Pearlin and I went on a 3-week vacation in July. I had the honor of being the best man at a friend's wedding in Boston. His name is Leigh and he is American Japanese, and fluent in Japanese, including writing. What makes him unusual is the fact that he married an Indian Muslim girl named Zahra, from Tanzania, and has converted in order to marry her. Even as an outsider, it is clear that it was very difficult for him to convert for a variety of reasons, including simply being accepted by the community. At any rate, the wedding went well and they are happily married! Although Pearlin wasn't formally in the wedding party, she was treated just like she was because Leigh decided to let me walk Pearlin down the aisle instead of a bridesmaid. In addition, Pearlin was especially helpful the day of the wedding, and was recognized for being so at the wedding reception.
While we were in Boston, we went to Burdick to get our fix of dark hot chocolate (a ritual for every trip back to Boston), but they were closed for remodeling. Aaaaahh! We ate a delicious meal at Cafe of India, however, so at least that went well!
Afterward, we flew to Switzerland for a week to visit my sister Viv and her 3 kids. At the time we visited them, her kids were 1.5, 4, and 5.5 years old. They were a lot of fun and also a lot of work! That was a great preview for what our life will be like a little down the road after we have our own children. Viv's husband Didier took the week off, so we did a variety of outdoorsy things, including a visit to Chateau D'Oex, various bouts of hiking, visit to a zoo with penguins, and heated swimming pools. Naturally, the scenery in Switzerland was amazing. I told Viv that she probably no longer has a need for Yosemite, but surprisingly, she replied that she really misses Yosemite, because it is both scenic and has great weather. So even the Swiss need Yosemite...
After a week in Switzerland, we took a train into France, stopping in Dijon for one night. Pearlin and I are definitely foodies, so we dined in style at a fancy restaurant called "Les Oenophiles", which sports a prestigious 3-star rating from Michelin. We ate outdoors, and although we dressed up nicely (Pearlin wore a nice dress), some of the other diners were very casually dressed, but I guess that shouldn't be too surprising with tourists.
We then rented a car (first time renting in Europe for us) and drove toward the Loire Valley and stopped in little towns along the way. We had a good time, but accidentally left our map of France at Viv's, so actually got lost for a couple of hours. We had taken a roundabout onto the correct road, but in the wrong direction! Oh well. At least we visited Auxerre, and wouldn't have otherwise. The good news is that we reached our destination in Chenonceaux in time for a nice dinner. Our bed and breakfast was really cool. The lady who runs the place literally picked fresh strawberries from her yard in the morning for us to eat. What started as a really humble looking breakfast turned out to be a fulfilling meal, and her powder for hot chocolate was really potent.
Chateau Chenonceaux was as beautiful as I remember it the first time I had visited, but this was Pearlin's first time, and we took a lot of pictures.
We also saw visited Leonardo Da Vinci's last residence at Clos Luce. King Francois the 1st gave Da Vinci royal treatment and a really generous allowance of 700 gold crowns per year. In return, he simply spent time with Da Vinci every day that he could.
Chateau Amboise was also really cool, and we attended a night time performance at the chateau that covered the history of Amboise. The entire show was put on by the locals. It wasn't an amazing show, but sufficient entertainment.
After two days in the Loire Valley, we capped off our trip by visiting Paris for 6 days. We rented a great studio in the Latin Quarter, which is about as good a location as you can possibly hope to get in Paris. We found the apartment through Craiglist and rented it for 6 days for 550 euros, which is an incredible deal considering the location. The only downside was that we had to hike 4 flights of stairs to get to the room, but I'd like to think of it as a mixed blessing because we got in better shape as a result!
In Paris, we got the 4-day museum pass and milked it well. The most significant benefit was our ability to bypass a variety of ticket lines, saving us precious time. We visited too many museums to want to talk about them in detail.
One highlight included making it to the very top of the Eiffel Tower. We got there before it opened, but still had to wait in a long line. The good news is that by going early, we were able to get to the top fairly quickly. If you plan to go to the Eiffel Tower in peak season and want to get to the top, remember to stand in the longest line because that section of the Eiffel Tower has elevators, and the others only have stairs. As sporting as it is to climb the stairs, if you want to get to the top, you really should take the elevators. Otherwise, you'll end up in a long line in a futile attempt to reach the very top.
Our fanciest night was the Moulin Rouge, and the performance was terrific. In fact, they featured a balancing act that was perhaps more impressive than any single balancing act I have ever seen in Cirque du Soleil, and I've seen a lot of shows! There's was also an incredible juggling act that featured a drum set as a prop. The juggler shot ping pong balls out of his mouth against different parts of the drum set to achieve a truly unique juggling act. He did a lot of really impressive, world class juggling stuff. And of course, the women did a can can dance toward the end of the show. Here's some precious advice if you want to go see the Moulin Rouge: 1. Buy dinner or else you'll end up at the back of the room with the tour groups. 2. Line up at least one hour early. This is because your seats are assigned on a first come, first serve basis, and you want front row center. We didn't arrive early enough, so we were seated front row, side, which was pretty good, but left something to be desired because the middle of the stage was extended forward, so we saw the side or back of some of the dancers.
Anyway, I left out a lot of detail, but suffice to say we have a wonderful 3-week vacation :-)
