Last Thoughts on Paris

     

     A random thought on Paris:

      I decided there are many shades of "french blue" according to the doors and shutters in Paris.  

I loved comparing them all and ended up coming home with a phone full of pictures of every shade of blue you can imagine. 

     The sunsets in Paris are beautiful too! 

     The French Blue sky is almost as pretty as our Carolina Blue sky!  

Au revoir Paris! 

Paris Part Un

     I am really gonna do it this time, get this blog thing going again!  Bad habits are so hard for me to break and I consider not taking the time to scrapbook, document my family, organize my photos, blog and so on a bad habit. 

     Planning Brittany's wedding last fall became a full time job for me and I pretty much did nothing else and became uninterested in everything else. Now I feel very overwhelmed and am not sure where to begin here and I guess that is why it has taken me so long to begin again. I am just going to have to do it. I am working on and am going to post every bit of wedding prep and Brittany's wedding weekend. It was FANTASTIC! Oh my goodness - there are so many photos to sort through and how in the world do I pick just a few to post of each event? 

      Well, lesson learned, it is time to catch up! I am starting with a look at our summer. Speaking of summer - I am still in denial that it is all but O.V.E.R.! My flower pots all still look good and make me so happy and I still love sitting by the pool with Art when he gets home for work 

     So, without further ado, Summer 2017 Paris:

 Barrett, hubs and I took a short trip to Paris in July.  We didn't even plan it until the first of June and went without an itinerary, which is totally not my style. Our plan was just to walk the different neighborhoods of Paris, see all of the main sites and sit at a lot of cafes, especially the ones where the locals were sitting. Paris is a direct flight from our airport so the flight there and back was sooo easy. We landed in Paris early morning and by the time we went through customs and took a taxi to our hotel, we were ready for our first cafe experience and in BIG need of coffee, some people watching and authentic french croissants. 

     We stayed in the Latin Quarter on Boulevard Saint Michel  just a few blocks from Notre Dame.  After dropping off our luggage at our hotel (we couldn't check in for a few more hours), we headed towards Notre Dame. looking for the best spot for us to just sit and get acclimated.  We sat at a cafe for about an hour and just took in the sites and sounds of Paris.

(notre dame)

     We decided to take a bus tour - one of those hop on hop off tours. Since Art and I had never been to Paris and our time was very limited, we thought that would be a good way to see everything quickly and we'd know where we would want to go back the next few days.  It actually was a great decision.  We saw everything and got off the bus at the Eiffel Tower and at Avenue des Champs Elysees. The bus even went by our hotel and we were able to hop off, check in, wash up and change our clothes and then we headed out again. 

our hotel

The obviously need to call someone about their sign!

view from our balcony (right)

view from our balcony (left)

     Our first night we were really feeling our lack of sleep and so instead of dinner somewhere, we "cafe hopped" by our hotel and ordered cheese and charcuterie plates and did a little french wine tasting.  Barrett became our map guru and picked out our route that night. (She's good and she's  for hire!)

     We were so exhausted after dinner, we headed to our hotel and definitely slept like rocks that night!  The next two days we walked all over Paris and tried to work off and earn all of the cheese and bread we were eating.

     ******************

I am so glad to finally break through my blog block (aka laziness) and get this posted. I have too many pictures of Paris to put on one post so I already have the next one ready to post in the next few days.  When I started this post, we were watching Irma and planning for it to hit North Carolina. The models had it hitting our beach house AND our home in Raleigh.  We had a very busy weekend planned before Irma shifted and is missing us.  I am so thankful, even though I know others are in her path. We flooded at the beach during hurricane Matthew last year and lost the contents of our downstairs.  This year we've replace all of our lawn equipment, furniture,  a refrigerator

 and our golf cart.  None of those things were covered by insurance.  I am not complaining because we could live without all of those things and we were not in danger when the flooding happened.  I just know the heartbreak, devastation and all of the work that is involved with water damage.
     I just hope that this is the last of the storms this season and that recovery is quick.

Fours Days in Napa

Art and I just got back from Napa last night. 

Today has been a day of playing catch up and laundry. 

     Art had a conference in San Diego last week and flew out on Sunday (Nov. 8). He has been in an organization for many years and we have made some really good friends through all of the traveling, dinners and meetings. One of the friends we have made has a home in Yountville, California in the Napa area.  We, along with three other couples were invited to spend four days there with them after the conference in San Diego. 

Nobody had to twist my arm! 

     I flew to San Francisco and met Art and another couple there in the airport and we drove to the house in Yountville.  I have been two other times before, but each time was in the spring when everything was just starting to bloom. It was beautiful then, but I have to say that fall is giving springtime a run for its money. The leaves are changing on the trees and grapevines, the roses are still in full bloom and so are the other flowers. BEAUTIFUL!

The first night there, we went to eat at Farmstead, but because of the jet lag we called it a night after that.

     Thursday and Friday we spent sightseeing, eating and visiting wineries. Napa is definitely not the place to go if you are on a strict diet and are trying to be "good".  I am paying for it now!

On Friday we went to Bistro Jeanty for lunch. 

(fried smelt appetizer)

(my lunch - tomato soup with puff pastry)

We stopped one of my favorite places, Oakville Grocery.

Wine tasting at Raymond Vineyards.

This place was very different than any other winery I have ever been to. It was very risqué and really not my cup of tea wine! 

(See that mannequin in the background - I am not sure what that is about and what it has to do with wine tasting, but she was one of many mannequins in the wine tasting room. Creepy.)

We went to Revana Family Vineyard. 

It is worth noting that the winery is owned by a cardiologist!

So cheers to good health!

(olive trees around the grapevines)

That night we went to Redd Wood for dinner.

Our friend knows the owner there and had a special tasting menu set up for us. 

Delicious - but we were all misreable after the first course.  

 Have you ever tried fried lemons? They were in the calamari and were soooo good!

 Friday morning we went to Castillo di Amorosa.

After walking the grounds and visiting the animals, we had a tour of the castle. 

Lot's of interesting things to see...

Of course after the touring there was a little wine tasting involved.  

     If you follow me on Instgram you may have seen Gweniverie one of the winery cats. There is a second cat named Sir Lancelot, a yellow tabby, but he was a little shy.  Gweniverie is 100% living a very large life.  She roams the castle and sits on the tables in the wine tasting room. 

 We stopped by Gott's for lunch.

(Gott's was on Dinners Drive-ins and Dives so you know it's good! 

We ended our winery tours with a visit to Del Dotto Vineyards  and had a tour with the owner. 

Saturday morning the six of us that were visiting got up and headed to San Francisco.

We spent the afternoon wandering around and visiting the piers. 

(Alcatraz)

(sea lions)

We went out to eat one more time, 

and went to bed early and because we had to be up and out of the hotel by 5 AM

Sunday morning. 

Today, when I was walking around in my sweats at noon, I got hungry and started looking for a menu. 

Back to reality.