Grand European Road Trip!

We road tripped our way from Paris to Sweden, hitting a whole handful of countries in a small handful of days. I have to give my kids some serious credit - they are amazing on long journeys. And because of that, we had a delightful time. 

Here are a few photo highlights of our Grand European Road Trip

BRUGES, BELGIUM

This city was just as great as the movie In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes. (which is, in my opinion, a great movie)

AMSTERDAM

I'm just going to go on and admit that I wasn't too big a fan of Amsterdam. It was lovely, yeah, I'll give it that. And swarming with stoned college kids, which can sometimes be very entertaining...

But THE BICYCLES! I figured, as a non-driver, I'd love a city in which everyone rides cute little bikes with cute little baskets and panniers filled with groceries and such. But being a mom, walking around with two kids in a world where people riding bicycles have the right of way and live in La La Land while they ride - lemme just say, we were all nearly killed a thousand times. 

The Anne Frank house was the highlight for me, although several times I had to find dark corners to ugly-cry where people wouldn't see me. The Diary of Anne Frank inspired my diary-writing days, from seventh grade through high school (though the fact that I only ever wrote silly, shallow stuffs about boys always caused me to rip my diaries apart and throw them away in embarrassment). Being there reminded me of myself as a young wannabe novelist, and it was incredibly moving. But as a mom with two dreamy, creative, and smart daughters, not that much younger than Anne when she lived behind the bookshelf, I was moved a million times over. 

I went there kid-free, and when I was done, Gracie cheerfully chirped, "Did you just have the best time EVER at the Anne Frank house!?!" I had to answer by hugging and hugging my girls - no words, because I was very close to another round of ugly-crying. 


GERMANY

Which I don't really have pictures of, except this one with Annelie, on the ferry to Denmark. 

We weren't in Germany longer than a day of driving, and only stopped a few times to stretch our legs at rest stops.  But Gracie was wow'd. When I told her we were in Germany, she blinked. 


GRACIE [eyes wide]:  We're in the real Germany?

ME: Yup. The real Germany.

GRACIE [shakes head slowly]: No, but I mean, GERMANY Germany?

ME: Yes, Gracie. Germany. 

GRACIE [eyes wider]: THE REAL GERMANY?

ME: Yep, that one. 

GRACIE [shakes head firmly]: No, we're not. 

ME [sighing]: I give up.

Eventually it sunk in. We stopped at a rest stop and Gracie played with a little German baby and was delighted. Especially when the baby - who had just been in Spain with her family on holiday - said, "Hola!" 

Now Gracie is convinced that the national language of Germany is Spanish. 


COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

My new favorite city! 

Hans Christian Anderson!

We didn't have long to spend in Copenhagen, but I will definitely plan a trip to this city again. I loved it! My pictures don't even begin to capture how cool this city is. The modern section reminded me of the fun, artsy parts of San Francisco (my old stomping ground, of which I will always be partial), and the historic section flashed me back to my years of reading Hans Christian Anderson tales (my fave!) - with my aunt, when I was small, and with my kids as I've grown. 

But the highlight for me - the Little Mermaid statue, looking out over the Copenhagen harbor! This statue is like Mecca for the mermaid obsessed. I had a children's atlas when I was a kid, and the page on Denmark was my favorite, because of this statue. 

My own little mermaids loved Copenhagen, as well!


And that concludes the road trip portion of our Grand Eurpean Adventure! Now we're in Sweden, and in Sweden we will stay for two weeks longer - then it's back to our home sweet home.

 xoxo,

An American Mom in Paris

One thing to know about travelling to and around Europe as a mom with two very adorable and well-behaved little girls: PEOPLE WILL LOVE YOU. You will be brought to the front of the hour+ line at immigration, so that your wait will only be five minutes. You will be given seats on trains, metros, buses, and the like. Incredibly long line at the Musee D'Orsay? No problem - just get in line, and two minutes later, very nice people will see to it that your darling girls don't have to stand in line for a single minute more. Teach the girls to say 'Merci!' in their cute, high-pitched voices, and those people will smile.

In fact, the only place where we stood in line was for the bathroom, because when a girl's gotta go, she won't let the two little kids, who will most assuredly take too long, go first. Plus, all the people in line for the bathroom seemed to be tourists, and they're not as nice as the French.

With that said, getting around Paris was a breeze. I do know enough French to get by in a country in which many, many people speak English. I did, after all, take 7th grade French. And, since the boy I was massively in love with at the tender age of twelve sat in front of me, and I was too busy doodling our names together on the front of my Trapper Keeper to actually pay attention to my teacher, I passed the class with these important phrases:

Je ne comprends pas - I don't understand.

Je ne sais pas - I don't know.

Parlez-vous Anglais? - Do you speak English?

And survived our trip to France with this one:

Un Big Mac et deux chicken nuggets, s'il vous plaît - Yeah, I took my kids to McDonalds whilst in Paris. It was delicious.  

Unfortunately, my pronunciation is just as bad as it was in 7th grade. I could try to pronounce things better, but honestly, when I try to pronounce things the right way, I feel like I'm making fun of the French, and then I feel like a terrible person since they're all just so nice.

Gracie found Paris just as delightful as she hoped it would be after watching Barbie: A Fashion Fairytale and listening to MC Solaar and Claire Diterzi for years. She was thrilled to discover she understood people everywhere we went!

GRACIE [looking around Paris in awe]: Mom! I can UNDERSTAND PEOPLE!!

ME: That's because they're Americans and they're speaking English.

GRACIE [deflates]: Oh.

Another thing to know whilst travelling with two little girls: don't assume the walk from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower is as short as it appears on the map. TAKE THE METRO. Especially if you plan on walking up to the second tier of the Eiffel Tower. That's a lot of walking. 


Luckily my girls are walking pros, and they didn't complain once. My legs, however, were killing me.

Our trip was lovely! Paris looked like this:

 In the park at the Tuileries Gardens

Orangina and cuppuccino - yay street cafes!

The Sacre-Coeur Basilica

 Paris, from the Eiffel Tower

Dancing in Montmartre

French bread.... *drools*

French pastries... *drools*

Gracie's future chandelier

(in the Napoleon apartments at the Louvre)

Gracie and La Enfanta Margarita

Gracie going armless, with her pal Venus de Milo

But the highlight of the trip, if you ask the girls, was saving a Parisian hedgehog, crossing the street. 

It went something like this: 

At crosswalk along the outskirts of Paris.

GRACIE: Look, Mom, a hedgehog is crossing the street! Look, Mom, the light is green and the cars are coming. THOSE CARS ARE GOING TO KILL THE HEDGEHOG!

[Driver in front of long stream of cars stops when he sees our looks of horror and hears mass amounts of shrieking]

[hedgie waddles in front of his car tire and goes up onto hind legs to inspect tire with his paw]

[build up of cars in intersection, all honking and honking and honking - girls shrieking even louder]

DRIVER [gets out of car, inspects cause of traffic under his tire]: It's a PIG??!

ME [runs into intersection, smiling apologetically while everyone in stopped stream of traffic glares]: Um, yep. [grabs hedgehog with jacket] Merci! [runs back to kids at side of road]

I put the hedgie in the bushes and had to wiggle leaves against his adorable little hiney to get him to run away from the road. Also, perhaps not everyone - entire long lines of Parisians in traffic, for example - love moms with very adorable little girls, after all. 

And that concludes our trip to Paris! 

xoxo,

Dancing With My Muse

This video pretty much sums up the relationship I have with my muse right now. I finished a draft of a new book last week  - I should be able to rest, right? But my muse just won't stop screaming more book ideas at me. Last night, all I wanted to do was sleep, but she came dancing in, with her wacky little marching band. I tried to beat her off with my pillow, but she refused to let sleep happen.



When I did finally get to sleep at 4 AM, after scribbling my newer-than-new book idea for hours and hours upon hours, I was up bright and early, unable to do anything but listen to great music and scribble some more - I didn't even need coffee, which is saying a lot.

And I LOVE EVERY SECOND OF IT. Drafting is energizing! It's magical! It makes me feel so young, when the wear of life and kids manages to make me feel so old, sometimes.

Eventually the muse will flitter off, as she's prone to do, and I'm going to crash and burn (or maybe get to that trip-to-Paris blog post I keep meaning to write). But hopefully I'll have the best parts of this new WIP all figured out beforehand.

So tell me, folks - what's the creative process like for you?

Also, if you want to see a random (and fabulous) collection of inspiration for my newer-than-new work-in-progress (code name: G-Con) come say hello to my latest pin board: http://pinterest.com/marisa_hopkins/g-con-some-photo-musical-inspiration/

xoxo,

In Which I Fall in Love with a Diaper Commercial

I often lament over the sheer dumbness of diaper commercials. Pampers and Huggies commercials are the worst. They're always on TV, but I can never figure out who the companies are marketing toward because the only people who seem to find them mildly appealing are the under 3 set, and THEY'RE not the ones buying diapers, am I right?

BEHOLD. The best diaper commercial I have ever seen. This makes me want to buy diapers, and I don't even have diaper-wearing kids.



Though it also makes me want to have diaper-wearing kids. These two, in particular.

The cuteness is just ridiculous.

xoxo,

More Things to Say About the UK

In no particular order - 

1. CREAM TEA

pot of tea - check
scone - check
bowl of jam - check
mass amounts of clotted cream - DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE CHECK

2. CASTLES, CASTLES, CASTLES

(yeah, so I mentioned castles in my last Things To Say about the UK post, but they're CASTLES!) 

Our friend Dean came up from S. Wales for a visit and we all went to Croft Castle. 


The gardens were my favorite part. 

Of all the castles on our trip, my favorite was Ludlow Castle (shown below). The girls' favorite castle was Castle Coch in South Wales, which looks like a fairytale castle, but which I missed because I was sick, boooooo.

Castles are the best places to pretend you're a super model.

They're also the best place to behead your sister.

(The town of Ludlow was pretty adorable, too)


3. CASTLE CRAFTING

I found DIY doll houses at the craft store for only 2£ each. Woo! The girls decided to make them into castles...

for the all souvenirs they have accumulated at each of the castles they have visited. 

(and as super cool face masks)

4. THE MAPPA MUNDI and HEREFORD CATHEDRAL

image from http://www.herefordcathedral.org

Pretty great to see a hand-drawn map of the world from a time when scholars didn't even know the continent my country is on existed. Haha. Also, the map was covered in pictures of mythical creatures, which I personally believe all maps should feature. 

It was also great being back in Hereford, which is where Will lived when we were first dating. 

5. BABY MOLES

I know these are found in many places other than the UK - heck, my cats used to drag them in all the time when I lived in CA, back in the day.... 

but THIS baby mole has a British accent, most likely Welsh, so he's my favorite. 

(after the cat brought him in, the girls got to put him back in his baby mole hole)

6. HERGEST RIDGE

A mighty fine place to walk whilst seeking inspiration for novels. 

Well, it worked for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, so maybe it can work for me!


7. STONEHENGE

It just never stops looking awesome.

The girls agree.

8. THE EUROTUNNEL

Pretty nifty.

And this concludes the UK portion of our Grand European Adventure! Next stop on my bloggity blogged adventures - PARIS.

 xoxo,