Geo: 41.8861, -87.6364It was another rainy day here so we took the trolley to Millennium Park. We saw the amazing Cloud Gate, also known as the Chicago Bean. It was rainy so we didn't get the photos we were hoping for. Then we wandered down to the Crown Fountain. The faces on the fountain change about every ten minutes. Very cool!We enjoyed a nice lunch at a place called Potbelly Sandwich Shop before heading to the Chicago Art Institute. Viewing the gallery was a great way to spend a rainy afternoon. It is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings which we enjoyed. We liked " A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Charles ... read more

Geo: 9.93333, -84.0833Today we are off to Chicago to another home exchange. This will be our fifth home exchange this year! We have always wanted to see Chicago, so now is our chance. We were up at 3:30 am, as we had a taxi coming at 4:30 am. The taxi arrived 45 minutes early, but we were organized and ready to go by 4:00 am. This trip we are flying with Delta. Once checked in we used our Black MasterCard and visited the airport lounge. The plane boarded on time, but once we were all buckled in they announced they could not leave due to volcanic ash on the runway. Turrialba Volcano has been spewing out ash off and on for the past week, and this morning it happened again! We waited 1 1/2 hours before ... read more

Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236We have one day to tour through London. We had an early breakfast and then headed to the Hop On Hop Off bus stop. The bus was a great way to view Paris, so we will do the same in London. We have both been to London many times, but have never taken a tour like this. The tours are good as you listen to a light commentary as the bus makes its way through different areas of interest in London. When you want to get off and explore on foot for a while you can and when you want to just sit you climb back on board. We rode from Kings Cross area to Fleet Street where we got off. We walked up Fleet Street, past the Royal Courts of Justice all the ... read more

Geo: 48.8417, 2.07672Today we have a lovely sunny day with which to enjoy our last day in France. We have been very lucky with weather our whole nine weeks in France. Tomorrow we are off to London for two nights before flying back to Canada. After breakfast we went for a morning coffee and filled one of our vehicles with gas. In the afternoon we did the same thing while filling the other vehicle with gas. Gas was around $2.25 CDN per litre and diesel was just under $2.00 CDN per litre. Crazy prices!We spent the rest of our day cleaning our exchange home and packing our suitcases and catching up on our blog. We have a taxi booked for 9:30 am tomorrow. ... read more

Geo: 49.4195, 0.232602Today we headed off on an excursion to the Normandy coast. The first order of business was to get onto the freeway, a nightmare of a task, as all the roads were jammed with morning rush hour traffic headed to Paris. Oh, we so don't miss that! Once on the freeway, we had about a two hour drive to Honfleur, a pretty little village on the coast. Because it is so picturesque, it is a magnet for tourists, so it is mostly restaurants and souvenir shops, but lovely nonetheless. We then headed west along the Normandy coast, through a series of small villages, until we reached Sword, the first of the series of D-day beaches. We stopped in a couple of little villages that were on Juno Beach, where Canadian forces landed. We were ... read more