The Birthday Trip

Since we were leaving for the US only 3 days after the Amsterdam-Detroit attempted bombing, we feared we would have a difficult time getting to Pittsburgh. But the trip was not bad, there was little extra security, especially in Paris, so we only had to contend with an extra-long flight due to a ferocious head wind and major turburlance. All flights however were packed. As you can see here, Birthday Mom had a good time. We froze in Pittsburgh where it also snowed most days and after a week, we were on our way to sunny Florida. Yahoo!

But Florida was in the midst of the longest and coldest freeze in decades. There was sunshine at least. We visited with more family and friends, ate great seafood, did a bit of shopping (how can you not but necessaries at West Marine) and went to a movie. The absolute high point of the trip was seeing Avatar at an Imax theater. It was incredible. We are looking forward to seeing Alice in Wonderland which we hope will be shown at the Imax at Paris Disney. Definately worth the trip.

The trip back was more of a hassel. Lines were very long at Miami. Security had been tightened up by then. On the plus side the flight was shortened by an hour due to a tail wind and there was less turburlance.

Back in France, we had escaped a serious (3-4 inch) snowfall which was still on the ground when we arrived. You can see an image of Petillant at the marina under a white blanket at www.port-medoc.com and look at the images of Ponton D. Petillant is the second boat you see on the right.

The cats had missed us and have not strayed from our sides. Now we are getting back to routine before we go off to Paris on Saturday.