We headed out bright and early for Paris and the train stations. I feel bad for Sophie and Dani because all of our mornings where we leave their house are really early! Thank goodness they live close to the train station.
We headed out, back to Paris, on
the metro, and over to the train station for Shawn. We hung out there until he could get on his
train to go to Pau. He is heading down
south to visit Clemant, his friend that he used to work with back in
Edmonton. The train was soooo huge, that
we practically had to walk a kilometer to the end of the train until there were
actually cars that we could get on. I
love trains!
Kendra and I took off with my big
suitcase to our train station. We were
pretty early, but that is always better than being late. Our train ride was not that long at all, and
I think I actually ended up sleeping for most of it anyway. I needed to be well rested for the race to
get to the boat!
Dad wrote us last night and said
that they would be arriving in Lyon at noon.
That was concerning because WE were supposed to be arriving in Lyon at
noon! Train stations are not that big,
and we did not want to run into mom and dad at the train station and ruin the surprise. Thankfully there are two train stations in
Lyon. I figured mom and dad would be
getting off at the train station nearest to the boat, so I decided we would
have to risk the length of the walk and get off the train at the further train
station and run 2.5km to the water.
We got off and pretty much just
walked straight ahead until we hit the river.
We were going pretty fast considering I was pulling a suitcase and each
of us had backpacks on. We walked and
walked. Once we hit the river, we turned
to walk up the river edge (beautiful pathway). The only part that was kind of
frustrating was when we hit a market. I
was practically running people over with my rolling suitcase! I was on a mission.
We were both beat and sweating
like crazy when we made it to the ship.
All of the suitcases were lined up along the shore, so as quickly as I
could I explained that they needed to hide our suitcases because my mom would
recognize the suitcases if they were sitting there! Thankfully they did hide them for us (I am
sure they thought we were crazy, but what else is new?!).
We went inside and checked
in. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a
room yet, so we decided to go eat lunch to cool off before walking around
outside for a while. We picked a window
table that looked out over the shore.
Literally the minute we sat down, Kendra said “there they are”: mom and
dad were just coming down the ramp onto the shore!!!
We each grabbed our purses and
stood behind the wall just inside the main entrance. Dad came in first – and his eyes were wide
when he saw us! Then mom came on the
boat and was completely speechless when she saw us! I said “Funny to see you here! Happy Birthday”. It was awesome. I had tears in my eyes and I think mom and
dad did too. Kendra filmed it on her
phone! It was soo cool!!!
Once we all calmed down, we sat
down for lunch in the dining room. Mom
kind of had an idea something was going to happen, but once Christmas, Mother’s
Day, and the airport drop off came and went, it sounds like she completely
forgot about that idea of us joining her on the trip. So, it was a great surprise. I don’t want to have to keep any more secrets
for a while. This one was a lot of
work! But totally worth it.
The food was awesome. I even had my first France ice cream. Afterwards, we all headed out to explore a
bit more of Lyon. We walked back towards
the markets that both Kendra and I found as well as the one that mom and dad
found, but they were packing up for the day.
We walked over to the old quarter and looked around there. Kendra’s feet were really hurting her,
however (oops), so that wasn’t great. We
took the funicular up to the top of the hill to visit the big Cathedral
there. It had an amazing view. There was some sort of scouting mass happening,
so that was neat to see. There was also
this AMAZING roller blading race happening throughout town. I don’t know a lot about it, but it sounds
like it is an annual racing event that happens in Lyon. And every Friday there is an open fitness
group that goes rollerblading! I want to
come back to participate in that!!
Our rooms are fantastic. They have all these awesome features like USB
plug-ins into the wall, Internet that is on the TV, heated floors in the
bathroom, and the windows go down ½ way to turn the entire room into a
balcony. It is so cool.
Dinner was in the main room and
just typical general seating. It was
great. We sat with this nice couple from
the US. It is funny because there are so
few people on this ship compared to a big ocean cruise. It will take some getting used to, for sure!
It was an amazing first day of the
cruise! I am so glad that we get to do
this as a family and I am so happy that mom was surprised!
I know I will sleep well tonight.
XOXO
-AJ
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