Weekend Happenings or A new batch of outlaws.
We had a great time at Aquatini. The food and drinks were excellent. My drink, the Herb-in-tini, needed some tweaking because they misunderstood the directions. Once that was cleared up the second one was awesome!
I made my drink again at a family party and everyone that tried it liked it!
Our night went really well. The limo picked us up at our homes and got us to the restaurant in style. The only problem happened once we got home and the driver handed us a bill while I was handing him his tip. Turns out that he was told it was a four hour gig and we were out for 5.5 hours. I told him it was a prize and that he needed to take it up with his management because I wasn't giving him a credit card!
I visited the Portsmouth Farmer's Market for the first time this season with PW and had a great time. The only thing missing was Good Friend who had gotten an earlier start to the day and was gone by the time we got there.
I bought some tomato plants and they are in pots outside soaking in all this sunshine and warm weather we've been having!
PW's Oldest Son, Parents, and Brother came up to visit on Sunday. We cut short the family party we were attending to meet them and take them out to dinner. Her Parents and Brother headed back out to his house and her Oldest Son stayed overnight so that he could visit longer with us.
It was a great weekend! And, we started off this morning with getting a marriage license at the town hall. :)
We are going to dinner tonight with Good Friend and His Wife. But, this will be a dinner unlike any other!
We are being picked up first by a chauffeured stretch limo before going to their humble abode and picking them up too. We'll travel in luxury to the Aquatini Restaurant for dinner where I'm sure we'll enjoy my award winning martini, the Herb-in-tini.
The driver will wait (but of course) and return us home (likely in a slightly more inebriated state then when we arrived) after dinner.
I'm really looking forward to tonight!
PF and I are getting married. You all, here in cyberspace, knew this information before many of our relatives for a simple reason...you know just what to say...we're happy for you.
Interestingly enough, we worried most about what our outlaws would say and how they would react to the information. We didn't need to worry. They were supportive and very happy for us.
PF tried sushi today!!! Now she can scratch that off her list!
We tried Spicy Girl and Green River at Taipei and it was awesome.
Thursday was another magnificent day in Paris, France. We had great weather for our entire trip and the fact that I forgot my jacket meant nothing. I actually packed clothes that were too warm for the weather we got but such are the vagaries of traveling in April.
I didn't book a guided tour for our visit to the Musée du Louvre and that worked out perfect for us. We saw what we wanted to see and eavesdropped on the tour guides that were in abundant supply when we stopped at something that interested us.
Again, we were in for a surprise in terms of the size of the museum. When I think of a place that houses the Mona Lisa or the Venus de Milo I imagine that it will be smaller...intimate. Nope.
We jostled and elbowed or way to the front at each of those famous works and then quickly moved on our way in order to make way for others. But, when we visited the Egyptian rooms we pretty much had free reign and could linger as long as we liked. The exception was when someone wanted to see what was in the glass cabinet that Youngest Princess was standing in front of and admiring her hair. :)
We really enjoyed the room that had the crown jewels of France on display. When I see diamonds that size the don't even look real!
We spent a few hours at the museum but soon tired of walking, standing, and the ubiquitous crowds. So, we left the museum and went to do some more shopping which involved walking, standing, and ubiquitous crowds.
On our way home that night we stopped at a local restaurant and enjoyed one of our favorite meals of the entire trip. It was only two blocks away from our hotel and I'm glad we stopped in and had that meal.
We had a lazy start to our day on Wednesday because we really didn't have much in the way of plans other than waiting for Antipo to meet us at our hotel and start a fantastic day of touring and eating.
What that meant, initially, is that we had such a lazy start that we missed breakfast at the hotel and then decided to not go out searching for something to eat because of Antipo's IMMINENT arrival. We waited while getting periodic updates from the hotel's front desk, and waited some more. I never missed having a mobile phone in Paris until then!
Antipo finally arrived, straw hat in hand and bearing gifts, and we started our day-long visit. She consulted her much used Paris metro map and we headed on our way. She paused to call the restaurant and assure them that we wanted to eat there and then we walked briskly to the nearest metro stop in our neighborhood.
After a few false starts and the handing over of the map to me so that I could direct us to the right location, we arrived at the Kiwi restaurant. The food was good but the company was superlative and we had a great time chatting and getting to know each other. My daughters did well and had nice or witty things to say on the rare occasions that Antipo gave any of us to talk. :)
After a nice lunch we walked over to the Jardin du Luxembourg as she regaled us with stories of life in France, the origin of the famous Kiwi dessert she had for lunch, and we all got to know each other better.
As we made our way back into the Latin Quarter so that Princess Youngest Daughter could do some much desired clothes shopping, we met Katia. She met us with a story that excused her lateness and involved breaking a door at work or some such nonsense!
We walked around the Latin Quarter while she did tour guide duty and explained the reason for Wallace Fountains. We never passed one by without getting a drink during the rest of our time there. We had awesome ice cream, a fun dinner in a big rail station, and then ended the evening with tea and strawberries.
Helen and Katia were perfect hostesses and made us Yanks feel very welcome in their adopted country.
PF gave me a beautiful ring to wear. It is platinum and looks awesome on my hand. I like it a lot because it will be my wedding ring some day soon.
PF met all the inlaws and outlaws this weekend. It was Princess Oldest Daughter's birthday and we had a cookout at our home. Everyone came and was on their best behavior. They were civil and many of them went out of their way to make sure PF felt welcomed and at home.
We have another new addition to our family. PF's retriever/shepherd mix is here to live with us. Her parents drove here from the Albany area to make the delivery. All the cats are unsure what this means and the dog has been treading carefully too.
I'm in love, happy, and life looks so good right now!
I gave this ring to PF last Friday. It is a beautiful ring but it can only really be appreciated when you see it on her hand.
The ride to Versailles took around 1 hour and 15 minutes because of traffic problems. When we arrived at Versailles the tour operators just kind of left us standing around and did nothing to organize us or ready us for the tour. We finally headed to the main entrance only to find out that we couldn't get in because of a strike relating to the elections in France. We walked around the gardens for a while and then met back at the entrance at the appointed time for when they'd open.
The line was another disorderly queue filled with school-aged kids and adult tour groups jostling to get to the entrance. When we finally got inside the splendor of Versailles was obscured by milling throngs of people.
We were outfitted with headsets that attached to a radio-like device. This device was tuned into a similar one used by the tour guide and we could hear what he was saying without having to be all clustered together.
But then we experienced what was ultimately the downfall of all the tours for us...multiple languages in each group. As we shuffled between rooms the tour guide would tell us about something in that room in English and then we'd have to stand there while he repeated everything in Spanish (for this particular group).
After we were done inside we went outside and guess what we did? We walked around the same gardens, albeit with a guide, that we had explored while waiting to go inside. LOL
The day was saved ultimately but our decision to abandon the tour group and do our own thing until it was time to board the bus and leave. Versailles is breathtakingly beautiful and the word "garden" doesn't really give you the scope of how large this place is.
We ended up back at the canal, rowed around in a boat for a while, and then enjoyed ice cream while dangling our feet in the water. We talked about what we had scene, made plans for the next day, and enjoyed each other's company.
We were glad to finally head back at 5:45pm and enjoyed the much faster trip back into Paris. We enjoyed some more shopping before finally heading back to our hotel and collapsing into bed.
I always wanted to see Versailles but I don't think I saw it at its best. The fountains are only turned on during the weekends, the flowers don't bloom until May, and we went during the week and in the morning when the place was crowded with school kids. I'd like to go back again and enjoy it under different circumstances.
Good Friend has an annual holiday cocktail party and this year I contributed a drink recipe after a little bit of tinkering and created Gin-gle Bells.
It was very popular at this party but I forgot all about it until my Sainted Mother told me about an online magazine for the local area that was featuring a martini contest.
I sent in my entry and found out last night that I won! I won a dinner for four (I'll be taking Good Friend and His Beautiful Wife of course), limo transportation, AND my drink will be featured for the entire month on the menu of the restaurant and become a permanent addition after that!
The down side to winning is that I'm banned from Good Friend's party this year. Maybe I shouldn't have suggested that my drink be on the menu again but under the category of "award winning".
The restaurant is called Aquatini and it is in Newburyport, MA.
Monday morning we got up bright and early and had the breakfast that we'd enjoy every day while in Paris. This breakfast was included at the hotel and when I saw a small cafe next door offering coffee, juice, and a croissant for 5.5 Euros I realized we got a great deal.
When we sat down the woman that was clearing tables would bring us a basket with a croissant and small baguette for each of us. Then, there was unlimited coffee, juice, cereal, yogurt, fruit cocktail, ham slices, and cheese. It was a a great way to start the day!
After we broke our fasts we took the Metro to the tourist office to pick up our 5-day Metro passes and verify our reservations for the tour of Versailles that took place the next day.
Once we got our Metro passes we walked to the Place de la Concorde. I was amazed. The day was sunny, warm, and the sky was a brilliant blue in color. The water splashed merrily in the fountains and every direction offered a breath-taking view. After some time there we walked to la Tour Eiffel.
It was mid-morning and already a line stretched outside the place to buy an elevator ticket to the top. Rather than wait in that 2-hour line we decided to climb the steps. It is about 2,000 steps just up the the second level and then you have to pay an additional amount of money to take an elevator to the top.
But...it was the Eiffel Tower and it delivered. The view from the top was magnificent and we had a great time reading the signs at each landing on the steps telling about the history of the tower. Well, *I* enjoyed reading the signs. :)
That night we had an awesome dinner at the Boeufs ur le Toit. It was a couple of blocks off of the Champs-Elysées. We enjoyed drinks at the bar while waiting for our seats and the girls were convinced that their drinks had alcohol in them. LOL
It was a great first full day in Paris and we were glad to take the Metro back to our hotel. The stop was a couple of blocks away from the hotel and it was a nice evening stroll for us.
One final note, getting around the Metro was a piece of cake. I've been on many other systems in other cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C.) but heard stories that made it seem like it would be difficult. You simply had to know the stop you wanted and then get on the correct train, based on the final destination for that line. It was efficient with trains arriving frequently on the most-traveled lines which were the ones we tended to use.
It was an awesome first day!!!