De mamá nos lleva al zoológico mañana

Did anyone else used to sing the "Mama's taking us to the zoo tomorrow" song in Spanish when you were little? I did. Too bad I had to google the lyrics to remember how it went as my espanol skills are rapidly escaping me.

Warning: this post is tardy and rather dry, but I wanted this trip documented for the records! We took Isla to the zoo for the first time on September 1st. We went up to Bellingham for an overnighter and drove up to the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Canada the following morning with Ben and my mom. Isla really enjoyed the goats but seemed to like pushing her own stroller even better than seeing any of the animals.

 

Graham was called on to participate in the Birds of Prey show and got to "catch" and "throw" a bird.

13 Months

And you thought we were done with the bear pictures....

This month has been awesome. Isla is at a super fun stage and keeps us quite entertained. She is learning so much all at once and continues to be busy busy busy. Here are some of the highlights at 13 months:

Isla has learned to give high fives (thanks to the teaching skill of J&R Welch, 9/17)

Isla understands so many commands now. We ask her to "Put the binky in the bed," "Go get your duck," "Turn off the light," "Give me a kiss," "Close the door," "Wipe your face," "Turn around and go backwards" and she knows (and usually does) exactly what we say.

She also understands other important words like "Cheerios," "Milk," "Dog," "Kitty," "Nigh night."

As far as words she can actually say, add "Hi" (9/3?) and "Hat" (9/10) to the list.

(Picture taken at the opening of the South Lake Union Park, 9/25)

If I had to sum up Isla's personality right now using only 2 words, I would describe her as willful yet sensitive. I was sharing this with Graham and started to say "How is it even possible to have those two in combination?" when I cut myself short, realizing that this pretty much sums me up to a tee. She is growing very independent and wants to do most things herself but she can also be quite the mommy's girl. She has become very sensitive to loud noises (such as sudden clapping or laughter which makes her cry) but also to other's emotions. For example, I sort of tripped the other day while carrying her and I think she could sense that I tensed up and began to cry until I told her that I was ok and that it didn't hurt.

Our little underwear model

Isla has developed the most dramatic sad/pouty cry face that I think is the most adorable thing ever. She usually does it in her "sensitive" moments when she is not really hurt but either extra tired or wanting attention and everything sets her off. She makes a huge long O-shape with her mouth and then starts fake crying. I will do my best to get a picture of it for the memory books.

Isla is cruising all over the place now. She started walking hanging on to only one hand earlier in the month (9/1) and progressed to taking her first 2 steps on 9/19! Two steps are still the recond to beat. She also stood for about 4 seconds today. She's getting so close! 

Our sweet child still has no teeth.

Isla and her 2nd cousins...I'm afraid she's destined to be the only girl with the luck on that side! She met Eli and Jack for the first time. These kiddos are a riot together! Isla was quite serious about the whole ordeal.

Isla learned how to turn around backwards to go down the stairs on 9/10. The funny think about it is that she only turns clockwise. Even when it'd be so much more quicker to turn counter clockwise, she takes the long way.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Isla officially weaned as of the one year anniversary of her due date 9/6! She has become quite the sleeper ever since which I have gladly welcomed. She still takes a morning nap that is usually 1-2 hours and an afternoon nap about the same length. She sleeps through the night for 12-13 hour stretches--hallelujah!

Isla is a great eater. Here favorite foods include all things bread/starch, meat, berries, broccoli, veggies with almond butter, Cheerios, cheese and milk. She seemed to like the purple potatoes ok too.

Isla loves to read books, take baths, swing at the park, play peek-a-boo behind the curtain, PLAY WITH OUR CELL PHONES, beat on her drum set and empty my cupboards and drawers.

Isla loves to play, particularly with her Daddy. You can usually count on him to get her laughing until she shrieks. It is so fun to watch them play and hear her squeal.

Day 15 -- Where Art Thou Mont Blanc?

Another unrestful night. I woke up more tired than when I went to bed and so we ended up getting a slow start. Graham had not been feeling well so I got up with Isla at 7:30 AM and brought her to the hotel lobby to allow him some uninterrupted sleep. Before long, she was ready for her morning nap and since neither of us were ready to go yet, I put her down in the pack and play for her first stationary nap (read: not in the stroller or carseat) in 16 days. And I climbed back into bed.

We had no idea what time it was when we finally made it out of our hotel room. 11:15!? Wow. We began the search for breakfast but everyone shooed us away, informing us "The kitchen is closed." I sensed a trend. Please no! Not another day spent in search of food!!

We eventually found an open cafe where we ordered cafe au lait for me and espresso for Graham and chocolate crepes (which came from their dessert menu, by the way, because it doesn't seem the town believed in breakfast).

Isla was ready for another nap when we finished so we headed back to the hotel and she napped for an hour and a half while I read to Graham while admiring the bits of the base of Mont Blanc that were visible through the clouds. This was just what we needed after our strained drive the previous day.

We had been looking forward to taking the gondola up the mountain to enjoy the view but a couple things were working against us. 1) Kids were not allowed because the air was thin at the top and 2) It was so cloudy that we weren't sure we'd be able to see anything from the top anyway. We decided to send Graham up, armed with the video camera so I could take the trip vicariously through video when he came back. We split up and planned to meet back at the hotel in a few hours. (Look closely at the picture below to see the wires of the gondola. And to think this is only half of it! It keeps going up, way into the clouds!)

Isla and I strolled the super cute streets, browsing the shops which were all very outdoorsy. The place felt like one large REI town! I treated myself to TWO scoops of ice cream and Isla and I found a Father's Day gift for Graham. We ran into Graham on our way back to the hotel. I excitedly asked him how it was only to learn that he didn't go. The ticket lady had talked him out of it, informing him that there was zero visibility and did he really want to spend 50 Euro to see nothing? Bummer! The forecast was for clouds and rain for thr next 6 days so the odds of us ever seeing the mountain was not good. Such is life.

What better to do to remedy disappointment than to EAT!? The restaurant we chose was quirky and, as it turns out, so was the food. We each ordered a menu. I had a salad to start. It had greens, hard boiled egg, canned corn, tomato and "white ham" (which i guess is basically the ham you'd find in the US, not prosciutto). For my main, I chose the local specialty, tartiflette, a very cheesy scalloped potato dish with bacon and cream-so good! Caramel and chocolate ice cream followed for my dessert (yes, twice in one day...don't judge!) Graham had no idea what he was ordering. His starter turned out to be some sort of green salad with meat jello (terrine?), marinara sauce and sweet pickles. Very weird. His main was chicken with mushrooms and some potatoes and sauteed spinach on the side. He had creme caramel for dessert (pretty much flan). I don't think this restaurant was know for their food. My main was good but the rest was questionable. We did like the merlot we selected to drink. As had been our experience this trip with all wines, it was nothing like the merlots we know in the US. It was much better, particularly given that we usually don't care for merlot.

Because we were on the final leg of our trip, much of our conversation revolved around how we would adjust to having a routine again when we got home. Neither of us were looking forward to the busy schedule that awaited.

Overall, I think our impession of Chamonix was jaded by the weather which interferred with our plans to gondola up the mountain and/or go on a hike. I'm sure we'd think a bit differently about the place if it had been sunny. There were definately a LOT more english speakers here. Actually it almost felt like we could have been in Leavenworth or some other cute mountain town in the US. It felt much more American, probably partially due to the fact that everyone and their mother were wearing a Northface.

Here are my feeble attempts at trying to catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc. I think there is a mountain in there somewhere. Do you see it?

To this day, I have no idea what shape Mont Blanc actually is. Oh well.

Following dinner, we Skyped the Senior Croziers to wish Graham's dad a very happy bday and then retired early.

Sooooo 2010

Our child is a genius. She is also totally with it when it comes to all things electronic. Not only does she know what to DO with this piece of metal, she also knows exactly what to SAY. See?

(Courtesy of my master videographer Graham)

Mountain Top

Definitely not to be confused with muffin top.

Graham asked me the other day how I was doing and the only analogy that came to mind was that I felt like I was on the tip top of a very round mountain. You see, it is sort of like the "on the fence" analogy, but on steroids. In this case, their are more than two directions in which I could "fall." Endless directions actually, if you recall high school science.

Our world is swirling with potential life-altering decisions that seem to have surfaced over the course of the last month. I can't go into detail about all of them, but there is a good chance our life might change significantly in the months ahead. And for once in my life, I am actually really excited about CHANGE.

We participated in a wonderful worship service at Bethany on Sunday where we were really challenged to follow our calling and MOVE as God nudges. Moving could be taken literally as in physical location (in our case, this literal definition is possible, but not to worry Grandparents, we will still aim for a zip code in the greater Seattle area). But moving could also mean changing/adjusting how we spend our time, our pursuits and hobbies, the way and location in which we currently serve.

I am excited to see which direction we will "fall" off this mountain, to see what the Lord has in store for us. I am a creature of comfort and it is not often that I feel this open and malleable to change. I think I am slowly being prepared for what is ahead, whatever it may be. I'm a bit nervous, sometimes giddy, sometimes completely petrified and overwhelmed, but overall I'm excited and feel ready. It's funny how everything seems to come in "seasons." Not to be overly cheesy or anything but as our "summer" (according to Graham's school calendar, NOT the weather) comes to a close next week, a new season is about to begin.

Please keep us in your prayers as we make some pretty big decisions in the coming months. We could really use wisdom. Stay tuned!

9-18-10

All Graham heard over the phone was a chorus of screaming girls. "Is everything ok?" he asked. He figured either the groom had an accidental pre-ceremony sighting of the bride or that we'd encountered a very large spider.

It took me a few seconds before I remembered that I was on the phone. "Umm, I gotta go. We just got in a car accident." With that, I hung up, not realizing at the time that lines like that can leave the person on the other end in a panic. This could not really be happening. We were already 45 minutes behind schedule.

That's pretty much how Saturday began. Lani and I were thrilled to be standing beside our cousin Erin as co-matrons of honor along with our cousin Shannon, the maid of honor and Deanna and Grace the bridesmaid and flower girl. With veil in place, the bride was driving the girls from our hair appointment to the church to get dressed for pictures. The wedding was to start in less than an hour. We were cutting it pretty close but were only about 2 minutes from the church. Graham called to check in.

Screaming.

CRASH!!!

Much chaos. Girls crying. Someone yelling to get the car's license plate number. Another saying "Call 911!" Someone else ordering us not to move. It's sort of a blur. Everyone was on their cell phones within seconds, calling someone.

I called 911 and told the dispatcher that we'd been t-boned en route to a wedding. The catch: WE were the bridal party and the wedding was to start in 45 minutes. He asked if anyone was hurt and only then did it occur to me that Lani, 9 months pregnant and due on Wednesday, had been in the car. Oh dear! She said she was feeling fine and that the baby was moving. She and I had been in the very back of the van and hadn't seen the accident coming like the rest and so were more relaxed on impact. Still, the paramedics came to check out the bride, who was experiencing some neck and shoulder pain, and Lani.

Lani shared later that the first thing the paramedics said when they arrived was "Now who's the pregnant one?" I guess the rest of us girls should have been really offended since, um.....it was a little obvious. Thankfully, we were a bit distracted.

The man who hit us had to be in his mid 80s. He apparently just did not see us. When he saw that the driver of our van was wearing a veil, he buried his head in his hands. He couldn't find his license when the police came to get his information. Poor guys! I can't even imagine how awful it must feel to hit an entire bridal party on the day of the wedding...

It just so happened that some relatives were also en route to the church, a few minutes behind us. They did not witness the accident but they saw the van and thought "That looks like Erin!" And then, "Wait a second! Why is Shannon standing out in the middle of the road!?" They pulled over and were able to shuttle us in shifts back to the church while the police took over at the scene of the accident.

The show must go on. And it did, only 45 minutes behind schedule. Everyone was a bit shaken up but all physically ok, as far as I know. Nerves were running high but we made it through the ceremony without a hitch.

Lani had been threatening to give birth all week but we many things that we needed her to work around: 2 bridal showers, a bachelorette party, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, the wedding etc. So at the reception, she decided to dance it up with Isla as her duties had been completed.

We bid the bride and groom farewell and they drove off into wedded bliss. Not 15 minutes later, Lani's water broke. YESSSSS! This is how we'd all hoped it would happen but it seemed so unlikely (like most Hollywood chick flicks). Here she is post outfit change. :)

Contractions started a short while later and after a mere 4 hours of labor, I became an aunt to Gideon Michael Hertzog! He weighed in at 7 pounds, 9 ounces and was 19 inches long.

Lani did manage to make a pit stop at home between reception and hospital for a quick shower to wash away her wedding hairstyle (which she didn't care for). But she managed to keep her wedding makeup and French manicured nails in tact. She received lots of compliements about being the most glamorous mom to ever deliver there. :)
We'll never know what did it. Car accident? Wedding? Dancing? Lifting? Nature? Who knows? But wow! All this is in about 12 hours time. Hollywood, need a movie plot?

Day 14 -- The (Ugg!) Drive to Chamonix

How oh how do I even begin to describe this day? LONG is probably the best one word summary I can muster. Like really long.

Thankfully Isla slept through the night for the first time in three nights but unfortunately I didn't (why is it that mothers waste precious night hours awake, anticipating the cries of their little ones?) Graham set the alarm for 6:22 AM so we could get an early start given the estimated length of our days' journey (5 hr and 2 min per Google maps but probably closer to 8 given our history).

The view from our room at the Eden Hotel

We again had the very traditional (and maybe starting to feel a little monotonous) French breakfast of baguette, croissant, fixings and coffee in the courtyard. We were on the road by 8 AM but had to make a quick stop at the beach in attempts to capture a photo of Isla's first visit to the Mediterranean since our camera battery had run out the day before. She was not amused and absolutely would not look at the camera or smile. What happened to our camera-loving child? She was not in the mood for the paparazzi.

The beach pictured was not technically "open" as it was a stretch of sand in front of one of the restaurants. In the later hours, you could rent a plot of sand, complete with umbrella and chair but we really were probably not supposed to be standing on the sand without offering payment. We flashed friendly smiles to the man who was raking the sand (seriously, who rakes sand!?) and took a photo anyway. When we finally gave up and hit the road, tt took us an extra half hour to get on the main autoroute leaving Juan-Les-Pins due to one wrong turn. But no harm done since we got such an early start.

There are not a lot of direct routes from the riviera to the Alps and surprisingly the quickest is through Italy. We got to enjoy the beautiful coastline and admire the cliffhanging colorful villages.

Finally, she smiles!

We decided we'd pick one of the coastal towns to explore and grab a quick pasta lunch in a cute setting--how hard could that be? Because we had no Italy guidebook and had not done any research prior to our trip, we has to pick our exit completely knowing nothing. The challenging part was that most of the exits were located prior to the village so we couldn't tell beforehand whether it was going to be cute or industrial. Finally we settled on Finale because it was on the tiny bit of Italy that was pictured on Rick Steves map of France. If he chose to put it on the map, odds are that it's good, right?

We parked almost immediately after entering the city. It looked good! There was an old walled fortress surrounding cute streets like we'd hoped. Now, to find our way to a trattoria for waterfront dining...We walked and walked and walked probably for 30-40 min.

So much for the quick stop but certainly the restaurant we'd happen upon would make it all worthwhile! Not so. Turns out the waterfront portion of this town was a beachy resort crammed with tourists and lacking all things quaint and romantic. Oh yeah, and it was only 11 AM and Europe seems to have very, very specific hours for dining and 11 AM was not one of them which meant nothing was open.

So we trekked back to the old town as fast as our feet could carry us. Graham decides gelato would fix everything and he was right. Redemption! We shared a delicious cone with dark chocolate, coconut and some other amazing, chunk-filled flavor. Sigh. Now this was Italy!

By this time 2 hours had passed so back on the road we went. We drove for a couple hours until around 3 PM when my growling stomach could no longer handle the lack of lunch. Too bad when were in the middle of nowhere (beautiful nowhere though, the Piedmont region I believe). Finally we saw a sign for a Risterante. Glorious! Let's stop there! But it turned out to be only a gas station that also served food. We pass more food signs but they turn out to be gas stations as well. Graham tells me "I refuse to eat at a gas station while it Italy!" My head agrees but my stomach does not.

At long last there are signs for a TOWN with food!!! Hooray! We pull off the autoroute and drive through a completely shut down town. Once again, we are seeking food at an inappropriate European hour (dinner isn't served until close to 7 or later). We keep driving from town to town and end up about 40 minutes off the autoroute. Everything is closed; it's siesta time in Italy. The thought of a McDonalds is starting to make my mouth water. At this point, I'd take anything! The only reason we kept going the way we did was because we'd spotted a sign for a grocery store (which we somehow managed to drive by without knowing it). We were getting frustrated and were passing ugly warehouse after ugly warehouse so we pulled over and proceeded to burst out laughing to break up the tense air.

We came to a city with a hillside fortress and decided to park and walk toward the castle to look for food since it seemed to be a more touristy area. At long last we found a sleezy bar with pre-made sandwiches and decided to cut our losses, buy a tomato/mozzarella sandwich and give up our romantic dreams of a pasta lunch in Italy. Oh well. Italy, it was nice seeing you again, even though you were a disappointment (for those of you who already attacked my Facebook status update, it was Graham who said we found the Tukwila of Italy). :o) Moral of the story, do the research ahead of time if you hope to find a cool town.

We got back on the road and were pleased to discover our wanderings had actually taken us in the right direction via the side roads. Now we were driving through beautiful villages in the valley of the huge mountains that had come into view. They even terrace the hillsides with vineyards!

As we gained elevation, we seemed to spend more time in tunnels than out as we drove through the mountains. Isla didn't like the tunnels very much--I think she thought we kept turning off the lights, trying to get her to sleep. Our final tunnel cost us a pretty penny. 35 euros to drive the 7 mile long tunnel from Italy to France! Too bad it was cloudy and so we were unable to see the looming Mont Blanc.

It was 6:30 PM by the time we drove into Chamonix. Isla was crying and we couldn't find our hotel. I think all of us had pretty much had it. Our room was quaint with "appealing wood paneling" per Rick Steves (personally I'm not sure who finds it appealing). We even had a mountain view, if only we could see the mountain through the clouds.


Dinner! What we needed was a good meal! I am happy to report we were successful at this one thing today. We ordered a traditional fondue that came with bread to dip and potatoes and local meats to eat on the side. We illegally dipped the potato in the cheese too. Why not? We sipped a white savoy wine which went great with our huge pot-o-cheese. The meal was pricey but we justified it by the fact that we'd hardly had lunch. Isla enjoyed her first white potato and loved the cheesy bread.

We all literally collapsed into bed. I awoke sometime in the middle of the night and realized I'd never actually made it under the covers...I was that tired.   

Welcome back into my life, Sleep.

You have been royally missed. I am finally catching some shut-eye and it has never felt so good! How I have survived the last 385 nights, I honestly do not know. ISLA IS FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!! And by that I mean sleeping through the night according to MY definition, not the wimpy 5-hour-stretch definition that the books will give (seriously, a man must have made that one!)

I remember at one of our first pediatrician appointments, I asked the doctor "So about when should she start sleeping longer stretches at night?" She chuckled a bit and told me that some breast fed babies never sleep through the night. I'm sure I could have slapped her. I definitely thought she was CRAZY and  decided my baby would never be like that. I mean seriously, no one ever talks about not sleeping for an entire year when they have kids, do they? Maybe you all just spared me. Ha!

Regardless, Sleep, my life is much better with you around. Please stay awhile.

Day 13 - Antibes, Monaco, Villefranche

I think I will always have very warm memories of this day. It was honestly lovely. I can't quite put my finger on one thing that made it so great. But it was so wonderful, filled with laughter, good conversation, beauty and lots of unknown.

I wouldn't have guessed it was going to be such a great day by the way it began. Isla awoke us at 2:40 AM, serenading us with crying and screaming, not to be soothed for at least 45 minutes. Graham had not been feeling well and had a piercing headache; I was exhausted by too many nights with little sleep. I'm not sure what the deal was, but I again refused to feed Isla as I didn't want to encourage these awakenings. She would scream every time we laid her down and again if she heard the sheets rustle in our bed (Poor Graham, I almost slapped him at one point when I'd finally gotten her to stop crying just as he decided to flip over in bed. Another crying fit ensued...)

I expected a grumpy day but it's pretty hard to stay grumpy when you are served fresh baguette, croissant (because one without the other certainly would not be enough carbs), butter/jam and coffee in an outdoor courtyard.

We really had no set itinerary and that's what made the day so great. No place to be, no pressure to abide by a schedule. Alas, the clouds were upon us once again, but we didn't let it get to us for long.

We drove to the old town of Antibes and popped into the Picasso Museum for the 1/2 hour before it closed for lunch. Surprisingly, I actually really enjoyed the modern art although I did wonder aloud "Was he okay mentally?" Some of his pieces made me question...the thing that I found most entertaining was to look at the dates of all of Picasso's pieces. There would be a whole bunch of sketches completed on the same day or during a three day stretch. Graham confirmed that he was indeed believed to be bipolar which might explain his rather manic production of pieces.

(Above picture is of the church/buildings outside the museum)

There was a nice patio portion of the museum that displayed all kinds of statues with the Mediterranean as a backdrop.

See the old city wall of Antibes?

There was even a cactus in bloom, which Isla was dead set on touching.

We took a quick walk through the VERY crowded Antibes market. Graham's sore throat the day before had turned into a full blown head cold (or allergies?) and he started feeling quite faint. We managed to buy some sun-dried tomatoes, olive tapenade and a loaf of bread and ate a little picnic in a nearby square.

We browsed in some of the cute shops, my favorite of which was a French toy store. I was really wanting to buy Isla a little French toy as a souvenir but couldn't decide on anything. In retrospect, I so wish I would have purchased one of these wooden butterflies as she was quite enamored by them!

The streets of Antibes

It was still cloudy so rather than go to the beach, we decided to check out some neighboring riviera cities. We were aiming for Villefranche sur Mer but ended up missing the turn or getting on the wrong road or something and so quickly changed our destination to MONACO, which is actually it's own country (did you know?) Now here is where Rick Steves and I disagree. He'd recommended spending an entire day here. When I told Graham this, his response was "Heck no!" We couldn't get out of there fast enough!! Although I'm glad we did a quick drive through (actually we did it twice because the signs sent us in circles), I saw no need to even get out of the car. The place was pack with glitzy buildings, nice cars, huge yachts and people dripping with $$$. Not my kind of place. We did grab one drive-by photo of the famous casino, just for kicks (the front of which was line with black Mercedes).

After numerous attempts, we finally found our way out of there via the Middle Corniche (a road that made it's way along the coast back up to Antibes). We had to laugh because we probably passed at least 10 signs pointing us to "Retour Monaco" (which I'm pretty positive means return to Monaco)...no thanks!

See how it is just crammed with high rises?

As we drove along the coast, the sun began to break through but there was still a light fog/mist, making it hard to capture the beauty in pictures (although we tried!)

We continued on to our original destination: Villefranche sur Mer.

Sigh. This is where Graham had initially hoped to stay and he was so right. If money were no object, we could have and would have stayed here. Buy alas, rooms were going for no less than 150 to 200 Euro/night, well above our tight budget. Needless to say, it was by far our favorite stop along the riviera. It is small, less touristy, sporting the colorful buildings with shuttered windows that we'd fallen in love with on our trip to Italy. We'd packed our swimsuits (I think it was our wishful thinking that made the sun reappear) and so did a quick change and headed off toward the beach.

I was pleased to see that the women on this beach actually seemed to be wearing their swimsuits. But it only took a moment for me to realize I was wrong. I am not joking, there was a woman lying there topless who must have weighed upwards of 300 pounds!!! Wow. I just might have whispered something horribly rude to Graham but I mean really? I guess everything goes here!!

We settled down and I tries my best to ignore the -cough cough- large woman nearby. The beach really was beautiful and the sun was out!! I took a dip while Graham watched Isla. He looked away for only a moment (maybe distracted by the lady, who knows?) and looked back to find the babe eating a handful of small pebbles and sand. Yum! I read some more of our book to Graham while we traded Isla the pebbles for cheerios. It was around this time that we reached for the camera to capture the beach's beauty only to discover the battery was dead so the rest of our lovely day lacks pictures.

We decided upon an early dinner at La Serre (another Rick Steves recommendation), given our rather light lunch. Now mind you, the French don't eat before 7:30 PM so I think our wanting food at 6 PM caught them a little off guard (our first clue being that the restaurant was completely empty except for the chef and waitresses who were enjoying a meal at the back table). They invited us to take a seat and said they'd be with us in 15 minutes.

I'd made it my personal mission to be sure to try the famous dishes of each region we visited and in most instances, I'd been delighted with this endeavor. The riviera is known for it's Salad Nicoise (pronounced nee-swahz, not nick-coys like I'm ashamed to admit I always said...) so I decided that I should try it despite the fact that I didn't like tuna and I was pretty sure I wouldn't like anchovies either. Surprise, surprise, I wasn't a huge fan of the salad. Graham ordered a pizza with 2 kinds of sausage, jambon and mushrooms and he was thankfully in the mood for sharing. French pizza is quite good with much thinner crust than in the US. We drank the house rose which was tres bon. Isla tried my tuna but I was nice enough not to force the anchovies on her (they were unbelievably salty!) When our waitress came to ask if we'd like dessert, I was in the middle of saying no when Graham cut me off and said we'd have their chocolate cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream along with 2 espressos. Oooooh what a treat! We hadn't ordered the prearranged three course meal so adding a dessert and coffee to our dinner felt like a real treat! I wasn't sure what I'd think of the plain espresso but boy was it good!

We made the leisurely stroll along the water back to our car. I needed the little girls room but unfortunately the only one I could find was a lovely stall with a hole in the floor with two wooden platforms where you are (I guess?) supposed to station your feet while you do the deed. How people do it, I have no idea! I won't go into gory details but I was shocked to exit the stall and discover that, to top it all off, it was supposed to be the handicapped toilet. Huh?! If I had a hard time, how on earth...? I felt like I needed to rub Purel all over my sandals (not because of anything I did, mind you) and made a mental note not to let Isla play with them since I had no idea how a room like that could be sanitary.

ANYWAY, we drove home as the sun was setting. Everything seemed to glow in the golden light. We made our way up the coast with a quick drive through Nice where we might have made our first entrance the wrong direction on a one way street. No harm done though! Nothing quickly switching into reverse didn't fix!

Once back at the hotel, Graham watched the World Cup from bed. I made the mistake of looking at the upcoming forecast for the places we would be visiting. Rain rain rain! For a whole week! Everywhere we planned to go! So we started looking at other "nearby" European cities to see if we could adjust our itinerary to find sun: Paris, Milan, Corsica, Geneva, Zurich....apparently the entire continent was expecting nothing but rain for the rest of the week! I went to bed hoping the weatherman was wrong.