Pretend Paris with B :)

Claudia Cook February 26 at 8:21pm

Well, today has been a "pretend" eventful day. :) We landed in Paris France this morning and had a layover for a few hours. Not a whole lot of time but enough to get to eat some yummy French food at a little cafe on the Champs Elysees, visit the Arc de Triumphe, and the Eiffel Tower.



After lunch, we got to spend some time at the Arc de Triumphe.


This is a really big Arc that Napoleon commissioned after his victory at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 but it finished in 1836 when he was already dead! Its the largest in the world at 50 meters high.

The first thing we did was look at the tomb of the unknown soldier that lies under the Arc. Along the walls there are a lot of engravings showing battles, and hundreds of names most of them are French generals.

Then we bought our ticket and walked up, there is a small museum before the terrace, it was helpful to recover after climbing 283 steps :)

The best part of course is at the top where you can enjoy a 360’ view over the city, checking the madness along the 12 avenues that start from here (one of them is Champs Elyesses) taking pictures of the Eiffel Tower in the background.

The Eiffel Tower was also amazing. :)
Built between 1887 and 1889, the "Iron Lady" was built as the entrance to the Exposition Universelle, a World fair marking the centenary of the French Revolution.

At 324 meters high, it was at the time the tallest building in the world until 1930 when the Chrysler Building in New York was completed. Amazingly, it was originally intended to be a temporary structure for the duration of the exposition.




As fun as this pretend layover was we were relieved to make it back to the airport to board our flight to Barcelona. We only had an hour and 45 minutes until landing in beautiful Barcelona Spain. We will rest tonight and tour a little bit tomorrow before boarding our cruise ship at 5 pm. :)

Thanks for the fun day!
Love you
Mom

Pretend Vacation with my Awesome Daughter!

So, this has been the longest week EVER! I have to admit that I have been a little bit grumpy. I decided that I need a vacation and since I don't really have the time or the money right now I decided that a "pretend vacation" with one of my very best friends, (she just happens to be my daughter too), Briana was in order.

After informing her that we were going to go on a pretend cruise and that I would call our pretend travel agent to have her get started on our pretend itinerary, Briana informed me that she would pretend to get excited for it too. This little interchange got me thinking. How fun would it be to REALLY go on a pretend vacation?? It just so happens that it is starting out to be very fun. I thought it would be a fun idea to share it here on our blog. :)

Someday when we have lots of time (and lots of money) maybe Briana and I can really go on our vacation but until then we will make some great memories and enjoy our "pretend" time together. I hope you enjoy it too. Make sure you let us know if you would like us to pick up any pretend souvenirs for you.

The Plan:

Claudia Cook February 24 at 10:41pm
OK, here are the details. We are going on a pretend 9 Day European Cruise on Carnival Cruise Line. We will be on the ship "Carnival Magic". On this cruise we will take turns telling each other what we will be seeing, buying, and doing while in our ports. :) It's a fun way to get to know different places and tell each other about them. It doesn't have to happen every day, I know we have busy lives, but the other person can not tell about their port until the previous one has been done. I will start first. :)

We start our pretend cruise vacation by flying from Salt Lake City, Utah to Barcelona, Spain. We have 2 stops along the way: first in Phoenix, Arizona and next in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From Philadelphia we fly directly to Barcelona. I will start out our adventure tomorrow in Barcelona and tell you all of the fun things we will do there before we board our ship at 5pm. Once we board the ship our itinerary is as follows:
Day One: Leave Barcelona 5pm
Day Two: Monaco 9am-8pm
Day Three: Livorno (Florence/Pisa), Italy 7am-7pm
Day Four: Rome, Italy 7am-10pm
Day Five: Naples, Italy 7am-7pm
Day Six: Messina (Sicily), Italy 7am-6pm
Day Seven: Fun Day at Sea
Day Eight: Palma De Malorca, Spain 7am-4pm
Day Nine: Marseiles, France 8am-6pm
Day Ten: Barcelona, Spain 5am

I will be our "guide" on days 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10. You will be in charge of 3, 5, 7, and 9. (After I do days one and two you will have an idea of what I am talking about, if you are kind of lost right now, haha). So get to sleep. I'll see you tomorrow as we prepare to board our flight! Got those pretend bags packed and pretend money ready??

This should be fun (and will give us some practice for when we can do this for real some day)!

Love you, Mom

Our Suite on the ship :)

Briana Mishel Cortney Cook February 24 at 10:54pm

This is such a cool Idea:):):):) I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And i am so so so excited:) I love you mommy see you in the morning:)

Claudia Cook February 25 at 11:52pm

THE FLIGHT
Today we boarded our plane for Barcelona. Our flight was changed (because this is my pretend world and I thought it would be much cooler to have a layover in Paris and not Arizona or Pennsylvania). ;-) So not too much excitement...yet. My in flight movie was Narnia, not a bad flick. Airplane food is...well...airplane food. But don't you fear, after our 13 hour flight and a good nights sleep we will have a few hours during our layover tomorrow to explore a little bit of Paris. Get your French ready, I will wake you up when we land. Good night! Love you.