A Man's (or woman's) Best Friend Arrives

It's been a little over 2 months since I left the states and left my little one behind. She has finally arrived. Mom and Dad had a hassle free flight to Frankfurt. On arrival it was like no one even cared that they had a dog with them....they literally could have walked out and no one would have been the wiser. It was Dad's first time flying and I think he secretly enjoyed it. Of course, I don't think that he will ever fully admit that due to the fight he gave me over getting out here!

Aco's homecoming was nothing extraordinary. I got her out of her crate and kissed on her a bit, then took her out to find a patch of grass to relieve herself. I won't go into details here.... I didn't even cry; believe it or not!

We stopped at McD's at the airport and had a bite of breakfast before driving on to my place 1.5 hours away. When we got to the apartment, we were all tired. Daddy was asleep before we set foot into the door. Ok, not really but it was very close to that!

I had to work that night so off to bed I went with hopes that Aco would join me.... My hopes were crushed when she trotted up the steps and found a comfortable spot next to Daddy. I think she likes him a bit.... She did finally find her way to my bed sometime during the day.

The next day, we tooled around town a little and stopped at the German grocery. We picked up some cheese and sausages for the road trip. I took Mom and Dad for a fine dining experience for a street-stand frankfurter! We spent the rest of the evening resting and preparing for our Road-Trip to Paris.

The drive to Paris was uneventful. The weather held out for the drive with no snow. Mom and Dad suffering from jet-lag and me from third shift work, we decided to relax on the first night in Paris. We went to a little restaurant just next to our hotel and had a wonderful dinner. The entire menu was in french and the waiter spoke little English. We ended up ordering the pre-fix meal and each ordered a different meat. Mom got 'poultry', Dad 'beef' and 'fish' for me. All of our meals were amazingly good. Plates were cleaned off and little room was left for our deserts of a chocolate lava cake and creme' brule'.....

I had booked a free tour of Paris the following day to start at 2:30pm. We left the hotel early and walked around Paris on our own exploring then began to head toward our meeting place for the tour.....we had planned to get a bite to eat once we got close to our meeting spot, but we ended up getting a little lost and by the time we arrived, it was time for the tour. The guide, Piere was wonderful. He directed us to a cafe' where we enjoyed coffee and sandwiches prior to heading off on the walking tour.

Piere was a wonderful guide and we got an inside look at his area of Paris. After, we wandered toward the Eifel Tower for a night-time view and a few pictures before heading back to rest our feet at the hotel. We were all quite tired from all the walking and I think I was nearly frozen to the bone.

Next, we were off to Brugge, Belgium. I fell in love with this city when Aaron and I visited in December and it didn't disappoint this time. Window shopping, chocolates and good food were had and even Aco enjoyed meandering around the city. Of course, they let her into the restaurants and she even got a chair to herself so she felt like a little princess.

I forgot to charge my GPS so we got a little turned around on the way home and the 4 hour drive ended up being about 6 hrs. In addition, something is going wrong with my car. It's missing and I can't figure out if it's a tank of bad gas, clogged filters or possibly the fuel pump going bad....it's gotten me to work now for two nights and hopefully one more then it's off to the mechanic.

Mom and Dad's visit was way too fleeting. I felt like they barely got here and were leaving again. There is so much that I wanted to show them and feel like they only got a small taste. Maybe they will make a return visit.....

I'll post pictures soon....