So, me and the missus have all airfare and lodging booked and paid. We have started to discuss tours and sites we want to see. We definitely want to go from Paris to the Normandy beaches where the D-Day invasion started and the cemetery. We will probably take the train from Paris. We have not booked it yet. Got pricing from a local travel agent and they quoted $1,000 for round trip fare for three people ( more on the third party later) with no tour once we got to Cairns...no way. We are going to spend two weeks in Paris, one week each in Croatia, and Montenegro and Budapest. Paris does not excite me as much as the other three but it will be a great tour and our 50th wedding anniversary.

July 20
Just so we are all on the same page....Shirley and I are going on this adventure with our friend Carroll Betton. Carroll spent six weeks with Shirley in Paris a couple of years ago and they had a great time. So, it will be nice to have a third party for input and ideas. Should be an interesting five weeks.

I have a nice, not super expensive, Citizen watch I wear everyday. Knowing if I take this to Paris and get on the subway I am going to be watch-less in a matter of minutes, I decided I would buy an inexpensive digital watch from Amazon and leave the pickpocket magnet at home. Then I remembered my Dad's digital watch I got after he passed away last October. I went to the armoire and it was in the plastic bag where I had left it since October 2017 and keeping perfect time. I hated that watch. I would go see Dad in Arizona and he would be sitting in his recliner watching FOX news on TV and listening to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity on the radio, both with the volume up to near max at the same time..and the alarm on the watch would go off. I'd say "Dad can't you hear the alarm on your watch?". He'd reply "Nope." Then he would tell me he would fix it...so, instead of beeping twice an hour it would beep every fifteen minutes..and he still did not hear the damn thing. But, I think it will be nice I can take this small piece of him with me to Europe, a place he had never been.

August 14
Shirley has put together a list of places she feels we all should go see when we are in Paris, Croatia, Montenegro and Budapest. I was going to transcribe it here but decided at three pages it is a little involved and perhaps too long. So, suffice it to say we will have a lot of things to do and see. We are going to see the D-Day beaches while in Paris. We booked a trip that leaves Paris at 7:00am on the bullet train and gets back at about midnight. Should be a long day but I am certain it will be meaningful. We are also doing a cooking school in Paris...kind of expensive but we will see!!! Also going to do the baths in Budapest, going to have to get me a speedo (you bet).

August 29
We leave the 4th and so I will write no more until we get to Paris. Bon Voyage!!!

September 2
I wasn't going to write anymore but things seem to be progressing so smoothly there must be something wrong. The only fly in the ointment so far is we can not find the a/c supply cord for this nice power converter I purchased a few years ago. I should be able to find one at ACE Hardware or Lowes. It is a great unit as it has three electrical outlets and four usb charging ports. Carroll is coming up from Corvallis tomorrow afternoon and spending the night and we are taking Uber to PDX at 10am Tuesday morning. For the three of us Uber was $60..not cheap but not too bad.