Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Disneyland Paris






Today we picked up our rental car and drove out of Paris.  The drive out was HARROWING and the images of what we went through to find our way out are still burned into my mind.  I haven't cried about it all yet; maybe when I do I can then laugh about it all.  We did it and that is all I need to say.  Paris might be the city of Love but Todd and I will have terror flashbacks of the roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe for the rest of our lives!  Kids - Mom and Dad will NEVER be on the Amazing Race.  Just forget about it!  I would like to return the rental car tomorrow but Todd thinks for here on in we will be fine.  It is just the city that is a problem.....hopefully.  If anyone needs something to pray about....ha, ha....feel free to add us to your list!

We finally found Disneyland and spent the day riding roller coasters and eating food shaped like Mickey's head.  It was very hard to be excited about the happiest place on earth after what we had just been through but we managed.  The day started off pretty cold but the sun busted through the clouds and helped out a bit.  It was more crowded than we thought it would be but the lines for the rides were pretty good so we were able to get through both parks pretty quickly.  I missed having the kids with us.  Todd and I haven't been to Disneyland without them since we were first married!  I desperately needed Tyler there to ride the roller coasters with Todd!  I was good and got on MOST of them....and my stomach hurt for the rest of the day because of it.  A few funny things....we were getting on the Peter Pan ride and I said, "Todd, everyone getting on this ride has a kid with them."  He said, "So?"  I looked at him and said, "Well, I guess I have a kid with me so it all works out."  Todd rode the Aladdin ride by himself with glee and he posed for the official "pull the sword from the stone" picture by himself too.  We had no kids to pose with characters so we had to make a choice: either take no pictures, wait in line to be photographed with the character ourselves or take a picture with some random kid and call it good.  We mostly chose the latter and now have many cute pictures of other people's kids!

The park was decorated for Halloween with pumpkins and "orange paint".  I put that in quotes because most of the decorations were these strange pumpkin people who were pouring paint all over themselves (see pic number one).  They were really kind of creepy in a sick, twisted way.  The Haunted Mansion was the same way....twisted scary not cutesy scary like in the U.S. Another thing we have noticed on this vacation that became really apparent today is that MANY people smoke here and they do it around their kids!  I noticed it a lot in Paris but smoking tends to be common in large cities, but at Disneyland?  In the US they have places for smokers but they are usually "hidden" away.  Here they smoke in public and don't care who they bother.  I figured it out.....in the U.S. if you asked most smokers if they want their kids to smoke they would say NO and therefore hide it.  I think most smokers are "ashamed" of their habit. Plus, it is almost impossible to smoke anywhere anymore in the U.S.  Over here it is everywhere and I think they don't care if their kids smoke or not.  Yesterday we saw a pair of teenage girls smoking WITH an adult that seemed to be their mom!  So, anyway, Disney was full of unashamed smokers who didn't even stick to the designated areas.  Kind of sad to see people smoking right over their kid's stroller!

Tomorrow we go to Givery, where Monet lived and where his famous garden was.  He created all his water lilly paintings there.  We are also going to try and make it to the beaches of Eterat as well but it might be too cold.  This part of the trip is a bit more fluid, meaning we really don't have set plans!  That is bad since we now know we are horrible at finding where to go!  I hope we have internet access at our next stop but again, it is never a sure thing.

Brights:  Bobus needs an instruction manual!  I think the problem is that the address of the hotel is listed as an area not a city.  And Disney doesn't have an address or a city that we could find.  Bobus wants a city name first!    And a zip code?  There aren't any zip codes available in France!  Bobus almost got thrown from the window today.  Tell Ian that Bobus is now referred to as Bogus!


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