when the cats go away

They have fun. At the end of last month, Papa and I celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. Being subscribers of the "go big or go home" ethos when it comes to celebration, we opted to go on a Meditteranean/European cruise sans pups (thanks to Grammy, we felt pretty good about leaving the pups at home, thanks Grammy!). We started off in Spain.

After we got on the cruise ship and cruised for a day we pulled into Naples and took a bus up the Amalfi Coastal stopping in Sorrento, Positano, and Amalfi. Before heading back to the ship we also stopped in Pompeii.

On the third day, we pulled into Cevittivechia a port in Italy. From there, we took a bus to Rome. We were able to walk around the Vatican Museum and see the Sistine Chapel. We also went to the Colisseum. Rome was pretty awesome.

On the third day we pulled into a very industrial port and took a tour bus to Florence. Decidedly beautiful and romantic.

On the fourth day, the boat was anchored just off of the port of Villefranche and took a tourbus to Nice, Eze and Monaco. I enjoyed Nice most.

Papa was a fan of Eze.

On the fifth day, the ship pulled into La Sur La Mer and we took a bus to Marseilles. It was a beautiful city and we had a great time seeing the sights.

We had a lot of fun. There are a ton of pictures in flickr, have a look-see!

bonjour!

I meant to talk about our big family trip before we actually went away; but, isn't it so much better that I didn't and can just dive in now? Yes, let's go with that.

So last week, the Wandering Seals wandered across the Atlantic and spent spring break in France. We concentrated our adventures in Normandy with the occasional trip into Paris by train.

It was awesome, and when I saw "awesome," I actually mean mind-blowingly spectacular.
I am not going to lie, international travel with two kids is no cake-walk. It is not for the feint of heart, it is not for the weak, people! But oh, was it worth it!We left Friday(3/5) evening thinking that the kids would, obviously sleep through the whole flight there and wake up ready to go.
Obviously, we are fools. They were so amped up that it took them a few hours to finally sleep and by the time we got there, everyone was tired.

We stayed at a beautiful place in the town of Connelles, right on the Seine (our balcony gave us a great view).

We spent time in Honfleur, quite possibly, the prettiest fishing village, ever.

And we also went to Caen to see the World War II Memorial Museum.
We went to Paris, of course.


Twice, just to get in as much as possible (I can not go to the Paris and not go to Monmatre).
And we went to Rouen.

We also went to Bayeux.
We went to the American Cemetery on the D-Day Beaches and saw Omaha Beach (this was actually the whole purpose of the trip, really--or at least what sparked the initial plan to go).

We spent time in Lyon a la Foret (the prettiest village in France)
.And then we bopped into little towns near Connelles like Val du Ruil, Elbeauf, Louviers, Ande, and Herqueville to shop, eat and explore. We had a great time.
And in case you were unaware, the most popular tourist destination in Europe is Disneyland Paris. I know, it suprised me too, but if Rick Steeves says it's so, it must be true.I put 30% of our photographs from the trip up in flickr; but, there is no processing and no additional information there (because, seriously, I don't have time to comment on 300 images in a timely manner). If you want a little narration and would like to see pictures with a little bit more fine-tuning and more critical selection (hi Papa!) please check out my other flickr account here, there you will find only 10%--but that's still over a hundred pictures, so grab a snack, I guess.

Au revoir!