Are We There Yet?

We are wrapping up our last week here in France. We have had a grand adventure, for sure. But we are ready to go back to our lives and see our family and friends. Be apart for 10 freaking minutes. Oh, you still there. Yeah. It has been a lot of togetherness. But we made it. And we are better for it.

Here's a little recap of our last week or so...

The next door neighbor, Alexandre came and watched Maya while Casey and I hit the town. We stopped at several different places for little snacks and split some dishes here and there. We had a blast. Kept the kid out till 11pm or so. She was soooo tired. But she would not cry Uncle. She pretty much melted into the car when we were heading back for the night.

Lot's o' shoppers on Rue St. Catherine

Found a fun sports store. "Mom! Can we puleeeaze bring home a skateboard/scooter/tent/rollerblades/puppy?" Okay, that last was an exaggeration, but you get the point.

Chillin', reading, eating Thai food. This kid's a pro.

This is on a street we have walked back and forth on several times. This night she says "Mom, can we stop and get a drink here. They have peanuts on the table. That is sooo cool." And so we did.

Me and my date

You have got to check this out. Casey got locked in the bathroom of the local grocery store last month. LAST MONTH. As in, they have had over a month to fix the door. Here's how it remains as of a few days ago...

"Out of service" Wow, thanks for taping that up. Don't bother fixing it.

This kid is sooo into everything sports related

It's sad my kids are so shy and don't make new friends. We will work on it.

We were invited over to Leslie's house for dinner one evening. See everyone? No. Hey Casey, nice shot.

Too cool for school. Oh, wait, she's not in school. Never mind

Yippeeeeeee!

No fun

Here either

They are into this water thang

Ice cream

makes people

happy

Pooped from partying

Cleaning the car

Yup, EVERYONE helps

Casey likes to take pictures...Here are a few

Casey: "Mommy, QUICK gimme the camera." Me: "Why??" Casey: Takes the picture. Shows it to me. "The backpacks. So cool."

Casey: "I just love the way this scooter looks. I gotta have a picture of it."

Casey: "Can you believe how amazing these motorcycles look next to each other. And

with the background too. So cool."

The many faces of Maya Moran

We had the pleasure of hanging out with Leslie for the day and she showed us around, took us on the tram and showed us one of her fav eating spots. So fun!

Taking the tram in Bordeaux

Leslie took us to a lovely garden restaurant. Nice and relaxing, and delicious

Ugh. It had a bed there and this is how the girls spent most of the meal. Ya just gotta pick your battles sometimes, right?

Check out the reddish, berry looking puree on the table. Me: (laughing with Leslie because we have already determined it is a gazpacho comprised of beets and some other savory items) "Casey, you gotta try this. Mmmmm." Casey: "Oh, is it strawberry or raspberry in it?" Takes a bite. Eyes get big. "Yuuuuuuuuck!" Me: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Word. To. Her. Mother.

At an aritist's workshop and studio kinda sorta thing

With our new friend Leslie. She has been so great to us here. And she's even cuter from the front!

Bye bye daily baguettes. Hello Weight Watchers

We leave for the U.S. on Friday and we are getting packed up and trying to shove all of our aquired good into our luggage. That is a challenge!

Au revoir, à bientôt, Adieu!

We had another full day in the Hendaye area and we planned to make use of it. We had been told about a boat that would take us across the inlet that links France to Spain (thanks again Leslie!). It was about a 15 minute walk to the boat from the apartment. We got there and paid a few euros and took the beautiful and short trip (maybe 10 minutes) on the boat.

Fun in Fontarrabie, or Hondarribia, or Fontarabie. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontarabie Yes, there are this many names for this city. And probably more. I don't know how these folks keep up with all of the language changes. Makes me tired...

We were told about the old part of the city, by some folks on the boat. We could see it from the water, and it looked like a great place to start exploring.

Love the colors

At the top of the old city

Our lunch. A traditional meatball dish, served with housemade potato chips. Oh yeah.

As we were walking, Casey found an interesting looking machine. What is it for? I had her investigate.

Hmmmm, bottles in a vending machine. What the heck, she asked? Ohhhhh, milk. A milk machine! How cool! Can we do it? I checked the price. Okay, .50 euro for a bottle and 1 euro for a full liter of milk. Sure, why not?

There is the moo juice, coming out. Excited kid.

She takes a taste...

Ohhhhh, it's really cow-y tasting. Blech!

Da ladies walking across the bridge to the old city. Of course it doesn't capture the cars whizzing by underneath and the nervous Mom taking the picture.

After enjoying our 3 nights in Hendaye we weren't ready to leave the area. There were so many more things we wanted to see and do. And truthfully, I wanted more SPAIN. Yummy, exciting, relaxing, friendly Spain. I found a good deal on an apartment in a city called Zarautz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zarautz It was about a 30 minute drive to San Sebastian, which is one of the Spanish cities I really wanted to check out.

The apartment was nice enough. It was pretty modern and had a playground right next to it. Perfect!

The next morning we explored Zarautz a bit. Below is one of the gorgeous fruit stalls in a marketplace. Casey always wants fruit (okay, and ice cream) so she picked some strawberries out and we grabbed a baguette and some local cheese and had a nice picnic.

We were pooped from all of the coming and going so we went back to the apartment and took some good naps. We woke up and I decided it would be fun to head into San Sebastian for some dinner. I had researched a bit and found out the train in Zarautz would take us straight there. And I was looking forward to riding the train and not navigating in the car.

Scenic ride into San Sebastian

Me: "Maya, wanna come sit with Mommy?" Maya: "No. I wanna sit next to Case." Love it.

We arrived in San Sebastian after about a 30 minute train ride. I love riding the train and it was a perfect night for it. Now, do realize that I don't report all of the struggles that come with ALL of this movement. I don't want you to be bored, or scared, or deterred from travel. But just know that my brain is buzzing with each turn. Here's snapshot of the evening, written in it's frenetic pace that I experienced...

Continually check train signboard to assure we are headed the right way.arrive at train station.try to open train doors all while practicing patience while 6 year old wants to be the one to open the doors, but can't really figure out how to do it and other people are standing behind her, waiting to get off.make sure girls don't step off the platform into an oncoming train. maneuver bigarse stroller off of train and past the throngs of people who don't seem to care if you are struggling. use your ticket to get through fare gates and pass the bathroom just as you reach the other side and 6 year old says "I have to go to the bathroom."roll me eyes.try and communicate with the police officer, manning the gates, in Spanish, that me and my crew need to get back inside to use the bathroom.use the bathroom.walk back out of the station and kids see a plaza that looks fun to run around in.try to be patient again.try to explain to them that it's 7pm and our last train is at 9:30 blah blah.and we need to get some dinner soon.they are only thinking about running around.let them run around.as they are running around 6 yr old says "I'm hungry!"roll eyes again.start heading towards the old part of the city so we can experience the San Sebastian tradition of going to various bars (no silly, not just the drinking type) and having Pintxo's (see explanation below) for dinner.damn it, we will experience the local culture. start walking away from train station.realize that I need to plug the location into my GPS so I can get back to it.start walking towards the old city, kids see a toy store."Please, can we go in?"Weak and tired of saying no, let them go in.2 yr old plays for 2 minutes and is over hungry so starts throwing a tantrum about something toy related.roll eyes again.round the midgets up quickly.head towards food again.get into the old city.kids see an ice cream shop.say maybe later.get 2 "But Mommy!" from each of them.shoot death ray looks to both of them.push towards the food. contemplate parking them outside a restaurant with a drippy ice cream cone for each of them and me laughing with bar patrons, enjoying 10 minutes to myself.realize this is never going to happen.

Tired yet? Yeah...me too!

Well, we eventually reached the old city and I explained to the kids what a Pintxo crawl is and what it entailed. Here's an idea of what we did...

Pintxo's by Casey Moran

One night in my life I had some great Pintxo's. You wouldn't believe how good they tasted. Look, us at the Pintxo bar.

Next I went to another Pintxo place. We had some coke and this goat cheese thing and this sandwich with ham. It was delicious. My favorite part was throwing the napkins on the ground and tasting new foods. Then we took the train back home and walked to the car and went to bed.

The End