So it was October 17th here in Utah and it was looking like it was going to be a pretty decent day with temps in the low 70s. Since we only got the boat out for one trip this year, I thought it would be nice to get out one more time. Checked on line and water temp at Utah lake was 60 to 65 degrees. Pretty chilly but not way cold. So here's Shad on what was very good water, nice and smooth. We got there a little before noon so the air temperature was still only in the low 60's and I forgot the wet suits at home in the garage. Well, I don't know if you can see it on this picture, but the water temp was only 48 degrees!! It was so cold you couldn't breath in the water. Once you got out of the water, it was actually quite pleasant. I guess that comes from all of those early morning runs when the water temp is 70 and the air temps are in the 50s.



But, we could only handle two runs and then we had to get out. It was just too cold. My problem, however, was that I couldn't get out of the bindings when I was done. I was freeeezing! But I finally made it. I can tell you, had I had a wet suit, it would have been a great day.



If you look at Shad's run above, you'll see a shallow layer of colder air that had some moisture in it. Yea, a bit cool.



Check out this picture of Annika's legs. You can see the goose pimples on them. She's a bit of a light weight, ha ha.

So the crazies were me, Shad, Annika, Robyne, Cliff, and Cliff's friend Shana. We all got in the water except for Cliff's friend, she was the only sane one. I'll do it again next year but I'll remember to take the wet suits.

Golf in Midway

It's Adam's birthday and his annual golf outing in Midway. Here is a picture of a calm lake with Curt and Adam getting ready to tee off. We normally play Wasatch State Park but it was already booked when Adam made the Tee times so we played at Soldier Hollow. As you can see, it was a beautiful day and a beautiful course. It is a links course with a lot of sand and I found a lot of it. It rained pretty heavily for about 15 minutes but the rest of the day was just great! I can't wait till next year's birtday.

More Pics of Our Trip to France

The day after we spent one day in Paris and saw Notre Dame, we went out to the Loire Valley. Whoa, was is beautiful. The first chateau we went to was this one and with the exception of Versailles, it's probably one of the biggest chateaus in France. It's called Chambord and it is absolutely amazing. All of the different roof lines are amazing. There is a very cool spiral staircase in the middle of it where one person could go up and another person could go down at the same time and not pass by each other. It is speculated that Leonard da Vinci designed the staircase as he was asked by Francois the 1st, the king of France at that time, to come to France and Francois and Leonardo da Vinci were good friends and Leonardo lived close by this chateau. Anyway, here's a picture of the staircase.

A pic of the front, or in this case I guess it's the rear, of Chambord. This was probably my favorite chateau that we saw. Francoise the 1st commissioned this chateau and spent a total of like 22 days here. It was made to be nothing more than a hunting lodge. He never saw it completed however. This picture shows a little motorized boat in the lake that surrounds about 50% of the chateau. It's way big. You could put four or five waterski courses on it and still have plenty of room. Maybe they used it for fishing but I never really saw any references to fishing, but a lot of hunting.

Here's a picture of Chenonceau. My ranking puts it right up there alongside Chambord in it's coolness factor. This place has it's own beautiful gardens, big gardens and it's built over a river. Originally there was just a bridge crossing the river here and then Katherine Briconnet decided to build on the bridge. In France it's called Château des Dames as recorded in the French history books, Chenonceau owes a large part of its charm to women: it was built in 1513 by Katherine Briçonnet, then made even more attractive by Diane de Poitiers and Catherine de Médicis, and saved from the rigours of the French Revolution by Mrs Dupin. No question it's very beautiful. Notice the french babe posing for a shot for me? Her name was Cherie and she's from Versailles - jk, don't know who she was but I got her in my shot while she was posing for her beau.

This shot is of the chateau out in Angers. It's different since it was built more of a fortress rather than just a hugh fancy house of the rich and famous. Here, Kelly is standing on the actual drawbridge. The walls of this place where several feet thick and way tall. Very different from the other chateaux that we saw so this one was fun since it was so different.
What can I say but "beautiful"! I picked this chateau, actually three of the chateaux that we saw, I picked since I bought pictures of them when I was coming home from my mission. I had never even seen them while on my mission so that has always been a goal of mine. I had them framed a few years after my mission. Jerrol's mom did it and it cost a small fortune. I had no idea they would cost so much but hey, they still look great and now I'm going to frame our photos of the same ones. This one is Saumur. It's way cool too cause it overlooks the Loire River. Here's a shot from across the river. Speaking of the river, here's a shot out of our bedroom window at our Bed & Breakfast. Yea, it was pretty romantic. I highly recommend a trip to the Loire Valley if you plan a trip to France. It was relaxing and very enjoyable. Rural France is very charming.


Our favorite day, however, was when we slowed down a bit and decided to spend the entire day in Amboise France. A big town/small city, it has a great little downtown area right by the Chateau. I think we had lunch and dinner on the same small street there in town. I think I could have spent three lazy and relaxing days right there. I probably will never get there again in my life, but I will return in memories. Here's a shot of the area from the cafe where we had lunch. Amboise happens to be where Leonardo da Vinci lived when he came to France and he's buried right there in the Chapel of the Chateau.

This is just a picture of the courtyard of the Louvre from one of the windows in the Louvre. It is so amazingly hugh it would take several days to see everything. We met another couple from Salt Lake that had spent several hours there and didn't see the Venus de Milo statue. The glass pyramid wasn't there when I was there last. I actually liked how they put it together like that. I was afraid I would think it looked stupid.

The first day back in Paris, Kelly and I took the Metro to the Arc de Triomphe. We got out of the Metro and were right there at the head of Champs-Elysees. We walked all the way from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde. This is where I took this pic of Kelly with the Eiffel Tower in the background. I really wanted Kelly to see this area since we get to see it every year in the Tour de France.
One of the few shots of me during our Paris trip. This is one of the fountains at the Place de la Concorde. The weather was really outstanding during our entire trip. It was pretty cool in the mornings but the sun came out every day and it was very warm in the afternoons. We had a little bit of rain the very first day we were in Paris before we went out to the Loire Valley. Enough for us to buy an umbrella but we didn't use it much.

On our trip back to Paris, we stopped first at the Palace at Versailles. If you've never been there, it's really hard to describe the enormity of it. The thousands and thousands of hours to build the palace is unfathonable to me. The craftmanship is perhaps unmatched in any other building in the world. There is so much gold leafing in the palace. They said that in one room alone, during the reconstrucion, it took over 5 lbs. of gold - just in one room.

Our Trip to France

So I finally got Kelly to France! She was talking about wanting to go on a neat vacation. I asked where she wanted to go and I was thinking she'd say San Diego or San Francisco, her favorite cities. When she said Paris, I couldn't believe it. We made the reservations that night. So here we are.

I tell everyone that the real Mona Lisa is the one standing in front. Way cuter than the one hanging on the wall.

The night picture is a shot I took of our street where our apartment was in Paris. We stayed just a half block away from Sacre Coeur which is right by Montmarte. It was a great place - Tiny to be sure but way fun.

We originally planned on leaving on a Saturday but because we were flying to Houston the same day hurricane Ike decided to come on shore we left on Friday. We stayed four nights out in the Loire Valley and saw lots of Chateaux out there. Wow, unbelievably beautiful. We stayed in a great little B&B in a place right outside of Amboise, France. That is where Leonardo Da Vinci spent the last few years of his life and he's buried there at the chapel on the grounds of the chateau there. Our stay in the Loire Valley was very relaxing and extremely enjoyable. After our fifth day out there we changed gears and went to Paris. We stayed there six days and saw all the sights!

Here's a night shot I took of the underneath side of the Eiffel Tower. We went to the very top about twenty minutes before sunset so we were able to see the sunset over Paris. We hung out up there for about 40 minutes in all so we could see the lights of Paris.

Everyone asks me if the language came back. I must say I was pretty pleased with it. The first night I was watching TV and I think I understood about 20% of what I heard. Then the next day it was like a switch was turned on. I rented our car and didn't use English at all. I had a 15 minute conversation with the owner of the B&B and he told me he'd never heard an American that spoke French as well as I did. Well, I think he was being a little too kind or he hasn't been around a lot of Americans that speak French but after 25 years, I'll take that compliment.

Paris is pretty much how I remembered it except it seemed way busier and hectic. I guess when you live there, you don't go to all the tourist areas and you pretty much avoid the crowds. The worst part of the trip was when we left in the morning to go to the airport. Kelly's metro ticket didn't work and I told the attendant that we just bought the ticket's the day before. The guy says that they're not going to work since the train going to the airport was on strike and not running. Oh great, I could just see us getting to the airport too late to make our trip. I had no idea how long it would take us to get there in a taxi. Well, it all worked out. Ticks me off that they sold me those tickets when they knew that line was on strike. Other than that, a great and memorable trip.