Out of the Metro Area We headed out to Versailles today. It is out of the usual metro ticket line so we had to ask for some help. Getting rejected in those turnstyles with about 20 impatient French behind you is not pleasant. This train is a double decker, maybe bc it heads out to the suburbs and has to cart all the poor Parisians to work all the time. That is where I would be if I lived here. The Vast Fortune of the French Royals Versailles is enormous. And elaborate. And gilded in gold and marble...everywhere. Originally built by Louis XIV it housed a couple of generations of King Louis ending with Louis XVI and his wife Marie-Antoinette, which we all know didn't end well. The little guide that talks to you was pretty ... read more

Jaunt to the Eiffel Tower We decided to head out for a bite to eat and ended up at the Eiffel Tower. Can I say that it is COLD. You will probably hear that a few more times before the vacation ends. I literally couldn't feel my fingers and toes half the time we were out. Am I at Christmaskindle? I thought of Manda and our Chicago trip when there was this village type walk through marked "Christmas Village" across from the Eiffel Tower. We decided to take a look and like Chicago I was lured by the candy, hello coke bottles and new banana gummi, didn't buy anything, and ate a sausage of some type. I tried the vin chaud and it was awful. I didn't like that at all, hot wine with spices of ... read more

Oh the Places to Choose...that had seats available that is Well, since we didn't make the Santiago flight and it didn't look good to get out soon for it either we rolled the dice and tried for Paris. And we made it! The flight was long but I only managed to get in 1.5 movies. I wish I had started with Waiting for Superman instead of Paranormal Activity 2, but you know I am a sucker for horror movies. I didn't really like this one though. Instead of pull out tvs they now have Samsung tablets to watch so that was cool. Trying to get a Hotel We finally found wifi at...you guessed it McDonalds! I love that place. We sampled the fries and these "new fries" which were like thick cut potatoes, dont mess with ... read more

at least here comes my luggage. It was unfortunate that we didn't make it onto the flight last night, such is the chance with standby, but we think my luggage might be having a great time in sunny Santiago. I hope it makes it back. When asked what 3 things I had in there all I could think of was each pair of shoes I had in there. The guy was like no, different things please. Ah, no, I want my shoes back! So we will see where we try to go...stay tuned. Although all my "warm" clothes were in my bags...... read more

Feliz Ano Nuevo 2011 I guess she wasn't as crazed as I thought since we made it on the Miami flight and spent the New Year with champagne in business class once again, on our way back to the good old USA. Yay! Adios, Buenos Aires. It was fun!! Good to be back though. Note: This is for my Dad who said I didn't really finish out this trip saying we got on the flight and made it home. But I did say that in the previous entry, he thinks people only read the snippets available. ... read more

Still here! We didn't make the standby flight so we are still here. Maybe a New Year's in BA or hopefully in the air, on a flight. We shall see. We did top the late dinner last night at 2 pm. Amazing how restaurants are still serving that late. We passed by a club on the way home and it was hopping. And so was some other club music we got to here in the hotel room to try and sleep. Bus Tour Trying to keep our sweat down to a minimum, we decided to take a city bus tour. It was open air but today it did seem cooler than previously. i kept thinking "cool" thoughts anyways. We headed round the city with an audio guide that was off cue most of the time but ... read more

The Beef Coma After eating about 4 lbs of beef last night I think we were in a beef induced coma. Got a late start and just decided to wander around the city, do some shopping, and just take in the atmosphere. We headed back out to my favorite street, Florida, to get in some more shopping. The street is just lined with shops and people selling stuff on the street itself. We stopped in for some coffee at Havanna, a coffee shop that seems to be like our starbucks. A couple of starbucks were spotted but not many. Subway was also seen, and Burger King had the quadruple burger. The Protest We did see a protest from the hotel window, not sure what they were protesting but there sure were quite a few marchers. Yesterday ... read more