More Stories From France

Day 5
Before leaving Carcassone, we visited a local park, which gave Emerson ample time to expend some of his pent up energy (I never realized stopping at so many parks would become a necessary part of my vacation...). Thankfully, after lots of running around and lots of pushing him in his strollers, he finally fell asleep (and we were able to just carry his stroller right on the train and leave him in it).

Then we spent most of the day on a very long train trip to Avignon. We got there two hours later than expected, as there was fire on the tracks (in southern France, it rains on average only one day during the entire month of July). Alas, it gave Emerson more time to flirt with the other passengers. Once to Avignon, another short train to L'Isle Sur La Sorgue, a beautiful little town with shallow clear streams of water flowing all around it and dozens of water mills. First stop after checking into the hotel: the local bakery. Not a bad dinner. We ate in a local park that gave Emerson the space to run around (again). Then we walked around town a bit and Emerson got his first kiss - from an older French gal that had a fancy for him!

Honestly, this was the first of many cultural encounters that we had that simply would not have happened had we not taken Emerson with us. Traveling with a toddler is a tiring, extra complicated experience, but it most certainly opened opportunities for us to engage with the locals in ways we never would have expected. On numerous occasions, little children just walked right up to Emerson and started chatting with him. In fact, by the end of the trip, he was mimicking the French accent and trying to talk like them!

And now a brief interlude to display the many faces of Emerson Jude:

Day 6
Today totally did not turn out as I had planned it. For starters it was just way too hot (mid 90s). We went to Pont du Gard, the remains of an ancient Roman aqueduct, and Emerson fell asleep 5 minutes before our bus arrived. Then he totally flipped out after he fell headlong into the stream we were wading in. We headed back to the bus stop to make our way to Nimes only to watch the bus roundabout just in front of our stop and drive away. Needless to say, we were not the only ones stranded and wound up calling a taxi and splitting the costs with another couple who happened to get Phds from Indiana State University.

At Nimes, hungry and exhausted, we quickly search for some grub. Our first stop: a strawberry slushie. The lady explained to us (in French but with very descriptive hand gestures) that if we were going to feed the baby (“bebe”) any of it, to use the spoon part at the end of the straw and just give him little amounts so he wouldn’t get a “slurpee tumor” (at least that’s what we called them growing up). Amber and I didn’t think anything of it until both of us got headaches from drinking it too fast! After lunch, we had just enough energy (and time) to take tour of the Arena (like the Coliseum in Rome but far more preserved-they actually had it set up for a bunch of summer concerts.

With all of us exhausted, and Emerson not having had a long enough nap, it was back to the train station - one to Avignon and another to Isle Sur La Sorgue. Knowing a nice sit down dinner wouldn't be possible tonight, we picked up a few things from a grocery store and a sandwich shop. Bought a bottle of Cotes de Rhone red wine and asked the clerk if he had a corkscrew, his friend standing by told us we could stop by his shop down the street and he'd help us out--opened up shop just to open our wine bottle! At the sandwich shop, I ordered a "French original" which turned out to be a Philly steak sub with fries on top of it... Flew around the world just so I could eat at a place like Pittsburgh’s Primanti's!

Once back in the room, Emerson was now full of energy and running around like a madman. At one moment, he grunted and kind of hunched over (a telltale sign), said "oops," and then put his hand over his mouth and nose to say "P-ewww." Then when I shut off the light and said "night night," he sprinted around the bed and flipped on Amber's bedside lamp that she had shown him how to turn on not ten minutes earlier.

Finally, with the kid asleep and a half bottle of wine remaining, Amber and I are flipping between the FIFA world cup and some French reality show akin to America’s Fear Factor.

Summer's Last Hurrah

So school is back in full swing and we're in the crazy mix of coordinating schedules, trying to find baby-sitters, dealing with a teething child, fixing up the house, staying on top of bills, and doing course work. But before the first day of class, we managed to take a short swing back home to Lafayette and Indianapolis. Now it was totally impossible for us to get in touch with everyone we know and introduce Emerson to them, but even the amount of running around we did totally ran Emerson ragged. Indeed, he was a complete mess on the drive home (and far less excited about being in the car than when we started!)! So we did manage to go home and see some family and friends.

On Thursday morning, we drove home, with our first stop being a Mexican restaurant we have frequented that is at the Cedarville University exit in Ohio (we always get the nachos supremos). Then, we stopped at College Park in Indy on the way to surprise all my former coworkers (actually, the morning started out with me getting up really early to change the oil in Amber's car which hadn't been done in a long while and fill the car up with gas). We were a bit disappointed that some of them were not around when we stopped by, but it was certainly a big surprise for everyone we did see. We actually got there as some of the guys were getting ready to go out and play soccer after work, the regular Thursday afternoon ritual that I used to be a part of, which brought back a lot of memories. Then, we went to my parent's place, where Emerson got a taste of some of the future antics he'll experience from grandpa :).

On Friday, Amber took Emerson over to her friend Sarah's house to introduce him to her two little girls and the now infamous "jumperoo" toy that he loves so well (He's played in it so much that the batteries that play the music in it are already dying out). That night, Everette Mills came over to hang out with us, and stayed for dinner. Sorry you couldn't meet Emerson too, Megan!!

On Saturday, we went down to Indy and unwisely went to the State Fair in the heat of the afternoon on an August day. But we had to keep up with our yearly ritual of going to the fair with our friends, Dennis and Heidi and their addition, Edmund. Edmund is three months older than Emerson (but the same weight!!!), and it was amazing to see the clear developmental differences between the two as Edmund crawled circles around Emerson who just watched.

Saturday night, we and our family stayed at a hotel in Indy as my two youngest brothers were running in the Tri-Indy triathlon on Sunday morning. Exhausted from the heat of the fair (Emerson actually got a pretty nasty heat rash too), we took a nap and then our friend Beth came by to meet Emerson and catch up on each other's lives. My older brother, Brandon, also drove down from Fort Wayne for the evening so he could meet his new nephew. Then, we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown where Emerson proceeded to completely destroy the paper place mat that was at my spot at the table (apparently, he has this thing for paper [maybe its the crinkly sound?] and he even cries when we take it away from him!). Then, he suddenly had a meltdown and I had to take him on a stroll through downtown for him to fall asleep.

Finally, on Sunday, the family cheered Brant and Brogan on as they swam, biked, and ran for two hours. Afterward, we were off back to Pittsburgh. We took a slight detour near Dayton, OH to see our friends Matt and Nancy who had just moved from Lafayette to the Dayton-Fairborn-Springfield area. A couple hours later, we were back on the road for an exhausting five more hours (which should have taken three and a half but Emerson was sick of being in the car). By the time we got home we needed a vacaction from our vacation!!