Paris - Dublin

Vacation is over :(  I arrived in Dublin yesterday afternoon.  I wasn't on Irish soil for more than 10 minutes before I heard my first "dear" And this was from the passport fellow. Love the accent! Paris was wonderful of course, here's a quick run down:
- Arrived in Paris Saturday, July 10th - seriously exhausted from jetlag, too many meetings, and running around with too much work to do and not enough time.
- It was very hot at the begining of the visit and no fans - just an open window and an occasional breeze at night. - It started getting hot again right before I left on the 20th - sign to leave town.
- Tried to balance the trip with seeing the sights, relaxing and getting work done. Quickly realized I had to drop the last one. Hard to do and work never quite went away - hung out nagging in the back of the head all the stuff needing to be done. That's the one thing I would have done different - don't know how, but somehow have gotten work closed out better so I could focus on vacation.
- Visited some sights but not too many.  It helped I had visited the city before and seen alot on that visit.  Crazy thing was this was 20 years ago!
- The apartment I was staying at was marvelous (besides being a bit too hot the first few days).  It was a 6th floor walk up in the Marias district (near Place de Bastille).  So got quite a work out besides the fact that my host, Noah loved exploring different neighborhoods so put in 5 miles plus some days.  The apartment isn't rented to strangers - just friends and family.  As a result it was nicely equiped with quality items.  Most of the visit I was down on the lower level (two level place) in the yellow bedroom with a wonderful wardrobe that hinted towards the Lion/Witch books of my youth.  And gorgeous windows that you opened up and just looked out into the back courtyard and other apartments.  It's undescribable so I'll stop now.
- Nick joined me on Monday until Saturday so we had a nice little vacation together.  First time just the two of us without a parent. And we had a great time together.  Noah had another set of guests that joined us for most the visit that was another brother/sister combo and it was intersting seeing the similarities/differences in the relationships.  Both had an older sister by about 4+ years.  I think Nick and I benefited by having some extra years under our belt.
- Suprisingly, my French held up decently.  It's amazing what vocab I remembered and I have to admit I was less self conscious of my pronounciation than the last visit - when I was an awkward teen.
- Already miss the bread and pastries and my local sorbet stop a block away.
- Loved having the length of hte vacation we did as we fell into a certain pattern of activity and interaction with the other folks staying at hte apartment.

So that's all I can remember now and I have to run.  I've uploaded some photos (all from facebook), taken by the others.  My camera died early in the visit and the spare batteries I brought were already used - so not many photos on my end.

Enjoying Dublin.  The pattern here: sun, rain showers, sun, rain showers - repeat endlessly.  Trying to sift through email but there's so much.  Wish I was back on vacation.  Off to Glasgow tomorrow afternoon and then home on Saturday.  Missing the boys - it's been a long trip all said and done.  Oh and I did make my meeting back at the beginning of the trip.  That still amazes me.