Tight Seats and Wet Willie's

Our trip started with our Iceland Air flights being cancelled. The good news is we were put on a non-stop vs a connection, bad news is no miles for Ken on Alaskan. While I have more than enough for my status, Ken will need more so this trip was going to give him over 10k in one chunk. I will see what I can do to get them, since that was the entire reason we went with IcelandAir who is a partner with Alaskan.

The flight was unventful, but we were quickly reminded what it is like with no status. Being the top tier status with both United and Alaska, we have amenities like boarding first, premium seats for free, etc. On

Air France, who is partnered with Delta, we were in group 4 (which was massive) and had to pay $32 each for a "premium" seat. Not sure what a regular seat is, but we had a window and middle seat in the most cramped configuration I have flown on in a long time. I couldn't reach down to get anything from my backpack as my knees were in the way. Oh and we get to spend the next 9.5 hours squeezed into our seats. Luckily, our seatmate was not massive, nor had any terrible body issues which is always something to be thankful for.

We arrived in Paris to sunshine and 80 degrees. We grabbed the train into the city, which for $20 is much cheaper (and most of the time faster) than the $80 taxi. Our AirBnB is located on the Isle Saint Louis, a few blocks behind Notre Dame and an area that I have yet to explore. We were met promptly and let into our small, but very

functional and clean apartment.

By this time we were a bit hungry and went out to explore our neighborhood. We found a small creperie a few blocks away and enjoyed a crepe and some salad, before heading back for a rest.

We both struggled to wake up from our nap, but forced ourselves awake at around 5p. My dad and Mary (stepmom) had sent us a print from Willie's Wine Bar which is hanging in our "wine room" at home. So we had to make a pilgrimage to enjoy some wine, food and the art at the Bar. We walked the 1.5 miles, past Notre Dame and just as we were getting close the raindrops started.

Luckily, we made it to Willie's right before the deluge of rain. We had a wonderful server who gave us excellent guidance on the wines and food. The courses of cheese, asparagus/salad were perfect with the bottle of white wine and the duck went well with a glass of a lighter red.

By the time we were done it was thundering and pouring rain. So, instead of walking off dinner, we hailed an Uber back to the apartment. where we promptly hit the bed for the night.