A Wonderful Reunion

Today we fly home from Washington State after an eleven-day trip to attend the 2014 Rick Steves’ Tour Reunion. This event is held every January so those who shared a tour during the previous year can meet again in Edmonds. Many of the tour guides from Europe attend as well. This year, the little town of Edmonds hosted over 3000 people for this event!

Before the reunion last weekend, however, we visited with several of our friends who live in the area.

We started our visit with our dear friend Rev. Serena Sullivan in Tacoma. She had stayed with us in Dana Point for a few days last year, so we loved seeing her once again. We’d never been to this lovely city before, so we enjoyed exploring, and she was a great guide. Our friend is now retired, so she had discretionary time to spend with us.

We enjoyed the Glass Museum as well as the Natural History Museum. She drove us on a scenic tour of the area, and we wandered through the cute little shops in some of the charming areas of town. We even went to the show one evening to see “Into the Woods” in a charming old theater. Oh, and we ate in several wonderful restaurants.

While based in Tacoma, we drove to Woodinville o spend a day with our friends, the Newtons. We hadn’t seen them since about 1991, and really enjoyed catching up. We talked all day and still had lots and lots to share.

After several days in Tacoma, we checked into our hotel in Edmonds. While there, we went to Mukilteo to meet another friend from Whidbey Island for lunch. We hadn’t seen her in years, either. The Newtons surprised her by joining us. We all attended the same church many years ago, so once again, we had lots to catch up on. Fortunately, the restaurant wasn’t too busy because we occupied a large booth for well over three hours, and they allowed us to stay!

A couple of days later, we drove to Bellevue to spend the day with our friends, the Donovans. They are more former members of the same church family. They moved to Washington in the 1980s, and we have stayed in touch through the years. We visited them when we were in WA in 1991, but we haven’t been together since.

We were invited for lunch, but when asked to stay for dinner, too, we happily agreed. Another seven hours with still more conversation left for the future!

On Saturday morning, the day of the reunion, another tour member from our group, Mas, met us at the hotel, and we all drove together to the Edmonds Conference Center for the formal event.

What a great time! Nine of us (nearly half of our 21 tour members) showed up. One couple came all the way from Ohio! We laughed and talked and shared memories and caught up. Our guide, Virginie, had come from France, and we enjoyed seeing her again.

We were the group which had the most members present, and we won the prize—Gummy Bears!

We also had our photo taken with Rick, Unfortunately, Larry had run back to the car, and Dick took the photo, so both of them were missing. (We don’t have the copy of the photo yet.)

One Rick Steves’ tour requirement is for each person in the group to select a stranger to be their ‘buddy’ throughout the trip. When the group reunited at the bus or to start a new adventure, we did a ‘buddy check’ to make sure everyone was present. Mas was my buddy. Larry’s buddy, Dick, also attended. The relationships we had formed over the two weeks of our trip remained strong.

On Sunday, the company presented events for anyone interested in a future trip to ‘test drive a tour guide.’ Throughout the day, in three different locations, tour guides showed slides and described their tours. Then, if anyone was interested, the guides made themselves available for questions at the Conference Center.

We’d talked about going to Spain, so we attended the early presentation on the basic tour of Spain’s major cities. Since another presentation about a different tour of Spain was scheduled after one on Italy, we decided to sit in on that one as well. Rick himself provided the narration. We really enjoyed being reminded of all the great memories of our own Italian trip.

After the second Spain presentation, we decided to go to lunch, and who did we run into? Our friend Mas! We all ate lunch together, enjoying one last chance to connect.

After lunch, our tour guide, Virginie, took part in the presentation on the trip we had enjoyed. So we attended that one to give her support. She did a wonderful job! If we hadn’t done it already last year, we’d have been ready to sign up.

We took the opportunity to say goodbye to her once more before returning to the hotel late in the afternoon.

During the night, we had a six-hour power outage. When we woke in the morning, the power was back on, but some parts of the area were still in the dark. The wind and hard rain the night before had caused several severe outages.

After breakfast, we packed and drove to the hotel near the airport for our last night in Seattle—careful to avoid the traffic for the football game! (Seattle won, and the city went crazy!)

We checked in and then returned the rental car.

So today,we’re headed home, ready to get back after a terrific trip filled with visits with old friends and new ones, including those with whom we experienced the glory of France.

France 2014 - Finale

April 22 – Tuesday

Another great breakfast at the hotel. We arrived right at 7:00 a.m. when service is supposed to start. However, the doors did not open until 7:10. All the great choices we had come to expect, including the croissants and bread.

We brushed our teeth and then gathered our bags to check out. Discovered breakfast was included each day, so we had no extra fee for that. A very pleasant surprise!

We had arranged for a shuttle to the airport the day before, and we boarded the van at 8:15 along with five others. Lots of traffic and an accident slowed our trip, but we still arrived at the airport nearly three hours ahead of our flight.

Good thing! The line to check in at American Airlines snaked back and forth in front of the baggage check-in, then continued for a couple of blocks into the next terminal! Yet another long line. A guy who travels often said it wasn’t usually this bad, but we were still in the middle of the spring holiday. Note to self: do NOT plan a trip during that week!

When we finally got to the first staging area, we had to go through a security check—not the last. At this point, they scanned our passports, then asked the usual questions: purpose of trip, who packed the bags, did anyone give us anything to take with us, and was our luggage with us at all times, etc. A yellow sticker was applied to the back of our passports, and we were allowed to continue.

Another line to get to the self-check-in where our passports were scanned in a machine. Mine went through fine, but for some reason, the machine didn’t like Larry’s (maybe because it was bent) and issued us a ticket to take to a help clerk.

After another line, we finally got to a person who was able to process our reservations and provide our boarding passes. He also checked the one bag with our gifts in it. No fee!

Next, we went through customs. No issues there. Finally, we were routed through the French equivalent of TSA screening. Once again, our boarding passes had TSA Pre-check on them. However, they don’t recognize them in France.

So we stood in another line to have our bags run through the machines. For some reason, they pulled my backpack for hand-check. I’m not sure whether it was the tin of mints, my toiletry bag, or my makeup bag which caused the concern, but all were checked and cleared.

By this time, we had to make a mad dash to get to our gate.

Pre-boarding had begun by the time we reached the gate.

The flight was packed, but we had no issues.

Since we left at 11:30 a.m., lunch was served, and the food was quite good. (Of course, it came from Paris!) The entrée was chicken and vegetables in a light sauce with gnocchi. It was accompanied by a salad, roll, cheese, crackers, and a cookie.

Since we’d be flying in the daylight, we tried to stay awake. Two movies were shown, but unfortunately the screens were small and at some distance from our seats. The first film was Frozen. Since we’d already seen it several times, the video wasn’t too important, and we enjoyed listening to the music again. The second was Spiderman, but we opted out of watching and read instead.

We were supposed to be in the air for nearly ten hours, but we arrived forty-five minutes early into Dallas-Ft. Worth.

Customs went fairly quickly, and our TSA Pre-check got us through those lines ahead of the other passengers. What a great perk!

Re-checked our one bag and then took the SkyLink train to the posted gate: C7.

Our tickets were behind one another, so we went to the podium to inquire about changing to seats together. The only ones available were in the last row. Since we both had aisle seats, we decided to keep them.

We were informed the gate had been changed to C8, so we moved to that one.

About half an hour later, we heard an announcement that the gate for San Diego had been changed to C21—in another terminal. Back upstairs and onto the train again. Then back downstairs for the long walk to the gate.

After settling in, we got a pretzel and a soda to share.

But another gate change necessitated a move to C20.

During the time we were changing gates, additional changes were announced for St. Louis, Baltimore and a couple of other cities. We began to wonder how anyone ended up at the right place, but somehow they did.

Nice flight into San Diego without incident. Just ahead of us were a couple of young recruits. For two of them, it was their first flight. They were cute and reminded us how exciting flying used to be. The flight attendants gave each of them some snacks as they disembarked and made an announcement that they were onboard. They received a round of applause. Nice touch.

We collected our checked bag and then walked outside where we had a short wait for Bob to pick us up. He arrived with Rich Zodnik, and we quickly loaded the bags.

I rattled on about the trip all the way home. We still wished they had been able to go with us, but Bernie’s surgery had been the day before, and having her shunt put in was far more important. Bob’s surgery was scheduled for May 1, so once they recover, we may be able to think about doing it all again next year with them.

We were glad to be home, but we certainly had a terrific time and would consider repeating the experience.

We were in bed by 10:00, happy to be back to our own pillows.

Final Thoughts

• ·         Everything good we’d heard about Paris was more than accurate.
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• ·         We never saw any of the rude behavior we’d heard about from Parisians. Quite the contrary. Shopkeepers, wait staff, clerks all went out of their way to meet our needs—with smiles and friendliness.
• ·         The reputation for French food is more than deserved. The best ever!
• ·         The countryside was absolutely breathtaking, and the gardens we saw were stunning.

Highlights

• ·         Lorna – The early morning Lauds service at Mont Saint-Michel was the absolute highlight of the trip for me. The whole place far exceeded my hopes and expectations.

• ·         Larry – The visit to Normandy was inspiring and brought home the significance of D-Day in a much more personal manner.
• ·         Seeing the chateaux and churches made us aware of the incredible history of the country. We are now reading more about it after having seen these fabulous edifices.
• ·         Nighttime views of the city from the Eiffel Tower provided an amazing panorama of Paris. Seeing the sparkling lights come on to illuminate the tower felt like we’d been transported to Wonderland.
• ·         Once we got the hang of it, thanks to our tour guide, the Paris Metro was extremely user-friendly and efficient. What a great way to see the city!
• ·         The trip itself covered great distances and many locations, some of which we would never have found on our own, and all of which we enjoyed.
• ·         We were with a terrific group of people. We loved meeting each and every one of them.
  

• ·         Our tour guide, Virginie, was perfect in every way. She was born in Britany, but lived in California, Idaho, and Florida before moving to England. She has a superb understanding of her own country’s uniqueness and of the kinds of things which interest Americans. She also took great care to be sure each of us found the experience(s) we had hoped to find during the trip. In our case, she succeeded well beyond our dreams, and I believe everyone who traveled with us had a similar experience.

• Would we go back again? In a heartbeat.
• Would we repeat the same tour again? Absolutely!
• We plan to attend the trip reunion in Edmonds, WA next January where we hope to see some of our fellow tourists and Virginie and her husband, Olivier.

P.S.

I stole these photos from Dick McConnell who spent the entire trip with a really good camera around his neck. He convinced me to take my good one next time!

Have you been to France? What was your experience like? Would you return?