gabriella & jd (and alex! and vincent!)

We went to Manchester for a quick visit last weekend.  I had not been in 5 years exactly, Alex and JD were last there in April 2012.  We stayed at our favorite Arora Hotel on Princess Street in the city.  Of course there were fish 'n chips, mushy peas, and beer.  We got to spend time with Duncan, Callum, Tiernan, and some other folks from MUST - Paul, Mark, Ian - that Vincent called "all the Duncans". Friday Flybe to Manchester, arriving our favorite Arora Hotel, walking around, lunch, tram to meet Duncan and everyone at the new MUST offices by Old Trafford,  a walk around Old Trafford, and dinner with everyone at Croma.  We were lucky it was a warm and sunny day, very unlike Manchester.  Alex loved riding backwards in the taxis, and Alex and Vincent both loved the trams, and the hotel, of course! Saturday JD's Birthday!  MUST AGM meeting while it rained, lunch at The Bishop Blaize (with pancakes on the dessert menu), a walk around...

Finally downloaded some more pictures from right before we left the US.  The lens was blurry because I dropped hummus on it, oops. pictures JD saying goodbye to Carrie at Parthenon, swimming at Carrie's pool, eating, playing, making faces, U-Haul to Goodwill and the dump, lunch with Grannie's friend Mabel at her apartment, and having a delicious meal at Black Market Bistro in Garrett Park. pictures Arriving at CDG Roissy July 5th.

Pictures from the first week, getting settled in the apartment.  The weather was gray and cool and rainy the first week.  Little did we know there was a heat wave coming! pictures New apartment, cooking, eating, putting together Alex's bunk bed. pictures Eating at L'Anjou, seeing the jets practive for Bastille Day, buying vacuum cleaner, dinner at L'Anjou. pictures More apartment - playing, reading, eating, new vacuum. pictures First full Saturday in Paris and the sun eventually came out.  We went into town and walked a bit through the Tuileries and across the Seine into the 6th arrondissement for lunch. pictures Sunday lunch from the market, a walk around our town after some rain, walking over to the river to see the set up for pre-Bastille day celebrations. Bastille Day We walked over to the Arc de Triomphe to see the end of the military parade. more Bastille Day More helicopters and tanks.

Greetings from Paris!  We are settled in our new apartment and love being back in France.  The last few weeks of June were VERY hectic - travel for work(JD), packing, end of school, getting out of the Lund Place rental house, donating a ton of our furniture, staying with Grannie, saying goodbye, and flying out of Dulles on July 4th! Some things that have changed since we left 2 years ago:  Paris now has self-checkout at some stores, more loyalty cards and coupons, the food truck craze is going full swing as is the hamburger craze, and sadly, more Starbucks, and bagels everywhere.   Also sad and very disturbing - the trend of putting locks on the bridges across the Seine has expanded to more bridges than the Pont des Arts.  The Roma vendors even sells the locks on the bridge.  Not only is this very ugly, but the bridge walls are starting to collapse under the weight.  See BBC article "'Lovelocks' collapse Paris bridge rail". end of June Lunc...