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It's nice to come home.

It's also really nice to be on vacation.

But it is nice to be home.

Although, I have to say... it really is very nice to be on vacation.

On our European trip we got to spend some time in some of the world's largest, most active airports: Chicago O'Hare, London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, New York JFK, and SEA-TAC.

Long airplane rides + sleeping children = good. This is where the airport play area comes in. Why isn't there one in every terminal of every airport in the world?

The "Kids on the Fly" at O'Hare sounds really awesome but was too far away from our terminal, as was Air France's Planete Bleue. We didn't have any time to kill at Heathrow, and nothing at CDG.

But SEA-TAC... alright! The play area is just past the food/shops area on the way to the A gates, an easy walk from any of the terminals. The floor is bouncy and soft, all the things to climb on are rubbery and curvy, and there's benches lining the whole thing so us exhausted parents can just sit back and watch the kids burn off steam. Why this isn't FAA-required standard equipment in all airport terminals is beyond me, but good job SEA-TAC for theirs.

The "lap infant" thing is fine on the plane when it's a short flight, or when the baby is still an infant. But Meadow is 21 months and she likes to stand, jump, kick, and do all kinds of normal activity which for long durations Mommy or Daddy's laps aren't suited for (OK, mostly she wants Mommy's).

Since she's under two years, she flies for free on our lap, although we had to pay 10% of the regular fare for her on the international flight. This is because they do make special accommodation (if possible).

The first "trick" we discovered is that there's a flag in their seating system for lap infants. Make sure they've got that flag set for you. That way they'll only put people in the seats next to you as a last resort. We did this, and we made sure that my seat was one away. So, in the case where the plane config is three-seats, aisle, three-seats, we book Lu with the infant in the window seat, me in the aisle seat, and usually the middle seat will be left open. If they do put someone in it, they always agree to trade with me.

For the big jet (Boeing 777) the config is two-seats, aisle, five-seats, aisle, two-seats. We'd also read about the existence of a "sky-cot" for the bulkhead row. So we called and found out from American Airlines that about 30 seats are reserved for the gate attendants to assign, meaning it's first come first serve at the gate if you want the bulkhead. So the second "trick" was to get to the gate before anyone else. We got up at 4:30 AM on the day of departure, taxied from our digs in Paris to Charles de Gaule airport, checked-in, cleared security, and made it to the gate almost two full hours before departure. Lu was one of the first in line when the gate agent arrived, and it paid off. We got seats 20 C and E, which is the bulkhead and with the "lap infant" flag meant they'd only give away seat D as a last resort.

They didn't, and so we not only had a third seat for MJ, but we also made joyful use of the extra bulkhead legroom and the sky-cot. It's basically just a foldable metal bassinet (with turbulence restraint) that securely plugs into the bulkhead. Meadow slept there very comfortably, although it's really designed for smaller babies. Fortunately she's small for her size. She even enjoyed it so much that she sat in it to read books and work her puzzle.

The third "trick", which was mostly just luck on our part, but worthwhile to check, is which seats have DC power. I was keen enough to have brought the car-charger adapter for the laptop and it worked like a charm. We watched three movies without ever having to swap batteries. This was true for both the 8hr Paris-JFK, and 6hr JFK-SEA flights. For figuring which are the good seats on planes, I found this website very helpful: http://www.seatguru.com.

For flight status in general, this is our new buddy: http://www.flightstats.com.

The last "trick" should be obvious but I just have to say, for the record, that Laura's motto of "kill 'em with kindness" is definitely a rule to live by. Both in the check-in line and at the gate there was this horribly rude woman barking at every employee. Who knows if she was in the right or wrong, but who cares when you treat people poorly? Here's a vid that depicts two different styles of dealing with airplane attendants: which do you think gets better results?

We used Skype to call and wish Doug a happy birthday during his big party. The sound was patchy and being 10AM our time, barely had our first cup of tea, it was a bit trippy. It was almost midnight in Juneau and the party was in full swing. When we finally found Jay's phone number and called, he couldn't recognize us. He kept saying "I don't know who this is and we kept hollering "Ryan and Laura!" but then he hung up. So we called back yelled it again, and he said "Ryan and Mara?.... Oh! Ryan and Laura!). The phone got passed around a bit, and Collette gave us an excellent play-by-play of the wedding ceremony and other ongoing debauchery. We were able to get through to Doug and sing him a barely audible Happy Birthday from halfway around the world. Wish we could've been there in person and glad we weren't there in person! ;)

We found a small playground in the Place de Vosges just across the street from the flat where Victor Hugo lived. Meadow is a slide addict! She calls it the "weee" and now that she can string together more than two words was obsessively clamoring "mo' wee? mo' wee?". She's so smart. But not smart enough to recognize that Mommy and Daddy were freezing their wee arses off and wanted to find a nice warm cafe. I took this picture to demonstrate how advanced she is for her age: 6 year minimum? Fah!

When we were here last, eight years ago, after I proposed to Laura and she accepted we strolled over from Hotel Monge and had a wonderful dinner. We decided to try and find the same place. So we walked up and down the entire Rue de Mouffetard until we found what we thought might be the place. Neither of us were convinced it was, but for some reason the waitress was. We'd read a bit that dining out with a toddler may be frowned upon in Paris, since they take their dinners so seriously. But we discovered that wasn't exactly true, especially if you go out early enough to beat the crowds. In the case of this fondue place Meadow was a star and the waitress was carrying her around and giving her chocolates. We had a lovely meal consisting first of an appartif (Kir), then a delicious cheese fondue with baggett, ham, and salad, followed by a chocolate fondue with in-season fruits. Oh yes, and plenty of wine. :)

Since Laura and I had already been through Notre Dame on our last Europe trip, we didn't go there with Meadow to see the church. We went to feed the birds. Oh, how things change when you have a child.

The weather was very windy, blowing in big rain clouds then blowing them out and giving good stretches of sunshine. We even got to play in a couple hail storms. As Alaskans, we came prepared. In fact, Meadow was an oddity to many folks in her rubber boots and full body rain suit. She got to jump around in the puddles while the other kids just got their wool coats and scarves wet and watched her longingly.

After feeding the pigeons we went and looked at the "street performer" (gypsy?) dressed up as some kind of silver statue. She'd bow every time someone put a coin in her cup but was otherwise stone-still. Lu noticed when traffic died down her accomplices (fellow troupe members?) would approach and put coins in the cup, to garner attention. I did the math and figured they earned about 60 euros an hour, during optimal flow. Not bad! And more respectable than the ones that approached us at the train station with a note about being a Bosnian refuge and trying to get me to hold her baby while the other circled behind me eyeing my pockets. Cute baby though.

I just love riding the metro in Paris. There's something about it that I find quite pleasing. (London or Manhattan, fun but not as much). The Paris metro is very intuitive, artsy, exciting, fun, and a bit grungy. Sometimes I think, if I lived here, I might just ride the metro around for the fun of it. They've also got a very well done plan interactif (interactive map) online.

We had a fun time with the baby stroller in the Paris metro - lots of stairs (and pretty hot in the tunnels). Stroller doesn't fit through the regular ticket gates so you have to get the attention of the lone employee sitting in a booth 15 yards away. When she sees you need to get through she pushes the buzzer on the "luggage/buggy" gate with barely a nod. Only a couple of times did they ask us to validate our tickets through the machine, so our 10-pack lasted longer than expected.

In London the employees at the subways (most everywhere for that matter) were oddly helpful and nice (relative to what I'm used to in the USA). There was always someone standing by the "luggage/buggy" gate to let you through and check your ticket. Generally with a smile and helpful/open demeanor. There also seemed to be a lot of attendants at the big stations, and a few at the smaller.

In Paris I rarely saw more than a few attendants at the big stations. At a very large and busy station we saw a soccer-team sized group of teenage boys strut through and hop the gates. The lone attendant, behind the glass, was too busy selling tickets to notice. Both places had machines you could buy your tickets from, but neither worked with our credit card, since it doesn't have the fancy European microchip.

Another station in Paris had no attendant in the booth. The text and icon on the gate said "push the call button". I looked around for a button. I found one on the wall that had the same icon (profile of a head with radar waves coming out the open mouth). I pushed. Alarm sounds. Reverberating through the mostly ceramic and concrete room. We wait a bit, cringing. No one comes. Laura goes through the regular gate with a ticket, opens the exit and lets the stroller and myself in. We proceed through the tunnel, down the stairs, follow the signs, find the correct platform. Alarm still sounding throughout entire station and down to the platform. People aren't really noticing. We pass under the CCTV monitors (I wave at myself) and stand there for five minutes until the train comes. We get on the train and breath a visible sigh of relief at getting away from the repetetive, loud, buzzing. Again, no one else seemed to notice.

In general I would say the staff anywhere were more friendly in London than Paris. It's not that I found the French grumpy, per se, they were just busy thinking about more important things. Once I learned to step right up, be decisive, and ask for what I want (making sure to say "bonjour/suis", "si vous plait", "merci beaucoup", and if necessary "désolé") things started to become much easier.

Today was Easter Sunday and we took the metro to Bois de Vincennes. While waiting for our train Meadow discussed the joys of hearing her voice reverberate in the tunnel:

No, Meadow hasn't been brawling. She's been eating one of her favorite things ever: berries!

Finding things to do in Paris with the baby takes a different twist than when it's just adults. Meadow doesn't have much interest in the Musee de Louvre, and the weather is also a bit Juneau-y so we can't go sit on the grass. So we're focusing on things all three of us would enjoy. And what better than a ride on La Petit Train around Montmartre and the Basilica Sacre Coeur? Not much!

If you don't know, Sacre Coeur is a catholic basilica built at the highest point in all of Paris. Compared with many of the other churches we've seen on our trip, it's the youngest (construction began in the late 1800s). The church itself is quite amazing, as is the view from top of Montmartre hill.

The little train cost five euros and we hopped on right at the base of the basilica. The tour lasts about 30 minutes and the driver's english is almost understandable. The best part is the weather wasn't great so we just sat back and got to tour all over the Montmartre area in a covered train.

Because its Easter this weekend, entering the church was too much, but a service was in session during our visit and they broadcast it on loudspeakers. It's quite a setting to have the basilica behind, Paris spread infront, and choir reverberating. Tres bon!