Sponsors

In other related news, readers may have noticed some new sponsors to this here blog. If you need anything from Amazon and you'd like to do me a favor, go to Amazon via the link on the right (doesn't matter what item is in the ad). Go check out the other new sponsors in related items as well. They are all really great folks (with one exception).

Thanks.

Superusers and Silence: How UltimateBet let players get cheated for millions

Check out this very important story. I know some folk who still play on UB or Absolute Poker, at least until they read this story.

Most poker sites are fair and understand that they must to protect their reputations. Apparently, UB and AP do not.

I guess that's it for that sponsor. :)

Vegas Hit and Run Wrap-up

This is a few days late for a trip report, but it sometimes takes a few days to get my strength back. I was in Vegas a total of 34 hours. I did what I could to get the most out of that time.

We had no trouble getting done in Tucson and got to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport a couple hours early. Being in a rush, I managed to forget my new sunglasses (in the visor), my favorite poker shirt (in the trunk), and to get some money I had lent. I got my colleague, DR, to come back for the glasses that I realized were missing. I didn't find out about the shirt and cash until later. To DR's credit, she got both of the remaining items in the mail to me the next day.

My first-class flight to Vegas was OK. The only negative was the bumpy ride kept the flight attendants seated which means I did not get an in-flight cocktail. I know, this should be plenty of space for your sympathy: _. The plane hit the ground, I hit a cab and was at the TI in no time at all. I took time to get a shower and change of clothes while Brian the Red and Andres the Bold finished their dinner.

I missed AtB on his way to the room for an early bed time, but Brian and I headed for the Venetian Poker Room for a simi-late session of NLE. I think I won about $50 or so before calling it a morning.

After the sun came up, the three of us hit the Starbuck's before cruising back to the Venetian for their noon tourney. I think I lost about $140 while waiting for the tourney to start. That would be the start to a long day of losing poker.

This tourney is $150 to enter (a little steep), but they use 30 minute levels and start with deep stacks of 7500 in chips. I didn't do very well finishing somewhere in the 4th level. I did manage to bluff a certain WSOP final table pro (TB from the Moneymaker final table) off of two hands for pretty good pots. My undoing was taking AK to war against 88. That hand crippled me. The knock-out blow was when my 88 ran into QQ preflop. We both flopped sets, but that made no difference. I played well and still feel good about that. Brian the Red lasted a good bit longer than I and Andres the Bold took 7th place for just under $1k. Way to go, Andres. He was even good enough to buy us dinner.

Once out, I headed to some of the newer poker tables on the strip, namely at Bill's Casino and O'shea's Casino. Both properties are part of the Caesar's empire now. They have plans to connect all of the tables in the system to some mega-beat jackpots, but for now, they are playing $1 NL Holdem (just one blind) and $1-5 spread limit with high rakes and a jackpot drop. I did awful in both places and dropped another $200 before the tourney at the Venetian ended.

I got back to find out that Andres was still playing, so I sat at another $1-2 NL table and continued to bleed chips and cash. I think I got down another $100+ before I decided to take my lumps like a man, half-lit. I ordered a Southern Comfort straight up and texted Falstaff for the number of the best professional drinker I know. Al did not let me down.

My game turned around at that point. I started with a flopped boat holding A2 in the big blind. The flop was A22. I bet $10 and the very friendly gent to my left raised to $25. I re-raised to $50. He re-raised and I said something like, "well, it looks like it's all going in anyway - I'm all in." He called and his Q2 was no good. I hit a few other good hand and got up from that table with about a $240 profit.

After dinner, my next stop was the TI Poker Room where my session went real late and I made back about $150 more before I had to get to the room to get packed. That part went quicker than I planned. I still had about an hour before I had to catch a cab, so it was back to the Venetian for one more quick try.

The table that I drew was super aggressive. I hit a few more hands, and lost a few to make my last $30 of the trip. All in all, I lost about $160 in Vegas which is great since I was down over $400 at one point.

I made the early morning (Saturday now) flight in plenty of time, got a truly horrible seat neighbor, but got home just the same. I'll be home this week for some Dr. appointments, getting ready for a big upcoming trip, and catching up before heading to TX and Vegas(again, this time for the blogger gathering) next week. Then the big trip will be upon me. More on that later.

Have a good week...

It's Vegas Time Again

This will be a quick hit and run.

I've been in Tucson this week running a technical workshop for part of the government. The class has gone smoothly even though I think half the class got mentally lost on day 2. They are still sitting there listening which is what really matters.

I've had a colleague along for this trip which almost always makes the trip more fun. It gives me someone to have dinner and conversation with at the end of the day instead of room service and TV.

But that all changes today. I should finish the workshop by 3 pm, drive to Phoenix and hop a quick flight to Vegas where I will meet up with 2 friends who are already in the air. I'll have tonight and tomorrow in Sin City for much pokerage. I'll head home on Saturday morning. I've already got my first class upgrade out of Phoenix, so I should be pretty well buzzed when I hit the strip.

I plan to be back in Vegas for a longer stay in a couple week for the Blogger Summer Bash. I guess this will be a warm-up. There may or may not be an update on this blog tomorrow. The update will be more likely if I'm winning. :)

The Grape Lady

"That will be three bags of grapes, two bags at $3.49 and one bag free."

That was the result of a recent trip to the grocery store with Dr. K. She is rapidly becoming the grape lady of Charlotte.

Readers here know that Dr. K returned to work this year. She really loves her job and her coworkers. Everyday, she like to share snacks with the office during breaks. Dr. K supplies grapes.

On the way home last week, she asked me to stop with her at our local grocery store. I knew what was on her mind as this same grape issue had played out twice in the past two weeks, though at a different location of the same store.

The grapes in this particular store are bagged and stacked on a produce display. The sign on the display clearly shows that the grapes are $3.49. Dr. K looks close and does not see what she is looking for, so instead of buying two bags, she decides to get three.

We pick up a few more items and head for the checkout. As the casher is about to cash us out, Dr. K asks, "How much were the grapes?" I think, "Here we go!"

The casher scans the register tape and responds "The grapes are three forty-nine A POUND."

Now it's on.

"No...", says Dr. K, "those grapes are $3.49 a bag."

"Manager to register 3!"

Actually, we had to walk over to the Customer Service Desk to talk to the very nice manager. He explained to us that the "/lb" label is really small and hard to see. He is trying really hard to not embarrass us for our mistake.

Dr. K says "OK, show us."

So we head back to the grape display. The manager looks at the price sign. Then he looks again. Then he cocks his head to the side and looks some more. The he stands up and says "Those grapes are $3.49."

We go back to the front and he starts to ring up three bags of grapes at $3.49 when I notice that there is a store policy sign right out on the desk. The last policy says something like if an item scans for a higher price than what is marked, then you get one of those items for free.

I point this out (not wanting to leave any chips on the table, of course) and he rings it up, two bags of grapes for $3.49 a bag.

Grocery stores of Charlotte - Beware of the grape lady.

The Four Ss of Jewelry

Special K, don't you mean the four Cs of diamonds? No. If you are asking that, you don't know Dr. K.

As a reminder, the four Cs of Diamonds are Color, Cut, and Clarity and Carat weight. They are important, but the 4 Ss can be applied to any jewelry purchase and is a can't miss strategy.

Dr. K's 4 Ss of Jewelry are Sparkly, Shiny, Substantial (as in size), and 'Spensive. It is the road to what every woman wants.

When I went to Europe recently, my wife repeatedly reminded my that she wanted something special and it was to abide by the four Ss of Jewelry. She ended up with a heart-shaped pendant that I found at a gift shop near The Louvre. I think she is willing to let me practice some more.

Middle Child

I'm a middle child. I have an older brother and a younger brother. A recent study found that middle of three children tend to exibit the following characteristics:

Has neither rights of oldest nor privileges of youngest.
Feels life is unfair.
Feels unloved, left out, "squeezed."
Feels doesn't have place in family.
Becomes discouraged and "problem child"


Well all I can say about that is that is pretty damn close, but I've grown since then (as if anyone cared).

(Just Kidding) :)

Poker this past week and Bodog

Look out. Here comes an actual poker post.

It was an up and down week at the poker tables. I've already written about the trip to the Desert Diamond where I made $90 and my minus 20 chips at the Falstaff home game. I attended a tournament at a new location on Sunday afternoon and evening. I knew a little over half the players from said home game and the others looked to be pretty basic tight players.

As is my winning formula for tournaments, I played tight in the early going. I played just enough to tread water. I had about the starting chip amount when we moved to the final table. Then, when we got down to the last 6 players or so, I changed gears to getting good cards and winning monster pots. When I write my poker book, No Shit Poker, this will be a key point. Winning the tourney did require a major suck-out when I ran my QQ into KK and caught a Q on the river. It was brutal. That makes up for one of the ten or so times it's happened to me.

I lost a big pot to the knife when my 2 pair was counterfeited on the river (suck-out count back to even on the night) but got all those chips back and crippled Jim when my AQ hit a Q on the flop and the Knife's Q-low kicker didn't improve. Me and "TheMan" got heads up and took 20 or 30 hands to decide it. I don't remember the final hand exactly, but it was a lot like the hand with the knife. I think my KQ hit a K on the flop and TheMan's K10 didn't catch up. That was good for a 120 chip profit.

I proceeded to give 40 chips back at the cash game before calling it a night. If chips were dollars, that would give me a $150 profit for the week. I can live with that.

One thing I may do with the profit is invest it in a trip to the WSOP. Bodog is running an online poker tournament that could lead to a cheap trip to the WSOP main event. Seats start at $1.50 (that's my speed), but you can buy in at higher levels up to $250+20 for a semifinal seat. Somebody's going to win it. It might as well be me. I think I'm ready for some unbelievably rapid wealth.

Chao

Off the road and back to the keyboard

I've been on the road again. This time I haven't felt much like writing, so I didn't. So there.

I had a good customer visit to Tucson this week. There was not much remarkable about the trip. Everything went well. I had a colleague along which always makes the trip more fun. She will be taking over this account in about 2 or 3 weeks, so this was introductions for the customer and her. I think that part went pretty well.

We did drop by the local casino on Tuesday night. The colleague dropped about $85 in the slot machines. I left with a $90 profit at the poker table. The most interesting part was the structure of the game. Arizona does not allow no-limit hold em, so the game was $2-100 spread limit, which played just like $1-2 NL.

I took the red-eye back on Wednesday night to be in CLT for a special occasion. I'll have more to say about that in another post.

Last night was poker at the Casa de Falstaff. The night started slow, but my luck started running better when Nate the Elder showed up. He had many second best hands to me, usually involving 75-100 chips in the pot. I think I got close to 4 times my starting stake at one point. Then the cards dried up. Actually, they were never really that good all night. I caught trips once and a straight once. Those were the best hands in hold em. Omaha was even worse. I couldn't buy the card I needed and Falstaff couldn't miss.

The hand that would save my night was just stupid lucky, but it happened and kept my losses reasonable. I limped with 2h4d9s7s or something closely resembling that. Pretty much everybody limps on every hand in this game. The flop brought a 6s, a red 10 and the As i think. A 5 chip bet was made and I called. The turn brought the 10s giving me a 9 high flush and a good shot at the low. I moved all in for my last 24 chips. Falstaff is pained, but he folds (of all the people on earth, he only folds to me he says later). The knife calls as does NtE. The river is a beautiful red 3, giving me the nut low. After the betting completes, the knife shows his A3 for what would have been a better low. I show my nut low (A2346) and my 7s9s flush high. Falstaff screams a profanity as he had folded a low full house. So I did a little better than tripled up to get me back near even on the night.

Falstaff (aka The Omaha Card Rack) was the winner of the night netting 240 points on the night.

My next post will be about Chapin Hall, Meckenburg County's new DSS facility. It is more exciting than it sounds, I promise.

The Last 10 Days

No, not the LAST 10 days, just the few that proceeded today.  This is just a catch up post.

Things have been good since I returned from Norfolk.  I've been catching up at work, writing a little training, cleaning the inbox, reading blogs - the usual stuff.  I am getting ready for 3 trips to the west coast that will be followed by a 3 week international trip.  All of that will happen in the next 6 weeks.  It's like the adventure is just taking a little break or just reloading.

How about a random picture.  Dr. K and I attended our nephew's T-ball game this past weekend.

I don't have any kids.  This one isn't even related to me, but I caught this slide at home plate and thought is was just cute as hell.  Next time, when there is a play at the plate, he'll be ready.

We did play some poker at BG's on Friday night.  I lost the tournament.  I got an early lead when I sucked out on Skoon's flopped flush by rivering one of the four cards that turned my 2-pair into a boat.  A couple more hands were all I could win.  I took a small profit in the cash game that went until midnight.  The game broke, we raced off the remaining quarters and I won the final point that put me dead even for the night.  We broke in a couple of new players.  They weren't new to the game, just new to our game.  Welcome Brian and Dale.

This weekend the Dr. and I will attend a Cinco de Mayo party.  The party is actually on Dos de Mayo, but we are not Spanish so who cares.  The margaritas won't taste any better 3 days later.  Saturday is poker with Falstaff and Sunday I fly to Phoenix and drive to Tucson for 3 days in the fun and sun customer's air conditioned building.

OK, one more really cute T-Ball picture before I go.

That's got to make you smile, unless you are like me and that brings back bad memories.  Nah, I still smile. 

Later.

Boudreaux's and Reckless Kelly

Saturday night turned out alright for just about everything.  Dr. K and I met up with Falstaff at Boudreaux's in Charlotte's NoDa neighborhood.  The food and the company were first rate.  Falstaff found the Mojitas to be first rate as well.

From there we walked next door to the Neighborhood Theater for the show.  The Sons of Bill warmed up for the headliners.  They were adequate.  It was obvious that the guitar player had to tone down his playing so as not to outshine his brothers.   He did let loose in the next to last number.  You could tell that the boy has talent.

Then we got Reckless Kelly.  This band rock-a-billied everybody in the house.  They were fun.  They were tight, and they were rockin'.  Dr. K was so impressed that she downloaded a whole album's worth of their song on Sunday morning.  Anytime Dr. K has a good time, that is good enough for me, but this show would have taken a lot of work to not enjoy it.

Thanks to Falstaff for showing us a good time.  I hope we get to repeat this often.

Obamaha

TripJax has a brilliant post on a new game that is sweeping the liberal nation: Obamaha.  Go check out his post here: http://tripjax.blogspot.com/2008/04/obamaha.html

Did you notice that if you add a G to the the last name of the leading democratic presidential candidate, you get Go Bama!  How's that for a 'change'.

Now go read TripJax.

My Boring Friday Night

*** Nothing interesting here. Move along. Nothing to read here. ***

I'm back from a week in Norfolk, VA. Falstaff is hosting a poker game as I write this. I passed in order to spend the time with my wife. It is absolute hell having so many great options on how to spend tonight. I made the right choice.

Tomorrow night, Falstaff and I are escorting Dr. K to see Reckless Kelly in NoDa. We are dining at a place we've never been and going to see live music which we never do. Should be just another wonderful and boring night.

Be sure to catch my Top Nine list on http://www.lasvegasvegas.com/pokerblog/. It should be released at 6 am this morning.

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

I spend way too much time doing a certain thing that, while enjoyable, really doesn't accomplish anything.  Sometimes, when I'm by myself and I don't have anything that has to be done right away, I can do it for hours.  When I'm finally done, I have this guilt that I shouldn't have spent so much time on it.  I could have gotten bills paid or dishes washed, or even gotten a little better at Guitar Hero.  But no, that time is wasted, never to return.  When I do it on and off, all day, as I sometimes do (even sneaking a little in at work), there's always a little there, some times it is okay, but it would be nice if there were more available, if you know what I mean.  Not to mention how taboo that kind of thing is at work.  I really have to be careful.  The funny thing is, if you don't do it for a while, it's really more fun when you get back to it.  It's like things build up and are ready for you.  I'm relaxed and ready to read all the new posts in the blogs that I follow in Bloglines.  I sure wish my wife was in to it.  What did you think I was writing about?

A Little Bit of Life Tilt

Poker teaches me how to deal with life sometimes.  Today was a perfect example.  There was no big crisis, just a series of events where the deck of life just refused to give me the card I needed.

CLT Security Line - At the airport, a woman breaks into line to get up with her friend in front of about 200 people.  At least one person said something about it.  Hint: I'm not in France any more. (see the post from 4/8/08, point #2 for an explanation).

Access to base - I spend 2 hours getting a pass to my work location for the week.  I had sent the application for this on Wednesday of last week and was told it was taken care of on Thursday.  I guess not.

Line at Subway - I allow a sailor to go into the Subway  ahead of me.  I like to do things for our men and women of the military.  Once at the counter, he orders 6 footlongs, all with different toppings.  We did have a little juvenal fun marking one sandwich with black olives as BO and the second one with black olives as #2.

Working space - I finally get to my work location and the desk I was supposed to have was taken by someone who was supposed to be out all week.  Instead, I get the edge of a desk all week.

What does poker have to say about all this.  Well, sometimes you just don't get the cards you want.  You may start out with a good hand, but the wrong cards can turn that to crap in a hurry.  So I did today what I do at the poker table.  I stay patient and wait for the cards, or at least the right situation to come along.  It always does, as long as you don't quit too soon.

Here's hoping for a rush tomorrow.

Blood and The Bracelet

Last night was a special night at the Casa de Falstaff.  Bobby Bracelet was in town and it was Saturday night, so that must mean that poker would be played.  In honor of the Bracelet's visit, Mr. BadBlood drove up from his home in G-Vegas to take part in the festivities.

The other 8 seats were filled by the regulars of Special K, Falstaff, Mrs. Falstaff, Jim the Knife, T, lil Nick with  special late appearances by Nate the Elder and D Brown.  The night stared loose and quick with bets of 15-20 right out of the chute.  BadBlood and Bobby are used to bigger, looser games and their games show that.  Their presence made the whole game much bigger.

I think my luck on the night was about average to a little below.  I stayed pretty tight and waited for decent hands before getting involved.  If the flop hit my hand, I would bet strong and force out all but the big draws.  I rarely had to show my hands. 

One particular hand had everyone wondering what I held.  I think I made a 3.5 raise UTG+2 and got 3 or 4 callers.  The flop was something like Q96 rainbow.  D Brown checked in front of me and I fired 15 at the pot.  Everyone folded and I raked and folded.  For those interested, I had AQ.  I also made one boat and one nut flush on the night.

Once midnight hit, T and The Bracelet split the high hand jackpot and we switched the game to Pot Limit O8.  D Brown had a sick run in the first 6 or 7 hands of O8.  He was hitting just about every river he needed to mostly scoop pots. Thankfully, not much of that was mine.  One of those was a scoop against T who thought she had a nut low with A2 in her hand giving her and 8 high low hand, but the A was counterfeited on the board and D made a 7 high low hand with something like 35 in his hand. 

T got stuck for 110 on the night.   I'm sure driving 10 hours direct from Nashville to be at the game didn't help a bit.

I finished the night adding about 120 to my bankroll.  Here are some of the conversation topics that I remember:

• The Bracelet's card cap condom
• GPS tracking devices
• Working in Iraq
• "Is Nick OK?  He's been in there a long time."
• At least they don't stink
• Grape Vodka
• Virgin Islands Beer
• The Bracelet was ranked 860th in the world
• Salsarita

Thanks again to Falstaff for hosting.

Clinton and me

I don't get too political on this blog as it tends to send people up a pole where everyone can see their ass. In fact, though what I am going to write about this time isn't really political, though it does mention a couple of politicians. It is really about the truth and how we react the being lied to.

Bill Clinton brought up the Bosnia issue again yesterday. The flap over his wife's lying about the circumstances around her visit was just about dead. A lot of people are scratching their heads over why he would go anywhere near this topic, but he did, and I think what he said speaks volumes. In short, the man is a liar and his wife is a liar, and if you disagree, then you are now lying to yourself.

Here's what he said in a campaign event in at Boonville High School in Boonville, Ind:

"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995 [sic]. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up." [emphasis mine]

It is well documented that:

1. She made the comment at least twice
2. The first time was mid morning
3. She has yet to apologize for the 'misstatements'. She did admit misstatements a week later and after video of the Bosnia aired on CBS.

It looks like she is going to lose the nomination, so this probably doesn't amount to anything, but it is beyond me how she has any support.

But to me, the most interesting part is to watch how much people will lie to themselves once they have staked out a position on anything in order to keep from changing. If they supported Hillary before this, they are 98.765% likely to still be Hillary supporters now. It won't matter to them that she lied. There are now other reasons for them to stick with the same candidate.

Politics really doesn't matter here. People have the same reactions to anything where they are emotionally committed. It could be a relationship, a job, religion, or global warming. People would rather lie to themselves than to see the truth and change. The hard part comes when I turn and look in the mirror and see that I am guilty of this as well.

Random Observations from Europe

• They let you through airport security with your shoes on.  I guess that explains all of the planes blowing up over Europe.
• As long as you are quite and smile, people are generally pretty nice, even the French.  Maybe I should try that in the States?  Nah.
• Coffee in France is the best I've ever had.  I mean every cup was better than any I've had elsewhere.
• Driving at the speed where I feel comfortable absolutely rocks.  Round-a-bouts rock.  Four-way yield intersections rock.  Basically, all of this adds up to being treated like an adult on the road (like in Germany at least) is so much better than being treated like the basest idiot (like in the US).
• With a little bit of concentration, not much really needs to be said.  Not communicating with the people around you gets old in a hurry.
• Why do we not use the Metric System?
• If I were dropped on earth and had to choose one language to speak, English would win hands down.  If only two languages are used, English is always one.  Second choice?  Probably Pig Latin so as to confuse anyone who speaks English poorly (they can and do use their native tongue to confuse us).
• Power plugs are dear.  Don't assume one will be where you need it.
• Futbol, Rugby, and Snooker are better games than Football, Basketball, and 8-ball.  NASCAR racing is better than F1 (F1 cars are better, but the racing is worse).  Curling and Team Handball are just plain weird.
• Public German TV limits itself to R-rated porn.  French TV does not.
• I paid 7.4 eruos for a half litre glass of Coke near Notre Dame.  That's $10.  Yea, it had ice and lemon and tasted really good.  I can only wish death on that business and move on at this point.
• It is good to get home.

Paris in the Spring?

I finished up my trip to Paris yesterday. The weather was looking bad and since that doesn't make for good outdoor pictures, I decided to take myself back to the Louvre to try to catch what I missed the day before.

The Louvre is just enormous. There are no two ways about it. I arrived at 10 am with a good idea of what I wanted to see. I rented another e-guide and finished up the antiquities (Egyptian, Greek, Roman) before moving on to the Italians and other foreigners. This tour was heavy into Rafael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo painted 15 paintings in his lifetime and the Louvre has 7. Michelangelo's work is so distinctive, whether it is his painting or sculpture. Here are some pictures of Da Vinci painting and Michelangelo sculpture:

Everything was just stunning. I'm sure the pictures won't do justice to the art. Actually, for me, after two days on my feet going from gallery to gallery, one masterwork looked about like another. It started to become more fun to watch the people watch the art. With that said, here are some of my favorites from day 3:

After the Lourve, I headed back toward my hotel, but stopped for my last meal in Paris. I ended up getting pizza and beer. I know, this is Italian and German, not French, but I was hungry damn it. Put the best of Italian and German cooking in the hands of a French chef and you are in for some good eats.

I stuck around for another beer when it started to rain a bit. By then end of that beer the rain was still falling but I couldn't wait any longer. I covered the camera and headed for the hotel about 5 blocks away. I'd like to say that the rain stopped about half way and it did slow a bit, but that was to make room for the snow.

SNOW!?!. What the hell. I thought this was Paris! In the SPRING! Anyway, I got my things packed, set the alarm and got to bed early. Wake up this morning was 0345. It was still snowing though not sticking to anything but the cars that I could tell. The temperature reading on the way to CDG was between 1.0 C and 0.0 C. I needed no help in translating that, but the road was solid and I made it just fine. I still don't know half of waht the cabbie said on the way out. I just laughed and smiled. "Just watch the road" I'm thinking.

I'm in the airport at 0455 right now. Time to get checked in for the the 0645 flight to Frankfurt and the 1145 flight to CLT. It will be good to get this one done.

Europe this week

It's been quite a week. I've not posted since last weekend only because I've been too busy. After my sightseeing, my week turned to work. Running a workshop that I've done dozens of times not shouldn't take so much of my time, but it always seems to. In addition to that, just finding food and sleep in a strange, time-shifted land makes time extremely short.

But I finished that up on Thursday afternoon and it was nearly time to let the fun begin. I drove to Frankfurt to be close to the airport (top speed - 185 kph). I had an early morning flight out. Before dawn broke, I had checked out of the hotel, dropped off the rental car and found my way to the proper desk at the airport.

My flight was on Lufthansa. This marked the first time I've flown from one foreign airport to another. It was also the first time I've flown on an airliner where the first announcement or instruction was not in English. I thought it politically interesting that the order of languages on Lufthansa as German, English, and then French. Maybe it's nothing.

We got to CDG airport in Paris on time and my bag was the first out of the chute. I love it when that happens. I go to the cab stand and just point to my hotel's name and address. We were probably half-way there before the driver knew I was American. I've worked pretty hard to do that as much as possible on this trip. Advice that I got about staying quiet has proven to be good. The cab ride with tip came to €40 with a tip for what should have been a 20 minute ride. My hotel room was ready (it was still only 10 am), so I dropped my bags, got organized and hit the road.

I got a 3 day pass for the Metro and the next thing you know I'm emerging on the Champs-Élysées. Another good piece of advice that I got before leaving was to get a ticket for the double-decker tour bus. I got a Red Bus ticket and spent the rest of the day touring and taking pictures. I managed to get to the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, and many points in between. Here are some pictures from Day 1 in Paris.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You notice that I made my way back to the Eiffel Tower for a night shot. It was definitely worth it. Day 2 was much simpler, just as exciting and more exhausting. Two word: The Louvre. I purchased a walking tour before leaving the states. I had heard that the lines were terribly long, but I never saw them except for the main entrance near the pyramid.

This tour took a couple hours and was a good start and introduction to the highlights of the museum. After lunch, a nice lady gave me her electronic tour guide and I was off on tour number two, the history of the museum. I got through this tour and part of the antiquities tour when my e-guide and legs died. Here are some pictures from the day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

So it is now 0230 on Sunday morning. The weather for tomorrow doesn't look great, so I'm likely to head back to the Louvre for the rest of what I can see. There is a station that will drop me right in the museum. I may stroll the Champs-Élysées if the weather turns good. Either way, I leave for home Monday morning for a 6:45 flight to Frankfurt and an 1145 connection to Charlotte. It's been a great trip and it will be great to get home.