Today was someone's birthday...

Hers! Lily turned four today, officially. Our celebration began early (before 6 a.m.) with a walk to the beach down the road to catch the sunrise. Sunrise over the ocean, with the sun highlighting the edges of the clouds and the wind tossing around our hair, was, at the least, a great way to start the morning.


Plus, we welcomed a new addition to our group last night - she jumped right in the ocean this morning, not missing a beat.


Lily took a picture of my sissy and I. Pete had to step in and help things get in the frame a bit better.

I love that picture.

We packed up the cars and were at Tunnels beach by 8:30 a.m. - which worked out perfectly as for about an hour it felt like we had that amazing place to ourselves. I had only vague memories of snorkeling in Kauai and it was just so fun to do it again at one of the best places for it on the whole island. We headed home for lunch, a super slow afternoon, and a birthday dinner, complete with princess cake, for Lily G. Happy birthday to my lovely, funny, and feisty little niece!

Today we were all up by 4:30.

And now it's almost 7 pm, and it feels like we've been awake for a very long time. Our day included lots of time spent doing not very much. We took a nice trip to the Kilauea bakery for coffee and pastries. It's been fun for me to be here - I spent two long vacations here about 11 years ago and we keep going to places that I don't think I've been to, but once I'm there all the fun memories come back. It was pouring on and off all morning, but cleared up by afternoon so we could walk down the street to the beach at Moloa'a Bay.

I was struck by how local they looked, don't you think?

Maggie loved, loved, loved the water. She heads straight for it and has to be watched oh-so-carefully because she'll dive straight into the waves.

And, here I am. My sister took a picture of me blogging just now lest it seem like I was just brought along to chronicle their family's Hawaiian vacation.

I leave you with photos from yesterday of the two baddest rappers on the block here in the Moloa'a Valley.

Kauai, 2011

Quick post tonight - long day of travel with the kiddos and a cold beer awaits me inside. Wireless is spotty in the house we're renting here on Kauai's northern shore, so I'm sitting on the front lawn with bugs clamoring for the light of my screen and listening to the sounds of my sister puttering around inside and lots of gentle jungle night sounds too.

I love that Kauai is just like I remembered it from last time I was here...2003, I think. And that there are already a few new things to love. What a gift to be on vacation in such a beautiful place.

Odds and Ends...and The End

In about 11 hours, we'll be on the plane home. It's been a wonderful trip, full of people I love, places I love, beautiful art and delicious food. I'm so glad we came.

Here is a round up of a few photos, some poached from Bora/Kate, that didn't make it into earlier posts.

Lo and I on the castle ramparts in Ghent

Bora's beautiful shot of Notre Dame. The blooming trees (and tulips) made everything extra picturesque.

Nerd alert!

Kate and I in the garden/park behind Notre Dame

One of our several trips to Berthillon :)

A quiet moment in the Orangerie

Thinking about The Thinker at the Rodin Museum

One of my favorite small pieces by Rodin

Bora and Wes are so small...and the, erm, sculpture is so big.

Over here, the bell of Easter brings the chocolate to the children...or something like that.

During one of our many small breaks between activities to sit and consult the map about what to do next and how to get there.

Also poached from Bora, a lovely shot of the Seine at night.

Sigh. I wish this had come out better, as there was no postcard at the gift shop. The Holy Family, by Rembrandt. The light was amazing.

A big treat for me - a Vermeer at the Louvre.

Don't walk down this street!

We bought some stationery products from the proprietor of this little shop in the Marais. There were elaborately decorated letters and envelopes addressed to him covering the walls. I told him in French that I thought the letters were charming and asked if I could take a picture. He said of course, and then told me I could write to him too and be up on the wall.

Last meal in Paris: L'as du Falafel in our little apartment, schlepped back by Loretta and me on the metro. Delish.

...and the final macaron taste test. Also good, but perhaps Pierre Herme was tops.

Au Revoir, Paris!

We came back to Belgium yesterday, and had a nice day today saying goodbye to our friends, having a very Flemish lunch in town, and shopping for chocolate and little gifts to bring home to our families. It's been fun to post and do a little reflecting on our trip here on the blog - thanks for reading along!

Wandering Around Paris

Today, we joked, was our "catch up" day. Lo and I elected not to trek out to Versailles with the group, and stayed in our little apartment this morning for a while, doing laundry and reading. (We first wandered all around the neighborhood looking for an open patisserie, but no dice. In fact, the lady I asked said pas du tout, most emphatically. Good thing we had yogurt and muesli to tide us over.)

When we finally headed out, we had a loose agenda of stopping by a little shop in the Marais where I had seen a gift I wanted to purchase when we were all there a few days ago. Slightly sidetracked by a bright pink (and David Lebovitz recommended) crepe stand, we made it to the shop. The proprietor recognized us from a few days ago and even asked where the rest of the group was. Charming.

We headed farther into the neighborhood to find the Jewish museum for a special exhibit on Chagall and the Bible that I'd seen advertised in the metro, of all places, and we were so glad that we went. It truly was as simple as this: one of the 20th century's most accomplished artists was commissioned to do a series of many illustrations (over 100) of the Hebrew bible. We saw his drawings, watercolors, etchings and paintings that evolved as he worked on the project over many years. I can't recall ever buying the book from a museum exhibit but today I broke down and did.

Abraham's Hand is Stayed, Isaac is Spared

We wandered to the metro, hopped on, and walked around a bit looking for a "secret" garden that I'd read about in the New York Times travel section. Surprisingly, when we found it, it was peaceful, leafy, and full of ponds and waterfalls instead of other NYT-reading Americans. We read for a while, then slept.

When we woke up, we were hungry. Problem: we had skipped lunch, but it was too early for dinner. We had a place picked out, so we headed over to at least make sure it would be open.

crossing the Seine on the way to the restaurant

When we got there, the proprietor was just leaving on his way to buy bread for the night, but told us he'd be back in 25 minutes. After a bit more wandering, we were finally seated - the first ones in the restaurant, and, it turned out, the only ones there for almost the whole two hours we dined. In fact, when we first sat down, I heard him on the phone, talking to the chef, I presumed, since he was saying things like "I have two people already here!". Then about 20 minutes later while we were trying to go slowly with the house sangria and the delicious bread, a young man on a moto came in, shook hands with the proprietor, and went to work in the back. Our chef had arrived.

Lo took pictures of dinner but I don't have them yet - it was a truly memorable meal. Probably a typical dinner out for a Parisian at a restaurant of this sort, but we thought it was great. My highlight was trying foie gras for the first time, which I wasn't sure I'd like - morally or taste-wise. It was served as a thin slab, cold at first, placed on my steak from a separate plate by the waiter, and then softer and more melty (and delicious) as it was warmed by the meat. We opted for the cheese course instead of dessert and felt very...full.

Then we wandered along home, past the hordes of folks still waiting to go up the Eiffel tower's elevators (but no line for the stairs!), the tour buses with bored drivers waiting for their groups, the families of all ethnic persuasions playing in the park, the men hawking their cheap souvenirs to tourists. One guy made us laugh - noticing Lo's t-shirt, he kept saying "Hey Disneyland, over here! What you want, Disneyland? You buy something, Disneyland? Why not? You need it", and so on. Poor guy. Little does he know that Lo is just about the last person that would buy a tiny, light-up Eiffel tower.

But the real thing, back-lit by the setting sun, on a warm night in the Paris springtime, is pretty beautiful.

Art, Sculpture, Ice Cream, Bi Bim Bap, Art

That pretty much sums up the day. We started in the Musee de l'Orangerie, which houses the famous installation of Monet's Water Lilies. We stayed there a long time, as everyone was suitably impressed, even moved, by both the huge canvases themselves as well as the dedication of an 80 year old, nearly blind man working for 12 years on this final, epic effort.






Then we wandered downstairs, where there was a model of the apartment of the art collector whose collection comprises the museum. I was going to do a little trick and say it was a shot of the interior of the place we're staying and then pull back to show you the scale...but I know you wouldn't fall for that.



After the Orangerie, we picnicked in the Tuileries gardens and then walked over to the Rodin Museum. It was nice to visit my favorite Rodin in the gardens there:

...and to rest for a while in the tranquil gardens out behind the museum. We all took a chair and just relaxed for a little while.



Next destination was to head back to Berthillon for our ice cream of the day. :) It was, once again, perfect. My salted butter caramel and Grand Marnier double scoop was so good, and others in the group got wild strawberry, blueberry, coconut, dark chocolate, mandarine....I can't remember what else. We headed home along the Seine, enjoying the late afternoon sunlight and looking around us at the endless parade of interesting people and shops. In order to pass the time, I've been giving Anna and now Kayla little photo scavenger hunt assignments and it's going pretty well. I'll publish the list of all the things she found near the end of our trip. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to buy some necessary items, one of which Kate proudly carried all the way home.

After a Bora-made dinner of bi bim bop at our apartment, the grown-ups headed back out to the Louvre, which was open late tonight. We visited some of our favorites from the other day, then rushed over to another wing to see the two Vermeers they have, right before closing. As we rushed, we realized with a bit of awe how much we'd missed - entire rooms and wings we hadn't even entered...yet. We keep saying we'll come back, and we might make it back before we leave, perhaps. But one of the great things about visiting a place like Paris is that before it's time to head home, you can already start compiling the list of things to do next time.