European Vacation Part 1

The purpose of the first leg of our trip was to fly into Seattle to meet Bird's parents and allow a night for Yaya to transition into their care. She was soo excited to be going on vacation she spent the day packing and unpacking ALL her toys. You should have seen her trying to cram them all into her little baby's bed. That thing was overflowing! I kept explaining that she couldn't take all her toys and that I already packed a few of her favorite toys plus some treats for her trip. She didn't believe it until I showed her everything in her special suitcase and fish backpack. I wished someone would show me they had packed everything I would need for my trip too!

Here she is on the plane enjoying her new coloring book.

What kid doesn't play with the windows? Up, Down, Open and Shut. Better than kicking the seat of the person in front of them anyway. Right?
 

The view of Mt. Rainier from her window was pretty good.

We landed and took the bus to our hotel where Bo and Boppy were waiting for us. We went over all the important information which included doctors near them, emergency numbers, insurance cards, Temporary Power of Attorney papers even our Last Will and Testaments. I was prepared for anything and everything to go wrong. After all, we were flying Air France and they had just lost a plane the day before our trip began. That's enough to make anyone more than a little nervous.

The next morning, we said our good-byes and Yaya drove off with Bo and Boppy. We decided it might be easier for her if she felt like she was leaving us for her vacation rather than the other way around. She didn't bat an eye. Bird and I on the other hand had a hard time stopping the tears as she drove away. We knew she was in wonderful hands it was just hard knowing we wouldn't see her for 14 days.

We headed back to the airport to catch our first flight to Paris and connecting flight into Barcelona.

Bird and I had 4 seats to ourselves. Talk about hitting the jackpot! We each took an isle seat and saved the middle two for our stuff and caught up on some movies we hadn't seen during our 91/2 hour flight.

We were even able to watch our location/flight pattern on the tv monitors.

Almost to Paris!

We ran through the airport in Paris because we only had an hour between flights. That sounds like plenty of time until you realize you have to take a bus from the plane to the terminal, go through customs, find and get to your connecting terminal and wait in a long slow line to get through security again. God was taking good care of us and one of the airport security guards allowed us to move ahead in line so we could catch our connecting flight. Once on the plane, Bird couldn't fit in his seat. (This isn't uncommon for him w/European airlines.) Again, he was blessed by the attendant who allowed him to change to an exit row seat. Bird immediately felt calm because the women next to him were all Nuns. He told me he showed the Nun next to him "The Light". In other words, she was too short to reach the overhead light so he pushed the button for her. Gotta love his sense of humor!

We arrived in Barcelona mid day so after finding our hotel (Acta Mellenium) we knew we needed to stay up til it at least 10-11 PM in order to get passed our jet lag and time change. Here's a few shots from our first night of exploring Barcelona.

Here's a few signs we saw plastered all over the city. Recognize either of these faces?

Can you understand what the signs say? Me neither.

Bird in front of the fountain at Placa Reial.

Bell Tower of the cathedral in Placa Antoni Maura.

The ceiling of a Starbucks where we stopped to ask for a good restaurant and use the toilet. Not your normal Starbucks ceiling aye?

Our dinner was half a liter of Sangria, a scrumptious salad with fresh roasted goat cheese and paella at Les Quinze Nitz.

I don't plan on doing a play by play with my entire trip. After all, we took over 1000 photos. I just figured the first day of travel was a big part of our journey and the longest day EVER thanks to time zone changes! The next post will include photos and stories from Montserrat, Sagrada Familia and Gruel Park.