world – Flipping Tourist

Blog, Family Travel, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized

72 Hours in Paris is Never Enough Time

January 27, 2022 4 Comments

BUT…With an abundance of must see and do’s when traveling to Paris I’m here to say there is never enough time. Whether you have 3 days or 3 weeks you won’t want to leave. Book the trip in the capacity that fits what you can handle at this time. You’ll have no regrets and will always leave wanting more. Isn’t that the best way to see the world?

Below is my perfect itinerary for 72 hours in Paris. Listing a few highlights that are great for families or even just adults.

When traveling with kids I recommend booking a flight that leaves later at night and will have you arriving in France mid-day. This (hopefully) ensures your kids have at least 5-6 hours of sleep. For example, our flight left at 10pm and our kids were able to fall asleep almost immediately. It was a 9 hour flight and with their internal clock, they actually slept until we landed giving them about 8 hours of sleep! When we landed they were well rested and ready to hit the ground running! Another perk to landing mid-day means that your hotel room should be ready by the time you arrive. At the least, you can always drop your bags with the bellmen.

The best start to the City of Lights is strolling sidewalks until a cafe catches your eye. I’ve never met a happy hungry kid. This stop will be rewarding for all! Bonus points: People watching, cappuccinos and Hot Chocolates!

Next stop: The Eiffel Tower. This is usually the number one request for any kid visiting France so save yourself the trouble of them constantly ~~asking~~ demanding “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO THE EIFELL TOWER”?! Seeing it for the first time will have your kids in complete awe! The best way to go up the Eiffel Tower with kids is to climb the first 2 floors! There are 2 different tickets you can purchase.

One is for the elevator from floor to top.
The other is to walk up to level two and then take the elevator. Our kids absolutely loved the chance to climb the stairs for a bit. We made lots of stops as they were just fascinated. There are little signs to read along the way for all the engineering nerds like us! On the 2nd floor (which is as high as you’re allowed to climb) we got in the high speed elevator. Kids loved having the best of both in Eiffel Tower Transportation. Regardless of which ticket you choose to purchase you’ll take elevator all the way down. Don’t forget to grab a glass of overpriced champagne to celebrate as you walk around the top two floors of the Eiffel Tower.

A stroll along La Rive Siene is an ideal way to enjoy the sunset before dinner. Also termed “L’Heure Bleue” – a French expression referring to ‘the blue hour’ at twilight each night. Take in the culture rather than trying to cram in another touristy stop before dinner.

Our kids did a “food challenge” before Paris.

Food Challenge = trying new foods we might find in France such as: Croissants, French Onion Soup, anything with garlic, escargot. *it doubled as an easy way to get them to eat a few more vegetables too! This challenge made dining at nice restaurants in Paris more fun. They were so excited to order and option to all the menu options!

DAY TWO

Take advantage of the time change and let the kids sleep in a little bit while you enjoy a cappuccino and croissant. At some point you will have to wake them up though – then head out for breakfast at another Parisian cafe. We are obsessed with both the St Germain and Montmartre area. I would introduce the kids to their first French Metro and get off at the Montmartre stop. Buy a pastry before you ride the funicular to Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur. You will enjoy your pastries while having magnificent views of the city. From there you will enjoy the vineyard and meandering through all the artists at work.

No Parisian list is complete without recommending a visit to the incredible Louvre. Quick Tip: Skip the Mona Lisa and head straight to Napoleon’s Apartment. And for a truly enjoyable family experience in the museum splurge on a family guide. If you have extra time before dinner everyone will enjoy wandering the Jardin des Tuileries.

DAY THREE

Time for family photos with the Madame Eiffel in the background. We booked an early morning appointment with LaMour De Paris and the photos we received back are true works of art (cute kids make us look cute.) This is the perfect day to have breakfast with a view of Madame Eiffel and now we are set to explore the quaint St. Germaine area.

A light lunch is recommended before you head to your Chocolate Tour. While the highlight is tasting sweets from six local spots, the tour is so much more. You will learn the history of Chocolate with some fascinating facts about famous Parisians of the past. Our guide was a real life Mary Poppins and the kids still remember much of what they learned that afternoon. They also wanted to take a bit of Paris home with them. This provided the perfect opportunity to head to one of the fabulous departments stores. We suggest either:

Printemps Haussmann – It first opened in 1865 and is now home to some of the todays most elegant stores and unique window displays. Don’t forget to enjoy the rooftop bar if you are visiting on a nice day.

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann– A little newer as it opened in 1894. Today it is still known for the incredible Art Nouveau Style and great deals. Time your visit right and you might even catch one of their weekly fashion shows!

***Hope you’re jumping at the chance to visit Paris! Even if just for 72 hours!***

Have you been to Paris? If so, let everyone know in the comments what your MUST see is? If not, let us know what you’re most excited about! Thanks for sharing!

Blog, Travel, Uncategorized

Thaim for Meat

July 31, 2018 4 Comments

“I help you.”

The story of a Brisket, Spicy Spaghetti Sauce and Thailand Immigration control.

Banyan Tree pool with our meat luggage — ***Swimming up to the prettiest luggage carrying the juiciest meat. Featuring the BEST LUGGAGE***

To start things from the very beginning, let’s go back to the week before we departed for our two-week vacation to Thailand. I was headed to meet a friend and her kiddos for an impromptu play date (one of many outings to stave off the mom-guilt pre-departure). En route to meet our friends, Heath called and said I needed to meet him. He had just picked up the frozen, vacuumed-sealed Brisket we would take to serve as our lunch on Day 4 of the sailing portion of the Thailand trip.

So I had to call my Vegan friend and let her know that I was canceling our date….because of a ‘Meat Situation’. How’s that for furthering her beliefs in avoiding animal meat.

I rushed that 6 lb. baby brisket home and stored her in the freezer. Along with our Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, the spicy spaghetti sauce, and Central Market jalapeño sausages. These would all make the trek to Thailand and need to be as frozen as possible before we travelled for 32 straight hours.

Tasting the Spicy Sausage Spaghetti sauce — **If you promise not to tell the other sailors, I might have double-dipped on sampling this mouth-watering spicy sausage sauce we froze for flight to Thailand.**

Fast forward to the afternoon of departure and we filled a soft-sided YETI cooler with freezer packs and our frozen goods. Said a quick prayer over the bag (there is nothing too silly to say prayers over. God loves to provide!) (we use a vacuum sealer like this: Vacuum seal for better frozen transport!)

Dallas to Houston Hobby. Bags made it!

Press play to see how smooth rolling AWAY LUGGAGE is. Even filled with household supplies and scrumptious meat!

We loaded an Uber with all 5 bags. Checked in at Houston international and checked all bags onto Phuket. Houston to Taipei and the air temperature was -65* so we knew our cooler would be just fine! Taipei to Bangkok. Bangkok to Phuket.

**-67* Outside Air Temperature. Perfect frozen food flying weather!**

Standing at the baggage belt it is always thrilling to see your bags come thru the little window. 1, then 2 and finally all 4 checked bags appeared. Considering how many millions of people a day travel, I find it miraculous when bags arrive after an itinerary like that. I know sometimes we can get heated and frustrated when our bags don’t make it to our final destination, but isn’t it actually amazing that they can? But that is a conversation for another day.

Not wanting to celebrate too early, we walked confidently towards baggage immigration. Four bags went thru the scanner…and only three came out.

We came face to face with an Immigration officer looking at us incredibly confused. AHHHH! I looked at Heath and asked him what was in that one. Under his breath with ventriloquist lips he said, “the meat”. (Did I mention we brought knives, a waffle skillet, HORRIBLY tacky khaki pleated pants for a costume party. All things that could have been offensive to Thai Immigration).

Somehow I was the one requested to open the offending suitcase. And then to open the YETI cooler tucked inside. As we stood next to the two large banners explaining the ZERO tolerance for bringing in fruit, the immigration officer pulled out the spaghetti sauce.

Friends, insert the age-old debate determining if tomatoes are a fruit OR a vegetable. Which side did my immigration friend fall on? Does he know what spaghetti sauce is based upon?

The language barrier stopped us a bit…but Heath intervened announcing, “it’s a sauce. Made with lots of tomatoes. TOMATOES.”. I looked at him wide-eyed and whispered, “STOP. SAYING. THAT WORD.

Heath:, “huh?”.

Me: with gritted teeth, “Stop saying ‘tomatoes’.”

Then our immigration friend spotted the Brisket.

“What is this?”, he asked. We quickly pulled out an ice pack and said, ‘Oh this is just an ice pack”.

With a giggle he very obviously pointed to the brisket.

Ohhhhh that! Heath responded, “It’s cooked meat. Smoked. Brisket. You know it? It is cooked.”. (because only monsters would bring raw meat?)

The immigration officer asked us how many we had. We proclaimed, “only one sir!”. I mean, again, we aren’t monsters.

So there we stood with 6 lbs of USA meat and a bag of tomatoes.

He turned to Heath and said, “I help you.”. (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!)

We remained confused as he walked to a desk, opened the top drawer, lifted a yellow legal notepad and grabbed a crinkled well-worn pamphlet from underneath. You know, the kind of pamphlet that looks like it’s been in your back pocket for about a week.

I knew this is where the Immigration Officer would show us line by line how we’d have to leave this all behind. All I could think of was how I wished I had eaten more of the spicy sausage spaghetti sauce now. What a waste…I started hoping that he would at least take it home to let his family try it (and you know me…I was going to beg him to let them try…tell the full story of how we made it, annoying him with my long-winded story hoping it would bless his family).

But in flash, he just placed the pamphlet in my hand and began gesturing for us to go ahead and enter Phuket. Contraband and all! What? Was this were we should have snuck him a $20? We didn’t know and didn’t want to cause more trouble so we just packed it up, bowed profusely, and thanked him a million times. Then sped to our transfer car waiting outside.

As we drove away from the airport, Heath and I high-fived each other in disbelief that we got away with it all. I pulled the ratty old pamphlet from my purse to have a look. Wait! What? He had given us a pamphlet about Quarantining your pets.

Please quarantine your pets! — **The well-worn pamphlet that somehow allowed us to bring in USA meats and fruits.**

Immigration rules not applying to food. — **None of this applied to Brisket or spaghetti sauce. But I suppose that was the point? Thank you Thailand!**

Oh my gosh!!! This Thailand trip is going to be amazing! No rules….just real good fun!

What have you ‘snuck’ into a country before? Any wild things you’ve travelled with that made you nervous? You know I love a good story…let me know!

Travel, Uncategorized

CheerioooOH NO my laptop is gone.

March 1, 2018 4 Comments

Leaving my purse with all my cash at a pay phone in Sevilla. Booking my flight home from San Juan TWO weeks later than my husband (found this out at the airport when I couldn’t check in). Missing my fight by 3 minutes because I just wanted one more sushi roll in Miami. Crashing my 4-wheeler in Mexican sand dunes. Twice. All things I’ve actually done. #survivor. And my trip to Africa didn’t ‘disappoint’ as I can now add another heart-stopping story to the list.

After a relaxing afternoon spent napping and lounging in my London hotel room (a day room at the Sofitel London Heathrow) we headed to the airport. The hotel is just a 20 minute cab ride to Terminal 3 where my flight that evening would depart. It was such a perk having that day room and getting to shower and lallygag around all afternoon. But we quickly rushed out in hopes we could grab a pint in the lounge preflight. Lounges mean you get to avoid terrifying airport food.

Cheese layered salad is not a salad. It is cheese — **Things I DID NOT eat on my London layover. Cheese layered salad. So basically, cheese?**

My flight that evening to Cape Town, South Africa would depart at 6:10pm.

4:41pm. I neared the security belt and bent over to grab my computer out of the assigned pocket in my carry-on backpack and place it on the tray table. S#@T. It wasn’t in there. Panic. Looked inside my rolling bag. No luck. F%$*!!!!!!!! The look on Shelley’s face, my very experienced and organized companion, was priceless. In her shock she was certain that I had placed it elsewhere. This is possible as I’m not totally organized, but I know myself better than that. My characteristic that trumps my disorganization is forgetfulness. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “I know I left it sitting on the bedside table. I remember leaving it there. I’ll be back”. Then I darted.

Have you seen Phoebe from ‘Friends’ running? Her arms waving wildly and legs all askew. Every limb independent of the other. That was exactly what I looked like as I took off to hail a taxi. My carry-on and purse flailing behind me.

Phoebe running wildly — **Visual reference for anyone that missed F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Please tell me you already knew what I was describing.**

Of course you can’t just grab any cab outside the busy Heathrow airport. But I didn’t realize that because in times of distress I don’t do anything intentionally. I’m more of a ‘panic and act’ type of person. I rushed up to the first cab I saw like a lunatic banging on the window. He sent me away. Saw another cab a little further off. He was appalled at my madwoman behavior but was at least helpful and pointed me in the direction where taxi’s were properly lined up waiting for guests.

I hopped in the cab at the front of the line where I was greeted with a “Cheerio”. No cheer here mate…instead I let him know this was a ‘Fast and Furious‘ mission.

Oh great. It was now 5pm and London also observes the fun tradition called ‘rush hour traffic’. I assume that’s why the famous movie is titled, ‘Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift’, rather than ‘Fast and Furious: London on a Weekday’. That cab ride TO the hotel was painful. I passed time by panicking. And praying. And checking my carry-on 8 more times. Could God make my 15” MacBook appear? Not this time. I then called the hotel in hopes they would have my computer ready to hand over at the front Concierge Desk.

5:10pm (now one hour before my flight departs). I arrive at the hotel and encounter many staff people who have no idea about the missing computer, nor seem to realize the urgency. Grabbed a ‘fit-ish’ looking guy and we ran to the room I had only checked out of an hour prior. No computer. Now I was just pissed. I might be missing a flight all for a computer that has randomly disappeared.

5:14pm. There are literally 4 people just looking around the front desk confused about a computer, yet they think someone may know something. Hey, no rush. Just let me know when you have an update. Should we grab a cup of tea and talk about it, while picking up stacks of paper to look for it?

5:15pm. Knight in shining armor (armor=the shiny Sofitel name badge), runs up with my precious Apple MacBook Pro! I screamed a million thank you’s (everyone loves a loud American!) as I ran back to my taxi. As we cruised back to Terminal 3 my incredible driver kept giving me his traffic updates and encouraging me by telling stories of other forgetful and disorganized travelers who had no chance of making flights. I was feeling totally pumped that I wasn’t near as idiotic as those other tourists.

I returned to the airport (and hugged my £120 chauffeur – the equivalent to about $500 billion USD by the way. No one said mistakes were cheap). But now the security line was total bananas. An entire Japanese school was ahead of me, along with every other overnight flyer just arriving. Rules are made to be broken. I began ducking and weaving my way through the security line maze. My genuine panic as I begged person after person to be let in front of them had many endeared towards me(naive thinking?). Or maybe it was just sheer sympathy as most knew, as well as I did, that I still had another security check to go and then needed to book it past 30 gates before my fate would be realized. Nevertheless, many strangers happily let me cut in front and wished me luck.

Oops. I forgot to separate my liquids. It’s truly embarrassing when you cut in front of no less than 100 people, dash thru the security line like a pro, then stand there. Waiting. And waiting. All while they re-run your bag of liquids. I almost just told her to trash it, but my SkinCeuticals serums were included and there are ZERO FLIGHTS WORTH ABANDONING THAT GOLD! Humbled, I waited. Then repeated this whole ‘poor desperate me’ act at the next security check point.

Finally…free!

5:50pm. (the flight doors would close in 5 minutes). Although I had word from Shelley that the flight was still boarding. Actually her exact text from earlier said, “It’s a hot mess of people. Gonna take a while”.

Texts from Shelley - a hot mess of passengers — **A HOT MESS! My kind of travelers!**

I sprinted. Well, it felt like a sprint. I was winded like I had been sprinting. I must have look fatigued (or at least desperate enough I would be a hefty tipper) that a man in a cart quickly drove me the last 12 gates worth.

My Zippy Chauffeur ride to the gate — **My Chauffeur reminded me 3 times that he likes tips. But he didn’t specify a currency!**

I SAW SHELLEY! And an open door! I couldn’t believe it. I got in a work out, solved a problem and now was going to arrive in South Africa as regularly scheduled. There was just one last piece of this ridiculous puzzle. And it wasn’t too pleasant:
So as I take a seat in what will be my home for the next 12 hours, IN coach, I start to get an oh so familiar feeling….let’s just say things were already a getting a little “cramped”. It’s going to be a great flight!!!

Tell me – what’s the worst thing you’ve left behind while traveling?

Cheers to mission accomplished. — Klassy in Coach! No one toasts with cheap champagne when they have 12 hours in coach ahead of them. Except for us. Making the flight WITH my computer kept me giddy for a solid hour. Then reality set in…as did the cheap champagne **headache.**

Family Travel, Home, Travel

Flip to Trip

November 13, 2017 2 Comments

Imagine a life where you were dropped at an airport, skirted through the express security line, sipped on Fiji water while Priority Boarding your flight overseas. Then put that on repeat for 5 years. This was my life. Actually no it wasn’t – nothing was ever that smooth. Sure, I travelled internationally on a very regular basis, but it came with A LOT of hiccups. I still travel often, and the same trouble follows me. Begging to be put on flights when the door has already closed. Leaving my carry-on at the airport Sushi Lounge. Ambien-Induced conversations with flight attendants. And I haven’t even mentioned to you yet that I was a Travel Director in charge of ‘vacation ease and entertainment’ for elderly and wealthy people during my travel working years. This isn’t your same old boring travel blog. This is about my life as the ‘flipping tourist’. Now married with 2 kids and 37 years old. Not much has changed. I cause havoc and hilarity everywhere I go.

Filming A German commercial on the beach — **That time we filmed an infomercial for German Television!**

**That time we wish we were filming an infomercial so at some point production would come give us a break from these fake kids.**

Oh speaking of ‘Flipping tourist’. Sure, it’s a play on words as we all know that tourists are a ‘flipping’ pain. But now my husband and I are actually FLIPPING houses to fund our travel! Nearly five years of marriage and ready to flip our 6th home. He’s the numbers guy and I’m the idea girl.

Beyond flipping homes and traveling the world, we love to entertain! Heath acts as ‘Back of the house’ and I’m always ‘Front of the House’. Why flip homes if you can’t use them to entertain others and travel the world? We will share it all with you (as long as it’s entertaining. Like someone Ubering their forgotten passport to the airport and arranging its very own seat all the way to Puerto Rico or turning a cat-infested stairwell into a wine cellar that Alain Ducasse would be impressed with). We will spare you from the boring ‘flight delayed’ drama. Who cares unless it comes with $100 Vueve Cliqout airport credit while we brainstorm our next home and travel purchase.

**First Class always means champagne. Even better that it’s included so you don’t have to wake your sleeping toddler to pay $6. #Upgradebenefits #alwaysworthit**

Think of this blog as your one stop shop for interesting travel stories, incredible vacation ideas and renovation must-haves. There is nothing I love more than traveling and the best way for me to fund extraordinary adventures is to stay busy flipping homes. I think we’ve got some different perspectives on home remodels and I’d love to share those ideas as well.

Our son went from sleeping in a crib to slumbering away in this 14-foot sailboat. When people ask how the transition from crib to bed was for our family I can’t answer this question fairly. What little kid wouldn’t die over this bedroom? On night one we said, “all aboard” and he climbed in and has slept in it ever since!

When it comes to travel, we do it all including couples weekends and amazing group vacations with hilarious friends. Oh and we even love those family trips (NOTE: These aren’t vacations. They are clearly trips when anyone under the age of 20 is included), And yes, I’ll throw in some helpful hints and links because I suppose you might want to know where the best ceviche and wine in Spain would be).