Strasbourg

So last Monday we got up bright and early and hustled out to the van for a 3-hour drive to Strasbourg, France.  We ate our breakfast in the van and the kids played ‘Mom and Dad.’  I think it is weird that my kids call it ‘Mom and Dad’ and not ‘House’—doesn’t everyone call it playing house?  Anyway, here are “Mom” and “Dad” smooching.

And then Brett and the kids toured this lovely Alsatian city.  Brett took pictures of the lovely timber-framed houses in the Petite-France district.

 

The kids asked Brett to ride on the carousel and he let them!

 

And they saw the big Cathedral.

They also ate lunch at Subway, which made me very jealous because I love Subway and haven’t been to one in two and a half years.  And why, you may be wondering, was I not there?  Because I was getting a cavity filled.  And why was I getting dental work done in Strasbourg?  Because, well, to start at the beginning, I knew I had a cavity, so I finally went to a dentist and got an x-ray and she told me it was really bad and hopefully wouldn’t need a root canal, but maybe, and she sent me an estimate of the cost and it – being Swiss prices—was pretty incredibly high.  Brett naturally refused to pay such exorbitant prices since most/all neighboring countries are a lot cheaper.  So we called our friends the Herrs and asked them what they knew about dental costs in France (since they live in France), and Thomas said, “Well, you know, my dad is a dentist.  You should go to him.”  So I did.  And he was really nice and said I looked like my sister Kami whom he met once when he was visiting Thomas and Jenny in Chicago when Kami lived in Chicago and was their friend too. 

Anyway, at first I thought it was kindof cool to hear the dentist and assistant speak French and have a really nice office with huge windows, but then the drill sounded pretty much just as annoying in French as it does in English.  ;)  But now my tooth is better and I saved about a thousand francs (thank you Dr. Herr!!) and we got to go to Strasbourg!

Anyway, after I was finished at the dentist, Brett came and picked me up, and then we drove back across the border a little ways to a camping store where Brett bought a cool tent.  If we had been thinking, he would have done that while I was at the dentist, and then we would have had time together to look around Strasbourg, but oh well. 

Anyway, after that we went to… duh duh duh DUH—Monkey Mountain, where we hung out with monkeys and fed them popcorn.  Pretty much what I do every day.*

 

Baby! (But no feeding babies or the adult they are with.)

Orrin loooved the monkeys!  This was him pretty much the whole time.

I was even there too!

After that we got some pizza (and I got a tomato and mozzarella baguette panini, which made me feel a little better about missing out on Subway) and made our way home.

The end.

*That sentence was taken directly from my friend Dru’s blog when she went to Monkey Mountain (which is where I got the idea) but I thought it was so fantasticly funny I had to use it too.