On Monday, June 12, we arrived at the Palais Garnier, the original Paris opera house, at 10am and signed up for audio tours. The children had their own version, and the voice leading theirs was, most appropriately, the famous Phantom of the Opera. I’ve never seen live opera nor spent […]
On Sunday, June 11, we arrived 45 minutes early for our 10am time slot to visit 6 million dead people in the Parisian catacombs. We descended a spiral staircase into the underground–130 steps–leading to the darkness below. We walked 1.5km, stopping at visual markers that synced with our audio tours […]
After our 10am stop at Cafe Victor Hugo on Saturday, June 10, we took the metro to Puces de Vanves, which was a big ol’ flea market area. I got some vintage pipes with artwork on them; my bride got some coat rack thingy for the children’s backpacks that was […]
On Friday, June 9, we arrived at the Louvre at 10am. An hour or so later, our friends arrived, and then the 10 of us meandered about the museum, checking out artifacts and art among the roughly 5 million Chinese tourists who were also checking out the artifacts and art. […]
“When in Paris, the only thing one should leave to chance is the Loterie Nationale.” – Ernest Hemingway June 8 was our third day in Paris. Deciding the attacks with hammers were finished, we went to Notre Dame cathedral and the nearby archeological crypt (after our usual cafe au lait […]
The 5 of us were biking along the canals behind the palace at Versailles when my 8-year-old followed my detour off the main path to see where a hilly dirt path that went into the nearby woods might lead, as it seemed more exciting than the wider main trail. He […]
I flew to Orlando for the Mom 2.0 Summit on Wednesday morning, saw some old friends, collected an Iris Award for our Dads4Kesem walk across England, and reminded Andrew Shue of his 1-episode stint on “The Wonder Years” before meeting my family late Friday night at the Loews Royal Pacific […]
After our 3 days in Disney parks and L.A., we took our Kia Sedona for a 1000-mile road trip to explore some of the natural beauty of southern California, starting with Channel Islands National Park. Have you ever been to Channel Islands National Park? No? You should fix that. We […]
For spring break this year, we decided to take a week-long trip, something we’d never done before on spring break, despite the fact that pretty much all of Atlanta does this. L.A. seemed like a good use of a couple companion passes that were about to expire, so westward we […]
My 21st trip to New Orleans (and 9th Mardi Gras) began early Thursday morning when I helped 3 children get ready for school and dropped them off when the school doors opened at 7:10am (their mother was in Savannah); then I was off to the airport. We landed, and I […]