Andy Smallman

Whew. I’m already exhausted and we haven’t even boarded the first of our three planes over the next 18 hours of travel. Making sure our 8 checked bags each stayed within the 50 lb limit, saying final goodbyes to family and neighbors (Chloe’s goodbye to Alex was especially hard), and otherwise getting to SeaTac is enough for one day. But here Melinda and I sit at the gate, plugged in and online, and a little bit giddy. Chloe & Ella are also plugged in and online, several seats away from us. The separation of seats is due to finding outlets for our electronics.

For those of you keeping score at home, we leave in 90 minutes for Reykjavik, Iceland. We catch a connecting flight from there to Paris. And then it’s Paris to Nantes. If all goes as planned, we will be on the ground in Nantes at 9am Monday Seattle time (6pm in Nantes). So my next update, assuming I find easy Internet access, will be tomorrow from France.

We sold our beloved Volvo today, thus rendering us carless on the eve of leaving for France. It was a bittersweet experience letting the car go. We’ve joked over the last month about how the car seemed sad to be letting go of us, maybe even a little bit mad. Various vehicles hiccups kept happening. But then yesterday, all was clearly forgiven. We were driving past Melinda’s parents’ house, one of the few times all four of us have been together this week. Melinda made a comment and I retorted, “Should we say that in French?” Immediately, on the radio, an Edith Piaf song began playing. The Volvo is happy. We are excited. T minus 18 hours until our flight takes off.

We leave in less than two days and today we “prepped” by purchasing two iPads, one that Ella bought for her use and the other Melinda and I bought for (mainly) Melinda to use. It’s an interesting thing, the iPad. Initially, when I first heard of it, I wasn’t that impressed as I’m not a big fan of the iTouch. But once we got Ella’s iTunes library moved over and she was happily playing her music, I started to warm up to it. It will certainly be great on the plane and I think it will be easy to use in France. Good thing some money was saved up in advance.

Today’s photo is of Melinda working on her new iPad. Right now, at 10:45 pm she is trying to merge two Address Books for syncing with it. Chloe & Ella are out with their cousin Stephanie and good friend Carly seeing the movie Eclipse. Meanwhile, the bags are fairly well packed and I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep.

After greeting the family who will be living in our Seattle home and helping them get to know the house and its idiosyncrasies, Melinda, Chloe, Ella & I zoomed off to Ola in West Seattle to get haircuts. Today’s picture is of just me (I didn’t think of blogging this way until tonight)… So here I am unveiling my new look for France – short hair and 70’s era glasses. The mustache is gone but some chin hair remains.

A big shout-out to our friends Elizabeth & Eric for letting us stay in their View Ridge home for a few days. And let me just say how odd it was to see another family moving into our house. I think Chloe & I had the hardest time with it.

Um, we leave for France on Sunday afternoon. We’ll  be in Nantes in less than 100 hours. That’s crazy!