Paris, Part One

As I was saying, we were supposed to go to Luxembourg. But when you look at your GPS and realize Paris is only an extra 30 minutes of drive time away, you choose Paris, because your time in Europe is limited and you need to see Paris.

So, we got in our car, hopped online and found a last-minute hotel deal near the Louvre for 89€ a night (really great deal, by the way. seriously recommend lastminute.com for last minute hotel deals), and headed to Paris. It was late afternoon when we left Waterloo.

Traffic was fine until we got into Paris. Then, it was hellish. Oh gawd those Parisians! They swerve and honk and cut you off! It's terrifying! Thankfully, Hubs drove and I brought back my Bradley Method childbirthing class breathing.

We finally arrived at our parking garage, 1km away from our hotel room (we later learned that there was one closer, but by that point, Hubs was DONE driving in Paris, plus we didn't know for sure if we could park closer, so we didn't bother trying). We grabbed our bags and walked to the hotel. It was literally a block from the Opera House (below) and a block in the opposite direction from the Louvre. Could not have asked for a better location, especially for such a low price. 

Upon check-in, we dumped our bags in our room and looked up how to get to the Eiffel Tower. We wanted to see it at night in all its glory. At 10 p.m., we set off to learn how to use Paris public transportation, and we got to the Eiffel tower.

At first, it looks smallish. I must have taken fifty photos of it, stopping for a new photo every hundred feet or so.

 It's anything but smallish. It's enormous. And impressive.

As you can tell, I was super impressed by the Eiffel Tower.

Next, we hurried back to the train station to get to the Arch de Triomphe. Super cool, too. We had to hurry, though, because Parisian public transportation closes (closes!) around midnight.

After we admired that for a while, it was back to the train to get over to the stop near the Louvre. We could easily walk to the hotel after that, so we weren't rushed. The plan was to see the Louvre's pyramids all lit up, then get some dinner, and head back to the hotel to sleep.

I would have loved to go inside, but there was no time in our short trip for that, so we'll definitely be going to Paris again in the future. The Louvre is so gorgeous. Breathtaking. We must have spent an hour there, just walking around, taking pictures, admiring its glory.

Before we knew it, the time was past midnight, and we were tired. We headed toward the hotel, looking for a bite to eat along the way. Would you believe there was NO PLACE for us to eat? Paris totally shuts down at night. I was shocked. We went back to the hotel a bit hungry, downed half a bottle of room temperature Coke Zero, and went to sleep.

We hit up McDonald's (don't judge) for breakfast the next morning, where we had burger patties on English muffins with ketchup and some cheese on it. Strange breakfast sandwich, but it filled us up. Then, we hit the town again, this time by day.

...to be continued

Belgium Trip: Brussels & Waterloo

Continuing our Epic Valentine's Day Weekend Getaway, Hubs and I traveled through The Netherlands into Belgium. Our first (main) stop was Brussels. It was a gorgeous, vibrant city and we enjoyed our time there.

Traffic was no problem during our drive through Belgium. Parking was plentiful. We didn't encounter any toll roads, and there was no vingette required to drive through the country.

I just thought this was a cool tunnel. 

This translates to "less acid behind the wheel" 

Grand Place. The main square in Brussels. So pretty. So old. The dates on the buildings were in the 1600s.

We like to eat the local famous food. When in Belgium...

Mine was topped with Speculoos. 

What's that? You say you don't know what Speculoos is? In Europe, your coffee is usually served with small, tasty cookies. Speculoos is what happens when you turn those cookies into a spread. It is heavenly. You can buy your own here. 

Ahhh....Manneken Pis, the famous Belgian fountain we'd heard stories about. It's this relic that no one knows the origins of. No one knows when it was ...ahem...erected. No one knows who built it. No one knows why. All they know is that there is a peeing statue. And it attracts huge crowds.

Yes. I am a child. Potty humor still makes me giggle. 

They even make Manneken Pis milk chocolate. 

Spotted in front of a shopping mall. 

One last photo as we make our way back to the parking garage.

And now, we head to Waterloo, to the site of the famous battle where Napoleon was defeated.

There's a large monument (a monumental monument?) on a large hill with hundreds of steps to climb.

Once you reach the top without dying, you catch your breath, admire your hard work, and then look around.

Pretty great view of the Belgian countryside.

And this handy map made it easy to picture where the battle took place. We actually parked very near where Napoleon sat on his horse. Very cool.

The monument seen from the top of the hill. 

We shopped the gift shop and hoofed it back to the car, where we plotted our next move. It was supposed to be Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, but we changed our minds at the last minute. I'll tell you more about that adventure tomorrow.

Wiesbaden/Mainz, Germany Trip

Hubs was born here in Germany, on the other side of the country. We wanted to take a trip to see where he was born, and we had that opportunity this Valentine's Day weekend.

The hospital he was born in is now some sort of detention facility or something. Heavily guarded, lots of cameras and fences. I was mildly concerned about being detained for questioning with all the pictures I was snapping of this place. Anyway, there it is. The building my husband was birthed in.

We walked over this bridge into Mainz, where there was lots of really cool Roman ruins dating back to the single digits A.D. We're history lovers, so we got a huge kick out of being here.

The buildings are nice to look at in Europe, everywhere we go. The colors stand out, the intricate details on the buildings are incredible, and it all looks so great together.

There are also always tons of statues. I love them.

So this stuff, above and below, was under a mall in Mainz. Apparently, when the construction began on the mall, they uncovered all these super fabulous ruins from the Temple of Isis. So they preserved it all and turned the basement into a small museum of sorts, free of charge, for the public to enjoy and learn about ancient Romans. It was awesome.

Heading back to the S-bahn, we found the ruins of an ancient Roman theater. Again, incredible. It was easy to tell what it would have looked like back then, with the arched rows of seating and the rounded stage area in front.

Ancient city wall was directly behind the theater. Clearly, it's been repaired in places, but it was still a sight to behold.

Wiesbaden at night. Just as cool as during the day.

We spent the night in the Army Lodge in Wiesbaden. It's a nice hotel. Very modern, very American-style (large room, plush everything, super amenities). Average price ($127.50US per night for two people). Great location.

And then we headed out for our next destination, which I will share with you tomorrow.

Bill Nye Insults Homeschoolers

READ ME FIRST

So, basically, Bill Nye the Science Guy posted on his facebook page that he was there to answer (good) questions. 

I posed one. 

I asked him if he would consider building a curriculum for homeschoolers. 

His response was surprisingly stacked against homeschoolers, basically asserting that homeschoolers will never be engineers because they don't work well in groups. 

From there, the conversation devolved into a war of words. 

Mr. Nye, since you claim that evidence will change your opinion, here is a list of homeschooled people. Perhaps you've heard of them? 

George Washington Carver
Albert Einstein
Michael Faraday
Ada Lovelace
Joseph Priestley
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky

...just to name a few. 

Mr. Nye, your comment to me was ignorant and rather unscientific. I hope you will educate yourself soon. Some colleagues of mine plan to help you do just that. Good day, Science Guy. 

Learning the 50 States, their Capitals, and their Map Locations

One major item I'm working on this semester with Kathryn is the location of all the US states on the map, and all of their capital cities' names. I don't have a curriculum for this. I'm using a bunch of varied materials to help teach this lesson. Here's what we're using. 

50States.com is a great, free resource with tons of information for learning the 50 states and capitals. You can print blank outline maps here. This worksheet is a good printable for a quiz. And here you can find all 50 official state songs. 

Worksheet Works has another 50 states & capitals quiz (for free). 

Postcards from North America is a fun boardgame that sends you around the United States to collect capital cities and landmarks. It teaches familiarization with US geography and offers capital city exposure. Plus, it's fun to play. And fun wins every time. 

States and Capitals Flash Cards (this link will take you directly to the set we actually use). These are great for busy days, carschooling, and cuddling on the couch school days. You get to see the outline of the state and the location of the capital cities. 

US Map Tutorial by Sheppard Software teaches the location of each state in an interactive manner. Sheppard Software is free! Free is good!

US Map Jigsaw Puzzle by Sheppard Software is an online map puzzle. You drag the state shapes to their place on the map, then the site labels the state's name. 

If you like to cook together, this site has recipes from the 50 states that you can prepare together to tie several subjects in. 

For kids who enjoy coloring, Crayola has a coloring page for every state. 

And this has to be my favorite states and capitals resource by far...

Impromptu Nature Walk

On our way home from a co-op field trip (the kids got to tour Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits behind the scenes), Kathryn and I stopped on the side of the road to check out a little body of water and some plants. 

It's so gorgeous here. 

In other news, I changed my hair. I went from this:

To this:

I like it a lot.