We love Paris

Greetings! Here we are in Paris, trying to adjust to being awake during nighttime in Seattle and sleeping during daytime, but it's coming along and we are doing well. Paris is such a wonderfully exciting and vibrant city. We are so grateful to be here for a few days before we head to a place which will be far less familiar.

We went to the Champs Elysees yesterday as we had hoped to watch the final day of the Tour de France. The crowds were intense, but the energy was exciting and contagious. I have to confess that it's so much easier to watch such an event on t.v. though. We were standing behind several other rows of people and each time the cyclists came around on their lap, everyone seemed to stretch higher onto their toes and to surge forward. All I really saw was the tops of some colorful helmets flying past. I could not determine any individual riders, even the yellow jersey was not possible to distinguish from where I was standing. Hayden, however, was able to get up to the front where the barriers were, thanks to the helpfulness of another fan, and he got to see much better than any of us, though even he acknowledged that the riders just zoomed right by so quickly. He took a short video which is amazing because it shows the perspective of all the people who attend such an event - blurred colors of cyclists. David was certainly caught up in the enthusiasm of the event, as we all were, and was thrilled to have been able to physically be there once. Just towards the end, we retired to a nearby bar which had a large screen t.v. tuned, of course, to what was occurring just outside. We were able to watch the sprint finish and the awards ceremony. After it all seemed over, we headed outside for a relatively short walk to the Eiffel Tower, but the crowds were still hanging around the Champs Elysees for some reason. Not sure why.

The Eiffel Tower, stunning as always, was adequately impressive to the boys. We planned to go up in the elevator, but it was just getting too late, so we hope to try that today. Being in Paris with the boys has been truly a joy. They handle all the walking so well, enjoy our efforts at figuring out the Metro, and have been willing to try new foods. They each have tried some words in French, much to the pleasure of restaurant servers. I have been proud of their adaptability in a new country. It's probably good we started here, to give them a sense of a different country which, really, is not so different from our own, before we head to a much more different Arabic country. During the summers in Paris, there is a long section of the road parallel to the Seine River which is closed to cars and open only to pedestrians and cyclists. On our first day here, we explored this area which has sandy 'beaches' set up for kids to play, a swimming pool, a ropes course (which Logan took advantage of), beach chairs, fountains, ice cream stands ... all in an attempt to offer something to Parisian families here during the summer.

We plan to spend a week or two next summer here in Paris, hopefully renting an apartment. It would sure be fun to have friends meet us here! Hint.

Off to breakfast. One can never tire of excellent coffee and baguettes. Love to all. We will write again after we arrive in Jeddah. We hear that we will be housed at the Marriott for some weeks until the KAUST housing is ready for the teachers. We are looking forward to actually unpacking. We have been living out of suitcases since June 20.