Paris Trip Report

The flight to Paris was ok. I was able to sleep but Andrew stayed up the whole trip, mostly watching shows on my iPod. When we arrived in Paris the immigration and customs was super efficient- it might have been the fastest process either one of us has every been through. We took the train to the center of Pais and then connected to the subway. From there we easily navigated to my aunt and uncle's apartment. The apartment was great! It is a two story apartment on the top floor of a 7 story building. It used to be the maid's quarters for another apartment. My aunt is a great cook, so it has a fully decked out kitchen. We had a bedroom upstairs and there is a nice sitting area downstairs next to the kitchen.

Here's the view at night- not bad!

We got to the apartment about 9:30 am and our plan was to stay up the whole day so we could adjust to the time more easily. However, while I was showering Andrew fell asleep on the bed and then I did too. We woke up about 4! Ooops...

So we finally got up and headed out. The apartment is not very far from the Arc de Triomphe. We walked down there and along the Champs-Élysées, just getting used to the city. For dinner that night we went to this great little restaurant that only serves steak frites. All you have to do is tell the server how well you want your steak done. Easier for our limited French! The sauce they serve with the steak is a closely held secret and for good reason- it was amazing! Andrew wanted to lick it off the plate.

We had a nice walk home and then it was off to bed. The next morning was rough- the time change really got me and I had trouble getting up!

We headed to the Effiel Tower to meet a bike tour we wanted to take through FatTireBikeTours.com. The company is based in Austin and was started by an Aggie a few years older than I am. It could have been a really good tour, except they weren't fully staffed yet, so even though they split us into two groups, we were still too big to be biking around Paris (25 bikes). We were able to see a lot and started learning more about the history of Paris.


After the tour ended we were pretty pooped. We stopped by a grocery store and made dinner that night, planned the rest of the trip based on what we had seen and went to bed again.

Paris – Getting there

Andrew and I went to Paris last week. My aunt and uncle have an apartment there and they generously gave us a week in it as a wedding present. So for Andrew’s spring break we headed over there. We used miles (one of the benefits of all the travel I do) and with the free place to stay, we actually had a very cheap vacation!

We flew out of Dallas because it took significantly less miles and because we could drop Chuy off at my parents house. As we were getting ready to leave Austin we made the pile of everything we were taking in the living room. Andrew walked out and was shocked at how much stuff we had:

- My suitcase
- My carry-on bag
- Andrew’s suitcase
- Andrew’s carry-on bag
- Andrew’s dress clothes (Andrew had to fly out of Dallas again as soon as we got back to go to a conference and needed a suit)
- Chuy’s crate
- Chuy’s toys, food bowls, leashes, etc
- Cooler (Chuy’s food needs to be refrigerated)
- Bag of books and stuff for Dallas (I think every book a Balaze owns gets read by at least two people in the family and usually more)

It all got in the car, but as dog seems to require about as much stuff as a baby, it appears we are done with traveling light for a while.

We got in the car and headed up to Dallas without incident. After a nice meal and some catching up we went to bed. Early in the morning we headed to DFW. We were taking a flight from Dallas to New York’s La Guardia and then we needed to get to JFK on our own for the evening flight to Paris. We didn’t check any bags, which made the transfer easier. After looking at the options, we could either do a bus/subway/tram combo to get from La Guardia to JFK or we could take a cab. We decided on the cab. Or, I should say, I overruled Andrew and we took a cab.

When we got off the plane in La Guardia we both had cell phone messages from our credit card company. Apparently our card had suspicious activity on it, and sure enough, the number had been stolen. The company said they would send us a new card but in the meantime, we were to cut up our card. Luckily, we have an emergency credit card for just this situation…

After going through a second round of security at JFK and several hours in the Admirals Club we boarded and were off!

Carbohydrates

One of my goal this year is to eat a more balanced diet. I knew I probably ate more carbohydrates than I probably should and not enough veggies, so I've been trying to eat two veggies a meal and watch how many rolls I eat.

This week I joined gyminee.com. It's a website that tracks your calorie intake and your workouts. I've tried several other websites like this, including fitday.com and mypyramidtracker.gov and I like this one better already. It seems to have an easier user interface.

The only thing I don't like about the site is that I have learned I am eating WAY too many carbs. Every day this week I've gone well over my carb limit at lunch. I do okay on total calories and fat, but as I feared, my diet is not very balanced. There is something about a pie chart that really brings it home.

When I told Andrew about it and he would have guessed I ate 70-80% carbs, so he wasn't surprised at all. Now my challenge is to figure out how to eat low-carb meals while relying on restaurant food during the week!

Chuy's Destruction Tally

Andrew's slipper
Andrew's sunglasses
Andrew's watch
Andrew's pencil

Do you see a pattern? Guess which one of us is less likely to use drawers...

Chuy's first haircut

We love how Chuy looks like a little teddy bear, but the weather is starting to get warm here (so nice to be back in Texas!), so we I scheduled an appointment to get her groomed. I told them to cut her pretty short and boy did they! I didn't even recognize her when I picked her up.

Here is the last shot before she got groomed:



And here are the after shots:

As my mom said, it grows back.