Update

I've gotten a few comments about not posting. It's because we don't lead exciting lives anymore. No more traveling, seeing castles, meeting family, etc. I don't know what to blog about. But I've decided that I like to read others' posts, even when it's just about normal life. So here is our update.

Right now we are living in Caldwell, ID with Chase's family. Chase just recently accepted a position with the U.S. Forest Service. He'll be working mostly in the Garden Valley area, which is in the beautiful mountains of Idaho.

And while he's working in those mountains, I'll be working (hopefully) in these mountains...

...the mountains of Cascade, ID. Gorgeous. Chase's Grandma & Grandpa Fly have been gracious enough to let us live in their cabin in Cascade for free. It's a beautiful place with views of the lake and mountains. We love it up there and are excited to call it "home" for a little while. Chase's job will begin early May, so we'll be moving up there sometime around then. Now I'm just looking for a job in the Cascade/McCall area. Wish me luck!!

Other than that, we're having fun just hanging out with family and spending (more) time together. While we miss our traveling days, it's fun to be home with friends and family. A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who supported us while we were gone...through e mails, packages, and prayers. We really appreciate it.

Keep watching....hopefully I'll continue to blog. About what?? I'm not sure....

This is what we've been doing to "kill" time...HAHAHAHA! Don't worry, we only "killed" clay pigeons.

Dublin

Dublin...ahhh...Dublin. The only reason we went to Dublin was because the flights back to the states were significantly cheaper. It was good...and bad. Good because it was cool to see one more city and Dublin was pretty and nice. But it was bad because we got stranded at the Dublin Airport and had to spend the night there, all because of a little snow. So the trip was fun, but getting out of the stinkin airport was a pain!

This was an Irish street band that was really entertaining.

Keys to our B&B....and Chase's attempt at being artistic. (Successful, I think.)

Pretty park (and a moment's sunshine) in downtown Dublin.

Chase and I at the park

A pretty church in Dublin (sorry for all the vague references...I don't know what anything is)

A shopping street....yes....in Dublin

Chase at Trinity College...looking wise.

Megan at Trinity College...looking...less wise.

The sea...near our B&B in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Done Larry)

Where's Chase?

Yeah....it was windy.

I just liked the green and the stones and the sea...for some reason it just seemed Irish.

Our B&B....it was so nice. I could really get used to the B&B scene...breakfast made for you each morning, the at "grandma and grandpa's" house feel, etc. We liked it.

So all the sightseeing went well and was fun....and then came the airport. LONG story short, our flight got canceled (along with ALL the other flights that day in Dublin) due to "inclement weather"--which in Dublin means an inch of snow. Anyway, it was mayhem trying to get our bags, waiting for hours in lines to re-book, sleeping on the floor until our flight the next morning, waiting for 2 hours on the runway while our plane got de-iced, and then FINALLY getting out of there. The stress was that Megan (Chase's sis) was getting married Saturday morning and originally we were supposed to fly in Thursday night, but because of the delay we were flying in Friday night. SO, as long as everything went perfectly on time, we could make it; luckily it did. We landed about 11:00 p.m. Friday night to the loving arms of our families, went home, talked and ate (the first thing we ate were tacos and chips and salsa...YUM!), and finally went to sleep around 4 a.m. Then the wedding was the next morning at 10 a.m. and all was well. We were tired, but just SO glad to be home and there for the wedding.

So there's our trip! Now that I don't have amazing locations to blog about, I'm not sure that I'll ever have anything exciting to put up here....we'll see!

Normandy

Our final stop in France was Normandy. What a beautiful place. As Chase and I were making our final travel plans before we went to Europe, we talked about cutting Normandy out because of time and distance and cost. But we decided just to go for it and I'm so glad we did. It was such a unique place. There's just a feeling of reverance when you're there. The more we learned about the people that lived and died there and the extensive undertaking D-Day was, we couldn't help but feel and overwhelming sense of gratitude and patriotism.

So below you will see a few shots of the Normandy American Cemetery, which was incredibly beautiful and overwhelming. The cemetery is located on a cliff overlooking Omaha Beach (one of the landing beaches of the Normandy Invasion) and the English Channel. It covers 172acres, and contains the remains of 9,387 American military dead, most of whom were killed during the invasion of Normandy and ensuing military operations in World War II. The graves face westward, towards the United States.

For those men and women who could not be identified. We saw a surprising number of these grave markers.

A view from above of a section of Omaha Beach

The disembarkment museum. This is where thousands of U.S. soldiers landed on the beaches. A huge, man-made harbor was built after the D-Day landing in order to ship supplies, vehicles, weapons, etc. to Normandy to aid in the invasion. It was the brainchild of Winston Churchill and they say that the Normandy invasion would not have been nearly as effective had they not built that harbor. (Here is a link to more info, if you're interested. We found it fascinating. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulberry_harbour )

A remaining part of the manmade harbor. You can see other pieces out in the distance.

A close-up of part of the old harbor

This is the Fiat Panda...our little rental car. We liked it just fine.

Chase and the manmade harbor...at the 360 degree museum. It was a cool place where they had a 360 degree theater (hence the name) where you could watch actual footage of D-Day and other battle scenes. While you were watching it you had to constantly be turning your head around to see all sides because things were going on all around you. It really helped me to feel the chaos of war. Very neat.

View from the 360 degree museum...D-Day Beaches and the manmade harbor in the distance.

This was a monument outside of the Caen Memorial Museum in Normandy. It was a HUGE museum all about Normandy and D-Day. It really put D-Day in a better context....it explained what happened before and after and because of D-Day. It was an amazing museum and we were just sorry we didn't have more time there. Fascinating pictures and film footage and true stories about people involved. It was truly moving.

Omaha Beach in the snow, which was kinda cool. In the distance you can see a monument to the soliders who lost their lives on these beaches and to those who continued to fight in their honor. It is supposed to be sets of angel's wings.

Normandy was an incredible place and we would highly recommend it to anyone who goes to France. You have a greater appreciation for those who have sacrificed and continue to sacrifice their time and lives for our freedoms. We have a wonderful country and we should all take more time to think about and thank those who protect and defend it on our behalf.

Tours

The Thierry & Nadine Rolfe family. L to R...Alice, Thierry (Meme's youngest brother), Jeanne, Nadine, Megan, Chase. They were kind enough to let us stay at their house and then to show us around Tours. THANK YOU! We really do appreciate it and had so much fun getting to know family. I loved hearing Chase really use his French, even if I couldn't understand what was being said.

The Rolfes took us to a fortress on the Loire River, right next to a major (and ancient) bridge. This man, an art friend of Thierry's, decided that he would award certificates to artistic crossers of the bridge. He had a whole ceremony for it...

He would write the date, time, climatic conditions, and artistic purpose for the crossing and then have you sign his GIANT book.

Here's Chase giving his artistic statement. You can see the certificates hanging up to dry in the backgound. He presses them himself and has all kinds of stamps to make your crossing official. It was very fun and entertaining.

An old church in Tours=very pretty. Here is the pipe organ and the rose window behind it.

One of the oldest (or the oldest) buildings in Tours.

Chenonceau. This is the one chateau we visited. It was beautiful inside and outside, even in the winter.

Cool ceiling architecture.

Cinderella bells down in the basement kitchen...Cinderelly, Cinderelly....

The kitchen, which was used during WWI & WWII. Very nice and functional...I would like it for myself.

Pretty kitchen with real fruits

A corridor in the castle. Interesting note: This castle straddles a river and during WWII, one side of the castle was in Germany-occupied France and the other was in liberated France. So French citizens would use this corridor to flee from one side to the other. Interesting.

The front of Chenonceau (try to ignore the reconstruction tent). Isn't it pretty?

The walkway to the castle....that's it in the distance.

Chase and I in front of the Amboise castle. Very pretty. This is where Meme lived for a time. Her home/restaurant was right down the street.

A cool bridge we crossed while driving from Provence to Tours. It was really high.

Me, Chase, Thomas Caruso. Caruso was one of Chase's mission companions in Montreal. He lives in Aix-en-Provence, which was on our way from Provence to Tours, so we stopped to have lunch with him.