Twinkling lights, Jet lag, reintegrating, etc.

Just to fill in the last few details that John didn't get to -

Alexa got to pick the restaurant for our final dinner in France (Ben had picked lunch, and John had selected the last night in Bayeux - I had gotten my 'last pick' the day we were at Point Du Hoc - I wanted one last omlette mixte (a ham and cheese omlette). She wanted Italian (her favorite) and when the hotel receptionist told us there was a restaurant nearby called "Arlechinno" that sealed the deal for her - she loves Comedia Del Arte and Arlechinno is the clown-like character with a diamond costume. Anyway, we had a nice dinner and the waiter and Ben had lots of fun together - the waiter made faces with him, joked around with him, and gave both he and lollipops (actually, my favorite kind of lollipop - cherry flavored and cherry-like in appearance - two lollipops, one each on the end of a bent green plasic 'stem' - I actually ask for them every time I go to farmers market in Annapolis, only to be out of luck each time - I was soooo jealous that my kids got them).

In the end, John and Alexa had the twinkly night on the town, using up the last of our Metro tickets (and closing down the Metro at 12:30 am, followed by a cab back to the hotel). Ben and I were both tired and opted to stay home and go to bed - we watched Wimbledon in French and read stories from the Nicholas series (about a French schoolboy) that Ben has become quite fond of - he was turned onto them by the librarian at his elementary school. John and Alexa watched the Eiffel Tower twinkle (it does that for the first 10 minutes of each hour - they turn off the floodlights and let the twinkly lights), then saw the floodlit Arch d'Triomphe, headed over to the Louvre (for the lit pyramide), and eventually ended up back in our neighborhood near the Bastille monuments.

Saturday was exhausting, for a day that we just sat around (on the plane, in the airport). John mentioned that there was a national slowdown (apparently referred to as an escargot) which impacted our movement through security. There were only two security lines open for all of the international travel, as best as I could tell. We waited in line for an hour (luckily we had gotten to the airport 3 hours early on the advice of the hotel clerk) and then all of a sudden we were whisked to the front of the line. Apparently someone saw John's cane and decided we needed out of the line. Given that Alexa was just moments short of a meltdown (of the 'its loud, its hot, and there are too many people and I can't pace' variety), I was more than willing to have the temporary disability that was visible help us out of a worse situation caused by the one that's not visible.

Once we got on our way, things were rather uneventful. We flew Continental and had a nice flight (with an ice cream break, even, as well as a hot meal and a hot sandwich during the 10 hour stretch). We had to go through Houston (its a Continental hub, and it meant that we could get tickets for the four of us for under 6K), where we came in through immigration and customs and were once again pulled out of a line and sent to the front because of the cane. Our flight had several other injured folks - must have been a bad week for sprains in France as there was a young woman with a sprained ankle and another with a knee injury close to us - and Continental went out of their way to help folks. Several of the other injured people on the plane were given rides on carts - there must have been at least 5 wheelchairs waiting for our plane. It was kind of funny to see as we walked out.

As we were re-checking our bags (you have to claim your baggage to get through customs and then they re-check them immediately), I bumped into another person from the University of Maryland. It was very funny to just look up and see Bob Infantino (an Associate Dean in one of the colleges with whom I've worked on several committees, for those of you who are not from Maryland). We had a nice chat as we went back through security - he and his family were returning from Honduras. We bumped into them again as our kids were asking for Auntie Anne's and they were there already with their son - apparently kids miss 'American' food no matter what country they've been visitng.

We arrived home at about midnight, eastern time (which was 6 am France time, for those not keeping track). We all took melatonin and headed for bed...

This morning we were all up by 8 (our bodies thought it was 2 in the afternoon) and I headed out for Ben's favorite Sunday breakfast - Einstein's bagels. I didn't make it far as my neighbor greeted me and told me not to use my car as it had a flat she could see. Apparently there was a rash of tire slashings in the neighborhood - she said she had seen at least 20 flat tires. On the bright side, this is better car luck than we've had after other major vacations. After our last major vacations we've bought new cars out of necessity (John had overheaded cars on the beltway leading to cracked heads and then trashed cars after both our Colorado and Disney vacations).

So I spent part of my day waiting for two new tires to be installed. It is rather frightening to re-integrate into the US state of mind in a Super Wal Mart (the closest place open and selling tires today). I don't really recommend it. I thought I was going to cry in the middle of a grocery aisle at one point (I did use some time to get shopping done). But I now have two new tires (and I'm pulling my car into the driveway before I go to bed).

We had a little 'birthday dinner' for Alexa tonight with an ice cream cake (her fave). John's mother and brother came over to join us and I think Alexa felt a bit more satisfied that her day was fully celebrated... I think it had been bugging her that she was cheated out of a 'real' birthday...

Its now 10:30 and everyone else is asleep.... I go back to work tomorrow and Alexa goes with me to Shakespeare camp. John has one more day off and Ben will hang out with him (they are going to build a model they got in Normandy and look at Pegasus Bridge maps... geeky bliss as Alexa would say).

When we finally manage to get readjusted we'll post the pictures from the nighttime tour, but I doubt John or I will post much more in terms of text.

Thanks for letting us share our trip with you.