Thank You, Julia!

July 21 was Jula's Happy Half Birthday, and thanks to her dedication to her dream, we made it all the way to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The rest of us would have given up waiting at various moments, although each time I saw her sad face, I had to stick with her. We had climbed up to the second level after waiting only about 40 minutes on the ground by the South Pier; I say climbed but Julia practically ran up all 670 steps. Then when we got to that level, we were not yet sure if we wanted to all take the elevator to the top. We waited just too long to get into that summit ticket line so that they had closed it due to crowding.

Thus began the critical period. We decided to join a small line forming where the summit ticket line would be and then the real waiting began. We think it was about 75 minutes in that pre-line. Once we bought those precious summit tickets, our fears of another long queue were quickly resolved because it only took 5 minutes to snake our way to the elevator. I should pause here to mention that I was feeling more than a touch acrophobic during the hike up, when first on the platforms and in the elevator to the top. I eventually recovered but there are some humorous photos of my face at some junctures. Space limitations prevent me from sharing them. Back to the journey to the summit. It was really spectacular up there. The overall height, including the towers on the tippy top, is 324 meters. It was an overcast day but the rain had stopped and we could see all the major monuments easily.

My post today, about yesterday, is a bit jumbled because I had to start with our ultimate accomplishment. I'll fill in the details, sort of in reverse order. We all were a bit crabby, tired, excited, maybe a little nervous about being in our third country in five days. When we had arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord, we had to head to Gare du Lyon to eventually meet our host. As we were not meeting him until 2:00pm and it was about noon-ish, we got a map and strolled across a bridge over the Seine to the Jardin des Plantes. There were flowers and vegetables growing surrounded by trees and a few beautiful buildings housing various museums. Lucy had a blast photographing random plants.

Our day started out well as we had bought first class tickets on Thalys, one of the high speed train lines to France from Brussels, because for the 21st, the national holiday in Belgium, we could still buy the "Kids and Co." reduced fares in first class. The moment we sat down, we all decided that first class was definitely the way to go. We got free food and drinks, and although it was only 10:45am, I sampled the white wine in an adorable mini-bottle using the round red glass. The girls were charmed by the 150ml cans of orange juice.

After our long day at the Eiffel Tower, about 5 hours for the complete adventure, we took the long subway ride back to our host's home. Sebastien Renaud, a friend who worked with Brian at U.S. DOT in 2006 and 2007, is letting us stay in his apartment during our time in Paris. He was here last night and cooked a fabulous dinner. It was so nice to see him before he left early this morning for Finland to meet his wife Tarja and daughter Alva for vacation. Thanks Sebastien for your generous hospitality!