We Made it to PARIS

This trip is special for a lot of reasons. It's my wife's first time in Europe, it's my first time as a civilian in Europe, our first time in France, IN PARIS. It was her first trip across the atlantic....the list goes on and on. Most importantly though, this trip is special because we get to spend some quality time together. As parents of two small children the amount of time that we spend together doesn't necessarily diminish, but the quality of our togetherness definitely has. Of course like any good parent we wouldn't change our lives for anything, but we relish in the joy of Quality Time Together. This trip is giving us just that.

We arrived in Paris around 6 am local time and then wove our way thru CDG and into the city. Where we promptly got lost and started working on breaking down language barriers. It took us all in all about 3 hours from the plane touching the ground to getting to our apartment. It's safe to say that 2 hours and 30 minutes of that time was us standing in sidewalks, saying "soooo which way do you think we should go", to each other.

We had a little snafu with getting the key to our apartment but that was solved with a bit of wifi and some espresso to get the brain going back to problem solving mode. Our little studio loft is cute and perfect for our short stay. It is conveniently located at the foot of the Basilique du Sacre Coeur, a massive beautiful Roman-Catholic church built on the hilltop above Montmartre.

Sacre-Coeur

you can't miss this thing, making it a perfect land mark to finding home

We are also just steps away from the metro (which happens to be free tonight) and a short two stop ride away from Pigalle, the former "red-light" district where Moulin Rouge exists.

we've been here for less than 12 hours and we've

already checked this one off the list

We had a quick meal in a little corner bistro, take note the truly legit french onion soup, oh and someone appears to be extremely happy to have her first Carlsberg. 

At this time we are lounging in the apartment warming back up before we head out to a local club/bar for festivities. Paris thus far, it's been amazing

The Holiday Season

I have been considering creating the blog for a while but to be honest I just didn't know if I was able to produce enough content. Well the holiday travel season gave me enough to write about to keep me going for the next few months. In the last ten days I have flown 8 times, traveling from New Orleans (home) to Baltimore and to Savannah. The trip to Baltimore was to see my parents and take our daughters to see grandma and grandpa. This was a single parent trip which is a topic I'll address thoroughly in this blog.  The trip to Savannah was with my wife and kids which is yet another topic I'll address, family travel. Commonly one of us is shuttling the girls somewhere and as frequently flying parents with small children (1 year old and 3 year old) we have developed some brilliant tried and true tricks to make family air travel undeniably easier. 

I'll get into posting pictures and tips later in the next few days.

Right now however I have to pack for our adults only trip to Paris! 

Mr. Standby Says Hello and Happy Holidays

Welcome to Mr. Standby!

Mr. Standby is a new voice in the ethereal sea of blogs. 

Designed to Inspire you, Empower you, and Assist you. 

Come over, have a seat and refresh your imagination.

     Air Travel it seems is predominantly made up of a few groups of people. First class, the wealthy who require a curtain and a hot towel, they are unashamed of the high price they are willing to pay for those big cushy seats in the forward cabin of the plane. Business class, charge those drinks to the "per diem" account. They could have upgraded to First class but this trip is on the company, no need to shell out those extra dollars. Coach Class, just happy to be on the plane, honeymooners, new grandparents, bachelor parties, college bound, a pleasant mix of everyone else. Sure the drinks aren't big and the seats aren't luxurious, but Coach class beats sitting on the couch any day, period. 

Now that would seem to be it for the social structure of Air Travel, but there are subgroups that exist. Yes, Mr. Standby and his very lucky fellow Standby fliers. 

Mr. Standby enjoys the pleasure of sitting in Coach, in Business, and even in First class. Mr. Standby goes everywhere the plane goes, and does it at a fraction of the cost and usually for free. Mr. Standby is also not alone. There are almost always others in the subset enjoying the same luck as him.  Come along as he relates his adventures in words, photos and videos.