I'm writing the day after because once we got home and got settled it was pretty late.
We started Wednesday in Huntsville, AL. It was really warm, I was a little disappointed in weather.com, our supposed "hottest" day was actually the coolest and our "cool" day was the warmest...go figure.
We went to the Davidson Space Center where they just opened an exhibit of the Saturn V rocket. They had a model outside, which was gigantic, and a real un-used rocket inside. It was spectacularly huge, it was hard to capture in the photos, definitely a must see! We also toured the rocket park and original museum. The rest of the space center just needs a bit of an update and it could be really cool.
Saturn V rocket, trying to get perspective on how big it was!
Models of the space shuttle Pathfinder and the Saturn V rocket
We then drove for about an hour to Lynchburg, TN to the Jack Daniel's Distillery, after an amazing lunch of McDonalds! That part of TN is really pretty and the distillery sits in a really beautiful "holler," as they call it. We took the (free) tour and learned all about the history of the area and Jack himself. The distilling process was really similar to the bourbon tours we've seen, but they run their still through 10' of charcoal which they say gives it it's smoothness. They also barrel age the whiskey, like bourbon.
4 stages of whiskey, the clear stuff is 140 proof!
The top of the 10' charcoal process, we took a whiff of this stuff (140 proof), pretty strong!!
The distillery is in Moore county which is a dry county so they were not allowed to give any tastings, but we did buy a commemorative bottle, they were only allowed to sell this.
We drove home after the whiskey tour, with a quick stop to get a stamp at a civil war battle ground in Murphreesboro, TN. It was a lot of driving but a fun day overall. Now it's back to reality until I leave for my audition at FSU with my good friend Jon, hopefully more to post then!
Looking back on today, it seems like we've been up forever! We started today in Little Rock, AR and went to Little Rock Central High School, one of the first schools to desegregate which caused an uprising in the city, and country for that matter. It was really eerie to think that so much violence and anger could have happened in this tiny little neighborhood. The visitors center was neat and had a ton of good information. I didn't know too many details surrounding the event so I spent a lot of time reading all of the information. I wrote down several book titles in the gift shop to check out b/c I didn't feel completely satisfied with the entire story, maybe because it was so unbelievable. The Gov of AR at the time sounds completely crazy, he even canceled school for an entire year so as not to have his schools forcibly integrated....crazy!!
Front of Little Rock Central High School (still a public HS)
Little Rock Nine sculpture outside the Arkansas State Capitol
We drove to the state capitol to take pictures of the "Little Rock Nine" statues and then headed to the Clinton Library. It is a very unique building that overlooked the river. It was a neat museum and had a lot of cool artifacts from his presidency. He had his daily itineraries for each day he was in office. It was neat to look and see what he was doing on election day in 1996 and inauguration day in 1997 and my birthday. He also had many great letters from famous people and some neat gifts from foreign leaders. Overall it was a neat museum, but would have been cool to see some stuff from his life before he was president. (I know I use the word "neat" way too much, but I'm too tired to go back and edit at this point....)
Outside the Clinton Library
We drove back to Memphis with the intention of going to the Gibson factory but the tour was sold out. We were a little bummed, but realized that all of the workers are off by that tour so we wouldn't have seen anyone making guitars anyway. We killed time (waiting for BBQ) by walking around Beale Street and visiting the Peabody Hotel.
The ducks at the Peabody were cute. We didn't stay to watch them do their walk, but we did watch them while they were in the fountain and went on the roof to see where they lived when not in the fountain. We were there an hour before their walk and at 45min before the place was starting to fill up with people, good thing we had BBQ plans or we would've been in a huge crowd after a while. The Peabody is super nice and even has Francis Scott Key's piano! I thought it was neat because it looked like the piano my family had when I was growing up.
Francis Scott Key's piano
We ate BBQ at Rendezvous BBQ and had two full slabs of ribs, yes two! It was the only meal we'd eaten today (except for our banana and cracker lunch on the road) so we were really hungry. We also ate BBQ Chicken nachos, which were really good!
Our first slab of ribs at Rendezvous BBQ
We are now in Huntsville, AL spending the night and will head home tomorrow, after seeing some space stuff, of course. I was going to leave you with a cute video of ducks, but this internet is excruciatingly slow so maybe tomorrow...
It's spring break for me, so we decided to take a little road trip to get some states checked off of Ryan's list. I have all of the states we're going to already, but we're seeing some neat things so I don't mind.
We got up super early and got to Memphis around 10:30am central time. We first went to the Civil Rights Museum which is where MLK was assassinated. It was a pretty big museum with lots of new information about the history of civil rights in the U.S. The hotel portion was really interesting and haunting. I was disappointed the room was reconstructed, I had it in my mind that it was original from the day he was shot. We also got to go across the street to see the boarding house where the shooter was located.
Outside the hotel where MLK was shot
We ate lunch next, Ryan's job is to blog about the food today (it was AMAZING). We finally got to eat at the burger place Ryan had been talking about since we met. Then on to Graceland.
As we were walking in, I felt like the biggest tourist ever but was quickly sucked into the Elvis experience and ended up having a really good time. We went b/c we thought we should, but it was really cool and definitely exceeded our expectations. The house was awesome, very Elvis, and looked like it did when he lived there. We also went to the car museum, the army exhibit and went through his airplanes. He lived a very extravagant lifestyle and it was really cool to be able to see that in person. We got our usual magnets and small token Elvis items and ended up spending about 3 hours there. It's a little expensive, but very unique and fun, well worth it I think.
Outside Graceland (pronounced Grace-lund)
One of my favorite shots from inside the Mansion
We ate dinner at Gus's chicken (again Ryan will blog) but I just need to say everyone has to go there! I was literally speechless during one point during dinner b/c the chicken was THAT good, seriously.
The most amazing piece of chicken in the history of man, ever.
We drove a couple of hours to Little Rock, AR (a new state for Ryan) and are spending the night here to do LRCHS and the Clinton Library tomorrow, then back to Memphis! Day one was a success I would say. I'll post all the pics once we get back.
We got into Rothenburg, Germany just before dinner last night. We had a quick orientation meeting and then checked into our hotels and had dinner. We were left to explore the city for the rest of the evening and then our final staff meeting to figure out how we were going to get these kids home.
I spent the evening taking the Night Watchman tour. This was really intersting, it was just a man who dressed up as a traditional Watchman who used to roam the wall of the city throughout the night keeping the town safe. He knew a ton of history about the city and explained how daily life worked in a walled medieval city. It was really cool to see how well preserved the town was and understand what life was like when the town was first thriving.
town square
The next day was almost entirely our own, with the exception of our final concert. I spent most of it with my new friends, Josh and Melissa Toppass. We did a lot of souvenier shopping and walking the cobblestone streets. Rothenburg is the home of Kathe Wolfhardt, which is a hugh manufacturerer of handmade Christmas decorations. She had a store on every street corner and I think we went into almost everyone. We wrapped up our free time at a German sidewalk restaurant where we ate Bratwurst and German potatoes. It was delicious!
We had our final concert in the town square, just after the town clock did it's thing, demonstrating the town story of the mayor drinking a ton of wine in order to save the city. Only in Germany, I think!
the famous clock reenacting how the town was saved
I went back to the hotel to finish packing and then we ate dinner and the entire group got together for our final celebration together. Some of the buses performed sketches of their interpretations of the trip and we went over the details of tomorrow so everyone was on the same page.
walking on the wall around Rothenburg
one of the main streets from atop the wall
the other side of Rothenburg from outside the wall
I am a bit nervous about tomorrow because we have one hour to depart our gigantic plane, go through customs, recheck our luggage and instruments, and get to another terminal to board our next plane (which was going to Minneapolis!!). We will be cutting it close but we have forewarned the kids and so far when we have important situations like this, my kids have stuck close to me and we've always managed to survive.
As my time here ends, I am very thankful for the expereince and of course all the friends I have made on staff. It has been a great group to work with and it was fun to spend the last night reminiscing with some of my closest new friends. We do say that we are excited to return without 3oo high school students, but they have made the trip good as well. I can't wait to get home and share this with Ryan and my family and friends.
It was another early morning and the weather was really dreary and rainy. It was appropriate since we were visiting Dachau today. We took the Autobahn through Munich and got to Dachau before lunch.
We got a little lost trying to find the entrance because nothing was really marked so we ended up being soaked before we even got inside. Once we were in I went into the museum, which was an old building that housed the hospital, kitchens and armament factory. They had a movie about what happened at Dachau and lots of informative displays. I didn't have much time to look around inside because I wanted to see the housing areas and the crematorium.
They actually destroyed all the housing after the prisoners were liberated so they recreated two buildings to replicate what they had to live in. It was really mind blowing because they fit 500 people into each section of these houses (I think there were three sections in each...). All that is left of the original housing are the footprints of the foundations.
I made it to the crematorium which is at the opposite end and outside the fences surrounding Dachau. If my information is correct, they never used the "showers" at Dachau, even though they were built. Even seeing them, knowing they weren't really used, was still very sobering and completely unbelievable.
We then got back onto the bus for the rest of our trip to Rothenburg, my mind was definitely on what I had seen today, I am glad to have had that experience.
The area where they would line up the prisoners many times a day
The old building which now houses the museum
Inside one of the housing buildings, the bunks were three high
Part of the trench surrounding Dachau, also a guard tower
Happy Birthday Dr. Speck!We woke up insanely early this morning in order to get some good time in Venice.It was about a 5 hour bus ride to Venice but most of us slept the whole time.We got to Venice around 11am and had a quick lunch before jumping on a ferry over to the actual city.
We were really overwhelmed by the heat, we had not really dealt with heat at all during the trip so it was especially tough to deal with.We took a walking tour of the city led by a tour guide which was interesting.We stuck to the back streets to keep in the shade and avoid crowds and got to see how real Venetians lived.We also got to see the church where Vivaldi was baptized, I get real excited to see places like that, where famous composers had once been.We then went to St. Marks Cathedral where other composers like Monteverdi and Gabrielli had once performed, very cool.The Cathedral itself was so great, very dark and had these amazing mosaics that looked like paintings they were so good.Even the floors were covered with mosaics, our guide says the church floods several times a year, even just a few days ago.I can’t believe it was still in that good of shape after all that abuse.
The church where Vivaldi was baptized
St. Mark's Cathedral
We ended our tour at the Murano glass factory, which I guess is a big deal even though I had never heard of it before.We got to see one of the master glass blowers create a vase (which he proceeded to destroy when we left) and also saw their showroom.The glass was beautiful but expensive, as you can imagine.
a canal with a gondola
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Venice, eating some pizza and of course having gelato.The architecture was beautiful throughout the city and it was always mind boggling to thing that we were standing on stilts and this whole city was floating, it is a shame that it is also slowly sinking.I really liked Venice, although it did sort of smell like urine at times and there were a ton of people in a small amount of space.It was definitely nice to get back to our small, open Austrian town.
some canal boats lined up along the water
leaving Venice, neat sky!
Tomorrow we’re finally off to Germany, my most anticipated part of the trip.I have always wanted to go to Germany.On our way to Rothenburg we’re going to stop at Dachau, that will be interesting to see for sure.
We got into Seefeld, Austria in the early evening last night. It was nice because we got to explore the town a bit and not have to rush off to bed. I spent the evening hearing the choir sing at St. Oswalt’s church, a church where a miracle occurred. It was an interesting story of a knight who came into the church and demanded to take the wafer during communion, which I guess is usually reserved for the priest. The priest finally gave into his demands and when the knight took the wafer it became bloody and his feet sank into the ground and his hand melted the stone altar. The priest got the wafer out of his mouth and the knight was so overcome by this experience he dedicated his life to becoming a priest. We got to see the altar and floor where this happened after the choir sang in the church. The choir sounded amazing in this space and the church was absolutely beautiful.
The choir singing in St. Oswalt's
Where the knight's foot sank into the ground
Today we drove to Innsbruck, which was home to the ’64 and ’76 Olympics. We first went to the ski jump which was on top of a mountain overlooking the Inn Valley. It was so neat to see and there were ski jumpers practicing while we were there so we got to see them go off the jump! They designed the jump to be usable year around with a special turf they would wash down with water in between jumps. It was really cool to see and also to hear those jumpers.
Can you see the ski jumper?
Next we drove down to the Wilten Basilica, which was visited by the Pope. It was so amazing to see, it was decorated in the Rococo style and was so overwhelmingly ornate and beautiful. There were lots of pinks and golds with cherubs and very detailed paintings on the ceilings. It was really remarkable and was even better because the choir got to sing a few pieces while we were there. The acoustics of those old churches are absolutely amazing and was a really great experience.
After that we drove to the Altstadt or “old city” to do some shopping. We saw a house where Mozart and his father lived and played a concert for the King, that was really cool. You wouldn’t even know it unless you saw the tiny plaque above one of the outdoor cafes. That is one things I noticed about Innsbruck, they do not really get into publicizing the cool things about their city. I was looking for some neat Olympic things, but couldn’t really find anything…..you wouldn’t even know they hosted one if someone didn’t tell you.
Where Mozart once stayed with his father in Innsbruck
We went back to Seefeld and had time to do some more shopping and eat lunch before our concert. Our concert was a challenge for myself and the kids. It rained up until our time to perform and the sun came out in full force during the concert. It was impossible to see and the heat was intense. We were lucky to still be dry because it began to pour and lightning real bad right after we locked up the trailer. The rain was welcome because it cooled everything off pretty good, just in time to see another Alp Horn concert. I think I’ll become like Dr. DeZeeuw and her bagpipes, only I’ll play the Alp Horn.
An Alp Horn concert in Seefeld (my new obsession!)
The weekend is obviously a big party time for the Austrians because the streets were filled with people who were dressed up and several DJs were out there, along with a million street vendors selling various food and drink. The Supremes were to perform but were going on too late, we had a 4am wake up the next day so an early bedtime was in the plans. When we woke up today, there were definitely still people out drinking in the streets, definitely more fun than I can handle!
Today was another long but pretty relaxing day in Switzerland.We had the morning free to do as we wished so myself and Paul and Frederick went walking about the town.It was pretty brisk outside, but that has been the theme of the trip.I guess we’ve gotten really lucky with the weather, I’m definitely using my long sleeved items.We found a post office and got some postcards mailed and then were on a mission to find some cuckoo clocks for some people.We knew there was a specific toy store in town that would ship them home for free, the problem was we didn’t know where it was.We wondered around for quite a while and finally stopped at the tourism office and they gave us some more bad directions.We finally found the store but were disappointed in the selection so we didn’t end up getting any clocks.
After a hurried lunch we drove to Montreux to visit the Castle of Chillon which sits on Lake Geneva.Our tour guide was great, but I realized how much I don’t know about Swiss history.The castle was used for many things over the centuries, a prison, toll booth, home to royalty.It was probably made famous mostly because of Lord Byron’s poem The Prisoner of Chillon.I didn’t buy a copy of it but will probably check it out at the library when I get home.It was an interesting place, for some reason I always like to see old prisons and places where they tortured people.
one end of the Castle of Chillon
where Lord Byron carved his name into a pillar
We took a long walk along Lake Geneva to get to the city of Montreux.It was really crowded there because the Montreux Jazz festival was going on.Paul Simon was playing that night but we were not going to be able to stay.I did pick up a show lineup guide and a couple of souvenirs and noticed that the KU Jazz Ensemble I is playing there in a couple of days, pretty neat!
breathtaking Lake Geneva while walking to Montreaux
We got back to the hotel right at dinner and had an excellent meal provided by our hotel owners.It is a very quaint and hospitable setting, definitely a memorable experience.After dinner the band and choir gave a concert down at the town tent.It was really chilly, which was good for the horn section as we tend to play insanely sharp….we actually sounded ok!The Swiss audience was unbelievable, they clapped along to just about everything and gave us two encores.They were really fun to play for and such an excited audience.Dr. Speck made a joke and said they would clap to just about anything, even “Music for Prague”…I thought that was especially funny!He also said he would play just about anything they wanted because they loved everything so much.
Our time in Switzerland has ended and everyone has been threatening to “lose” their passports so they could stay….we actually did have a lost passport scare, but it was resolved thank goodness!Tomorrow we stop in Lichtenstein and then on to Austria, finally to some German speaking country!
sunrise view from my hotel room on my last morning in Switzerland
So today’s entry may last forever because it has been by far my most favorite day on the tour. We woke up early, any day that starts with a look at the Alps has to be a great day. We drove a couple of hours and took a train up to a little ski town called Zermatt, which is a the base of the Matterhorn. We got to do some shopping there and even sampled some pastries from one of the many bakeries. I didn’t buy too much b/c it definitely had ski town prices on everything. It was an adorable town though, complete with very old buildings and cobblestone streets. It was nice b/c you can only access the town via train so there were no cars to deal with.
Looking up a small street in beautiful Zermatt
We finally took a cog train up to the where we could see the Matterhorn. It, as everything in Switzerland has been, was an amazing sight. I know we were still pretty far away from the mountain itself, but it was huge and covered in snow. It was the most clear day so we could see the entire mountain. I guess we got lucky b/c I was told it is only clear only about 18-20 days a year, so I’d say we got really lucky! We ate lunch at the mountain top restaurant and got to take some time to really enjoy and take in our surroundings. I cannot say enough about how wonderful that experience was.
Me with a St. Bernard next to the Matterhorn
The beautiful Matterhorn
We ended the day with a fondue party at the city tent and some presentations of traditional Swiss celebration, complete with Alp horns, dancing, polka band, and yodeling (think European Vacation where Clark gets into the fight…just to stick with the theme of the blog). I actually got to play the Alp horn in front of about 500 people, they asked 2 teachers from the group to come up and play the Star Spangled Banner and I volunteered b/c I knew it would be a lot like playing the Horn. I totally killed the guy and beat the teacher from New Mexico, it was a great time….I knew those Horn skills would come in handy someday!
Showing off my mad horn skills on the Alp Horn
It was such a great day, I am sure I am leaving things out. Switzerland is a must for everyone who loves the mountains and this kind of culture. Tomorrow is our last full day here, which is sad, we’re heading to Montreux to visit the Castle of Chillion and walk around Lake Geneva. The Montreux Jazz Festival is going on at the same time too so hopefully we’ll get to listen to some good music too, Paul Simon is playing tonight, but we will miss him unfortunately.
I usually don’t blog on travel days, at least not yet, but I have to talk a bit about where we arrived today.It took us almost all day to travel from Paris to Crans-Montana, Switzerland and it was worth every bit of the drive.We saw a few mountains and the kids got really excited, but once we hit the Alps you would have thought they just won the lottery.They, myself included, were so excited to seem them and they were unbelievable.I think everyone really liked London and Paris but were absolutely blown away by the sights of Switzerland, it was about two hours of oohs and aahs from the entire but.
On our way to our town we drove through Montreaux and saw Lake Geneva, which again it completely breathtaking.The hillsides are also covered with vineyards so the patterns those create are very unique.
Montreaux, some vineyards and Lake Geneva
We were greeted in Crans-Montana by three Swiss ladies in full costume and our city coordinators.Crans-Montana is based around skiing and golf so it is pretty much a year-round resort town.We checked into our hotel and the view from my room is awesome, complete with a balcony.I actually got my own room this time so it couldn’t be better.We finished the night with a walk around town to get our bearings and I settled in for a good nights sleep with my door open to bring in the cool mountain air.
We had an early start today because it was Eiffel Tower day. Usually the traffic from our hotel to the Eiffel Tower is absolutely horrendous but since it was Sunday, we flew through the city and ended up getting to the tower 30 minutes before it opened. Our group decided to save some Euros and take the stairs. It was a very cool morning and we started the hike a little excited so by the time we got to the first level we were a little exhausted. We took a walk around the first observation level and decided to hike to the next level. 668 stairs later, we made it to the second level for an amazing view of the city. It was fun to say that I have climbed at least halfway up the Eiffel Tower, even though my chest was on fire. My legs felt fine, just the cold air got to me a bit. We decided to take the lift back down to the bottom and took several more pictures of the Tower down there. We wandered around the neighborhoods but most everything was closed since it was a Sunday morning, good for lines, bad for shopping.
The view from the bottom
Making my way up the 668 stairs to the second level
We then made our way to Sacre Coeur and Mont Martre, which are both on a hill over looking the city. Sacre Coeur is a basilica that is gigantic and white and sits on a huge hill. There were many more stairs to climb to get there and I think my kids were a little bit over climbing stairs by this point. It was worth it though because the view was breathtaking. It was a little bit stressful getting up there b/c we had to keep 300 kids and staff together all while avoiding con artists and gypsies that would approach our kids for money or put rings on their fingers that they had to then buy. We made it through and were able to break down to our small groups at the top.
Looking up at Sacre Coeur
We traveled through the church, which was packed. It is pretty amazing inside and those large churches never cease to amaze me in their grandeur. We then headed to Montmartre which is an artist colony with a bunch of street artists and cafes. We of course had crepes for lunch and walked around looking at the artwork. My goal was to by something an artist had done, but one tiny paining I liked cost 180 Euros, or about 270 US dollars. A couple of kids had their portraits done by a corner artist so some of us took advantage of the available artists.
the top of Sacre Coeur as seen through one of the streets of Montmartre
We then headed back to the buses for a bus tour of the city. This was nice b/c we got to see some of the sights that we didn’t get to see before. The landmarks in Paris are a little too far to get to by foot, it could be done, but we didn’t have a lot of time. This bus tour was great to get everything in. Unfortunately our guide had the perfect voice for an NPR host and pretty much everyone ended up falling asleep during the tour. It didn’t help that we had been running from place to place for two days or that I can’t stay awake on a bus.
One of the sights on our city tour the Arc de Triomphe
We had dinner and headed back to the hotel a little early. This gave the kids some pool time and some much needed time to decompress. We have been running full speed for almost a week so the kids were grateful for that time.
Tomorrow we’re back on the bus and heading for my most anticipated part of the tour the Alps region! We’ll be in Switzerland tomorrow for a few days and I cannot wait. I hear the bus ride can be a bit scary in the mountains but we have the best Austrian drivers and if they can maneuver London and Paris with ease, I’m sure the mountains are a piece of cake for them.
Today was one of the craziest and somewhat worst days I’ve had so far.I knew it would be like this but little things kept happening that didn’t help out the situations.We started the morning going to the Louvre after a light breakfast of croissant.
We had a special staff meeting about the procedure to enter the Louvre, they warned us it would be crazy, and it definitely was.Getting into the museum wasn’t too bad (it was supposed to be the worst part) as long as the kids paid attention.We decided to hit the “big three” pieces in the museum before we saw anything else.It actually wasn’t as hard to get through as I thought it would be, we saw Winged Victory, Mona Lisa and Venus di Millo in about 20 minutes time, which I didn’t think was bad at all.We next headed to the French painting section because the kids really wanted to see some impressionism.I guess the impressionistic era was a bit too late to be included b/c there were only about 10 pieces of impressionism.The kids were bummed but we managed to see some great artwork in our quest.
Madness at the Mona Lisa
This is where the day starts to head a little bit south: some of the kids were a bit perturbed that there was not much impressionism so they began to walk ahead (which usually isn’t a big deal) well since I’m sure you can see where this is going, the kids got way ahead while a few of us lingered on some really neat paintings.The group got split up and needless to say I was furious.If you have been to the Louvre you understand how insanely big and moderately confusing it can be.The kids really haven’t proven their map reading skills to me so I was doubtful they would make the meeting point on time, if at all.We managed to waste the last hour trying to find them, luckily they found another staff member while they were looking for me and stuck with them so they made it back to the busses safe and sound….and a little freaked and sorry.We had a good stern talk and things are ok, Dr. Speck even gave me a great compliment on how I handled the situation.
Under the Pyramid at the Louvre
After that fiasco, we took the kids on a walk to Notre Dame and on the way, I stepped off a curb, sprained my ankle and ended up splayed out in the middle of a crosswalk.I hurt myself pretty bad, I’m pretty prone to injury so this is nothing new to me….just need to get some pain killers in me and hopefully it will feel better tomorrow.I think my body is just rebelling against all this walking and lack of sleep.I kept slipping throughout our walk b/c the sidewalks were wet from rain and my flip flops have absolutely no traction left on them.It came to the point where one of my moms grabbed my arm and walked me to the restaurant to make sure I didn’t fall again…not one of my finer moments.
We ate lunch in a little café and ordered crepes.This was a challenge for the kids and myself, it was our first experience in a non-English speaking environment without a guide.I tried to use what little French I actually knew and used context clues to decipher the menu for the kids.The waiter finally ended up just talking to me b/c the kids were too nervous to get the communication done.We survived and ate lunch, by the way if you order apple cider with a bunch of kids, keep in mind that it will probably be alcoholic….at least in Paris.
We played a concert after lunch that went pretty well.We had a good crowd and got a standing ovation with encore of Stars and Stripes Forever, the Europeans just love that song for some reason, I don’t really know why but they really get into it with the clapping and standing during the final strain of the trio.
We ended the day with a quick dinner and then a boat cruise to see Paris on the Seine.That was one of the most fun parts of the day, well considering my day it was the most fun.It was really neat to get to see the sights in a relaxing way.Paris is known as the city of bridges and we traveled under many of them, some of which were built during Napoleon’s reign.
Notre Dame from the boat
Looking back on the Seine and Notre Dame
It was definitely an exciting day, tomorrow will be even more chaotic and fun.
Saturn V rocket, trying to get perspective on how big it was!
Models of the space shuttle Pathfinder and the Saturn V rocket
4 stages of whiskey, the clear stuff is 140 proof!
The top of the 10' charcoal process, we took a whiff of this stuff (140 proof), pretty strong!!
