best of the best

Now that the trip to end all trips is done and we are all home safe, sound, and in one piece, it is time to reflect on some of the very best moments of the whole shebang. Behind the cut (look! Even my lingo is technologically savvy.), you will find photographic evidence of fantabulous, fairly foolish, fantastically... fantastic? fun. (Alliteration is for the cool kids.)

There is no particular order or segregation by geographical location, because Blogger added them willy-nilly and I am too lazy to attempt to exert order, but the collection was carefully curated for representation of maximum awesome. If you really, desperately need to know where a picture was taken, or under what circumstances, ask me and I guarantee I will know the answer, something I can only do rarely. However, I very much doubt that you will have questions, seeing as NO ONE EVER COMMENTS EVER, BUT WHATEVER, I'M NOT BITTER. (Just kidding about the capslock.)

Enjoy.

(And try not to be too jealous.)

(I was just kidding. Again. Be jealous. It's a reasonable reaction.)

pickpocked in Paris, and other adventures

Why, yes, actually, we have been pickpocketed. Specifically, Miles was pickpocketed at the Eifell Tower on our first afternoon in the city. Get this: They snatched his iPod while he was wearing his headphones. It most definitely put a damper on things, and has sort of tainted our perception of Paris. I mean, it's been great and all, but pickpockets. At the icon of the city. We were in London when the Olympics started and the metaphorical anthill spilled open, and managed just fine. Once afternoon in Paris, and...

Anyway!

Let's look at pictures and places, yeah yeah?

 Notre Dame Cathedral

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 Pretty Parisean building

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Eifell Tower 

(pre and post pickpocketing - can you tell by Miles' face?)

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Arc de Triomphe  

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Balancing

 on a chain near the Champ Élyseés

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Outside the Louvre 

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OH MY GOSH IT'S THE MONA LISA

It was not actually all that exciting at all. But it certainly drew a crowd. 

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We've been here about 30 hours, and we've hit all those sites. As is ever the case, our poor feet have been taking quite the beating. Pedometers are almost as unreliable as my brain, so I won't give you a specific distance, but suffice it to say that we've walking more than you have .Unless you're training for a marathon or something equally unlikely and confounding. 

In order to make sure that it is clear that we are enjoying ourselves and not moping about how sucky it was to get robbed at the Eifell Tower and moaning about how much we miss London (LONDON!), here are some of the highlights of our stay:

1. BEING A EU CITIZEN! Yay for red passports! Why? Because they made the Louvre free. Saved €30, right there. It is awesome.

2. The pain au chocolat I bought at one of the only grocery stores we've seen. It was very delicious.

3. The chocolate icecream Jonathan bought at that same grocery store and that we all ate on a bench across the street. It was store brand, but it tasted like Håagen Dazs. Yum. 

4. Paris streets. They are pretty pretty.

5. The receptionist at the first place we stayed at responding to my very broken, very hesitent, most assuredly horribly American-accented query of "Parlez vou engles?" with a "Yes! But your French is very good!" AHAHAHAHA. You are too nice, good sir, but I speak only that one phrase. 

Aaaaaaand tomorrow, we're off to Rome! It's one night on a train away. Yay!