Anniversary Vacation

This is our travel home day. We left the apartment at 05:50 for a 15 minute walk to Sainte Michel Notre Dame metro station. We had purchased metro tickets to the airport two days ago because we knew we would be leaving very early on a national holiday and didn't want to worry about a ticket booth being open or if our credit card would work. We did not see any ticket booths open, so buying early may have been a good idea. We got on the 06:10 to the airport and 30 minutes later we were there. It took us 50 minutes to get our luggage checked and through all the security with no lines. I could not imagine the time it would take later in the day when the airport was busier. We had to check our luggage to Seattle so we had it with us to go through customs. We had breakfast at the airport. Our flight left Paris on time at 10:30 Paris time. After take off we were served lunch. Then four hours later at about 07:30 Seattle time, we had breakfast again. I noticed traveling west, we eat more; five meals. While traveling east we ate four meals between waking up and going to sleep at the final destination. 

We arrived in Seattle on time and it took 40 minutes to get luggage and through security and customs. I would want to have a couple of hours to make a connection in Seattle. We had two hours and 45 minutes so we were not rushed.

We left Seattle at 14:45 and arrived in Spokane at 15:40.

I was a little nervous about this trip because of what we paid for in advance to insure we saw the things we wanted to see and stay where we wanted to stay. We had bought tickets for the Doge's Palace, the night train to Paris, the Paris apartment, the train to Tours, and the Loire Valley château tour all before we left home. As it turned out everything went smooth.

The night train to Paris was something I always thought would be fun to do. It never made financial sense, but was something my college age self thought would be fun. I'm glad we did it but it was exhausting for people much older than college age. I had big plans for our first day in Paris that were cut very short because we were so tired from the night train.

I have to praise the iPhone 5S camera. It took much better indoor pictures than my digital camera. The wide angle lens was a great advantage in the close quarters of the cities. 

Overall, a great vacation.