Where Have I Been All Month?

Well, right about now, the real question should be where have I not been. Remember when I mentioned my family trip to France (Nice, then Paris)? I've spent most of the month planning, re-planning, hyper-planning and then double-checking my plans, all in efforts of having the world's most amazing vacation.

The laundry list of plane activities, alone, took me days to compile. And don't even get me started on the journal full of lists — sites to see, things to buy and gouter to manger. I was going to expand my daughter's horizons so far that she'd need a month's worth of naps to recover. And then, when it was all over, I was going to chronicle my travels and sell them to the highest publishing bidder. It was all arranged in my mind.

Thanks for nothing, Iceland.

So, now, I'm sitting in the Washington, D.C. house in which I was raised (this was the first leg of our trip), preparing to turn tail and head back to California. I still don't think my daughter understands exactly what's going on. I was even joked that I should tell her that the large CW TV tower around the corner from my parents' house was the Eiffel Tower. But I've shown her Washington Post pix of the volcano erupting and bought her (possibly, one too many) consolation prizes...so hopefully there won't be too many tears over the dashing of her Madeline daydreams. We'll have a meal tonight at Et Voila before our flight out, so she can at least get a literal taste of what she'll be missing.

I've actually still not emotionally rebounded from it all. Let me fly home tomorrow, have a good cry, look at all the pix from the highlights of the trip we did take — Baltimore Aquarium, Botanical Gardens, National Zoo and many other spots that D.C. natives take for granted — and then, get back to you.