West Coast Hustlers!

We are preparing for a west coast trip.

Bryan has done much of the groundwork in terms of the "Danny Tanner Itinerary" so I am not to sure what we are doing. I do know that we are cage diving with great white sharks (pure awesomeness).

Most importantly, we are spending a week with: The Adani Crew; Kristin Hack (AKA Vag War): Josh & Nathan.

As Dr Sebastian described it earlier in the week "how am i suppose to breathe without vacation?"

Well, I am looking forward to enjoying a week out west with people I LOVE.

Honestly, I desperately need a vacation and I am so lucky to have such amazing friends.

Love.

Casey

Versailles Palace & The Catacombs: American Thanksgiving in Between

Oh baby it's cold outside. We have nestled in for a long winters nap! Bryan has went out to fetch our afternoon red wine (I guess I am not allergic to red like I once thought). We have slowed down some over the last few days. The weather has made me a bit of a grumple dump (as Bryan will say). What is today?!

Anyway, we went to Versailles Palace on Wednesday and dang it, we forgot to charge the camera. Pretty impressive place. Those royals know how to live. Most things were gilded in gold or bronze and quite fancy. The paintings really had nothing much on most of the ones we've seen so far. Did you know that queens had to give birth in front of people to prove paternity?? We saw the room. I am not sure how this proves paternity and it is not nearly as entertaining as modern "who's your daddy maury povich" shows but some trivia for you. We bought some postcards and we were going to take pictures of those to post. That was a rather dumb idea so we did not do that. Funny, anyhow.  We finished some of our Parisian Christmas shopping. Much more shopping to go...

Then Thanksgiving came. Kind of a bummer. This sneaked up on me because I detest the holiday season so I thought what of it to be gone for Thanksgiving. Somewhere in the night someone slipped sentimentality into my dreams because we were both pretty bummed out yesterday. This was topped off by a dinner that made me feel like we were eating at a homeless shelter. Bryan found a place that sold American beer and that made it a little better. However, we ended up surfing i-tunes ruminating on our homesickness.

This morning we went to the catacombs. This was probably my least favorite part of our trip thus far. I thought it would be kind of cool to see a bunch of bones (kind of like Indiana Jones or something). They had a warning that in retrospect fit me well "NOT FOR THOSE WITH A NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT" Hmm, sounds like me. I went on ahead, through cold, wet, narrow, low, tunnels lined with skulls and bones. Sounds fun?! I am glad to have seen it but do not recommend it to people who do not like enclosed spaces lined with human bones. I was pretty nauseous when we emerged from the catacombs onto an unknown street in an unfamiliar part of town. It felt like miles of tunnels lined with skulls and bones. I dared Bryan to touch one and he said something about getting cursed.

I don't think we are going to make it to Spain. Which is really fine for us. We would like to dedicate another vacation to Barcelona rather than take the train nine hours one-way to spend one afternoon and take the train back. The rest of the trip is dedicated to Christmas shopping and resting.

By the way has anyone seen the ending to the fourth season of Dexter! Holy Cow! What a shocker!

I think I am mid gulp

Our "homeless shelter" themed thanksgiving

If this is my thanksgiving mayeth the wine floweth like water

The Lion of Justice. 

Scary!

Harry Potter and Hall of Darkly Something

Little Creepy, No?

Love and miss you all.

Merci Beaucoup: American Thanksgiving in Paris

I would like to take a few moments to say some of the things I am thankful for. Although, I have never been much for the holidays (and now even less), I think it is important to note the things I am thankful for in an effort to keep it all in perspective.

A few things: This is Casey's list, this is in no particular order, this is not exhaustive.

1. Andrew
2. Every moment that I was able to spend with my grandfather
3. Bryan
4. My parents
5. My Grandmother
6. The best in-laws a woman could ask for
7. My beautiful auntie
8. My Kalamazoo besties
9. Marti and her words of wisdom/love
10. Friends I've had for 20 years that stand the test of time and trials
11. Learning that the hard knocks of suffering and compassion makes you a better person
12. Anything that Elizabeth Gilbert says/writes/doodles
13. Sammy and Kitty
14. Wine and cheese
15. Spending a month in Paris but having plenty of reasons to want to come home.

Happy Thanksgiving! - Casey

Champagne Campaign - or- The Digi-cat Is Falling In Love Tonight

So the past few days have been a real whirl of wind. After we walked ourselves out on Friday, Una passed out from jet lag and Casey and I walked around St Germain Des Pres where we stumbled upon what appeared to be a homeless-ish man giving a street concert in honor of Natalie Imbruglia. We then walked around the neighborhood where every store is an art gallery and saw a picture of Sammy. It's amazing that that many art galleries can be sustainable businesses.

"You're a little late, I'm already torn..."

Sammy!!

Then on Saturday we took the Metro to the Rue Cler where we walked around the street market and looked at cool stuff that we wanted, but had absolutely no practical purpose. Including: taxidermied penguins, giant buddhas, and 50 year old movie lights. After we strolled through there and ate an amazing lunch at Cafe Roussilon, we walked to the Eiffel Tower. It was the first time we had been there during the day and we also decided to take the ride up to the top. Unfortunately, Saturday afternoon is a terrible time to try to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We got up to the second floor, which was amazing and we got a ton of great pictures. We attempted, once again, to get up to the top, but the line was just way to long. Oh well, it was probably stupid anyway. stupid eiffel tower. When we finally decided we needed to get down, Una and I made Casey walk down the 700 hundred or so windy steps to the bottom, all while getting a lesson in why the French don't value the same safety regulations we Americans enjoy. We trudged through the riff raff selling garbage and hustling people in 3 card monte to the Trocadero, where we took the Metro to the Champs Elysees. Walking past the stores and through the Winter Village that seemed to pop up over night, Una had her first crepe and Casey drank some hot wine, which was, as predicted, super terrible. Then we ended up back at the apartment where we got ready for Sunday.

Sunday - Not much happened on Sunday. We walked around the Marais and then had lunch in a gay restaurant. We watched the Lions on score updates and then Casey called her dad and talked to him a while about how weak the secondary is. We rested up for our big day on Monday...

Monday - Champagne Campaign! The day started pretty bad, but then got super awesome, then kind of nervous, and then capped off with the worst meal we've had so far (outside of the meals I've attempted to microwave from the Votre Marche). We got up and ready for Champagne country around 5 am, which was bad, but not the bad part. We got on the Metro and to the train station with plenty of time before our train left. This was good and I was feeling good about it. We then attempted to print off our tickets from a kiosk, but were denied. This was bad. I went to about 3 different ticket offices before I found someone who could print them off, so I did! This was good. I ran back to the terminal with time to spare. I thought this was good. I had printed off the tickets for Casey and I, but forgot I had Una's information too. So we went back to the ticket office and watched our train pull away. This was real bad. Then Casey made us realize that maybe, just maybe, Paris might have more than one train going to Champagne. So we changed our tickets and got on the next train and still made it on time for our first tour. She is so smart and works well under pressure. I was just going to tear up the tickets and start shoving people onto the tracks. So we arrive in Reims at around 9, but nobody told us the entire town was under construction. This made it rather difficult to follow the map, and we may have done a few circles before we arrived at Mumm. The tour started with a video about the winery and then we went down to the cellar. This was very cool and informational and blah blah blah. We then drank some of the best champagne ever and took away a few souvenirs from the boutique. Then we walked back to the train station and caught our ride to Epernay. The timing, was a little off, but theoretically it could have worked. We arrived at around 1:30 and didn't have our tour at Moet and Chandon until 3 and then we had to catch our train back to Paris at 4:30. So we wandered around the Avenue de Champagne and looked at all the champagne houses. All the ones we saw required reservations or weren't open, so we stepped into a bar that specialized in.... champagne. We all had two glasses and then needed to get going, but the French have a thing called wine takeaways. and at this bar, you could buy a bottle and drink it in the restaurant for like 60-80 euros, or buy a takeaway bottle for 20 euros. So we took one away. We went back to the Moet house and bought our tickets for the tour, even though we knew we were cutting it awfully close. After trying to step into the Dutch tour, we joined the English tour and had a set time, that we decided no matter where we were, we would leave and get to the train station. So we take the tour. And it is exactly the same as the Mumm tour. A few more mentions of Dom Perignon and Napolean, but otherwise identical. So it was closing in our time and I asked the guide how much more there was in the tour just as we were ending. So we decided we could squeeze a few more minutes if it meant we got to have a few glasses of Moet. We waited in the tasting room as long as we could and then decided to sprint back to the train station. Thankfully we made it in plenty of time for our train and then rode back to Paris with Champagne in tow. We were pretty beat after a long day and wanted a good meal and then to head to bed. The meal we got was pretty mediocre and the creme brulee Una ordered was awful. Oh well. Tomorrow she flies back to Philly then to Texas. Casey and I will take a nap day.