All the Cassats

Well, almost all of the Cassat's. Uncle Greg spent his summer in Washington State. Yes, it has been a very busy summer. We were lucky enough to have Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Mindy, and our cousins Stephen and Emma all come to visit. They arrived late in July and left mid-August. We had a great time.

The journey started with a long plane ride for the visiting relatives followed by a bus ride from Heathrow. After a day's rest, we started on the trips. First was to Dover Castle with a sweet dinner overlooking the cliffs of Dover. The meal was marginal but the view was fabulous. We think we saw France.

After that, we had a nice break at church and started sightseeing again on Monday. Castles, churches... they all look the same after a while but we charged onward. Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Mindy went down to London to go see Wicked and then explore London. We took all of the kids down (without serious harm) and met them at the Tower of London. We could have seen the Crown Jewels, but instead did a Beefeater Tour and accosted some poor unsuspecting tourist to take our picture and then gave him three cameras. He does nice work, as you can see.



The first week was just warming up for the big week, a full 5 nights and 6 glorious fun filled days in Disneyland Paris. We hopped on the Eurostar for our First Class journey to Disneyland. The chunnel was dark and about twenty minutes long. It stopped at a train station made just for Disneyland. It might just be the happiest place on earth (maybe slightly less happy than Los Angeles or Orlando with better cheese). It's amazing but Buzz Lightyear can also speak French. So can Mickey and C3PO. I did not know that. We had a lot of fun. The kids liked it because there were great rides and when they were tired, they could actually watch TV channels. There was also a pool and plenty of shopping. A few stomach aches and fevers later, we knew we had done everything that Disney has to offer.

We did do one day in Paris. We thought we would do more days in Paris but it ended up being a logistical nightmare to move 11 people on public transportation. Everyone will tell you that there are buses or subways from Notre Dame to the Eiffel Tower but our group begs to differ. Thirty minutes of walking later and some sprinting, we made it in time to use our Eiffel Tower reservations. It was still worth it. We also saw the Louvre but the most unique part is the birdman of Notre Dame. There is a gentleman who teaches the kids how to hold ladyfinger cookies so the birds will eat out of your hand. He gives you the cookies for free but our kids had so much fun, he did accept a tip. Cool.