying to get outside to clear our heads and move our bodies...

Stay safe everyone!

2009 and 2019

I've been seeing posts on facebook of a pic from 2009 and 2019 to show the changes over a decade.

I decided to participate....its hard to believe these pictures are 10 years apart (I also had to laugh at some other photos I found that had me wearing the SAME shirt...time to update my wardrobe?)

For posterity, here again are the pics I chose:

2009 (during our trip to NYC)

2019 (holding our newest niece)

I chose photos of only me, but do think it could be fun to do 2009/2019 pics of myself and Kevin together, or other combinations of family and friends (I love that digging through pictures I found several outings with my sister that I'd forgotten about)

I did also see many time gaps with few pictures, or trips with nearly no photos of me.  I need to make sure I take more photos with me in it, and not keep waiting until I lose that weight that I may never lose to be in the picture.

Looking at pictures was also hard, as I came across many photos of or with my dad.  Its hard to believe he has been gone for almost a year.

I do have many wonderful memories with my dad and am thankful he was so central to my life for 40 years.

Smokey's gotcha day

July became a blur too....we had a great trip, and I am so glad we got home with me having a few more days off (we got home on the 4th, I'd taken off that Friday and the weekend), so we could get caught up a bit at the house before I headed back to work.   Work has kept me very busy, and I've also managed to make a couple more visits (with my mom) to see our new niece -- she is the CUTEST.

Today marks TWELVE years since we brought home our older furbaby, Smokey.  I cannot believe we've had him 12 years.....we know we are lucky to still have him with us, and he's overall very happy (though he still wonders why we ruined his 'retirement' years with a little sister).

We are going to celebrate with a special treat for him - he gobbles up the dog ice cream we found for him....

June blur

I feel like I blinked and June is gone.

We got to meet our brand new niece when we got home from DC, she is such a cutie!

I worked 2 weeks and then we left our on long in the works road trip --  Kevin has had this trip in mind ever since he first bought the Jeep. 

We are driving through New Mexico, Colorado and today we got into Wyoming ...2 new states for K! (NM and WY).   We are having a great time sightseeing and off-roading.  We are doing hotels rather than camping (I love my showers and AC!)

We are actually closer to the end of our trip by now, but the altitude wears me out so I've been too tired to do much updating.....I figure I can send updates when I'm back, better to fully enjoy the trip while I'm on it.

DC Trip

We just visited Washington, DC (first time ever for K; first time since the late 90's for me). The trip was primarily to see K's great uncle laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, and we decided to add on a few extra days to get to see more of the area. We had a good visit with his parents, brother, grandmother and her husband; and we also got to see (and I got to meet) some of the extended family (great uncle's kids and grandkids) for the service. 

I hope my father-in-law didn't get tired of driving us all around -- they had gotten a rental car for the ceremony and we also made sure we saw things that took advantage of having a rental car (and let them see things that were new to them since they'd made trips to DC before).  We did well -- saw a Civil War sight and the Air & Space museum that is out in VA -- including seeing a space shuttle!   and they even had the type of plane that K's great uncle flew in WWII.

The ceremony was powerful and a bit amazing to realize that many Marines were there to honor one man.  I was lucky to get to know his great uncle a little bit - he was the BEST.  We knew him as J.R. but I didn't know much about his younger life -- nor did i know that he was in TWO wars (WWII and Korean).

The day after the ceremony the rest of the family flew home, and we stayed on to see the area.  We met up with a friend of mine from college to tour Mt Vernon, and another college friend met us for dinner (I am still bummed I forgot to take even ONE photo of us together)...still fun to catch up, and we tried crabs (crabs make crawfish seem easy to eat).

Our last full day was just K and me and we used the Metro (and scooters) to tour all around the National Mall.  While there are tons of museums we did not see we were able to see the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence (National Archives) and see the outdoor memorials that were 'must see' on the list.   We even took a detour off the mall so we could see the front of the White House. All in all it was a great trip.

I will admit on that last day I was distracted as I knew my sister had gone to the hospital to have her baby (our niece!).   That is another post entirely.

This is one of my favorite pics from our day in DC.  K really wanted to try these scooters, and they were a great way to get around! I had a good time on them too! We were safe, but sorry moms we didn't have helmets... We definitely had some issues with them - not 2 minutes after that photo was taken my app wouldn't cooperate to reload $ and his scooter's battery died.....we still had fun, and its part of the adventure. Kevin is my voice of calm after my freakout about the app telling me we were in a no parking zone.....didn't give much of a choice since neither scooter would move. and yes, we found other ones to try again

Smokey's surgery

Smokey's surgery went well - a large mass was removed from his neck/cheek area, and he's already starting to get his voice back, no barks yet but he can do his whine again.    Its funny to realize we pay a lot of $$ for him to get his whine back, we did and we are glad to hear it!  Recovery is going as well as can be expected.

The poor boy hates the cone, but has to wear it so he can heal properly - I thought 10 days, but found out yesterday probably 14 days before he gets his sutures out.  He did get a drain taken out yesterday, so that should help him be a little more comfortable.

We do love the vet we take him to, they kept him overnight after surgery even though he could've gone home -- with our AC being out, and also with a little, curious dog too it was the best decision to have him in the cooler, vet kennel for the night following surgery.

I was telling Kevin last night that a dog recovery may be worse than a person's, at least the person can know WHY the surgery happened.

Life as a Country song

Have you ever felt like your life is a country song (and by country song I mean the ones where everything goes wrong)? That is how I am feeling right now - believe me I know I have MANY things going right in my life, its just hard to not get stuck on the things going wrong.

the big ones:

Smokey needs to have surgery to get his bark back.   He has lumps that we've had looked at before and they are benign fatty tissue; but one looks to be growing on his neck and it may be pushing on his larynx -- it sounds more like he's wheezing (and he was mistaken for a PARROT) when he tries to bark, which is so odd since he usually has a ferocious bark.   He's our old guy (we've had him almost 12 years and he was about full grown when we got him) so there is some worry with having him sedated, but it should help him feel better, and if they can they'll remove some other lumps that may help him move better.

our AC broke on Friday night.....it runs, but doesn't cool.....this is the third house we've had AC issues, so we always knew it was likely to happen....I looked it up and it was late April last year we had the issues (and June...)    I guess we are lucky it didn't happen on a holiday weekend, especially since we'll have guests that same weekend!

In good news we do have water pressure in our kitchen sink again...that was fixed on Friday.

My dad passed away on December 1. I am still very sad about it, and also find...relief is not the right word, but something along that line.. that he is no longer battling dementia. The rest of December was a blur with trying to tell family and friends, make funeral arrangements, and get my mom ready for an already scheduled move. While we'd hoped to have her settled before my dad passed in a way it worked out for us to have something to work on while we were together and needed something to do. I know he is gone, and yet find myself forgetting from time to time. I am not ready to write much more about it, but am struggling with trying to deal with it and find my new 'normal'.

October birthdays

October was a big month in our house.

This little stinker turned 1!  We had Kevin's brother and his puppy over for a little party- we watched baseball and the dogs played and had doggy ice cream.   Sadie ate hers up this time! (last time she wasn't so sure about it, and left it unattended so Smokey got it)   Her puppy cousin Macy was the unsure one about ice cream this time - I think the metal bowl we put it into scared her - so Sadie got part of her serving too!    Another puppy is the best way to wear out a puppy, and they were both beat after a day of play.  Smokey pretty well leaves them alone, he's having a harder time getting around but he still loves the ice cream!

October was also when I turned the big 4-0!   I debated trying to do a party like we did for Kevin's 40th, but decided I'd prefer to take a trip.   I made it a 4 day weekend for myself since my birthday was on a Thursday and spent my actual birthday with my mom -- we had lunch and went to get our nails done, it was fun and a good way to spend the day with the person who really did the work 40 years ago.    We also had a short visit with my dad. 

Our trip was a road trip to the casinos in Lake Charles, we had never been!   We went to the ones in Vegas before going to the ones only 3 hours away.  It was a great get-away.  We stayed at L'Auberge and also took a shuttle over to check out the newer Golden Nugget.   We came out ahead on the craps table, and being right before Halloween both casinos had big costume parties, so we saw some great costumes - we rode the shuttle back with a very creepy Pennywise, and an impressive Jack Sparrow.  I am glad we stayed at L'Auberge - the staff and casino floor folks seemed friendlier, but Nugget definitely has more of the Vegas feel and added more dining options (we even took advantage of my Landry's membership to use my birthday $25 credit for dinner Saturday night).  It was a good short trip, and on the way back we had time to have lunch with my in-laws. 

France recap - Paris

This is part one of several pieces of trying to write up our trip, its delayed but will be a good reference if anyone wants recommendations on what we saw or did (and for when I forget the many many details of our trip).

We had to drop the dogs off the day before to be boarded and honestly that worked well so we could spend time packing and not worry about stressing out Smokey or Sadie getting hold of stuff...my fear was she would chew on a passport.

We also took advantage of no pups at home and went out to dinner with friends.

On Sunday (departure day!), we saw the French team win the World Cup right before we left for the airport, so we knew we'd be going into a country celebrating that win.

We had some food and drinks at the airport , always good to have some extra time....the plane ride was as good as it can be, watched a movie, tried to sleep, wondered how my brother did the even longer trip to Japan....choosing seats so we were in a duo row (I had aisle, he had window) was a great idea...still not real comfortable....when K flew overseas before he was in first class..sorry babe...we are economy pricing...when we landed it was about midnight to us but Monday morning in Paris -- they are 7 hours ahead of Houston.

Our first adventure was getting turned around at the airport and leaving the baggage claim area without our bags...there was construction at the airport and we didn't realize we took a wrong turn until it was too late...we found an info desk and they have a phone to go to call to be let back in....I guess it happens pretty regularly.

That first day was rough due to little sleep and the time change...we took a taxi to the hotel (shuttle I'd arranged either never showed or gave up on us we were so late coming out) and settled in a little bit and then explored right near hotel....found a cafe and had a little food and caffeine....our goal was to stay awake to get on French time. That night we watched the soccer team come home and take the same route from the airport that we did...we had considered trying to get to the parade but with jet lag, crowds and not knowing our way around (hotel worker said metro was closing early for it) it was just not going to happen...We were content with watching from our room.

Our first morning in the hotel, we woke upto realize we'd overslept...its almost 10 am...and we had only 10 minutes for breakfast....and just over an hour before timed tickets for the Eiffel Tower.  We threw on clothes and made it to breakfast, and weren't the last to arrive. I was so happy we made it to the Tower (I stalked their website for months to get these tickets), we had planned to figure out metro but with the time crunch just walked it...  The views from the top were amazing (and yes we waited for the elevator)  I had no idea that science experiments were conducted on it, and Mr Eiffel had an apartment on the top!

That day we also saw Napoleon's tomb and a little of the Army Museum.    Walking back that evening we saw a street closed even to pedestrians and nosey me looked at permits on one of many cars loaded with stuff...they were filming a show called Killing Eve...I'd never heard of it but now  I have to check it out..

The next day we had an alarm set up and got up a bit earlier, we took time to figure out the Metro to get to the Arc de Triomphe, and then wandered the Champs-Élysées, including a stop at a cafe (there were many cafe stops). We got back on metro to get to the Louvre - I'm still amazed at how many pieces of art you can see there that are in books and posters, and the Mona Lisa is so small!

For our final day in Paris we went by train to Versailles (on Kevin's must see list).  The train was an adventure in itself -- we heard someone telling another passenger that we may need to swap trains, based on announcements being made in French.    This was probably our longest line of the trip, but well worth it.  The palace was so opulent and we saw the Hall of Mirrors, where many treaties have been signed.    The palace is also surrounded by huge gardens, and when we read that we could rent a golf cart we knew that was the best way for us to see it. I think K was glad to be in a driver's seat again.    We actually had another couple join us, they were behind us in line and since it seats 4 and was the same price full or not, it made sense to split it.  They were happy to get out of line (they had not even seen the inside of the palace the lines were so long -- we had waited at least an hour and a half to get in), and it was fun to have some English speaking folks with us for a little while.

We stayed at this hotel in Paris, it worked for what we needed, hotels there are just different than here -- the day we left the elevator was broken so we very carefully got our bags down 6 flights of circular stairs.  The front desk staff were very helpful (and spoke English), and the breakfast available in the basement each morning was a good way to start our days -- the girl working the breakfast was so French and had an eager 'Bonjour' for us each morning.

We enjoyed the cafes and also found this Indian restaurant near to our hotel, it was a nice change of pace and honestly so nice to have an enclosed and a/c'd restaurant after several days of open air cafes.