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France Day 3: The Louvre & Eiffel Tower

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Today we woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel. We then walked to The Louvre, which was about a 15 minute walk from our hotel. I wasn’t in the best mood for some reason so I tried to snap out of it.

Don wanted to see the Mona Lisa so I had looked up directions on the best, most efficient way to get in and see the Mona Lisa. I had also gotten us skip the line tickets. I didn’t realize though that the skip the line ticket was only good at the main entrance. I went to an entrance recommended for viewing the Mona Lisa. So we had to wait in a bit of a line, it didn’t take too long.

Once we got into the museum we booked it to the Mona Lisa. Luckily the museum was not too crowded yet and after a bit of getting turned around we found the room with the Mona Lisa. There wasn’t a line and there was a medium sized group viewing her. The room was quite sad; it was just a huge white room with construction going on. Then on the wall was the tiny Mona Lisa behind glass. We both knew the Mona Lisa was not very big, but it did just look so small and sad in this room. Tourists were pushing, trying to get the best shot of this painting that we all have seen. It was weird.

After seeing the Mona Lisa the museum had gotten much more crowded. I was thirsty so we stopped at the cafe in the museum. There wasn’t really anything in the Louvre that I wanted to see. I don’t know much about art; Don is much more knowledgeable when it comes to stuff like that. He looked at the map while we rested and found a few things to look at. The Egyptian art display was closed when we were there but that would have been cool to see. We probably walked around the museum for an hour or so but it was just so crowded so we decided to go outside.

Favorite picture I saw in The Louvre.

Once we got outside we got some croissants and sat down. We sat around and people watched at various different fountains. There were a ton of birds. We even saw pigeons mating!

I think we both enjoyed the gardens at The Louvre more than being inside the museum. We walked around quite a bit and then decided to get lunch.

We found a place called Flottes. It seemed to be in a fancy part of Paris. I had chicken with mashed potatoes. The gravy it came with was awesome. Don had a steak. After we ate we walked back to the hotel and laid around.

We left around 8 for the Eiffel Tower. Greg and some people had decided that it would be cool to go up in the Eiffel Tower at sunset and have champagne. Sunset in Paris this time of year was super late, like around 9:40. We booked skip the line tickets for 9 pm. Jim, Doreen, Linda, and Donna arrived around when we did so we decided to go up because Greg, Julie, Patty, Kevin, & Laura were running late. It took a long time to get up to the top of the tower. The lines were ridiculous, even with a skip the line. I have to say I think I enjoyed seeing the tower from across the river more than actually going up it. The views were cool but often it felt too crowded to really enjoy it.

As we were going down, Greg and his crew were coming up so we decided to stay longer with them. It was fun to watch Greg since he’s afraid of heights.

Afterwards, I was pretty hungry but also tired. This just led to me being mostly grouchy, so even though Don tried to get me food, I just wanted to go sleep.

Reviews - Travel, Travel

France Day 2: Musee Rodin, Catacombs, Eiffel Tower, Delicious Pizza!!

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Today we woke up around 8 and had breakfast at the hotel. The hotel breakfast was pretty good–eggs, breads, meats, fruits, and cheeses. After breakfast we walked to the Musee Rodin. It was a chilly, but sunny morning and it turned out to be very nice.

The Musee Rodin has an outdoor garden with replicas of famous sculptures done by Rodin. There is also an indoor museum with a ton of sculptures. I think we liked the garden the most, especially because it was a nice, sunny morning. We enjoyed taking some fun shots with the sculptures. I would suggest getting the audiotour to learn more about the pieces.

The Thinker
The Gates of Hell

After we walked through the museum we took an Uber to the Catacombs. We had a 1 pm tour booked and we had some time when we arrived so we stopped a restaurant called Indiana Cafe. I had a virgin pina colada and Don had a beer. We also had some ice cream for a snack.

The catacombs tour was very cool and interesting. We also had an audiotour for this tour. I would suggest doing this rather than getting a guide. It was creepy, but really more interesting than anything.

After the Catacombs tour we had lunch at a restaurant across the street called Le Comptoir. I had fish and chips and Don had a salad. The food was pretty good.

We also found this really crazy public restroom. It was all automated and even self cleaning.

After lunch we took the train to a spot across the river to get a view of the Eiffel Tower. The view was really awesome and it was a great place to take pictures of the Eiffel Tower.

After taking a ton of pictures we decided to walk the river back to our hotel and maybe even as far as Notre Dame. It was a really long walk but we had fun and took pictures. We made it as far as the lourve and then we decided we would not make it to Notre Dame. I was really tired and hungry. We found a pizza place called Positano. It was delicious, maybe some of the best pizza I have ever had! Who would have thought the best restaurant in France would be an Italian one haha?!

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Getting to France-First Day!

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We left last night on a direct flight to Paris with American Airlines. The flight was about an hour delayed due to maintenance. On the flight I tried to sleep, but didn’t get much sleep; it was so uncomfortable. The only movie I remember watching was Vice.

We landed in Paris around 11:45 am. Finding the train to Paris was pretty easy. We made it a little more difficult on ourselves by not transferring and deciding to walk from a train stop that was a little further from our hotel. I was tired, grouchy, and hungry so this was a mistake. It was cool to see the Notre Dame Cathedral as we came out of the train though.

We got to our hotel in the neighborhood of Saint Germain around 2 pm and was able to check in. The hotel is called Hotel Des Deux Continents. Unfortunately, it is a 3 story walk up and we are on the 3rd floor haha. The staircase was tiny and winding. The room, though, was nice and cute.

We got settled in and took a 3 hour nap. Once we woke up I was ready to eat so we went out to walk around. It was cool to me how much New Orleans really looked like the streets of Saint Germain. We found a cute American diner called Coffee Parisien, which was really weird, but cool. The place mats at the diner had all of the American presidents on them, including the newest idiot. The food here was pretty good. I had a cheeseburger with fries, and they even had Dr Pepper! Don had steak and eggs, which was more like a hamburger patty and eggs. After dinner we walked around a bit and stopped at a grocery store. Then we got back to the hotel around 9 and fell asleep.

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Snorkeling, Travel

Last Day–More Snorkeling!

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Today was our last day and we are definitely not ready for this vacation to end! Hawaii has been awesome. We tried to sleep in today but that lasted until about 7:30. Don found a breakfast place called Kihei Cafe. This place is kind of different because you wait in line and order then you can find your seat. The line may seem long but it goes fast and it seemed everyone was able to find a seat when it was their time. So even if it seems like you’ll never get a table, just try it, their timing of everything seemed to make it work! It was also good. I had the huevos rancheros and Don had the pork loco moco. I would recommend the loco moco over the huevos rancheros, but everything was good.

We started the day by heading to Po’olenalena Beach.  I chose this beach because of the name and it had really good reviews. It was a beautiful, quiet, uncrowded beach with  very fine soft sand. We went to the North side first. The visibility was low due to the sand being brought up by the surf, but almost immediately by the rocks we saw a sea turtle. Then 2 more turtles and another—there were at least 4 turtles just hanging out and eating here. It was so cool! We saw some really small turtles here and honestly after awhile I lost count I think we decided there were 6 turtles here. It was hard to stay in one place due to the waves but we were able to hang out and watch them for awhile.

We swam South to the middle of the beach where there was supposed to be a middle rock but we couldn’t find it so we went furthest South to a the rocky edge of the beach. Around the corner of the beach in the rocks we saw 3 more turtles. They would get so close! The coral here looked really cool also; it was a lime green. The water here was pretty rough and we had to be careful around the rocks so we swam around the rocks to the next beach and rested there in the water a bit. While we were here we talked about how awesome the snorkeling had been here in Hawaii and how we had seen so many turtles. Every day we have seen turtles, even on the day we didn’t get in water! I did make a comment though that I was a bit disappointed not to have seen one shark. We decided to swim back to the beach where our stuff was.

On our way back I heard Don start yelling for me and I felt a little scared because I didn’t know what was happening. He said he saw something cool but I couldn’t see it. Could it be a shark?? Then he told me it was a giant ray. I was so disappointed that I missed it. We sat, treading water for about a minute looking around and the ray came back!

It would circle us, leave, and then come back. It was huge! It also seemed super curious about us. It kept coming back. We swam with this manta ray for a few minutes. Don said it was starting to freak him out because neither of us knew if it was dangerous or not. I didn’t think it was but it was time to get back anyway so we left the ray.

On our way back to shore there was another small turtle, so if you’re looking for turtles in Hawaii this beach seems to be the place to be!

Once we got back to the hotel we hung out at the pool for a little bit then we got cleaned up and had a beer. We then went out to look for some postcards. During our shopping we found a little wooden turtle and manta ray to add to our whale shark we got in Mexico. It seems like a cool tradition to get wooden carvings of all the really cool things we have swam with.

For lunch we had to try Outriggers Pizza. Outriggers Pizza is a food truck with a wood fired oven, so that was pretty unique. The pizza was good so check this place out! After eating I wanted to go to a bar that had the Cubs game on but we couldn’t really find one. I also for some reason was kind of grouchy. I didn’t feel great for some reason and I was a little tired. We did go to a tiki bar, called South Shore Tiki Lounge, and had some calamari with wings. I tried their mai tai and it was different than any mai tai I’ve ever had. I don’t know if I would recommend it. We talked to a couple here that had moved to Maui from New Jersey. They were interesting.

We went back to the hotel pretty early because we were tired. We hung out, watched Big Brother, and tried to finish our beers and snacks since we leave tomorrow.

Bloggings, Reviews - Travel, Travel

Road to Hana

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We had to wake up early today for our trip to Hana. The Road to Hana is a famous drive in Maui with many attractions along the way. The road is known for it’s natural beauty all around, including waterfalls,cliff sides, and views of the Pacific. There are many guides online about how to do the road to Hana and I used a variety of sites to help plan our day. We only had a day, which was unfortunate, but we did see and do a lot!

After having our leftovers from Da Kitchen for breakfast we left Kihei around 7:30. The plan was for me to drive the way to Hana and for Don to drive back. We first stopped in the town of Paia. It was a cute, small town. It seemed a bit hippy-ish. We didn’t really spend any time here, just made a bathroom stop and we were on our way.

The drive was pretty cool. It was a bit scary at times, but awesome. The road was filled with areas that were only one way and hairpin curves. At times it would be rainy and then a minute later the sun was out. There were often lots of cars and people also.

 

 

Our first stop was Twin Falls. There is a small parking lot at Twin Falls but a lot of people will end up pulling over on the side of the road like we did. The hike down to Twin Falls was not long but it was slippery.

The next place I wanted to stop was a lookout point in a Wailua Valley. We thought we had missed it but then we saw a small parking area. The walk up to the lookout was not long and it was easy. The views were incredible. We could see a waterfall in the distance. This is what I always envisioned Maui being.

Waikani Falls was the next place we stopped. You can see this waterfall just by pulling over on the side of the road. There are many signs saying not to pull over, but many people were so we did. It was pretty awesome.

The highlight of the road to Hana was the Waianapanapa State Park. We got here and walked around a bit. Then we decided to have our lunch before we did much more here. We brought lunches we had picked up at the grocery store the night before. We had sandwiches, chips, salad, and even a couple of Longboards. We ate in the car because they were no tables nearby. Once we were done eating we changed into some swimwear because we knew there would be a beach.

The beach was formed by volcanic rock so the sand was actually black rock. It was called Black Sand Beach. It was very hot walking down to the beach, but it was overcast. We got into the water and it was cold but refreshing. It started to rain a bit. Supposedly, you should be able to swim out to caves in the rock but it was too rough to do this today.

Once we were done swimming we got out and continued our hike. There were really cool lava rock formations. The sun started to come out and it was so hot. We walked around for about 30-45 minutes, but I felt like I was going to get burnt and it was so hot so we turned around. There were just incredible views on this hike. The water at the beach looked calmer now that it was sunny and a few people were pretty far out snorkeling.

We made our way back to the car and Don started driving. We drove to the town of Hana. From the park it wasn’t far, maybe another 20 minutes. We didn’t really know what to do in Hana so we found a place to park where we thought there was a beach. We started walking towards the water and it was pretty much a walk straight down a cliff. Don ended up falling and luckily he didn’t get hurt. I didn’t want to continue because it was so slippery and the water below was so choppy with rocks everywhere. It was beautiful but I didn’t want one of us to get hurt.

This was taken 2 minutes before Don slipped.

We made our way back to the car and decided to drive back to Kihei. Don had a lot of fun driving. He felt like he was in a racing game. I started feeling sick because I often get car sick. We stopped at a shop and got some coffee and chocolate chip banana bread. The bread was so good! We also found the Hana Lava Tube Cave and even though it was set to close soon the guide let us and a few other people explore the cave.  It was a pretty cool cave and it was a self-guided tour. It took about 30 minutes and it was a little spooky at times, especially when you turned off your flashlight.

On the way back we wanted to stop at this restaurant area so we did but things were closing down and nothing looked that good. It seemed like a tourist trap. I did get an iced coffee and some cokes for the ride. I was able to take some Dramamine and I felt pretty good on the ride back.

We stopped at a lookout point that had incredible views of the sun starting to make its way down. There was a bench here with the name Sierra on it.

We made another stop by some cows.

Our last stop on the way back was a beach lookout. The beach was called Ho’okipa. The views of the sunset were awesome. Don noticed some people gathering on the sand down on the beach. They were looking at something. It looked like rocks on the sand but then Don realized they were sea turtles! The sun was starting to set fast but we wanted a closer look so we drove the car down to the beach and found a spot. The turtles were so awesome! They come up here almost every night to rest on the beach. A conservationist was there to keep people from getting too close. She told us sometimes there are over 150 turtles here a night. We stayed here until the beach was closing. Every day in Maui so far we have seen turtles!!

By the time we got back to Kihei we were both pretty hungry and the pizza place I wanted to try had already closed at 8. So we found a bbq place called Daddy’s Smokehouse and it was pretty good. It was a long but pretty awesome day.