Is there such a thing as smoke free travel?  Before I try to find an answer to my own question, let me say right up front this post is not meant to offend anyone who happens to smoke, it’s just my perspective; how it impacts my life and our travels.

The forecast for January 25 was a brutal 26 degrees, by far the coldest day of our stay.  We gave thought to whether it was a good idea to stay in Paris for the day, roaming, or get on the RER and head out to Fontainebleau.

Is Paris all it’s cracked up to be or is it just another city?  If you’re a fan of Sex and The City you know how much Carrie romanticized life in Paris.  She turned down flying off to Paris with Mr. Big but did, after much deliberation, accept the offer to go with Alexandre Patrovsky and Paris was in fact all she dreamed it would be, until it wasn’t.

How do you describe that which is beyond description?  That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for the past 10 days.  We visited the Palace of Versailles on January 17 (2013) and I’m still trying to wrap my head around what we saw.  The Palace of Versailles is the epitome of opulence and a lesson in what can go wrong at the same time, while it has stood for centuries as a showcase of French history, art and culture.

You know how when you’re getting ready to travel everyone has an opinion; a word to the wise tidbit for you?  Mostly, you tend to smile, nod your head and feign interest in what they’re saying.  Today, I was given a tidbit that was awesome, something I had never thought about but will definitely do before we leave for Paris.  But before we get to the tidbit…

Zion National Park. We awoke this morning to p-o-u-r-i-n-g rain so the only reasonable thing to do was roll over and go back to sleep, which we did.  It goes without saying that we got a late start to the day, but we’re here for 7 days so we are in no hurry.

Way back in another lifetime when we were much (much) younger, we were married in Honolulu, HI.  Just the two of us, a judge, and the judges’ clerks who served as our witnesses.  It wasn’t a formal wedding by any stretch of the imagination, but it was our wedding and it stuck!