European Adventures

The trip started out with an interesting stop at Fry's Electronics to get a few last minute items. As Valerie and I are walking out of the store, this guy stops by the counter and asks the person who checks your receipt if he could hold onto his item while the shopper ran out to his car to grab his wallet. The store attendant gave him an odd look, said, "sure" as the shopper was quickly walking out of the store. Val and I get our receipt and items checked and started walking out the door as two men outside approached the moneyless shopper. It was one of those surreal moments when you feel as though you're caught in a movie. The forlorn shopper paused and looked around as if he was deciding whether to admit defeat or put up a fight. One of the two guys outside flashed some kind of a badge at the shopper and then other man approached the shopper. The shopper took off and about 2 seconds later was on the ground because of the other guys tackled him. At this moment, Valerie and are frozen trying to figure out what's going on. Should we call 911, say something, or just walk away? Option 3 didn't sit well with either of us, but neither did we want to get involved in whatever was going on. All the while the 3 guys are struggling, shopping carts are crashing, the men are yelling and Nathan (Valerie's husband) is telling us to "get in the car!" We were smart enough to listen to him, walked to the car, climbed in and watched from the window as the guy was dragged away in handcuffs and the Fry's started letting people out of the store again. No idea how that story ended, but it was an adventurous way to start off our trip.

We had fun in Ireland for St Patrick's day. The streets were crowded with hundreds of thousands of people. We met up with the Flannigans, a couple who my dad has supported for 35+ years and only met them once!! They were such a joyful couple. We also met up with JBU friend, Daniel Ostendorff. What would we have done in Ireland without him? It was an incredibly long, wonderful, green day. We found out that St. Patrick's Day was never celebrated in Ireland until the country realized it was a tourist attraction. We made a bigger deal out of the day than anyone in Ireland did. What was sad is that the story of St. Patrick is fascinating, yet no one knows it. For most people in the world, St Patrick's Day is about wearing green and drinking beer rather than about a man who knew he was supposed to spread the gospel in Ireland.

We then made our way to Paris. Here we have the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Valerie (who's goal in life is to have a cool handstand pose of every place in the world she visits) and Val and I at the Louvre trying to mirror the portrait entitled "Twins".

We had a fabulous time in Paris with Cyril and his family!! We learned Nathan can sleep anywhere. Cyril enjoys growing facial hair when he's on holiday from school. Funny story about this place. Kristen, my wonderful sister often has to use the bathroom which is both horrible and great on trips. Horrible because we have to stop, but great because everyone else has to go too, we've just convinced ourselves we can "hold it". So we tour this palace and once we leave the area Kristen announces, "I might need us to find a bathroom". Cyril (not being used to this side of Kristen) responds, "WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?!? We just came from the bathroom, but we can't go back in now! Why? Why?!" Val, Nate and I are all just about dying laughing at Cyril's dramatic response. Nevertheless, he finds Kristen a bathroom then comes back and asks, "does she always do this?" It's not as funny without hearing his accent and tone, but you get the picture.

We met all of Cyril's friends our last night in Paris. Few videos below for some of our crazy times that night. And I apparently fell in love with a statue in Luxembourg gardens!!

Nathan and Valerie (well, more Valerie than Nathan) have this saying whenever it's time for Nathan to wake up from his nap, "Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey" It has no significant meaning, but Cyril's family LOVED it!!

We woke up the next morning and drove down to Marseilles where we got on board a ferry and docked in beautiful Corsica Island. Yes all of this is Corsica, beach and mountains with snow! One day we decided to hike in the snowy mountains. After Valerie and I fell through the snow, we decided to turn around. Then Nate fell through the snow up to his hip, CRAZY day!

Our final day in Corsica we drove to Bonafacio and were almost blown away!!



We jumped back on a the ferry to head back to France. That night, there was some mix-up with our room situations. The guys were supposed to have a room and the girls were supposed to have a room, however the ferry put 4 of us in one room and 1 in a different room. The guys room had 3 other French men staying in there. After the Nate and Daniel Ray tried to work it out with the ferry crew, Nate came back to the girls room (French guy behind him), as he opened the door to our room, all 3 of us shrieked a little to which the French man responded, "ooh lala" and kindly offered to switch rooms with Nathan =).


After a brief stay in Switzerland, we headed back to Belgium where we boarded our flight back to Dallas filled with lots of memories, tons of stories, and many more adventures ahead.