A Dream Come True...PARIS!!! Day 4

Wow, summer is CRAZY!! I have so many things I want to post about this summer but I have to catch up on our amazing trip first.

We got to spend a whole day in Paris. Of course more would have been nice, but I'm not going to be greedy, it was a dream come true to visit this beautiful city. Jeff got to work here a couple of times back when he worked for a company that had him travelling often. I was always so jealous when he got to go places. It was amazing to finally get to visit Paris, it was more than I dreamed it would be.

We actually slept in today, of course, after the day we had before it was inevitable. I was worried we would miss out on so much, but sleep was way too important. When we finally got moving around 12pm, we went to the store and bought Lydia some French formula and hopped on the underground to Paris. We got off at one of the main hubs that took us right to the Arc de Triumph. The underground station was filthy, and I was worried that our whole visit to Paris would be this way, but thankfully once we got up the stairs, it was a lot cleaner.

The details were just amazing

I had read about the Arc, but because everything I looked up to plan for this trip was in French, and if it wasn't it was assumed that the person reading actually knew history (which is so far from the truth when it comes to me), but I had NO idea that it was SO big and SO beautiful! How they built something of that magnitude is absolutely amazing to me. There was the biggest traffic circle ever surrounding the Arc and it was like being in the movies watching the cars drive around it. I couldn't help but feel like I was living a dream. From the cars driving crazy, to the cobblestone like roads, to the sirens on the police cars, it was all just like in the movies. We about halfway around the traffic circle and it took at least 20 minutes to do the half. It was that big.

The traffic circle was at least 4 lanes around, I'm not sure how you determine who has the right of way

The streets were so pretty. We actually watched some cars park and they literally bump into the cars in front and behind while parallel parking to fit into the tiny little spots.

Thankfully Jeff had been to Paris before and knew his way around because I was so lost and it would have been a disaster if I was in charge. We walked until we were at the top of Champs Elysées, one of the most amazing shopping streets in the WORLD! I wanted so badly to go shopping, but we had very little time and what I wanted to see most was the Eifel tower, so we made our way towards the tower, skipping the shopping. We walked down the street and past the hotel that Jeff stayed at when he was there. The architecture is just amazing in this city. The buildings are beautiful, the roads are fascinating and I can't help but love seeing all the little cafes.  I was starving, and it was hard to find a cafe that had space outside for us to sit beside Lydia in the stroller. We did not want to take her out though, so when we found a cafe with the space, we sat down. At this point it didn't even matter what there was to eat. I have to say though, I got a salad. It was hands down the best salad I have ever tasted. It was THAT yummy. I am sure I would be in a lot of trouble if I lived in Paris, I think I would eat way too much.

We continued on our journey to the Eifel tower. On the way we found a cute little shop that had some yummy looking gelato. Of course I had to get some. Of course it was delicious!!! 

It was taking a while to get to the tower and I thought Jeff was lost, I was getting grumpy so we pulled out the map. Turns out, we were just on the other side of a building that was blocking our view of the tower, we weren't far away at all. As soon as we made it to the other side of that building, I saw it, one of the most amazing things ever in all it's glory! I don't know what I was expecting, but I just didn't expect that. It was so large and perfectly situated and it was something I had only seen in the movies, or in pictures. I couldn't believe I was actually seeing it in real life!!! At this point we weren't actually standing at the Eiffel Tower, we were up a little from it so we could get the best view. We got some great pictures.

We walked down the hill towards the tower and stopped along the way to sit in the park and feed Lydia. There were these secret service guys with big guns and scary looking uniforms and they kept stopping right in front of us. I was afraid I was doing something wrong and they were going to arrest me. When we left, Jeff told me they were talking about me, that's why they were standing by us. I have to say, it's so amazing to hear Jeff speak in French, it's a whole new love I have for him. I have no idea what he is saying, but it sounds so cool to hear him say it. 

We made it to the bottom of the tower and from this view, it wasn't as amazing. I'm glad we saw it from high up first. Because we were limited for time, we just didn't have the time to go up it. I knew I wanted to see Notre Dame really bad, so we found a hop on hop off boat to take us there. Unfortunately, we missed going inside the church by a few minutes. That was a sad day, but I felt very lucky that I got to admire it from the outside anyways. 

I couldn't help but think of the Hunchback when he slides down the side when I saw this 

If it's this beautiful from the outside, I can only imagine what it's like on the inside

We took the boat to the Louvre. What a fascinating set up they have there. It's quite interesting. We went inside so I could pump and feed Lydia, but decided against actually going in to see the exhibits. I'm not an art buff, so I probably wouldn't have appreciated it anyways and it was a long day, so I decided to save the energy and stick to wandering around the lobby area, which was fascinating enough. As I was pumping in the corner, all by myself, this group of probably 12 year old girls came and sat right beside me. It didn't take them long to figure out what I was doing and snicker amongst themselves. I'd say I was slightly embarrassed, and so uncomfortable, but there was nothing I could do. They kept sitting, and called even more friends over to tell them (in French of course, which makes it even more uncomfortable for me) what I was doing. It wasn't my favorite moment.

                  

A bridge we went under when we were on the boat, I don't know the significance, but it was amazing to see

We got back on the boat and took it back to a stop where we could wander up Champs Elysées. It was a little later now and a lot of the touristy places were closing, we we figured we would wander up the street and grab some supper and head home. What a neat street. You could see the Arc at the very end of the street and all the shops and people all around made it a great experience. We stopped for dinner at this cafe. If lunch wasn't the best food I ever had, then supper was!! It was SOOOO good!! I got a panini, Orangina and some amazing dessert!! It was a chocolate eclair, and it was so worth the calories. 

Yes, the food was that good that I took a picture of it

This is the view looking each way down Champs Elysées. It was absolutely beautiful.

We wandered a bit more up the street. It was probably close to 10:30pm before we got back to the underground. It was a long day, and it was a bit rushed, and of course we didn't get to see or do everything, but I got to visit such an amazing place, even if it was only for a few hours. I feel very lucky to have had the chance to see what I got to see and if I did the same thing over again, I wouldn't change a thing about the day. (Except maybe woken up a little earlier to make it to Notre Dame on time). 

This was just a cool sign I saw that I had to have a picture of, but Jeff laughed at me for it. I'm happy I took it anyways.

Back to the dirty underground to go back to our hotel

Day 3

This day will forever go down as the day I wish I could forget. Of course it is the day I will probably never forget. There is so much to say about this day, so brace yourself for a long post.

We woke up at 5:30 am so we could catch a train into London. From there we were going to catch a train to France. We were so proud of ourselves, waking up early, being ready to go, making it to the train station early. Everything was going so well. We caught the train from Lingfield station to London Victoria station. It was about an hour and a bit. We had a stroller, suitcase and 2 bags with us and of course Lydia, so it was a little awkward, but we managed. Then we got off in London. This was when it all started going downhill. We got off the train and went to the main area of the station. Here we got bombarded by all the crazy rush hour traffic of people.

You don't want to have to stop in this train station, or you will be trampled. We had to catch an underground train to go to the train station where our Paris train took off from. Of course there was no lift to go down to the underground, so we struggled to get our stuff down there. We took the train 5 stops to our station, King's Cross. Then we had about a 10-15 minute walk (in the shuffle of rush hour and crazy people) to get to St. Pancras, our final train station. We finally walk into where we board our Eurostar train. We picked up our tickets and started heading to our check in. At this point Jeff looks at me and says, "We are good to go, right? We don't need passports or anything?" My heart sank. Of course we needed passports. They were back with George and Myrna with the rest of our stuff that we didn't take to Paris. I almost fell to the ground. It was such a journey to get there with so much stuff and Lydia and people everywhere. Plus we were so tired. So we walked over to the desk and confirmed we needed passports. The man was so nice. I'm bawling and he's validating our tickets so that we can come back later that day and catch a train to Paris. 

So, we turn around and backtrack all of our steps. Including the walk through the busy station, hopping on the underground and finding our way back to Victoria station. This is where it gets better...the underground at Victoria station had a train that wasn't running due to an incident. I thought the train station was packed before. This time it was impossible to move through all the hoards of people waiting to board a train that wasn't even running. They had stopped letting people enter the platform, people were pushing and I am sure there were at least 6 or 7 people who tripped over Lydia in her stroller because they weren't looking down and didn't see her. Then we had to haul all our stuff up the stairs to catch our train back to our originating train station. It was no easy task to carry all of this stuff. 

Jeff called his parents and warned them. Thankfully they were willing to meet us at the train station with our passports. They even offered to come all the way to us with them, but we weren't going to make them suffer for our mistake. 

We got on our train to Lingfield. On our journey the conductor asked for our tickets. We showed them to him. Apparently when you buy train tickets they are only valid once and only one way. (Of course) It didn't even cross my mind to buy another train ticket. Thankfully he took pity on us and didn't fine us, we just had to buy train tickets which were £22 ($36). OUCH! That was only the beginning of my expensive mistake.

George met us at the train station and had the schedule for the next train back to where we came from. Thankfully it was leaving in less than 5 minutes. We had our passports in hand and hopped on the train to replay our day all over again. (In hindsight we probably should have bought a ticket back to London, but we didn't even think of that as I was just too wound up and so upset about the whole situation). The whole train ride back to London I kept hoping that the rush of people had slowed down a bit.

We got to Victoria station, and thankfully we knew our way around so we maneuvered the rest of our journey much faster. It was way less busy so we were able to make it to the St. Pancras station in record time. We get there, go to the check in counter to see about what train we can get on and are told to go get in line. The next train to Paris was leaving in 15 minutes and this line was definitely longer than 15 minutes, so I felt defeated yet again. We finally get to the front of the line and we are told that there is a train leaving in 20 minutes. I was confused because the board showed the next train was leaving in 2 hours, but ok, I would take that train. Then the bombshell...our connecting station was a different train line and they couldn't guarantee that they would be accommodating to us at the connecting station, so we might need to buy a new ticket there. Apparently it was the direct train to Paris that they could guarantee our arrival, but the next one with seats wasn't leaving for 3 more hours! He said we were better off taking that chance, so we did. 

We boarded our train to France. It felt good to be one our way, but it was hard to relax about it not knowing if we would end up stranded in some small train station in France where we were supposed to connect. Now this is where it gets a little embarrassing to me. The reason why we were connecting in this town is because our original plan was not to go straight to Paris, we were going just outside of Paris so we could enjoy the afternoon/evening at Disneyland Paris. It has always been a dream to go to Disneyland Paris (used to be Euro Disney). I figured I love Disney so much, what chance will I ever have again to do this, let's do it. I had pre purchased our tickets for the day here, and they were only valid on this day. I was super bummed that I might not have a chance to visit the park and even more bummed that I had wasted the money on the tickets. However, if all went as planned, we would arrive there around 5:30pm, which was only 3.5 hours later that our original travel plans. So I had my fingers crossed the whole way.

I was pretty excited to take this train as I knew it went under the English Channel in the chunnel and we had just visited the English Channel. It's all very fascinating to me. How they can build a train tunnel under water is beyond me.

We arrived in Lille, France. We head to train ticket office. We waited for an english speaking agent for what felt like an hour. (It was probably really only 10 minutes). We explain our situation and she looks at us and says, the tickets are non refundable and non exchangeable. She was not a very friendly lady which made it even harder to accept, but we were told we would have to pay 114€ ($150 CAD). My heart sunk again. What an expensive, stupid mistake I had made. I was so disappointed in myself. Then the lady started speaking in French to her coworker. She looked at us and said they don't normally do this but she would give us our tickets for free. I started crying. I was so tired, and emotionally, I was an absolute wreck. I was so grateful that she was so helpful to us and I felt bad for all the mean thoughts I had been thinking about her. Then she started crying. She turned out to be such a nice lady.

We waited a few minutes and were able to board our train from Lille to Disneyland Paris. Finally, I felt some relief. I had accepted that we were going to arrive later than planned and that I wouldn't get to see all I had wanted to see. That was ok, at least we were making it and more importantly our day in Paris (day 4) wasn't going to be affected at all. Of course that day was way more important than my few anticipated hours at Disneyland Paris.
                           
Jeff on the train to Disneyland Paris. I couldn't bring myself to take any pictures up to this point. I didn't want to remember any of it.

We finally arrived in Disneyland. The train station actually stops right in between Disney's two parks. It was great to walk off the train and be right where we wanted to be. I was super bummed that the park I wanted to go to most closed at 6 and we weren't going to get to visit it. I at least go to visit one park though, so I was happy. We checked our bags and off we went.

It wasn't long before we realized Disneyland Paris is nothing like Disney in the USA. We did not see one character the whole time we were there (except in the show we watched). I was hoping to get Lydia a picture with princesses or Mickey or something, but that wasn't happening without characters. There were very few staff members anywhere to be honest.

We did see a cool Tarzan show. It was neat how they incorporated different languages in the show. It would alternate between english and french, and maybe even more languages, it's hard to know for sure. It was a little chilly out, but at least it wasn't raining. You could tell it was raining throughout the day. 

It was amazing to me how few people there were. Yet it seemed harder to maneuver because people seemed way less considerate of where they walked and stopped. Although we did not see any scooters (which is the worst thing about Disney). People in scooters are often so pushy. 

Lydia's first ride ever was Pirates of the Caribbean. I had heard it was way better here.  It wasn't really. It was a little bit more of a drop but it was pretty much the same as Disneyworld. We had tried to ride Thunder Mountain, but the line was a little too long so we decided we would go back later in an hour or so.

We went on It's a Small World. It was neat, and definitely a little different than the USA ones, but not different enough to matter. We tried to ride Buzz, but they told us Lydia was too small. Funny, we have taken Elliot on the one in California. They weren't nice about it either. I was grumpy and wanted to get mad at them, but they probably wouldn't have understood anyways since they were french and most didn't speak english well. We ate dinner and headed back to Big Thunder Mountain. It was broken, so there goes that idea. We went to another ride, it was closed. I managed to ride one more ride by myself but it was in French so it wasn't even fun as I didn't understand what was happening. It was at this point that I decided I hated visiting a country that wasn't my language. It is so frustrating not understanding what was going on. (Plus I was grumpy and tired). We shopped a bit, but it was CRAZY expensive. A stuffed animal there was 20€ ($25 CAD). The same stuffed animal would only have been $16 in the US. Boo. I spent a lot of time trying to find the kids an affordable souvenir. I finally ended up getting them each a pencil and notebook. We got Donovan a Grumpy shirt and Elliot a Stitch shirt and hat. They are super cute and weren't crazy expensive.

                                         

Lydia's bottles were dwindling, despite me pumping throughout the day, so we stopped in the baby care center to ask if they sold formula. In the USA they offer it for free, or for very little money in these centres. When I asked her if they had any she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Like they didn't feed babies formula there. So, we forgot about it and carried on.

We hung around for the end of the night fireworks. It was an amazing light show that they put on the castle. This was my favorite part of the whole day. It was really a fascinating show. I video taped some of it for the kids to see and I am terrible at video taping, I'm just not one of those people, so it must have been good. 

 

This is a small bit of the show, it's not great quality, but it's still pretty neat to watch. If nothing else, you can be entertained by some stranger singing who doesn't know the words at all. 

We left just before the show was over to beat some of the rush. We had to pick up our luggage still and take a train to our hotel. 

 

We hopped on the underground to the train stop closest to our hotel. I about died when I saw the underground train. It was absolutely DISGUSTING!! Graffiti everywhere, dirty, old and just gross. I couldn't even sit down on the seat even though my feet were killing me and I was exhausted. It was already 12am. 

We got to our train stop and of course, it was POURING out! It was crazy how much it was raining. We had one umbrella and Jeff didn't have his rain coat. I put my raincoat over the stroller as we tried to figure out where our hotel was. We walked in the pouring rain for at least 40 minutes trying to find our hotel. We stopped and asked for directions and started in the right direction but still didn't know where we were going. We were soaking wet, it was pitch black and we were so tired. It was absolutely a terrible way to end a terrible day. We were looking at a map on the side of the road when a man started approaching us. I'm pretty sure I looked at him in a way that made him feel sorry for us so he stopped. Thankfully Jeff speaks a little french so he was able to ask for directions. I could not believe it but this man was going to our hotel! He worked there! So we followed him. I have to admit it was a little scary following a stranger in pouring rain in at almost 1 in the morning, but we were so desperate. Turns out he worked at our hotel. I swear he was an angel sent to us. I am not convinced we would have ever found our way without him.

We checked into our hotel and went to our room. You would think that this was where the day ends for us. Nope. It gets even better. We were almost out of milk for Lydia. I tried pumping but nothing was coming out! What the heck? My milk had dried up almost completely and we did not know what to do. What little bit we had we tried feeding her and for some reason she just wasn't taking it. And she sure was screaming, not because she was hungry, who knows why really. She screamed until 1:30 or even 2 in the morning. Jeff got dressed to take her for walk in the parking lot (still pouring outside) and all of a sudden she stopped crying. Phew. We just kept praying she wouldn't wake up hungry because we had less than one bottle of milk for her and nothing else to offer her. Out of some miracle, she did not wake up to feed. We slept until 10am and what a great feeling that was. I was able to pump very little milk. Jeff had googled formula in France and they most definitely did have it there, the lady at Disney was just an idiot. (Although I felt like the idiot for believing that they didn't have it there). 

I have to say that this day was a very difficult day for me. A crazy day riding the train. An emotional day full of my mistakes. A depressing day because Disney may have just been ruined forever for me. An exhausting day trying to find our hotel in the middle of the night in the pouring rain. But worst of all, a very scary day because I thought my baby was going to starve. I can honestly say I had no idea what we were going to do when she woke up crying because she was hungry. It was definitely one of the lowest points ever for me thinking I was going to have to hold a starving baby with no way to feed her until a grocery store opened up. 

I am grateful for so many things this day. I am so glad everything worked out and we made it there with very little extra expense. I am glad that I got to visit Disneyland Paris because now I have no desire to ever go back and I am glad I got to experience it. It really was a once in a lifetime experience for me and I can check it off my list of things to do. I am so grateful for the stranger that walked by us in the middle of the night that happened to be going to our hotel. I can't believe how lucky we were that Lydia didn't wake up hungry since we had nothing to feed her. I am also glad for the pills that help increase milk supply that I added to my luggage at the last second before leaving home (they were leftover from Elliot). I am grateful for a husband who didn't get mad for one second throughout the whole day. He knew that I was struggling so much and he held it together because some one had to. I am so glad that if I was going to have such a bad day, at least it was while I was visiting the other side of the world.

Day 2

Today we woke up early to a delicious breakfast that was prepared by some of the people who stay in the accommodation housing at the temple. On the temple grounds there are 3 buildings that offer housing to different people for various reasons. Most people who are called to serve at the temple or in the office are housed in this housing. Also the different people that work on the grounds like security, maintenance, landscaping etc are offered housing. The housing is very inexpensive, especially considering how expensive it is to live in London and the surrounding areas. People who come to visit the temple can also stay on the grounds for a very low price. I can't imagine the cost even covers the cost of cleaning the rooms and washing the linens. Your purpose of the stay is supposed to be to visit the temple. Thankfully we knew the right people because we stayed Sunday and Monday nights, both days of the week the temple is closed, so we were not able to attend the temple during this stay. We made it back later in the week though, so we did attend one session at the temple.

One of the buildings that houses people. I think the temple president lives in this one. 

This is the van that George drove us around in. I am SO glad we didn't rent a car and I wasn't stuck driving in a car with Jeff! I don't think we would have survived that! This is also a picture of the outside of the office that they spend their days (and sometimes nights) working in.

After breakfast we were a little bit lazy while we decided what we were going to do the for the day. We were so grateful that George and Myrna were able to take the day off to spend with us. They are so busy and I know that getting time off is hard to do. It was a bit rainy out (of course). We wanted to visit Stonehenge but couldn't decide if we wanted to drive the distance in the weather. Or we were thinking of visiting a nearby castle. We went with Stonehenge. By the time we had driven the almost 2 hours to get there, it was pouring outside! We were troopers and got out anyways. They had these cool portable information speakers that you put around your neck to tell the story of Stonehenge. It was just so windy and rainy that we didn't get to spend much time listening to them or paying much attention to what they were telling us. We basically walked the circle around Stonehenge, took a few pictures and went back to the car. We were all soaking wet. It was really neat to see, but I sure wish we could have spent time there to actually learn more about the history. I guess I will have to read up on it when I get a chance. (probably never)

Clara looked at this picture and said "that's a cool umbrella, it even goes inside out!" Ha! That's how windy it was.

It really was amazing how tall the stones were. I can't even fathom how they were able to construct such a large monument. I also have no idea what the purpose was, but it sure was neat to see it!

We headed back to the flat and got ready for dinner. We went to this very yummy Thai food restaurant that is close by. I should have taken a picture of our food. Mine came out in half a pineapple shell, it looked as good as it tasted. I love Myrna's home cooked meals and it was so nice to have some on our trip, nothing beats them, but if I had to give up one of Myrna's meals for something, this meal would be acceptable.

I'm so grateful for every moment we had the chance to visit with them.

Trip of A Lifetime - Day 1

Jeff's parents went on a mission in October. They were called to serve in the London South mission in the office. While this was only 8 or so months ago, it feels like they have been gone forever. They have been greatly missed that is for sure, but we are so grateful for their example and sacrifice to serve others.

I must admit that I have had some selfish thoughts and my own struggles with them being gone. It was extremely difficult for me when we had Lydia and they weren't here. I feel so blessed that we were able to take Lydia to meet them. In the end, it will not matter to her that she got to see her grandma and grandpa when she was so small, but it was a special time for me to see her in their arms. Thankfully they will be back in less than a year now, so for now we will share them with the people in London who obviously need them more than we do.

It was great to meet some of the people they serve with. We met some really nice people who seem to have a lot of respect for them and care deeply about them. Of course, who wouldn't feel that way after meeting them though, they just leave that kind of impression on anyone who comes in contact with them.

It was a short trip, but I still managed to take plenty of photos.

We had arranged with Jeff's niece to come stay at our house for the week and watch the other 3 kids. Thankfully she was willing to do that, and lucky for us she doesn't have kids yet or she might have said no! We left Saturday to head to the airport, got 20 minutes away and I realized I forgot Lydia's bottles. Good thing we hadn't gotten too far and we had left plenty of time. So we turned around (I seem to have a terrible memory, as this is not the only time this happened in our trip). Once arriving at the airport we found our check in line. The one that had about 100 people in it. Of course that's why they tell you to be there 3 hours early, now we get it! Thankfully we were rescued and escorted into the family line for check in. There are advantages to having children with you I guess.

To pass time while waiting to board the plane, Lydia chilled out in her stroller while Jeff was glued to his phone. (a very common theme on this trip). 

We had booked seats that allowed us use of a baby bassinet. It was the coolest thing. It clipped into the wall and we were able to put Lydia in it so she could sleep and we didn't have to hold her for the whole 9 hours. So worth the extra money we spent on those seats!

I tried so hard to sleep on the way there, but it was so hard. I am not a person that can just sleep on demand, I struggle to fall asleep at night let alone the middle of the day. I knew we had a long day ahead of us as their time zone is 7 hours ahead of ours. We arrived at 11:30 pm our time, which was 6:30 am their time. We waited forever for our luggage and when it finally came we walked out to meet George and Myrna! Such a great feeling to see them!!

Then it began, our first experience with the crazy driving in England! The passenger pick up lanes were all full so George stopped along side them leaving very little room for any cars to pass, but they still managed to pass him somehow. A big van even pulled his mirrors in and tried to pass, but it wasn't happening. Thankfully a spot opened up and George pulled in there so we weren't blocking traffic anymore. We were off to the temple grounds, where they live and where we were staying for the first 2 nights. I can't count the number of traffic circles we drove through and you wouldn't believe how narrow the roads are there. It was crazy, I don't know how anyone can drive those roads. Add that to the fact that you drive on the left hand side of the road and I am even more grateful that we didn't end up renting a car.

We headed to church after taking a few minutes to settle in and unpack our stuff. It was so hard to stay awake through sacrament. George drove us home after sacrament so we could nap. It was now almost lunch time in London, which means it was around 4am our time.

Sunday evening we headed to Eastbourne. What a neat little drive that was. Everything is so green in England and the trees are so big. (Must be from all the rain).

                          

Here we visited a cool church. It used to be a school and the church bought it in 2000. It's the only church of ours that has a cross on it. You could tell the building was so old and it was neat to see. There was very limited parking, maybe 5 spots or something in the back. It definitely wasn't your typical LDS church.

We also drove by the pier where we got to see the English Channel. It was neat to see since we knew we were headed through the chunnel underneath this body of water a few days later. Of course it was raining, so we really didn't get out of the vehicle. I imagine it's just gorgeous here in this town on a hot day. (if that even exists).




There is so much beauty in this country. The buildings are so old and have so much character. I found it fascinating to look at the different buildings.









 
See how narrow the roads are? Yes...that's a two way road, and that's nothing compared to some of the streets. Cars park wherever, facing whatever direction they desire. It seems like pure chaos to me. I'm glad our rules are more strict than this. 


We were exhausted and headed back. It was great to have the evenings to visit with each other, something I miss doing with them. We went to bed pretty early this night.

Since our room was on the temple grounds in the accommodation centre, we didn't have a bed for Lydia. We tried to make on out of our suitcases, but that didn't work so well. She ended up in bed with me. Anything to get some sleep. Thankfully she slept quite well. Jeff didn't think so, but she woke up around 1:30am and then again at 5 or so. I didn't think that was too bad. It's just hard when you are SO exhausted and already lacking sleep. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep on this trip, but I would do it all over again in a heart beat.