Cody vs. A Doggie Bagel!

Cody has an obvious challenge with his extra long tongue.  It can get in the way of certain chomping!  He deals with it as best he can.  At times his mommie helps him out by cutting things in half if at all possible.

Well the other day I found two doggie bagels from Einstein's under my seat in the pathfinder. For those that don't know you can buy doggie bagels at Einstein's you can.  The boys love them!  Back in June when my mom was in town her and I went to Einstein's for a quick bite twice.  Somehow some bagels we bought for the boys went under the seat.  Yes, it's taken me 6 weeks to discover those bagels were under the seat.  Brad couldn't believe how hard the doggie bagels were when I brought them in.  They're normally hard so I wasn't concerned about the bagels still being good for the boys to eat.  They were wrapped up and in a bag.  

I gave the bagels to the boys yesterday for a snack.  I tried to cut Cody's in two for him but was unable to.  Nothing short of taking a hammer to the bagel was going to break it in two. These bagels were so hard they could be used as hockey pucks! I decided to see if Cody could handle it on his own.  He took it from my hand then went to lay down and go to work.  It was going to be a challenge.  A challenge he happily accepted.  To my surprise he conquered that bagel!  I thought he might nibble at it, not get anywhere, and eventually give up to allow the small moveable garbage disposal(aka Simon) take care of it.  Simon did wait around to see if Cody needed assistance.  Cody was way too into conquering the bagel.  It took him awhile but he finished it!  Yay Cody-man!  You took on that super hard bagel and you won!

 

Now it's nap time.

 

Cultural Differences (part 2)

Now that we're home I wanted to make one more post regarding some of the major differences we noticed from European to American culture.  It was also fun for us to compare the differences between England and France.  France seemed more laidback.  France cared more about keeping their tourist attractions looking nice.  The food however, was better in England.  Would much rather dine in a pub on fish and chips then sit elbow to elbow with people I don't know eating a croque madam at a outdoor bistro.

In America I don't believe there's a single time of the year people would visit the Capital or the White House and see those attractions not looking top notch!  Pristine as can be!  I'd be willing to bet that New York City does it's absolute best to make sure Central Park looks amazing year round.  It's not that way in England folks!  The Brits could careless whether their parks or grounds surrounding the palaces look perfect all year long.  The rather famous Hyde Park in London was not a pretty sight!  Dead grass all over the place.  I'm sure it looks great in the Fall and the Spring.  Making an effort to make it look great all the time is not something the British concern themselves with. 

However, France seemed to care a bit more!  Lets say they had thought about things better.  They had thought about the fact that hoards of people will be walking towards the Louvre everyday so put down something that will look appealing yet be low upkeep.  The park in front of the Eiffel Tower looked nice to lay a blanket down and sit to gaze up at the Tower.  There's no way I was going to sit on the grass in London's Hyde Park.  Plus Hyde Park had too many dogs running around without leashes. I can't handle that!  I'm a dog owner that believes strongly in leash laws.  France did not have that problem!  No random dogs running about! 

Walking about is the way to go!  We couldn't help but notice the amount of people walking everywhere, not just tourists plenty of locals.  It's quite simply their way of life! In some American cities like New York City and Chicago walking is the way of life too.  In general though it's not the American way!  Cars are the American way!  Now one could say we didn't travel much outside of each of these cities so it's possible it's different in other areas.  However, we did travel all the way out to Wimbledon which is on the outskirts of London.  It was the same out there.  Walking is the in thing!

Now let me discuss the food.  Americans are overweight because we love big portions!  Super-size it please!  Buy in bulk it saves money!  Any of that sound familiar?  The portions in France and England are much smaller.  There are no refills of drinks.  And good luck finding butter for the bread they might serve at the beginning of the meal.  We both came home a few pounds lighter!  Earlier today Brad told me to serve him a "European portion" for dinner tonight. Oh and in France tshey eat everything with a knife and fork.  We even saw people cut up a burger and using their fork to eat it. While in France we did our best to eat the French way...we ate our fries with a fork! The food in both countries was much more simple, as in simpler tasting.  No overkill with seasonings!

Definitely some things I liked better about Europe.  Smaller portions was one of those things. Not feeling stuffed when you leave a restaurant was kind of nice!  And to tell you the truth I never missed the butter for my bread!  I also enjoyed the walking and the subway. It was a different way to live for a brief time.  That being said....there's plenty of things I'm happy to have again now that we're home, like American TV, driving our pathfinder, popcorn, and eating certain foods with my fingers without it feeling culturally unacceptable! LOL! 

Readjusting to Home!

We're continuing to readjust to life at home.  I think we're quite adjusted again.  I don't believe I've experienced jet lag.  We made a point to stay up versus taking a nap the evening we arrived home. Which I believe helped.

The only bad thing since returning home is that we've been a little under the weather.  Brad caught a bug of some sort while we were still in France.  Since arriving home I think he's shared the French bug with me.  I'm trying to ward it off as best I can.  It hasn't gotten to me as bad as it got to him so far.  As of yesterday there was only 1 out of the 4 of us that was not under the weather.  That lucky little one feeling perfectly fine has been little Simmie!  Cody hasn't been feeling so great either.  Poor thing didn't even want to go on the nighttime walk.  Brad carried him to the elevator then carried him outside from the elevator.  Meanwhile Simon kept looking up likely wondering why Cody was receiving a ride.  Although the boys are very intuitive, Simon knew Cody was sick all day. 

The boys and I got caught out in the rain yesterday morning.  It wasn't raining when we left but it was coming down rapidly about halfway into the walk.  We had no choice but to continue on the morning route based on where we were.  Cody was not a happy camper!  I felt badly for him too.  It could have been worse, it's not like it's winter time.  We've actually gotten quite a bit of rain for this time of year.  According to my father-in-law it rained for 5 days while we were in Europe.  Thanks to the rain received my tomato plant is thriving.  I was thinking my plant would be a done deal by the time we returned home.  

We'll continue to relax as much as possible. I'm not good at relaxing.  I can always find something around the house that needs to be done.  Just like my grandmother! 

Home Sweet Home!

We arrived home late yesterday afternoon. Getting through customs wasn't bad at all.  I had done research before leaving to know what items we could come home with and how much stuff you are allowed to buy in a foreign country.  Yes, there's a certain amount Americans are allotted for souvenirs when travelling abroad. Extra customs declaration paperwork is required if you exceed that amount. I filled out our customs sheet while on the plane.  By the time we arrived I had our paperwork done and we breezed right through.  We did bring home souvenirs but we weren't any where near exceeding the allotted amount they let you back in the country with. 

Soon after arriving home we unpacked then set out to collect our pugs.  I know Brad missed driving.  I think he could hardly wait to get behind the wheel of our Pathfinder. Once we rang the doorbell both boys had no doubt in their minds who stood on the other side of the door waiting to come in.  Simon was his typical self...a big baby!  As soon as he saw me he wanted to be held.  He was very comfortable being in my arms for quite awhile.  Cody was excited to see us of course. Cody shows excitement but does it in different ways than Simon.  He's the big brother, his approach is more like, "Yep, I knew they were coming back today..See, Simon! I told you they'd be back soon."  Once we loaded them in the Pathfinder both boys were anxious to get home.  Upon arriving at home Brad opened up the door to the crate that the boys share in the cargo area of the Pathfinder and both tried coming out at the same time.  Neither was giving an inch as they both did their best to push through in an effort to be first out of the crate. Meanwhile Brad and I laughed at them as we tried to make the boys see that it works best when one pug comes out at one time.

Today it was a somewhat early start as I got up to walk the boys.  It was nice out this morning.  Brad was a little worried about me taking the boys for their full morning walk on the first day home.  The temp was pleasant out so we did the full morning walk.  The boys are troopers!  Our focus has been getting the boys back on schedule and doing chores.  I went to the grocery store while Brad kept the laundry going.  It's been a full teamwork day!  Even making lunch was teamwork!

We're both still off until Monday.  So our goal is to get all chores done today so we can relax from Friday until Sunday evening.  We want a long 3 day weekend of relaxing.  Luckily jet lag hasn't been to difficult so far.  We went to bed early last night and slept in a bit this morning.  We'll see how awake we feel as the evening progresses. 

It's good to be home.  Although I must admit I could have easily stayed longer in London!  ;)  Brad requested a taco dinner night.  I'm anxious to get in the kitchen and make us some tacos for this evening's meal.  When away I definitely miss cooking our meals!  The boys seems happy to be home with us.  Just a few minutes ago Cody was getting his head massaged by Brad and now he's bringing him a toy.  Things are getting back to normal quickly!

 

Last Full Day in London!

Today was our last full day in London!  We saved a visit to Buckingham Palace for the last day.  Our hotel is just down the street from the palace.  There's only 2 hotels on the same road leading into Buckingham Palace and we are staying in one of those two hotels.  It was an easy walk.  Definitely a highlight of our trip.  It was quite busy of course.  I'm sure more busy than usual since the royal baby was born yesterday.  I took a picture of all the media tents set up off in the distance.  I've never known there's a huge fountain in front of Buckingham Palace.  When you see pics of the palace you see just the palace and gates but a wider angle of the area would reveal a massive fountain a little ways in front of the palace.  Around that fountain is a circular driveway closed off from vehicle traffic.  There's a set of gates you first must pass through that allows you access to the palace and fountain area.  The second set of gates is closer to the palace, those are the "real" gates clearly visible in pics and live TV shots.  Brad really enjoyed seeing the palace.  I was surprised he was so into looking around.  I was worried it would be somewhat boring to him as he's not exactly into keeping up with royalty. 

Next up for the day we visited the 2 palace gift shops. They had "Christmas in July" Christmas ornaments, and guess what? They already had Christmas ornaments marking the occasion of the royal birth...we bought one! I love to collect Christmas ornaments from our travels!  It's my thing I do!  To me nothing is better than hanging ornaments on our Christmas tree that remind us of our travels we've shared together. The ornament we bought is a blue stroller with the date on it. 

Later on in the day we went to Piccadilly Circus. It's not a circus in the American sense of the word.  It's a circus as in lots to do and lots of people! We first visited Piccadilly Circus last week late at night.  It was nuts!  We were hoping it would be a little calmer this time around since we went in the mid-afternoon.  It's still a busy area.  Tons to do there so people just flock to it as it appears.  We had to visit the M&M's candy store.  I've never seen an M&M's candy store before.  I came out with a shirt!  But no candy.  Impressive huh? We went into a candy store and bought zero candy!  On second thought that might not be impressive that might be sad that we didn't buy candy...what's wrong with us?  Oh well!  Lol!  The M&M's candy store is massive, at least 5 stories.  Each color of the M&M's candies has there own section with their own memorabilia.  You name it, they have put the M&M's characters on it.  Everything from coffee mugs to oven mitts to t-shirts to board games.  The store features a lot more than just candy.  A must-see just for the heck of it!  There's only 4 M&M's stores in the world and London has one of them. 

We did some other souvenir shopping while we were out.  My mom can expect a collection of British teas to arrive in the mail soon after we get home and have time to ship them to her.  Brad and I actually tried each of the teas that are in the collection at various times during this trip.  We also did our best to spoil Brad's granny a bit!  She's got a little something special that will be coming her way too.   My in-laws can look forward to some French gifts!  As we purchased them stuff while still in Paris!  And thanks to my sweet husband after a stop at a jewelry store here in London I'm coming home with a lovely new pair of earrings.  Yay!

While in the Piccadilly Circus area we decided to go back to our hotel area.  Soon after that we decided to go back to our hotel to figure out our evening plans.  Upon returning to our hotel room, we walked into a room filled with candlelight and rose petals.  It was definitely a nice touch!  Hotel staff had used rose petals to form a heart on the floor near the entry way.  This has definitely been an awesome hotel.  I would highly recommend it to anyone.  Not just a great hotel but a great area with easy access to Buckingham Palace, the Tube station, and other sights.  The first London hotel was awesome too, but this one has a better location overall.  So this one wins out in our opinion!

Well tomorrow we head home!  It's been a wonderful honeymoon with numerous moments that exceeded our expectations.  After visiting London and Paris we do agree that of the two we could live in London but we could never live in France.  France was "enchanting" as my husband put it!  But once you get past the loveliness of the architecture and the popular sights, there isn't enough to hold our attention for long.  I'm so glad we did not book Paris longer than London, 4 days was my max, I was ready to leave. I think if the French people were more hospitable it would be easier to deal with.  I certainly believe Paris is a must-see.  I would recommend visiting Paris to anyone.  But I'd also recommend limiting the amount of time there and aim high when booking your hotel.  French standards are very different than American standards....book 5 star if at all possible. We were more impressed with London on the return trip here.  We chose a hotel in a different and less busy area.  Plus we knew what to expect the second time around.  We also traveled out to the outer areas near Wimbledon so we got to see typical residential sections.

Buckingham Palace Pics:

media tents in the distance

 

From the M&M store:

 

 

Our hotel room prepared for the honeymooners:

  

Well it's been a good time indeed!  Next up is a return trip to Dallas.  I was of course born and raised in Phoenix but no city I've lived in has ever excited me as much as Dallas.  So tomorrow the adrenaline to see the place we call home will be flowing!  Woo-hoo!  Honey, it's okay now to break out the Cowboys shirt.  We're heading home.  We look forward to seeing everyone at home!  I look forward to seeing my in-laws tomorrow as we typically see and talk to them a lot so I feel like we need to catch up.  And of course I look forward to seeing my baby boys!  I've had those boys since college days.  I'm super attached to them.  This is the longest time I've ever been away from them.  Until this trip my max time away from the boys has been 5 days. 

A side story to end with....while packing to come to Europe I asked Brad if he was taking any Dallas shirts.  He didn't know.  We then laughed about not wanting to over advertise that we are tourists in a foreign country. In the end he couldn't fathom leaving home without at least one Cowboys shirt packed in his suitcase.  He's only worn the Cowboys shirt in the hotel never out in public.  But he's likely to be sporting his Cowboys shirt on the return flight! 

River Boat Adventure, Wimbledon, and the Royal Baby!

Today was an exciting day!  We started the day off heading out to our river boat adventure.  It was awesome!  We both loved it!  It was half leisure boat cruise and half rollercoaster ride.  Okay maybe not quite as scary to me as a rollercoaster but it definitely travelled at a high rate of speed and was quite rocky at times. Well worth the money if you like an adrenaline rush!

Next up for us was Wimbledon!  Yep, we hunted down Wimbledon.  I had noticed that the Tube line we travelled on to get to the boat pier had service to Wimbledon.  I suggested traveling out to the Wimbledon area and Brad certainly didn't disagree.  We had lunch at a pub then went to Wimbledon.  We walked and walked and doubted whether or not we were lost a couple of times before finally finding it.  Wimbledon is located in a quaint residential area.  It's not in an area I was picturing it being in at all.  It's a lovely section of London.  It was nice to see.  I'm quite confused when Wimbledon is going how the residents of the area, the media, the spectators and the players plus the player's staff all fit in that quaint neighborhood?  We were both picturing Wimbledon to be off by itself with direct Tube access.  That's not the case!  By the time we walked to Wimbledon from the Tube station it was closing for the day so we didn't get to go for a tour or see the gift shop.  We are still debating whether or not we want to try again tomorrow. 

After snapping a few pics in front of Wimbledon we continued on towards the Tube station, before getting to the station we came across a tennis store.  Brad couldn't resist going in the tennis store.  As we browsed around at tennis gear I soon noticed there was a TV at the front of the store mounted to the wall. I then noticed what was on the TV at the time....breaking news that the royal baby was on it's way.  It wasn't long before we made our way back to the Tube station then back to our hotel to watch the news unfold.  The baby was born just a few minutes before 4:30 local time but was not reported as being officially born until 8:30 local time.  So for 4 hours they kept it a secret as the media stood outside the hospital and the Palace waiting for the official word.  Meanwhile we set watching and waiting for the official word.  I wonder why the delay?  Were they waiting for rush hour to be over with?  Because royal protocol is for an official "birth announcement" signed by the doctor stating the royal birth has occurred is handed from a press secretary at the hospital to a waiting car then driven to the palace where the paper is then displayed on an ancient easel for the public to read.  Anyway I'm just surprised there was such a long delay.  Finally, the royal baby has been born.  I can hardly wait to get the newspaper tomorrow!  What a keepsake that will be for us!

The plans of the day for tomorrow are still to be determined!  We have tossed around the idea of taking in another tea time at a fancy hotel or taking in another play.  Or possibly we'll make the trek out to Wimbledon again.  We'll see!



Pics of our hotel room:

Pics from the river boat adventure along the Thames river:

 

Brad in front of Wimbledon:

Hello London...Again!

We left Paris in the middle of the day. We arrived at the train station in time to take an earlier train but were unable to exchange our tickets. Instead we waited for our train we had booked weeks in advance. No big deal.

It was quite the interesting morning in Paris. The city was crowded as the Tour de France was taking over. So glad we left early for the train station because we were worried about being stuck in the area. We got a tour of some different parts of Paris as our cab driver did his best discovering alternate routes to get us to the train station. I kept looking at the meter as I knew we were down to our last few euros. We were trying to use them up and we budgeted well. We spent exactly what we had exchanged the second we arrived in France, giving our last Euros to the cab driver.

France has euros and Britain has pounds. That's why it was important to budget well in France so we didn't have euros left over. It was a little difficult at first getting used to the different currency. That is until we realized we had to stop equating everything to the US dollar, simply focus on each country's separate currency.

The hotel in France was decent. We were impressed the first day then noticed there was certainly a lack of attention to detail. Oh well, we dealt with it. It wasn't horrible by any means, but just an average hotel not quite deserving of it's above average rating. Man, it had the smallest and slowest elevator either of us has ever seen.

However, after dealing with that hotel we have been rewarded handsomely!  When we arrived at our new hotel for our 2nd London stay we were greeted with champagne. After checking in we were shown to our room. One lady carried in our champagne on a tray, while a bellhop delivered our luggage. As those two people were doing their jobs another guest services gentleman was pointing out all the perks of our executive room. As I stood back taking in what was going on, the fact that 3 people were catering to us at once, I started to question in my mind when we became celebrities or royalty? A large bouquet of flowers was placed in our room as well as a welcome card and a box of chocolates. After settling in this evening a small cheesecake was delivered wishing us a happy honeymoon. Sweet! I was surely hoping we had saved the best hotel experience for the last leg of our trip. We booked the 2nd most romantic hotel in London. So far its been quite an awesome experience!  The room itself is perfect. Lovely British charm...is the best way to describe it. Modern, yet it's classicly old fashioned British. I'll upload pics most likely tomorrow.

Visiting Buckingham Palace and taking an adrenaline junkie river boat cruise is on the schedule for tomorrow.  I heard about this special boat cruise described to be the perfect way to see the sights along the Thames river if you're a wild ride seeker. Well I know my husband! I knew Brad would be up for a wild adventure so I booked it. After I told him about it he was super excited!  In the brochure it looked similar to a wild river rafting experience. Should be fun!

The Louvre and A Low-Key Day!

Yesterday we went to The Louvre.  We finally made it there and this time it was still open.  It was quite smooth getting there yesterday because instead of walking we took the Metro(Paris' subway).  We both agreed it was a nicer subway than London's version of the subway.  I'm confused why London stuck there subway so far down in the ground.  For Paris we went just barely underground to get there.  London we were at least what would be equivalent to 2 stories underground to ride their Tube system.

The Louvre was very nice.  Definitely see why it's a must see when you travel to Paris.  When going thru it, one has to be sure to look up, the ceilings featured some of the most beautiful pieces of art in my opinion.  It's so massively large we covered as much as we could. Neither of us was interested in seeing every square inch.  It's possibly a 2 day thing if you care that much about seeing every bit of it.  We did hunt down the super famous Mona Lisa painting.  It's most likely the most popular thing there.  There was a large crowd around her painting and they have it in a glass case with velvet ropes keeping the crowds from getting too close.  We tried hard to find the replica exhibit of Napoleon's apartments but we were unsuccessful.  We were both getting tired and hungry...so no Napoleon section!

We had an awesome dinner at a French steakhouse near the Arc de Triomphe.  The Arc was in perfect view as we ate our meal while enjoying the lights in the area.  Best meal we've had since arriving in Paris. It was so good I might suggest it for dinner again tonight.  However, our plan is to go over towards the Eiffel Tower tonight so we can get pics of it lit up.  We still haven't done that.  It gets dark so late here.  Last night was the first night we've been out after dark.  Today so far we've focused on souvenir shopping and spent all our time on the Champs-Élysees Avenue.  A fairly low-key day for us!  Which is how we prefer things!

Pics from the Louvre: