But wait, there's more....

Here are the official levels that board prior to the fabulous "don't you want to spend $79/year so you can get the preferred boarding that is Zone 2"?  First there are the preboarders -- those who borrow or rent kids so they can get on board early -- and the military, of course.  Next up, in no particular order is:

Business Class
Dividend Miles Chairman's Preferred
AAdvantage Executive Platinum
oneworld Emerald
Dividend Miles Gold Preferred
Dividend Miles Platinum Preferred

AAdvantage Platinum

oneworld Sapphire

Dividend Miles Silver Preferred

AAdvantage Gold

oneworld Ruby

 

Oh yeah, and the people who pay $26 a pop for "preferred boarding"

 

Then comes Zone 1...

 

And then finally there was us. 

Almost there, but first a little diversion in New JERSEY (Not "Joisey". NEVER "Joisey")

This weekend is my (mumble mumble)th college reunion.  So we planned all along to make a stop in my native state before heading on to Europe.  I went to Douglass College, at the time the women's division of Rutgers University, when they still had all-male and all-female schools. 

But let me tell you about US Airways:  they are okay.  I will continue to use them, but I think I will drop my US Airways Dividend Miles card.  It's supposed to give me "preferred" boarding -- Zone 2 and it does. 

BUT....before they get to Zone 2, they go through preboarding, military, diamond, platinum, silver, ruby, sapphire, preferred, & gold and those were just the various "levels" I remembered.  It turned my whoop-de-do "Zone 2" in the "cubic zirconium" level. 

Sheesh.

But we took off on time, landed on time and only had a few instances of turbulence -- nothing horrible.  We got our rental car and fought the traffic problems on the NJ Turnpike.  Now Gene is happily hunkered down with his new camera.  I've converted him to QVC and he bought a Canon Rebel that he always wanted and they shipped it here so it would be waiting for us when we checked in.

And now off to find something to eat.  The hotel has a restaurant, but .....it's HOOTERS (I'm not making this up.  I wish I were).  So back to the awful truck route known as Rt 18. 

Lord, helpt me to meet this self-imposed and thoroughly unnecessary challenge....

The biggest challenge facing us, the intrepid travelers knows as Gene and Carol, is here.  We can't avoid it any longer.  It's called packing.  We are decent enough travelers -- looking forward to new adventures and weather and food and beds, and what-have-you.  But we are TERRIBLE packers.  We try to take the house with us.  We try to take our tech toys with us.  We will implode (no, really; we will) if we don't have our iPads and laptops with us.  And then there are the various plugs and adaptors associated with same.  It's just the way we are. 

So we have to decide if we will accept our quirky -- but very real need to travel with our stuff -- as part of our charm and therefore accept what may be the consequences of said quirks -- ie a charge for an overweight piece of luggage.  It adds up, but in the grand scheme of things, if you're paying a pretty penny for a 3 week vacay in Europe, is $100 (that's what over-weight bags cost these days) worth the peace of mind it will bring for making packing easier? 

Starting to get the clothes ready for packing!!  About 1/3 of the clothing I'm taking will not be coming back -- have to make room for the stuff I will be picking up along the way.  But my vow is that I will purchase nothing that was not made in the country I'm visiting (can you say "Dr Who memorabilia from the UK?  chocolate & lavender honey from France?  Olives & cheese from Spain?)

At any rate, the 1st world of 1st world purchases arrived today to help out in the "make that suitcase empty for cool stuff":  disposable underwear from Magellan's.

My trip life is complete.

No seriously.

Gettin' Close !!!

OMG!  11 DAYS and counting.  No more "___ weeks until..."  It seems like my obsessive-compulsive self has sooo many things to do, but I keep reminding myself that we could pack up and leave tomorrow and fake it. 

At any rate, for those of you who laughed every time I said "Oh this [piece of jewelry]? Got it from QVC", just know that I took a bunch of it I wore happily over the years, but slowly put away when something else came along that caught my eye, and went to a pawn shop and then went to a local entity that purchases gold.  And I walked out with enough cash to fund all our incidentals for the entire vacation.  Airfare, accommodations, train travel & tours are all paid for and all we needed was cash for food, incidentals, souvenirs, etc.  And now that's taken care of as well.

So all that jewelry came in handy (and don't worry; I still have way too much left).

Next up:  figuring out the new camera I bought a couple of months ago, so I can use it on the fly and not have to futz around with the settings and figuring out the new phone & SIM card that will be usable in Europe.  I learned that JackBauer (what I call my iPhone because it does everything) is just that:  JACK Bauer.  It's not "HRM Jack" or "Jacques" or "Juan" Bauer and is only usable in the US.  I'll bring it along for wifi opportunities, but need a phone that can text & call.  Got one and now I have to figure out how to start it up and use it. 

Such challenges over the next less-than-2 weeks.  (such first-world problems) 

The trip so far

Plans are moving along -- well except for that cactus thing -- and 7 weeks from Sunday, we will be on a plane from Charlotte to London.  We are making a quick stop in New Jersey to attend my college reunion and will then fly from Newark to Charlotte and then Charlotte overnight to London.

We'll be spending 6 days in London where we hope to accomplish the following:

* attend a performance by the London Philharmonic
* take a day tour to Stonehenge & Bath
* cruise down the Thames to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich
* spend a day in Cambridge and -- if given enough "wife-points" -- take a bike tour of the town
* FIND AND SPEND HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS IN THE DOCTOR WHO STORE!!!!!!
* see the Tower of London

In addition to walking around and seeing Big Ben, Westminster Abby and the usual touristy spots.  London has fabulous museums, but we're more of the walk around and absorb the culture & feel of the place, rather than spend time indoors.  We'll see what we have time for.  We'll be there 6 1/2 days before we take the Chunnel to Paris. 

And speaking of Paris......

We're bo-ho'ing it and have found an apartment to rent in the Montmartre district, just a stone's throw from Sacre Coeur, aways from downtown Paris, but close to the Moulin Rouge.  It's like visiting New York City and staying in Greenwich Village.  Here's the link to our room for 4 days:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1653798

Looks pretty funky, but appealing.  I showed Gene 3 choices and he liked this one the best, even with the mattress on the floor.  I think the fact that the mattress was big sold him.  It is really hard to find a place to rent that has at least a queen sized bed.  We had the same issue in Spain.  The Europeans apparently really like plain ol' double beds.  Oy.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to this place for some reason.  I think we're gonna love feeling like Parisians.

We're only in Paris 4 days and one of those days will be spent going to Normandy and taking a tour of the beaches and the cemetery, something I've always wanted to do.  I'm also hoping to get a reservation at La Tour d'Argent, one of the oldest restaurants in the country.  There has been a restaurant on that spot since 1529, I've read.  I went there in 1982 and had a lunch that still ranks as the highlight of that trip.  I'm hoping that we will have the same experience even under different owners.  I chose it because it belonged to the Terrail family.  Papa owned Tour d'Argent and sonny came to Los Angeles and opened Ma Maison (does that still exist?)  Papa died sometime since 2000 and the restaurant is under new ownership, but still goes by the same name.  It's located on the 6th floor of its building with a spectacular view of Notre Dame. 

In Barcelona, we're near --- you know, I've kind of forgotten.  It was about a month ago and it's all mushed together.  Here's the link:

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1904671

Now I remember how lovely it is.  I'm not planning anything for Barcelona.  I'll have information, but we'll plan each day as it comes.  I have a feeling we're gonna be winding down and I want to make sure we're able to just do nothing -- maybe sit on the beach and watch the Mediterranean Sea or walk up and down La Rambla again -- if that's how we feel.  But there is an interesting monastery only an hour's train ride from the city and in the other direction, there's the Salvador Dali Museum, a hoot just by itself. 

So much to do, so little time.  But we'll have a blast!

Our tax dollars at work:  So I thought it would be a fun idea if I brought my London hostess one of those little cactus gardens you buy at the airport.  Neat, right?  But I notice this sign that says "BEFORE YOU PURCHASE A CACTUS PLANT.... The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) regulates the international movement of most cactus species..blady blady blah......government inspectors will..remove them from your possession if they lack proper documentation....blady blady blah.....If you are interested in obtaining the documentation required to transport the cactus out of the US, please call the US Dept. of Agriculture's Animal and Plan Health Inspection Service at blah blah blah"

Okay, fine.  I'll bite and I call the number. 

Which is no longer in operation.

So I spend about a half hour googling the US Dept. of Agriculture's Animal and Plan Health Inspection service (heretofore referred to as the US DAAPHIS, just for fun) looking for a name in Arizona that I could call.  And I hit a dead end everywhere.  But I could have read an awful lot on transporting various animals, etc. out of the country.

I finally found a "contact us" link and sent an email question that I wanted to take a stupid little cactus garden to London and where could I get documentation.  I got a pretty quick, if canned response from "ASK USDA" which suggested I "contact the USDA Export Certification Specialist in your State. Contact information for these specialists, by State, and other information regarding plant exports is available at" ....and gave me a link to click.  So I clicked the link, looked around, clicked the "Arizona" link and got a name of the Export Certification Specialist for Arizona.

Who is located in Colorado.

So I called her.

And was told she no longer works there.

But the nice lady who did answer the phone listened to my story about only wanting to take a stupid little cactus garden to London as a swell gift, gave me the spiel on how cacti are a protected species (and apparently more protected than kids in the state of Arizona but that's a blog for another day), and explained that only designated "ports" could issue the appropriate certification and she did not have that information handy, but she would look into it and call me back.

And she did!  And gave me the designated port that can issue a certification that is located closest to me.

It's in Nogales. 

But she also gave me the phone number, so that is next on my list to call.  I've come too far to give up the fight to take a $17 cactus garden out of the country and give it a new home.

She also warned me that I would have to identify the species of cactus and the genus and however it is that you identify plants, which I slept through in biology 50 years ago.  So I have to look up photos of cacti and try to identify them.  I'm tempted to just use any cactus names and say which they are in my best definitive voice, cause I'm guessing whoever in whatever airport that looks at this cactus garden and the documentation ain't gonna know any more than I do about which is which. 

Will the garden makes its way across the Pond in my suitcase or will it find a home in my kitchen window?  Stay tuned......

 

Here's the cactus garden causing all the trouble