The "Farkles" Go On Vacation....

I haven't even zipped shut my suitcase for the final time and the "excitement" has already started!

As I walked out of the office this afternoon to go to lunch there was something different about my car...something just wasn't right. I suddenly stopped in my tracks when I realized what the "something different" was...I had a flat tire on my car. As the man walking behind me said, "That doesn't look good"...boy did he hit the nail on the head...some way to begin a vacation! :)

Fortunately for me a very helpful co-worker got my little air compressor hooked up and it pumped the tire up enough for me to be able to drive a couple blocks to the tire store. Thank goodness my office is less then a mile from a tire store!

Of course, since it was just after 12noon, all the tire technicians were at lunch and I was 3rd in line. I was told my car would be worked on sometime around 1:15-1:30. Not too terribly long, but let's face it, that probably really means it wouldn't be ready until sometime after 2pm. Again, this wouldn't be such a big deal, except I have a meeting at 2pm and I specifically changed my schedule around today so that instead of leaving and starting my vacation at noon (like I wanted) I decided to stay for the meeting and leave at 3pm. Again, not a life altering situation, just a bit of a pain in the neck, since I did want to do a few things before picking up mom and going home to do laundry and the final pack!

This was not a major catastrophe, just a little annoyance, and a funny story to kick off a vacation. Let's hope this is the only major "event" that occurs!

And 24 hours from now I will be boarding a plane and taking off into the wild blue yonder!

I'm Having Trouble Containing My Excitement!

My trip to France is just around the corner and no matter how old I am, when a vacation is this close I can't help but get excited.

All the planning and research I've done over the last year is culminating in such great anticipation... that first Laudree macaroon...the first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower (well, the first glimpse in 19 years!)...a stroll down the Champs Elysee...the sight of my first French Chateau...a canoe ride down the Dordogne River...meandering along the Promenade Anglais in Nice...and the taste of goat cheese and chocolate crepes (not together of course, but maybe I'm onto a new flavor combination here!)

I know I have said this before and I am sure I will say it again, but there is just something I love about traveling....and I mean everything involved with travel. The preparation for the trip and gaining new knowledge of a place. The actual transit...how I love sitting in airports watching people rush off to parts unknown and wondering where they are going and why. Then there is the actual experience of seeing a place I've read about for the first time, or better yet, experiencing a place a second time around because the joy it brought the first time!

I like to think my expectations will be met, but I know better than to expect perfection, so I will hope the trip goes smoothly and if there is a bump or two in the travel road that is what will make for an adventurous journey!

This is eerie!

This is great but at the same time weird and I am just waiting for "hell to break loose"! Let's hope it doesn't! :)

All my ducks are in a row at work and now it's just the, truly, little things that await...changing my voicemail and email reply, going to a last minute meeting on Wednesday and sending a few emails out tomorrow.

If feels really weird to have everything under control when in the past couple years it seems I was flitting around at the last minute coordinating things before leaving for vacation. Maybe that wasn't the case and my mind is not remembering correctly! But this is a good weird feeling to have.

Packing is done...

...well almost!

The "major" part of the packing is done. Now it's just the last minute stuff like my phone charger, and make-up...what a combination! :)

It took me longer today to organize everything and I even had to unpack a few things to fit all the "necessary" stuff. With my new camera and it's bag taking up more room in my carry-on pack I was thrown off kilter with what could be put into my carry-on pack. But with some re-arranging and getting rid of some stuff I think all will work out.

Of course the true test will be Thursday morning as we head out the door to the airport and do the final touches of organizing the suitcase! And as I know from experience as soon as I open the suitcase the first time in Paris it will never be as organized as it is right now.

And as I said to mom tonight, if we need something while we are there, we certainly won't have trouble finding it...after all, France is not a third world country! We will have no trouble finding Clinique make-up there if we need it! We may end up paying an extraordinary price for it with the exchange rate, but we will find it! :)

Now just getting through the next 2 and one half days at work will be the hardest part. I am absolutely ready to begin this vacation right now!

One week from TODAY!

Wooo Hooo! At this very moment in one week I will be jetting across the Atlantic in blissful slumber. Well the "blissful slumber" part may be a bit of an exaggeration! But I did pick the exit row seats for the flight to Paris and that should provide more leg room which may help in trying to get a little shut eye! :)

Only a few more days at work and things are looking good for having loose ends tied up before I go on vacation...LOVE THAT!

This weekend is dedicated to packing and finishing all the last minute "to do's". Now if the weather in France will be perfect all will be well!

Post Number 200!!!

Wow! I can hardly believe I've managed to keep this blog going, albeit with sporadic posts, for 3 years! And this is post # 200. I know that may not seem like alot to those "big time" bloggers out there, but for me, it's an accomplishment!

Now, just when I thought my work responsibilities were in order for my vacation, and I could walk out of the office next Wednesday at noon without a second thought, a meeting for 2pm that Wednesday popped up on my radar. Technically there are a couple people who can handle it for me, but I do feel that if I can be there I should. So it looks like instead of zipping out of the office at noon it will be more like 3pm. In the grand scheme of things that's not too bad!

On the positive side of work, it looks like, at least for now, that all my other work things are falling into place nicely and I should be able to get on the plane next week without worrying too much! :)

Now for news on the arrival in Paris front. I originally was just going to catch a taxi at CDG and go to our hotel. But after some more thinking and reading more posts on Fodors I decided to book a private car service to meet us at the airport and take us to the hotel. It is costing 55Euro, which is about what a taxi would cost. In fact a taxi may have cost a bit more, depending on the traffic situation and the running meter. This way the car service is one flat fee and a tip to the driver.

Tonight I contacted Sprint to get my cell phone set up for international data (aka internet) service while in France and it will only be an extra $40 for a month of unlimited data access. I figure that's a pretty decent deal since I will mostly be using the phone for emailing anyway. Calls are extra at $1.29 per minute, but that's what I would have paid for calls on my other international phone. I'm interested to see how my new phone will work on this trip.

In just 9 days we will be exploring the city of light and cruising down the Seine!

Playing Tourist in Atlanta...

Over the Labor Day weekend we took off for Atlanta. In the past year we've been to Hot-Lanta a few times. Most of the visits have revolved around shopping or just visiting friends.

What made this trip different? We decided to play tourist for a day. We arrived on Saturday afternoon and met Regi in the cute little town square in Decatur.

Yay MARTA! As we like to stay in the Sandy Springs/Dunwoody area of Atlanta I found a super rate at the Sheraton on Hammond Drive, just down the street from the Dunwoody MARTA stop. After checking in on Saturday afternoon we headed over to the MARTA stop to take the train to Decatur.

Little did we know there was a Clemson-Alabama football game and every Clemson and Alabama fan on earth would be riding in the same MARTA car with us! :)

We survived and made it to Decatur and walked around the town for a bit waiting for Regi to meet us. It really is a cute little town! We stumbled upon a Starbucks...how convenient! And stopped for a coffee. While there Reg called and said he had arrived and a few minutes later he was walking in the door.

The ultimate goal was to have dinner at a Thai place Regi and Scott had found a couple weeks ago. It's named Siam and the food was terrific! And the portions huge. I couldn't even finish my Pad Thai.

Regi was kind enough to drive us back to my car at the MARTA stop and we called it a night. I've got to say the beds at the Sheraton were fantastic! Really comfortable!

We were in no rush the next morning, so got moving and out the door around 10:30. We stopped at the Einstein Bagels place down the street from the hotel for some breakfast since we had never tried this place. It's a bagel shop/restaurant chain and the bagels were great.

Just after 11am we were back on MARTA heading down to CNN Center to catch the Inside CNN tour. The tour was very interesting. It was neat to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. The tour lasted about an hour and then we were off and walking through Centennial Park.

We were headed for the World of Coke, which was somewhat interesting but filled with masses of people and mostly children running around. We did get to taste several Coke products that are sold all over the world and the unanimous favorite was called Smart from China. It's an apple flavored soda and it was a pleasant surprise. I didn't think I would like it but I did. The second runner up was called Beverly from Italy and it a bit of a lime/lemon flavor. I did not like any of the flavors from Africa...way too sweet...and I have a sweet tooth!

One of the highlights of the weekend was Sunday night dinner. Through the OpenTable website I found a restaurant in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta called Wisteria. And a bonus was for a Sunday early evening reservation via OpenTable I could get 1000 points! So I booked the reservation.

I am so glad I found this little gem! The food was delicious and the restaurant had a "rustic" atmosphere with exposed brick walls. It was casual and was fairly crowded for a Sunday night and it seemed to have a good local clientele, which was confirmed by our waitress.

We had 2 appetizers, the calamari which had an Asian twist because it was served with a wasabi mayonnaise and an apricot dipping sauce...it was the best calamari I have had in a really long time! The second starter was fried green tomato fries. A unique way to serve this southern classic...french fry style with an absolutely decadent blue cheese dipping sauce.

We would have been happy with the starters but forged ahead with entrees too! Mom had the skate wing fish with grits so creamy I almost didn't believe they were grits! Really, really good. I had the special which was a veal and pork meatloaf with mashed potatoes. The meatloaf was so tender there was no need for me to use a knife. Mom had a couple glasses of wine and I tried the signature Wisteria Blossom which is a martini with chambord and I can't remember what else, but it was very smooth!

We ended dinner with espresso that really hit the spot! I would give Wisteria very high marks and would definitely return.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night. The next morning we took our time getting started, went back to Einstein Brothers for a bagel breakfast and then to Trader Joe's to stock up on $2 Chuck!

We were on the road just after 10:30 and back home by 3:30. Just enough time to get organized for the work week!

It was another fun filled weekend to one of my favorite cities!

2 More Weeks Mes Amis!

Not one, not two, but THREE tropical storms/potential hurricanes are brewing in the Atlantic and I am in vacation countdown mode! Does this sound familiar???

I should have remembered several years ago when prior to going to Prague there was a major storm that also slipped by us.

For a few days Tropical Storm Hanna was forecasted to hit between Savannah and Charleston. It's a bit disconcerting when the weather channel meteorologists continually announce the eye of the storm will make landfall in your own town. Thankfully (for us) the storm is now forecasted to hit land in the Myrtle Beach area. We will most likely get lots of wind and rain on Saturday, but not much more then that.

That would be good news if it weren't for the fact that Hurricane Ike and Tropical Storm Josephine are right on the heels of Hanna. In monitoring these storms, right now it looks like we may be out of harms way for them too. But there is still 2 weeks until lift-off to France and alot can happen in that time.

With just 2 weeks left before taking off for France this upcoming weekend is filled with lots of "to do's"...haircut, packing, and general organizing! I can say that I am REALLY ready for this vacation! I am coping rather well with my workload and taking the attitude that it will all get done, or someone else will step in to handle it!