France Days 1 and 2

Day 1:

All I really have to say is...JET LAG! Ben and I got in two hours apart from one another to Charles De Gaulle airport. I made my way out of the old smelly (oooh, bad!) terminal to the terminal he came in on, which was more like a nice mall (yes, he got to miss that icky part of Paris). We were so glad we chose to reserve a door-to-door shuttle because with all of our huge bags (54lbs, 51lbs, 42 lbs) and backpacks (3), we did not want to be running all over Paris trying to find our way. We got dropped off at the front door to Laurie's apartment (Ben's cousin, ish) and were immediately engulfed in hospitality. Laurie had figured everything out for us...she had food in the fridge, ideas for our trip, etc. We walked around Paris for a bit and then even though we told one another we would stay up until at least 8:00pm, 5:00pm came around and we conked out. However, 5 hours later I was up finishing my book and 3 hours after I fell back asleep Ben was up fixing us lunch, organizing our stuff, and showering. We slept 'til 9 however and felt a bit better.

Day 2

Another travelling day. This morning we got ourselves ready for the next portion of our trip, Arles! A quick 1 hour 2o min plane ride and we would be in the beautiful south of France...sounds simple right? Or not. Five minutes before we planned to head out the door I took a look at my boarding pass and....hmm, there it was in big bold letters: Nationality: United Arab Emirates. The beginning of our first adventure in Paris...looking for the internet. We called the airline and they emailed me another boarding pass (with my correct Nationality) and told us to print it before we got to the airport. So...with an hour an a half before we had to be at the Shuttle pickup location we needed to find internet, AND a printer. We spoke with about 15 people (some in English, some French, but mostly what I guess you could call Frenglish). After being sent from location to location with no luck, we decided to just get on the metro and look again at our first stop along the way. Talked to 5 more people and finally found what we were looking for...problem solved (phew!). The rest of the day was fairly uneventful compared to that start to the day, however there are a few key moments to mention:

1. We had a bottle of beer to bring to Guillaume (friend in Arles) and were not allowed to take it on the plane (we knew this of course, but had not thought of it until headed to the flight). I would never recommend this..but of course Ben has some sort of magic ability to convince people to do things and he managed to get the bottle of beer on the checked luggage of the people behind us!! We picked it up after and all was good.

2. Once in Marseille we met up with Guillaume and headed for Arles, a drive that should have taken us over an hour. However, 45 minutes later we arrive with my heart in my mouth and eyes tightly shut. Apparently there are no rules of the road in southern France and speed limits are just for decoration. We sped along those roads, in and out of traffic, around tight curves and across the countryside....80 miles an hour was considered slow. Being someone who hates driving (or being passenger), this was not a fun experience! However, we did make it there and enjoyed a nice drink on the beautiful streets of Arles (I don't usually drink, but after that drive, it was necessary....and as it turns out, very expected in that area). Guillaume's parent's (Andre and On) are SO very nice. We experiences our first dinner in the South of France at 10:00 (appetizers, meal, cheese, and dessert), I stopped after the meal (so much food), and Ben tested the stinkiest cheese I have ever smelled (he stunk for hours!).

Despite the jet lag and interesting start to the day....we ended it relaxed and feeling good.

A Wedding and a visit to Grandma's

Saturday was Bobbi's wedding in Rogue River. She and Ross looked great and put on a wonderful party at Bobbi's parent's house. It was nice to see friends from college at the wedding and to see Stacy/Erik, and Bobbi/Ross again before we take off.

Random moment: On our drive back from the wedding to our hotel we stopped for some rabbits that were crossing the road. Ben had what I thought was a crazy, insane, impossible idea of trying to catch/pet one...and then a second later he had one in his arms. It was so bizarre to be in the middle of nowhere at night, no one around and petting a bunny in the headlights of my car!

Anyway, we stayed in Medford the night of the wedding and then the next morning headed up to the coast to visit Grandma Jo! Ever since Ben and I stayed with Grandma last year we have been wanting to go back, and finally we had the chance to do it. It was so nice, we did a lot of relaxing and Grandma took us to Tidal Raves (yum yum) for lunch. We also looked at a bunch of pictures of Grandma's from her travels all over the world, it was really fun to see her adventures when we are about to begin our own. We also watched a documentary about how dogs became man's best friend. It was on the National Geographic Channel and it was called "And Man Created Dog." I would recommend it to any dog lovers, it is replaying this Friday (the 13th, ooh).

We've been doing a lot of preparations for our travels the past two days and are actually seeing a bit of real progress. The list is slowly shrinking (hmm..but so are the days). Ben got a new (to him) camera today that it far more complicated and higher quality that we have ever used. He has been experimenting and watching tutorials for at least 4 hours now! It's nice though, the pictures are better, which make the people in the picture look better;) Quality pictures coming soon........

Los Angeles

Thursday we went down to San Luis Obispo to visit Dan (a longtome friend of Ben's) and had a grande 'ol time getting a wooden Lion's head cane. The two of them (both got canes!) looked pretty silly walking the streets with their canes and limps (one real, one not). We also got to see Kelly Shiflett, a friend from Bend, which was great. Next day we headed down to LA for a combination visit including Jon (Ben's brother) and Lindsay & Nate. However, we got to see quite a few other people while we were down there.

Randomly, Mike Noxon (friend from Bend) had two free tickets to the X-Games, so we got to go to the X-Games and watch from a suite in the Staples Center....those seats were probably $2,000! After the games, we headed over the Jon's house (a Moishe house for Jewish residents) and had Shabbat dinner with his friends. It was interesting to see his life and friends and spend an evening at the Moishe house.

As usual, I had one of the best weekends of the year with Lindsay, she always seems to have the effect on me. We had the chance to be girly-girls and go shopping together, which is rare and was so nice. Nate and Ben had the chance to test drive a Challenger, considering they plan to do it again in Eugene next weekend...I think they enjoyed it;) Oh, and Lindsay's apartment is AWESOME. We also went to an improv comedy show and one of the people from The Office was in it. Not a main character, he is the dorky guy from the new company they merged with. He as good at improv.

As we were heading out of town we had a short visit with Becky (my roommate from when I lived in CA). We had not seen one another since I moved out in June of 2007. It was great to see her, it surprised me how easy it was to hang out with her when we are SUCH different characters, although it was always that way when we lived together too.

Anyhoo..fantastic weekend in LA. We are back in Santa Clara now for a few more days with Irina and Serge and then head back up to Oregon.