Oh! Paris.  Just saying the name takes me back to the gardens, the countryside and the cuisine. 

I only speak a few words of conversational French, but that didn’t hinder me at all from meeting new friends.  I stayed at small hotel near the Saint-Lazare train station, which made getting around Paris, very convenient.  The hotel was called Grand Hotel de Normandie and although it wasn’t at all upscale, it did provide a very nice breakfast of fruit, yogurt, sweet breads and coffee or tea.  I found the “lift” to be less than the size of a phone booth, but as far as I’m concerned, it only added to my list of new wonders.  My first night in Paris, I headed to the Eiffel Tower to find a representative from Fat Tire Bike Tours www.fattirebiketours.com; someone told me, they speak English and most of them are from Texas.  Well, it was true.  The couple that owns the business is actually from Austin and they recruit employees from UT and A&M Universities.  I was also very happy to know that they have an internet café available for a small fee and as a bonus; they serve Heineken in the shop. My first night there, I made friends with some of the employees and we all went to dinner in the Italian Quarter, then afterwards, to drink wine, laying on the lawn in the parc de champ de mars at the Eiffel Tower.  During the week, I was able to see all of Paris on just the day tour and the night “wine” tour.  By the third day, I was giving directions to other tourists and felt quite comfortable in my surroundings.

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Houston's great in the summer, if you have access to a pool for the parties on the weekends and sometimes weeknights, but it's not always enough, because sometimes you just need to get out of town.

Harley (my pup) and I headed out of town this past week to enjoy the great outdoors in the amazing state of Colorado. The scenery was worth the adventure and the clean air worth the mileage I put on my car....which by the way, I get up to 30 mpg on the road. Yeah! Volkswagen!

My Broadway-bound performance in the car of Les Miserables, and a whole slew of popular Disney songs, didn't seem to bother Harley much, considering that no accompanied howling was coming from the back seat.

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I'm an adventurous traveler, unafraid of traveling alone or to new places.  Recently friends and I ventured off to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

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