Going to California

No, not the Led Zeppelin song, cool though it may be. We headed to San Diego for Tracie's cousin's wedding this weekend. Since we'll be there for four nights, we decided that renting a car would be more expensive than driving our own, so we hit the road in our RAV4 at lunchtime today. We stopped at Costco for gas and a cheap hot dog lunch, then headed out of town. It was a fairly uneventful drive, with stops for restrooms and refreshments in Gila Bend and Yuma.

We listened to an audio book most of the way, which really made the 7 hour drive fly by. We made it to the hotel at about 7:00 and quickly left again in search of dinner. By random chance, we came to a Mexican restaurant called La Especial Norte on the Coast Highway. It was a fairly hole-in-the-wall place, but the food was fantastic! It was definitely one of the best Mexican dinners we've had in a while.

Tomorrow, Sea World with the Fromily!

Random thoughts on our trip

• It's better to keep 1 euro and 2 euro coins in a separate pocket than coins worth less than 1 euro. It's a lot easier to pay for stuff that costs between 1 euro and 5 euro if you don't have to sort through a gigantic pile of coins in your pocket to find a 1 or 2 euro coin. I think that as an American, I'm used to just throwing all of my change in my pocket. But that doesn't work as well when you have 1 and 2 euro coins, instead of bills.
• The French aren't really rude, but they don't cater to non-French speakers, either.
• The Germans really keep their country looking good. In large towns and small, Germany feels clean. There's not a lot of rubbish in the streets, and not as much graffiti as you see other places. Although it's a very cool city, Paris definitely had a lot of graffiti and just had a little bit of a dirtier feel.

Vacation wrap-up

We have successfully returned from Europe! Our travel home on Saturday was happily uneventful. We got up early and after a mildly tearful farewell to Casey and the three Fros, Rick drove us in to the the airport in Frankfurt. After we checked our bags, we made our way to the gate, which took a little bit of searching. The airport is currently undergoing major modifications which has some gates in temporary spaces, making the maps very unhelpful in finding them.

We finally made it to the gate with time to spare and we found that changing our plans and flying to Charlotte instead of Philadelphia paid off. As boarding started, we were assigned seats next to each other in first class! Elated, we headed to the plane. Due to the temporary gate, the plane could only be reached by taking a shuttle bus from the gate area to the location where the plane was parked out on the tarmac, so we boarded the bus and got a great view of some Boeing 747s and Airbus A330 and A340s as we drove past. It was fun to board the plane via stairs, as you really got a sense of the huge size of plane.

After finding our seats, Tracie and I quickly found that first class is THE way to go. The cabin was only half filled as well, so there was plenty of overhead bin space. As soon as we took off, the flight attendants started bringing drinks, followed by a fruit and cheese plate, appetizer, lunch, dessert and all with as much wine as you wanted. The seats reclined almost all the way, so after lunch we watched movies on the in-flight entertainment and napped for most of the remained of the flight.

After we arrived in Charlotte, we went through one of the fastest customs process ever and grabbed a bite to eat before boarding our flight to Phoenix. Unfortunately, this flight was full and we had to return to the riff-raff in coach. Despite the hardship of being crammed into seats barely big enough for an adult ass, we made it to Phoenix, took a SuperShuttle van to get home and finally arrived home at 10:00pm, almost exactly 24 hours after leaving Pickliessem.

Once again, hoping for first class

We're headed home tomorrow and we've changed our flight plans so that we're taking a flight from Frankfurt to Charlotte, instead of going to Philadelphia. There's more open first class seats on the Charlotte flight, and more open in coach too, so we're hoping this increases our chances of getting first class, or at least an open coach seat between us. We'll see how it goes!

Even more pics!

Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower pics posted! http://picasaweb.google.com/mattpetro

New pics!

I finally got pics posted from Versailles and I added some more pics of the Fros being cute. Now available at http://picasaweb.google.com/mattpetro!

Back in Pickliessem

After a pleasant drive, we made it back to Germany from Paris yesterday. Since then, we've taken it easy and relaxed for the most part. Peighton had t-ball practice yesterday and Rick is one of the coaches, so after we got back, they left for that.

Also, Peighton had to go and get cavities, or "sugar bugs" as the dentist calls them, fixed this morning, so she headed off with Casey in the morning, leaving Tracie and I to play with, er, watch Conner and Rheagan. We had a ton of fun just getting to spend time with them.

Peighton was very good at the dentist's office and came home feeling OK. We spent the rest of the day getting laundry done, helping Casey clean around the house and just having a great time playing with all three kids. After dinner was done and the kids had gone to bed, we finished off the evening with a several head-to-head competitions in Guitar Hero on the Wii. We're all rock stars, I'm sure of it!

Interesting things I noticed in Paris

• Almost all of the buildings are a shade of white, and most of them are still have the classic Mansard roof. I noticed this when we were looking out at the city from the Eiffel Tower.
  
• Most of the store clerks and restaurant wait staff speak to women first, not men. Unfortunately, this leaves Tracie attempting to figure out what they're saying in French.
• Most restaurants have espresso, and all of the espresso machines are the real kind, not the automatic ones Starbucks uses.
  

Versailles, with a side of public transit adventures

Today was our first full day in Paris! Our plan was to head to Versailles to see the chateau and gardens. Tracie and I got up at a reasonable hour for us (7:00am) and realized that not many restaurants are open before 9:00am here. Even the McDonald's across the street doesn't open until 10:00am! All that we could really find was a bakery serving quiches and pastries. It seemed that it was pastries or the hotel's 12 euro (zoinks!) buffet. So, we got our first lesson in French culture and went to the bakery.

After the breakfast adventure, Tracie and I met up with Casey, Rick and the 3 kids (collectively known as the Fromily) and started our journey to Versailles with a 15 minute walk to the RER station. The RER is the commuter rail portion of the Paris public transit system which reaches into the middle and outer suburbs. After spending several minutes trying to get the ticket vending machine to take a credit card, we went to the ticket window, managed to buy the correct fares from the nice lady and get to the train.

We successfully navigated two train transfers under the streets of Paris, but as we neared Versailles, we discovered that we were on a train which was the correct line, but took a slightly different route, leaving us a couple of kilometers from where we wanted to be. It then took us 45 minutes, 2 more stations and a lot of puzzling over a map and train arrival info board to deduce how to get to our intended destination. Note that most of the puzzling was due to the fact that everything was in French. The French aren't really big on providing information in other languages. But, we were successful in finding the correct route and finally arriving in the heart of Versailles.

By this point, we were all quite hungry, so we stopped at a pizza place for lunch, then walked to the Chateau de Versailles. It really takes the meaning of the word "chateau" to a whole different level...the place is huge, plain and simple. Casey wanted to see the gardens, so we didn't see the inside of the chateau, but the weather was fabulous and the gardens are amazing in their own right. You could easily spend a couple of days wandering through the gardens and still not see everything. There's ponds, fountains, statues, topiaries, lawns and trees that go on and on...they're truly amazing.

Once we'd spent the afternoon in the gardens (and gotten slightly sunburnt in the process), we headed back to the RER station. Getting back to the hotel was much faster, as we managed to travel detour-free this time. The trains were fairly crowded at this time of day, but even so, they all ran on time.

Tracie's back was pretty tired by the time we arrived at the hotel, so we decided to find take-out. French culture lesson #2: there's not much take out in France. Fortunately, we had McDonald's across the street. OK, I'm sure some people are saying, "You went to Paris and got dinner from McDonald's? How lame!" Yeah, sure, maybe, but we each had a Royale with Cheese, so next time we see Pulp Fiction, we can say we've had one.

On the itinerary for tomorrow: Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and (hopefully) some tasty coffee at a Paris cafe!

New pics!

I've uploaded all of the pics from our first few days to Picasa! Highlights of the recent photos: playing in the park with the Fros and visiting Trier. Tomorrow we're heading to Versailles, so many more to come! The hotel's Internet access is slow, but hopefully I can upload overnight.

Check out the Picasa pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/mattpetro

Traveling to Paris

Today, Sunday, we planned to have a leisurely morning and head to Paris in the afternoon. We were amazed with how quickly we all got ready, and had the car packed up and ready to go by noon.

As soon as we were all loaded up and had the house locked up tight we hear, "Rick, please tell me you have the keys." The answer came and you guessed it, "Nope." That's right we were all in the car, but the keys were in the house.

So, we decided to use anything we could find to stick through the mail slot to open the door. For future reference, you probably won't find Lock-Picker Barbie on the shelves next Christmas. After a while Rick realized that one of the doors had not been locked and he was able to go in and grab the keys.

We were off, only 20 minutes behind our original plan with Casey behind the wheel. The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful and we arrived safely in Paris. I know we will see some wonderful sights and have a great time...I'm really looking forward to it. But, if you ask me it's these stories that make adventures with your family and friends all the more worthwhile!

Trier

We had a GREAT time on our journey to Trier, a nice German town about 20 minutes outside of Pickliessem.

We walked around downtown stopping in a few shops and visiting Porta Nigra, a gate built in the second century that is now hailed as the "largest and best preserved city gate of the ancientworld". Our next stop was a wonderful pasta shop for lunch...YUM!

After lunch began the big adventure of the day. PEIGHTON GOT HER EARS PIERCED!!! She was so stoic. After the first ear was done she merely sat up straight, swallowed and said she was ready for the next one. She didn't shed a single tear.

Tomorrow we are off to Paris...

Over the jetlag and having fun!

It's Saturday morning here in Germany and Tracie and I have finally adjusted to the local time. We got lots of sleep on Thursday night and woke up reasonably sure that our internal clocks had synced up with the local time. Yesterday was lots of fun, primarily due to a three-hour visit to the local park with Casey, Rick and their three kids: Peighton (5), Rheagan (3) and Conner (1.5). The kids very nearly wore out the adults, but we managed to make it back home while still conscious.

In the evening, Casey and Tracie went to play bunco with Casey's friends, who were very nice and invited Tracie to join in. They had fun while Rick and I watched the kids at home. Fortunately, Beverly Hills Chihuahua and the Wii provided a lot of help in entertaining all three kids, while brown-bottle Heineken entertained Rick and I. Heinekin produced and sold in Holland is bottled in brown bottles, and is actually better than the green-bottle Heineken we get in the States.

Once the ladies were home and the kids were in bed, the Wii fun continued with Guitar Hero. Since I'm not a Wii owner, this was actually the first time I'd played Guitar Hero (quit laughing now!). I did all right on the easy level, but I didn't try getting past that.

Today we're going to head to Trier, a nearby town that's fun to visit for fun and shopping. The weather is overcast now, so we're not sure if we're going to get rain or not. We've had good weather so far, so we're going to hope it stays that way.

We Made It!

We made it on the flight. It took a little while to get off the ground because someone had to be removed from the flight, but after about 30 minutes we were in the air. Matt got a little sleep on the plane, but I was pretty much awake the whole time. I was able to watch a couple of movies, though, so that was nice.

When we arrived, Casey met us right outside of customs and we headed back to the Gellings home in Pickliessem. It was so great to chat and catch up with Casey on the two-hour drive! Matt must have found our lovely voices incredibly soothing, because he slept the majority of the ride ;)

The day was spent playing with the kids and chatting with Casey. I gave in at about 3 p.m. and took a two-hour nap, and Matt went down for four hours that afternoon as well.

Waiting for flight, first class seats dwindling

We made it to Philly! It's a gray and rainy afternoon, but the airport is very nice. Unfortunately, we arrived at a gate a mile away from the gate we needed to go to. All right, maybe it wasn't really a mile, but it felt like it. We walked past gates, food courts, shops, more shops, kiosks, more food courts and more gates.

When we finally got to our departure gate, we were delighted to find a little bistro right next to it, so we sat down there for lunch. Now we're waiting at the gate, hoping for first class. At the moment, there's still 2 seats left in first and 14 in coach. If no one else decides first class is worth the price, we'll be all good!

Hotel power issues

Our morning has been quite eventful at the hotel. I went downstairs to have some breakfast while Tracie was up in the room getting ready. Just as my eggs, bacon and potatoes arrived, the electricity flickered, then went totally off in the entire building. Fortunately, I was able to still see what I was eating, thanks to open windows and emergency lighting, while Tracie had to contend with a very dark bathroom.

The power outage only lasted about 40 minutes, so we were able to finish getting ready without being too late. We're about to head back to the airport to catch our flight to Philadelphia and we should make it in time. But, if we totally miss it, there's another one an hour later.

On the positive side, the flight to Frankfurt is back to having 5 open seats in first class and another 5 in coach, so that trend is looking good for us!

Late-night Chinese in Boston

We've made it to Boston and now we're having late-night Chinese delivery food for dinner. The Chinese place was the only restaurant that delivered, so there really wasn't a choice in the matter. Fortunately, it was pretty good Chinese, so we're not complaining.

The entrees were accompanied by the hottest spicy mustard we've ever had. Tracie put a reasonably-sized dollop of it on her egg roll without tasting first. The bite she took was immediately followed by tearful clearing of her sinuses. I admit to wishing I had a video of this, because it was quite funny, if you weren't her.

Tomorrow's flight from Philadelphia to Frankfurt is continuing to slowly fill up. Right now, there's only 4 seats in first class and 2 in coach. Obviously, we're really hoping the numbers don't change much between now and tomorrow.

Off to bed to get some sleep before more travel adventures tomorrow!

Boston, here we come

Tracie and her mom will be picking me up from work and taking us to the airport soon. Tomorrow's flight to Frankfurt is filling up...only 9 seats left on the entire plane! I really hope there's 2 seats left for us, but we really can't do anything other than hope. If it fills up, we'll find another way!

The day is here

It's early on Tuesday morning and our flights are looking good. None of them are close to being full, except for the flight from Philly to Frankfurt. 16 seats are still open on that flight, so I hope that doesn't change today and tomorrow!

I'm checking us in and printing boarding passes now, then I'm off to work until it's time to head to the airport for our Boston flight.

Off to Germany this week!

This week, Tracie and I are headed to Germany for our second visit! Why? To visit Tracie's cousin Casey, her husband Rick (who's in the Air Force) and their three kids. We went last year and had a great time, so we're going back. Also, we've really missed them since they've been stationed overseas.

The big difference with our trip this year is that I work for an airline and we'll be traveling using employee flight benefits. That means that it's really cheap for us to fly, but we have to travel standby; this is known as non-revenue travel, or non-rev. Last year, we didn't have those benefits, so we paid a bunch of money for the privilege of being crammed into little seats on a plane for many hours.

Flying standby means that taking the most direct route is often not the best idea. Instead of just going from Phoenix to Frankfurt via Philadelphia, our journey is going to span two days and involved an overnight stay in Boston before going to Philly and then Frankfurt. At least, that's the plan. If flights get full, we may change our plans again! You have to be flexible and often quite patient when you non-rev.

While we're in Germany, we'll probably spend most of our time with the family at their house, but we're planning to take a few days for all of us to drive over to Paris. I've never been to Paris, so I'm happy to see anything there, but if I had to pick one landmark, it would have to be the Eiffel Tower.

We're nearly all packed, so it's time to finish last minute stuff. Look for pics and blog posts to come!