Happy to Be Home

We had a great vacation, but we're happy to be home with the kiddos!! We jumped right back into family mode with an afternoon cross-country skiing (Logan's first time!), sledding, attempting to go skiing...but the hill was closed, a few trips to the "race car store" (Lowe's / Home Depot), a visit to the zoo (including a look behind the scenes and the bird show), swim class (Ry's first time w/o a parent and Logan's first class!) and story time back at home :)

Day 9: Paris to Minneapolis

We woke up this morning in our amazing suite and had one last cup of frothy expresso goodness from the hotel before heading home. We also enjoyed one last walk out to see the Eiffel Tower...in the snow! Yes, apparently Paris gets snow. Though not very often - the concierge at the hotel said it was only the first (or third...with his accent, we weren't sure) time it has snowed this year. I'll take that as being pretty special :)

We navigated the subway much easier this time, reclaimed our large bags that we had held at the airport overnight (to travel light to Paris) and barely made it to the gate in time...mostly due to the airports [inefficient] logistics (and them saying they didn't have our reservation! Yikes!)

Due to the snow, we experienced delay after delay and a gate change, until we finally boarded...a bus. It took us so far, I thought we were going to another airport! Eventually, we made it to the plane and all 30 or so passengers boarded the plane outside in the snow. And over an hour later, we took off. The good thing about the whole delay is that most passengers rebooked their flight, so almost everyone had an entire row to themselves!! Awesome for sleeping on the 9 hour flight. And now we'll also be taking Wednesday off to spend with the boys :)

A perfect go-with-the-flow ending to a very go-with-the-flow trip!!

Waking up to snow!!

Breakfast in the subway: a "coffee" [expresso] and croissant.  I loved that they had cute tiny to go cups for their expresso...they even had tiny lids!

We caught the double decker train back to the CDG airport

...spent lots of time here...at least it was super nice terminal!

I think snow was pretty rare for them, so 25% of the flights at CDG were cancelled.  Ours said it was on-time in the morning, but we ended up with a 4 hour delay.

Passing the time with Starbucks and the blog :) 

Finally boarding the plane...from outside!

Enjoying the extra space on the plane!! Most of the rows in the back half of the plane were this empty!

We were inspired, so bought a couple expresso cups for our machine at home :)

Day 8: Geneva, Switzerland to Paris, France [Updated]

We had an early start this morning with a 7:30am flight out of Geneva to Paris. Another day, another adventure. We figured out how to return the rental car in Geneva (no easy feat!) and how to navigate the extensive Paris subway system. We spent the rest of the day above ground (thankfully!) exploring Paris.

Luckily, we're tough Minnesotans, so the chilly day and misty rain didn't keep us from spending hours walking the beautiful city streets. Highlights of the day included seeing the Arc de Triumph, the Eiffel Tower during the day and lit up at night, walking the Champs Élysées road, stopping at a variety of cafés to warm up with expresso and wine, our amazing hotel upgrade to a top floor suite with an awesome soaking tub (and listening to the guys at the front desk discuss the upgrade in French...we didn't know what they were saying, but knew it was going to be good!), and some time relaxing together before heading home tomorrow!

Day 7: Chamonix to Geneva

I am finally nailing down some basic words in each language, but the trouble I'm having now is remembering what country we're in! For example, Friday we started our day in Switzerland, drove through France and spent the evening in Italy. Yesterday, we started our day in Italy and stayed in France. And today we're in Switzerland again...tho Friday was the German speaking part of Switzerland and today is the French speaking part! Whew!

But other than that, today was pretty easy. We had breakfast at the hotel [that we were supposed to stay at], then we spent the morning riding Les Houches ski area in Chamonix (France). It was a blue bird day with soft snow. Super warm. We attempted to stop on the mountain for lunch, but the cheapest thing was a plate of fries for €12! (So about $15) So we shared that - ha! And had some Mount Blanc brew :) I loved stopping on the mountain for a beer - sitting outside in the sun, amazing views, no wind, just perfect. That's huge out here, too. At each ski area, there have been a ton of restaurants / bars on the mountain.

Our afternoon drive was an easy 45 minutes to Geneva. Switzerland and Italy both seem to have the long break between lunch and dinner where restaurants close, so we had to wait until 7pm to eat. Thankfully we brought a ton of granola bars and trail mix. We had Italian for dinner (yes, Italian in the French-speaking part of Switzerland...), watched a movie and had champagne from one of our earlier hotels. We are so incredibly excited to see the kids at this point, but are soaking up our last couple date-night opportunities. Tomorrow's date: Paris! :)