Ohhhh my goodness, where do I even begin?! Let me preface this by saying that I have
never, ever been so busy in my life. I
honestly thought today was Monday all day and just accepted the fact that I
missed uploading a blog. About 6PM I
realized that it was Sunday, so I started getting some things down on paper. I arrived in camp on Tuesday, spent the night
and headed out to the boat Wednesday morning.
I spent the next 2 days trying to keep myself together and act
professional when really I was dyyyyyying from motion sickness. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, and had to
work – my worst nightmare. BUT by the
grace of God I woke up Saturday morning (after a 10-hour slumber) and felt like
a human again!! I am beyond grateful to
not feel nauseous and have a splitting headache because my work hours have gone
from 6AM-6PM to all day-ish. I haven’t
gotten back to my room before 8 since I arrived, and I can’t imagine that will
slow down anytime soon.
All that being said….I am actually REALLY enjoying things –
minus feeling horrible and working 24/7.
There is SO much to learn out here, I just have to remind myself that
this is a once in a lifetime (hopefully) opportunity and I need to take it all
in while I can! I also have to think
this way or else I will go insane…KIDDING, kind of…
Anyhoo….let’s get caught up!
I landed back in the US of A just shy of 6-weeks ago, and
headed straight to CA to spend a week with my babe. We had a wedding the Friday I got back, subsequently
spent Saturday lounging, and then decided it would be a good idea to redo the
flowerbeds on Sunday. Let me tell you – digging
up 100-year old roots is NOT fun, BUT the end result was pretty
impressive! The next Friday, I planned
to drive down to LA and catch a flight from LAX to San Antonio, but naturally
there was just another natural disaster ruining my plans to drive from
Bakersfield to LA. California had been
getting rain all day, and the mountain range between Bako and LA was basically
falling apart and mudslides covered both the highways shutting everything down. So I ended up buying a last minute plane
ticket from Bakersfield to San Antonio just so I could see my sweet baby
cousin, Sammy Sam, play during his senior year of high school football. Friday night was a ball – Mexican food, Sam’s
team winning the game – right up until I was up all night enjoying my Mexican
food dinner coming right back up. So
instead of having a Saturday full of college football, pizza, and beer with the
fam, I was asleep on the couch. But I
have to admit that anytime spent with my family is good time J
There was no way I was going to miss this trip to Paris, so
we woke up Sunday morning and headed to the airport. I’m pretty sure the first class flight over
healed me, because we landed at 8AM and hit the ground running. We checked into our adorable hotel in Montmarte
and jumped right on a double decker tour bus (city #5). We rode around until we reached the Eiffel
Tower and just had to get off there. My
first glimpse of the landmark is absolutely something that I will never
forget. The lines to go up were
outrageous, so we walked all around the grounds and then stopped at our first
sidewalk café for lunch.
After lunch, spent the rest of the day on the bus and
spotted all the other major sites – Arche de Triompe, the Louvre, Notre Dame. We ended up back at the Eiffel Tower just in
time to see it start sparkling…..and at that moment I fell in love with Paris! We wondered back to Montmarte and stumbled
upon the BEST corner café for nightcaps…which we ended up going back to a few
more times J
Day 2 we accidently slept in a liiiittle longer than
expected, but jumped out of bed and headed up to Sacre Coure. Now, there is a very clear sign outside the
church that says NO PHOTOS, and believe it or not (MOM) I followed the rules
and didn’t take a single photo…even though everyone around me was taking them,
rude. Anyways, the outside is a
beautiful white but the inside is just breathtaking – you’ll just have to see
for yourself! We then headed to Notre
Dame – also WAY more beautiful inside than I was expecting, and were planning
to go to Saint Chapelle, but the line was too long so we enjoyed an hour or so
on a sidewalk café before hitting Champs de Elysees for some shopping! We jumped on a river boat for a little cruise
and ended up in the Latin Quarter wondering around for a place for dinner. Ironically, we stopped at a cute little
Italian place and that is where we had our first taste of Bordeaux wine, and
that was the beginning of the end! Latin
area, Italian restaurant, and French wine – we felt so cultured!
Day 3 we headed to Versailles, which was blow your mind
amazing! I remember going to Hearst
Castle in California and just being in awe of the magnitude of the place. Well, I hate to say it, but Heart has NOTHING
on Versailles. Carol and I walked around
for several hours, and at one point I just said that we have to leave because I
simply couldn’t take in anymore greatness.
That, and my feet were killing me from the 5+ miles we walked – I think
Carol ended up clocking in 25,000 steps on day 3 J.
Back in Paris, we did a little shopping in Montmarte and
headed to the steps of Sacre Coure to watch the sun go down and the lights of
the city start sparling – while drinking a delicious bottle of Bordeaux! It was kind of strange because here we were
on the steps of one of the most gorgeous churches I’ve ever been in, and we
were in the middle of a huge crowd hanging out watching the sun go down over
cocktails. You would have thought that
we were at a really popular bar or restaurant that has great views J From there we jumped on the subway determined
to see all the big sights lit up in the night, and I’d call it a success!
We got back to San Antonio Thursday evening and I got to
spend some more time at Ma and Pa’s house before heading to Dallas for a few
days. I thought I was going to just have
1-night in San Antonio, but thanks to rain (and my excellent luck with air
travel) my flight was cancelled and I got to spend another night in SA (after
4+hours in the airport…). BUT I made it
safely to Dallas in time for some KENO with my Mom and her fabulous friends + “the
daughter’s” Taylor and Jenna. I remember
growing up being locked in the back of the house when Mom had Keno night. We weren’t allowed to be a part of the
shenanigans, but we definitely heard all the cackling. Now, at 28 years old, I get to be a part of
the cackling, and I just LOVE it!
My time in Dallas
flew by, but I was able to heard over to Arlington for the afternoon with Nana
and Papa to visit with my Aunt Bettie and Uncle Jim over lunch. Jim took the DFW Honor Flight to Washington
DC in October, and I couldn’t wait to hear all about it! In typical Jim fashion, he didn’t say much,
but he said enough to know that he enjoyed the trip J After lunch, we headed over to a new Vietnam
War Memorial at a park in Arlington. The
dedication for the memorial had occurred the day before we were there, and
while we were walking around the sculptor that created the monument walked up –
what are the odds?? It was a really
great afternoon J
After a few days rest in Dallas, I headed to New Orleans for
a loooong weekend. I don’t have enough
time to give the trip justice, so here are the highlights (mostly about food)…
Day 1 – Napolean House for a mufaletta and Pimm’s cup, first
glimpse of Bourbon, dinner at Mr. Bs, lost money at Harrah’s
Day 2 – Ammmmazing breakfast at Surrey’s on Magazine street,
WW2 Museum (TOP NOTCH, this is a must see!), Napolean House (again – poboys,
gumbo), Café du Monde (first taste of biegnet), Jackson Square, River front,
Drago’s (chargrilled oysters, OMG), Café Biegnet (better than du monde), looong night on Bourbon…
Day 3 – Poboys (breakfat) in the park, double decker tour
bus (city #6), flea market (apple cinnamon benignets), dinner Pesche (holy
moly, delicious)
Day 4 – Halloween! Court of 2 sisters (buffet breakfast,
AH-mazing), lost more money at Harrah’s, Royal Oyster House for dinner (YUM), Halloween
on Bourbon…in the rain…yikes!
Day 5 – Chad basically had to drag me to the airport just to
have a delayed flight and missed connection in Houston – what else is new ;)
My last week I spent recuperating in Bakersfield with Chad
and catching up with one of my dear friends Carrie and her sweet almost 2-year
old Addalee. It is absolutely amazing
how time flies. I feel like it was just
yesterday that we were getting Carrie married off, and that was 3 years ago
November 3rd! I’ve come to
realize that I really like having some “downtime” the week before I head back
to work…I wonder if I will remember that when I plan my next time off ;)
I will trrrrry and upload some photos sometime this week, and
I’ll be working on my time management skills to make sure I’m on time with my
Sunday blog next week. One thing I’ve
realized over the past 5 days is that I need to get back to being a litttttle
more organized!
5 days down, 30 to go!
xoxo…
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