Chris, Anneka, Sophie & Lily Cindrich: Paris

So, here we are, its day 3 and we've got an internet connection. Let's back up a couple of days. We left Salt Lake on Thursday night on the Salt Lake to Paris direct flight. It's probably the 5th time we've been on that flight and every year we're stunned that Delta Airlines puts in-flight entertainment systems on flights from Salt Lake to Orlando for 4 hours but doesn't provide in-flight entertainment systems on a 10 hour trans-continental flight like to Paris. So, to our delight there were in-seat video screens on the plane, in coach as we go on. This was going to be particularly good since there were no empty seats on the flight for us to put Lily's car seat in and, funny enough, the couple that got the bulkhead bassinet before us is someone Anneka went to high school with. Come to find out they're on the same flight home as us. Looks like it'll be a race to the airport on our return to see if we can beat them to the bassinet reservation.

Anyways, back to the TV's. Plane takes off and when they kick on the entertainment system it worked only in the middle rows of seats and not on the outside rows were we were sitting. I was so miffed. They said they tried to reboot it several times but couldn't figure it out. So, knowing there was a list of about 100 movies I could watch I had to contend myself with other endeavors as I held Lily in my lap for the next 5 hours.

It stunk.

But, eventually, with about 4 hours left in the flight they rebooted it successfully. Never mind it was at the time when you're too tired to watch any more.

We landed and got our car and headed out to our hotel. Got pretty lost trying to find it but managed to stumble upon it. Took a quick nap for about 3 hours then headed into the city. We took Sophie to see Ratatouilles' castle (the Eiffel tower as Sophie calls it) before grabbing diner on Rue Cler. After dinner we did a river cruise which is something we've wanted to do for years.

Then Lily blew out.

I mean she really blew out. It was up her and down her and on her left side and her right side. Masterfully, Anneka had packed a full extra outfit for her. We missed a good chunk of the cruise getting Lily washed down and reconfigured. It was so gross. We have a feeling that won't be the last such episode.

Next morning we slept in a bit, well, till almost 2pm then loaded up the car to go to Disneyland.

Then Sophie blew out.

We'd just loaded Soph into her car seat and she hurled. Luckily it was a brief first toss and we got her out of the car in time for her to barf two more times. Course Teddy got the brunt of it since Teddy is always curled up to Sophie's mouth when she cuddles with him. Needles to say we were worried about taking her to Disneyland to ride Thunder Mountain roller coaster or the teacups or anything for that matter. Somehow she pulled it off and managed a full recovery before we got to the park.

It was overcast and drizzled a bit on us for the better part of the day. That took a little fun out of it but as we look on the bright side it means its likely that our second visit to Disneyland at the end of the trip will be better and we can hopefully end on a high, and dry note.

Today we drove south a bit to the Loire valley. It was overcast and cool in Paris and we thought for sure it will get clearer and warmer as we drove further south. Such was not the case. Essentially we got downright rained on, hard, all day long. We are in the tiny town of Chinon with the partially restored remains of a beautiful castle perched along the high side of a riverside ridge. We toured as much as we could with Lily in her stroller, with the rain cover on and Sophie and Mom sharing an umbrella. I had nothing and got drenched. Anneka got quite wet too. Seems Sophie is perhaps a bit of an umbrella hog... Anyways, it was fun despite being cold (11 degrees C) and very rainy. Weather forecast isn't looking good for the next week either. Don't be surprised if in the next few days our posts start coming from Italy. We have no qualms ditching France in favor of warmth and sun in Tuscany. And, Sophie hasn't been there yet...

More later. Hopefully you enjoy the pictures.

Chris, Anneka, Soph and Lil.