Engaged in London, Inspired in Paris: Travel Lessons and Tips from Our European Adventure

Come along as we relive a journey that took us from Boston’s cobblestone charm to London’s storied streets, the elegance of Paris, and the sacred shores of Normandy. 

We share the unforgettable story of our engagement in London’s Queen Mary’s Gardens, the breathtaking architecture of Paris, and the humbling experience of standing in Normandy on the anniversary of D-Day.

Along the way, we’ll sprinkle in the lessons we learned and our best tips for traveling as a couple—navigating the aftermath of political unrest in Paris, making the most of historical sites, and finding those hidden, romantic moments in every city.

Whether you’re planning your own European trip or simply love a good travel-and-love story, this episode is full of inspiration, laughter, and practical advice you can use to create your own unforgettable adventure.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:01

all right welcome back to the fits in project i'm your host rachel fitzpatrick and i have with me one of the very most important peoples in my life today um he is nothing short of amazing the best man i could possibly ever ask to be around and i'm just really grateful that You took that screenshot and walked into my life, and now you're stuck with me forever.

SPEAKER_00: 0:37

It's not a bad place to get stuck.

SPEAKER_01: 0:39

Josh Hall, welcome. Welcome to my podcast.

SPEAKER_00: 0:42

Thank you. I've been itching to get here. I'm glad we found some time. Busy, busy. We

SPEAKER_01: 0:50

are. We are so busy. Actually, this is so unprecedented. I am finally unprecedented. I'm making moves. Because, first of all, you're the first man... Cheers. Cheers. And you're the first and only lover I'll have on my podcast. So I think that's pretty unprecedented and amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 1:16

Well, it's fun. And I'm glad you picked me.

SPEAKER_01: 1:19

Yeah. Easy.

SPEAKER_00: 1:23

What do you want to talk about? What do you want to tell everybody?

SPEAKER_01: 1:26

I want to tell everybody about the lessons learned that we had for our Europe trip. Because, you know, why not?

SPEAKER_00: 1:36

Yeah. Great time. Great time.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39

Yeah, it was. So, we started our Europe trip... The planning for it started about a year and a half ago. So you remember when we were writing down and we were just started dating and it was back in the time when I would have a babysitter for Theo and we would have like a night. Right. So far away. But yeah, we wrote down, I made you write down where you want to go. I wanted to see your vision of travel. You remember that?

SPEAKER_00: 2:11

Right. Yeah. We sat down and we mapped out where Where are the places we always wanted to go? And I've been fortunate enough to go to a few places. And we kind of came down to a few places that neither of us have been to and both really wanted to. And that was actually a list of probably about six countries. And then, yeah, what did you say, about a year and a half? So then about nine months later, to a year out i'd say it was close we're like all right let's let's find let's let's really tune this in and let's let's make this happen

SPEAKER_01: 2:53

right

SPEAKER_00: 2:53

and we came down to england and france and then we narrowed down like well if you're gonna go you gotta at least see because you never know when you're gonna be able to go again so you should at least be able to see the the main things. And so that'd be London and Paris. And well, we decided to do it right when we did it.

SPEAKER_01: 3:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:16

But there were definitely lessons learned from beginning to end, but nothing was catastrophic. So luckily, the lessons we learned, none of them, I mean, they might have been a little painful on the wallet, but no literal pain. We We came out unscathed, and just things we learned, I think, would be just helpful for the next time to make. it even better.

SPEAKER_01: 3:43

One of my favorite things about you and planning is that you did it all. And also when I was about to plan all of our vacations for the year, it was like February and it was basically Theo's birthday. And I was like, time is ticking. I'm about to plan a whole vacation with my friends for the 4th of July, or we're going to go do something, this, that, and the other. And I remember looking at you and being like, Like, so are we doing this damn thing or not? Like, are we going or not? And you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, all right, well, plan it. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00: 4:23

And I did. And I told you, I remember I said, all right, I got to have full reign. Just trust me. Trust the process. It's the only way this is going to work. And you did. And I really appreciate it. And we had a great time. And she was able to help me deviate from the plan when it was more fun and the way to go. And it worked out awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 4:43

Yeah, I'm really good at that. It's kind of my, you know, superpower, deviating from the plan, but staying with the plan, but not really the plan, you know.

SPEAKER_00: 4:52

Well... deviating ended up being our first kind of lessons learned was you have to be flexible you have to be flexible and you have to be prepared to be flexible so our flight was let leaving from Cincinnati to Boston to London that was the plan and we're gonna leave Boston at 830 at night with the time zone change we'd land in London at 830 in the morning the next the next day Well, mid-flight from Cincinnati to Boston, we're about 40 minutes in, and there's an error. The pilot comes over and says there's, I don't know, there's a huge problem apparently. And then the pilot, he just starts hauling and tells us we've got to land in Cleveland and change planes.

SPEAKER_01: 5:40

Columbus.

SPEAKER_00: 5:41

Was it Columbus? Oh, well, it was a C. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus. One of the, you know, they're all named C letters.

SPEAKER_01: 5:48

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: 5:49

But, yeah, so Columbus and change. planes and they're like oh no don't worry you guys are totally gonna make your connection well we land in Boston as we're taxiing to our gate we see our plane that we're supposed to be on takeoff we missed our flight so we were stuck there Rachel's

SPEAKER_01: 6:08

let's pause the flight path here for a second I want to get into that change of plane process that we had to go through listen y'all this wasn't just some oh well the plane's gonna have to deviate over to columbus sorry about you no this was the most frightening time of my entire life i was pleading i was praying i was bargaining all of the things with all my angels all my superpowers i was just trying to bring them out and rein it in and i was like in devastation I was crying.

SPEAKER_00: 6:50

It was a sporty ride into Columbus. Sporty. You're

SPEAKER_01: 6:57

cute. Sporty.

SPEAKER_00: 7:01

That was sporty, and it was not fun. It was not the way I wanted that to happen, that's for sure. What

SPEAKER_01: 7:08

was going through your head?

SPEAKER_00: 7:10

Oh, man, I don't know. I was more worried about, like, let's just get this thing landed. I wasn't so worried about making the connecting flight. I was like, all right, let's just get this thing landed. I'm like, hmm, I wonder, can we catch a boat? Is there a boat available? Because this whole airplane thing is sounding a little not what I want to do, and we've got to do it again. Actually, we had to do it two more times. We had to fly to Boston, and then we had to get on an even longer flight to London. So it didn't make starting out,

SPEAKER_01: 7:46

Okay, so maybe I'm a little more dramatic than you are, but it really just took me by all the tears, and it, like, yanked me by my spine.

SPEAKER_00: 7:57

It was not the way I wanted us to start our trip, for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 8:04

Yeah. No, it wasn't. None of it was. No. So I'm like, damn it! So in my head, I'm like, oh, well... we're gonna die and then i was thankful that we didn't die but what had happened was we get on the new plane and we get up to um everybody's seated to go to boston and they're like oh yeah the other plane it just you know had a minor cracked windshield like

SPEAKER_00: 8:30

yeah apparently the windshield cracked and it set off an arm and he's like we got a land right now yeah so we did

SPEAKER_01: 8:36

he said corporate's telling us land i'm like you mean delta like what is this corporate No. Yeah. All right. Well, carry on. So we get to Boston.

SPEAKER_00: 8:47

We got to Boston. Our

SPEAKER_01: 8:47

plane's gone.

SPEAKER_00: 8:48

Our plane's gone. It's long gone. It's going to get tea time and we are not. But we were prepared for this. We had a backpack that had a change of clothes in it. For any reason, whether... I

SPEAKER_01: 9:02

wonder why we were prepared for that.

SPEAKER_00: 9:04

Oh, well...

SPEAKER_01: 9:06

Perhaps we should have started there. In the packing lessons learned.

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

Oh, yeah. We'll get to that. That was an unfolding lesson you learned a few times. But it all worked out, though. So our first thing is be ready for change, and we did. And we had our change of clothes. And so we ended up, like, all right, well, they put us up in this pretty decent hotel with free breakfast and a misleading meal voucher that I won't talk about. But... We had a change of course where I hopped on my app and I was like, oh, cool, Boston tour, North End. And our friends, Chip and Steph, they told us where to go in Boston because we were going to be there for a whole 24 hours. So we did that. We got a tour, ended up having the best time. We fell in love with Boston. And so we did miss out on a day in London, but we were able to make up for it by having an awesome day in Boston. And we did all the things. It was really cool.

SPEAKER_01: 10:08

Okay, so let's pause. here um first of all back to the packing situation that alone was a big lessons learned because i am super resistant i would pack the whole kitchen sink and take it to europe i wanted a a roller suitcase because it's easy and why would you not have a roller suitcase when you're going through the airport and all the things and you had convinced me that is not the way to do any type of Europe trip and for like weeks everything I was saying Josh was like no that's not how we're doing this everything is saying don't do it so he set me down for like three nights in a row and would just you know Easily just, you know, play some YouTube videos of let's watch what to pack for Europe trips and vacations. And I'm like, huh? And he's over there like, told you, told you. And he's got his scroll out just checking marks of being right. And I'm like, dang it. I don't know if I can. So we bought this like, how many big liters? The big one.

SPEAKER_00: 11:29

Oh, I think it's

SPEAKER_01: 11:31

75 liter. A 75 liter backpacking bag that I was going to carry. Oh,

SPEAKER_00: 11:37

that one.

SPEAKER_01: 11:37

Well, so I tested it out, took it to the Kentucky Yoga Festival, hated it because I'm like, this is the size of my son, but it's like on my back and it's tall and above my head. And I'm like, I could fall over. This is not right. Nothing about this was conducive to life. So I ended up... downsizing to 55 liters, like three days before we left. I was like, oh my God, I don't know if I can do it. So then like the day before we're packing, And I was still like, I don't know if I can do it. And by the way, we packing, it was me. I have a complete freeze. Analysis paralysis is my thing when it's like trying to go somewhere, anywhere. So anyway, Josh graciously, patiently helped me pack. everything and it all fit in this 55 liter backpack and if you know me you know that it just doesn't make sense but it did it made sense y'all and it made so much sense that i even got a tiny little backpack and that's what we had for running around boston because we checked the 55 liter and he had his own bigger backpack And holy crap.

SPEAKER_00: 13:04

For the record, mine was bigger because I'm bigger than her and my clothes are bigger. So I needed more space, literally.

SPEAKER_01: 13:11

Yeah, right. He had to pack the kitchen sink. No.

SPEAKER_00: 13:17

Well, yeah, so that worked out. It worked out.

SPEAKER_01: 13:21

And how beautiful was that time? It

SPEAKER_00: 13:23

was great. It was

SPEAKER_01: 13:23

great, yeah. The food was amazing. Our tour guide, Pauly. Pauly. Pauly. He was an interesting character. He is not a fan of Southern accents. I learned that about Pauly. Because I made fun of one thing that he had said. And he was like, yeah, I don't like Southern accents myself. And I'm like, oh, shit. But he was cool.

SPEAKER_00: 13:47

Shout out to Pauly if he's listening. He was the best. And I don't have his business card in front of me. But do his tour. Pauly and what was his kid's name?

SPEAKER_01: 13:56

He caught me.

SPEAKER_00: 13:57

Well, it's a father-son small business. They do tours in Boston. And, uh, it was totally worth it. Yep. And it was, it was great. And we just ended up being the only ones that were on it that day. It was a Sunday. So, um, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 14:11

And the weather was perfect.

SPEAKER_00: 14:14

And we finished it all out. We got back to the airport. So continuing on with the trip.

SPEAKER_01: 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:19

All right. We land in London and, uh, We hop on the tube and we take...

SPEAKER_01: 14:26

The Piccadilly.

SPEAKER_00: 14:27

Well, it's the Piccadilly line, right? And we're headed towards downtown, towards Tower Bridge because we stayed at the Tower Bridge Hotel right next to the Tower Bridge. And it's a great hotel. So we get on the tube. And so as we're on it, they're saying... Oh no, train's broken. Or whatever they say. They're like, it's going to end at this one. You just got to get on another one. It's just that particular train they were taking out. So I heard a local in front of me. say to her friend like hey let's get off on this next one and then catch the next train because everybody's going to be at whichever station it was that it ends at trying to get on and so that was like three stops away so they got off and then we waited and I said hey babe we should get off on the next one and do that and we did we got off saw London it's beautiful and then we got on the one and it was sure as hell is when we got to that station there was so many people waiting to get on and it would have taken us a little longer so we get on and then we uh We get out of it and walk over to the Tower Hotel and get all of our stuff, get in our room and have this awesome

SPEAKER_01: 15:42

view. So lesson number two was be aware of your surroundings.

SPEAKER_00: 15:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 15:48

I wasn't. I was just like, as a matter of fact, I took a nap. Every time we sat down, I took a nap. Josh is over here, like, listening to people's conversations, knowing when to get off and hop back on, what to do, where to go. It's like a tiny little, like, MacGyver. You've got all the things.

SPEAKER_00: 16:14

Hey, I just want us to have the best time possible so many use all the resources but we we get there and then we we have an amazing day and it leads into our next learning lesson was transportation that's not public transportation is expensive aka ubers ubers we ended up ubering more than i thought we were going to but that was to avoid a rental car We probably spent less with the Ubers, but it's possible it was close to the same cost if we got a rental car. But we did go to two different countries, and we didn't fly. We took the train.

SPEAKER_01: 17:01

Yeah, but I don't think London was that bad. I mean, we walked a whole lot, too.

SPEAKER_00: 17:08

We did.

SPEAKER_01: 17:09

over 10 miles a day

SPEAKER_00: 17:10

yeah every day yeah but it was we we saw everything um

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

we really did

SPEAKER_00: 17:16

we did our our entire trip was i joke with her i say we took a whole like western civilization course like a whole college western civilization course in a week um but it was it was fantastic

SPEAKER_01: 17:30

yeah so remind me where we went first Because it was all

SPEAKER_00: 17:35

so much. We did the... We walked across the Tower Bridge. Yeah. And then we walked over, then we went and got a bagel sandwich. We did, at the train station. Hopped on the tube, took it to Westminster. Westminster. And got out and walk up and bang, there's Big Ben. Yeah. And that was one thing about... Our trip was everything looked like it does in pictures and movies and whatnot, but it looks even cooler, and it's even bigger.

SPEAKER_01: 18:03

It's almost like everything is gold, you know? Oh, sure. It's so captivating, and plus we had the sunniest days

SPEAKER_00: 18:11

while we were there. Yeah, we were really lucky with that, and we just... we walked everywhere and we got every nook and cranny. We saw it, touched everything. We touched all the statues, touched all the stuff. He's like, don't touch. We touched it. Um, but it was worth it. And then, uh, yeah, we, we probably would have seen a little bit more, but we got to see all the things we wanted to see. Um,

SPEAKER_01: 18:39

That day.

SPEAKER_00: 18:40

Yeah. So I guess the lesson also would be is if you really want to really dive deep into it more than just seeing it, whatnot is you gotta have the time. You gotta have the time.

SPEAKER_01: 18:49

Yeah. But we went up to the palace.

SPEAKER_00: 18:52

Buckingham palace. Yeah, we did that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

That was really cool. And the walk through some of the parks that they're so beautiful. It's unlike anything I really see over here. Right. It is. Everyone's at the park. And everything is so well manicured and maintained. Like everywhere. Everything is so clean. Even the food.

SPEAKER_00: 19:15

Oh, that reminds me actually. A lesson learned was if you're going to go, be prepared for all digital everything. Cash is not king in Europe. I mean, it's still accepted everywhere pretty much. But everything was digital everything. payment. And that was the preferred method. Actually, you can't use the tube without it. You have to pay from your phone.

SPEAKER_01: 19:40

I thought that was

SPEAKER_00: 19:41

cool. Well, it was because I bought her ticket and I paid for mine, right? And I went to go pay it again. I was like, no, you can only do one ticket per card. So I had to switch cards while she's on the other side of Turnstile. And boom, do another one. But that's how it tracks you. And that's exactly what it does. It tracks you so it knows how many times you ping because it won't ever... overcharge you. It's like 15 bucks. Let's say it's 15 pounds for the day. Once you hit 50, like, okay, you can still keep writing, but it's not going to charge you more than that. But it knows exactly where you stopped, where you got on, where you got off. So that's, uh,

SPEAKER_01: 20:15

yeah, I did not purchase a data plan for my phone. Yes. Probably should have done that.

SPEAKER_00: 20:21

If I hadn't had my data plan, we would have been, it would have been a little uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01: 20:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 20:27

But we did.

SPEAKER_01: 20:28

Yeah, you planned for that. You must have saw that on a different YouTube

SPEAKER_00: 20:32

channel. The things that I brought to this trip for us to work with, it did come from prior experience of doing this before. It was under different circumstances. I've never done it with a partner and fiancé and lover and all

SPEAKER_01: 20:51

that. Oh, a

SPEAKER_00: 20:52

fiancé. I did do it by myself, which did... lessons learned in that for myself and how it's real easy for me to just have to worry about me and take care of me and my needs and etc but now i have you as well which is equally important but um it's like when you're cooking you're like okay you have all this well i had enough to make one dinner you have to just make sure you have the extra ingredients you have enough to make two dinners so that was something that i i i i didn't know until i did it how i was gonna Bob and we with it. And we, uh, it was a big trip for us and I learned a lot. You're pretty

SPEAKER_01: 21:30

thoughtful. Hey, well, I'll keep you. Same,

SPEAKER_00: 21:36

same, same, same, same. I'll keep me too. But the, uh, yeah, so, learning that everything there is boop tap with your phone was different because we had we were prepared we were over prepared really i still got those euros in my wallet like we we uh well because we wanted to be cashed because the truth is is exactly what she said like she didn't have a data plan what if i didn't either so we would have had him and rely on cash but it turned out that was it was the opposite case this time

SPEAKER_01: 22:06

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 22:06

but still uh oh and yeah it's just as expensive as everybody says it is that's 100 true it is expensive so um but you pay to play

SPEAKER_01: 22:18

right

SPEAKER_00: 22:19

yeah

SPEAKER_01: 22:20

we ate at this little pub right

SPEAKER_00: 22:24

by yeah hung drawn and quartered right next to the tower of london yeah which was really cool place but yeah

SPEAKER_01: 22:31

um but that was the fish and chips and they also had a beef Pie?

SPEAKER_00: 22:38

Meat pie, yeah. A

SPEAKER_01: 22:39

meat pie. Yeah. Sounds like it would be terrible, but actually it was delicious. Oh, yeah. Everything was so good. It

SPEAKER_00: 22:47

was. It was very good. It was.

SPEAKER_01: 22:48

So what was your favorite part about that day?

SPEAKER_00: 22:51

Well, which day? The first day, the London day. The first day. My favorite, favorite part... Well, I mean, this feels like a trick question. What was your favorite part of the day?

SPEAKER_01: 23:05

You can't ask me the same question I asked you. I thought you knew the rules. Oh, is this the rule? Today.

SPEAKER_00: 23:14

Probably. Oh, you're going to have to edit out this long pause. He paused for eight minutes. Don't mess it up. Obviously. Obviously. spending time with you and getting to like go to this place for the first time that both of us have never been to and to like have it all be not it was not me showing you anything you weren't showing me anything we got to experience i knew what i was looking at but i'd never been there yeah that's cool and that was rad of all the attractions things that We saw Big Ben. I really thought that was... And I don't know if that's because it's the first thing I saw. Just like Hong Kong is the very first country... My favorite country I've ever been to because it was the very... I think it was because it was the very first one I went to. But... And then... But the fact that there's actually a 221B Baker Street, like a Sherlock Holmes ad, and I'm a big Sherlock Holmes nerd. And to go there, like, that was cool. Like, that felt like, man... But it was also, like, dang, like... Now I've done all this stuff. I mean, there's still more to see, but that was that. But what was your favorite part?

SPEAKER_01: 24:26

Well, now I don't want to tell you. So we went to Queen Mary's Gardens.

SPEAKER_00: 24:35

We did. What did we do there?

SPEAKER_01: 24:37

so we go to queen mary's garden and it's this beautiful beautiful rose garden park and it's got the most gorgeous flowers i'm a huge rose lover anyway like that's probably my favorite flower but i love all all roses equally if that makes sense so it does make sense because i said it But they're all just so beautiful. And I love kissing roses. I love smelling roses. And I used to close my eyes and put roses on my lips when Theo was a baby. And then I would put the rose on my lips. And then I'd kiss his cheeks. And it would be like the same texture. Like he just had rose-felt cheeks. It was just so sweet. You didn't even know this about me until probably just right this exact moment. So anyway, we're in Queen Mary's Rose Garden. And we're walking through this just, I don't know, breathtaking place. And I see everybody's in the park. I mean, it's just so... picturesque, like in a movie right here, right then. And we see this little path that is in front of us and up to the left, and it looks like a secret garden. And if I'm not mistaking, like a week before we go, we talk about how I love the movie, The Secret Garden. I'm like, that was my favorite movie when I was like a little girl. I would watch that all the time. And you would be, and you said that you really liked Secret Gardens. Probably,

SPEAKER_00: 26:22

yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 26:22

yeah. You don't remember this conversation? I do. Are you blacking out now? I'm not black. So, now what? What happened when we saw that secret garden in the Queen Mary's?

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

Do tell.

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

Yeah, we walked up through there. We

SPEAKER_00: 26:38

did.

SPEAKER_01: 26:39

Well, this is also your story.

SPEAKER_00: 26:41

Well, you're telling everybody what your favorite part was. I

SPEAKER_01: 26:45

am. Yeah, this wasn't his favorite part. For the record, he didn't say it. I'm saying it was my favorite part. Apparently, this is cheap real estate over here. Oh, please. So, yeah, we go up to the secret garden and then we see this really cool waterfall place and it was really beautiful up there at the very top. It was like this gate and then there was this couple and they were fighting so it got really awkward and we walked up there and I walked up there intentionally hopefully like they were just going to leave but they didn't they stayed and then they were secretly hoping we were just going to leave so we did and then we walked down the little path and all of a sudden Josh has to get a new lens out of his backpack for his iPhone 16 which I thought was really weird So I was like, let's take this picture. And you're like, I need to switch my lens for my camera. And I'm like, for your phone? And granted, y'all, he just got this new phone like a day before we left for our trip. So I'm like, halfway believing it too.

UNKNOWN: 27:59

So I'm like...

SPEAKER_01: 28:00

And by mine, I'm like, is this iPhone 16? Has lenses that can change out of? Yeah, and then the next thing I know, he's on a knee and pulls out a ring box. And he says, you should say it.

SPEAKER_00: 28:21

Rachel Fitzpatrick, will you marry me?

SPEAKER_01: 28:26

And

SPEAKER_00: 28:26

she

SPEAKER_01: 28:26

goes, what? I said, oh, shit. It's happening now. It's here. Like, take stock in what's going on around me. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yes. Yes, I will. It

SPEAKER_00: 28:40

was great.

SPEAKER_01: 28:41

Yeah. It was real sweet.

SPEAKER_00: 28:43

It was probably my favorite part of the

SPEAKER_01: 28:45

whole time. Oh my gosh, finally. It was my favorite part.

SPEAKER_00: 28:52

Well, to be fair, that was supposed to happen a day before, but our plane decided to almost crash or whatever, and we had to go to Boston instead. Mom,

SPEAKER_01: 29:01

mom.

SPEAKER_00: 29:03

I was hoping that I would have had that done.

SPEAKER_01: 29:07

Yeah. But you know what? The day before... I heard the weather was bad.

SPEAKER_00: 29:15

See?

SPEAKER_01: 29:16

So basically, the gods knew we needed to have this beautiful 75 and sunny day. And it was absolutely gorgeous. And that tree was really, really cool.

SPEAKER_00: 29:29

Yeah, it was at like a fork in the road. I was like, what a great metaphor.

SPEAKER_01: 29:36

Yes. And there was a couple that walked by.

SPEAKER_00: 29:39

There was a couple that walked by. And they... They, uh, we asked them to take our picture or no, they offered to take our picture.

SPEAKER_01: 29:46

Yeah. They offered to take our picture and we're like, we just got engaged. And they said they were celebrating their, how many years?

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

I don't know, like 80. They were super, they were pretty, they were old Asian couple.

SPEAKER_01: 29:58

Not 80. I'm thinking it was like 40 something. It

SPEAKER_00: 30:01

was, it was a, it was a lot. It was a hallmark one. It was, it was a big number.

SPEAKER_01: 30:05

Yeah. It's

SPEAKER_00: 30:06

a proud number.

SPEAKER_01: 30:07

It is a proud number.

SPEAKER_00: 30:08

We'll get there.

SPEAKER_01: 30:09

Yeah. Well, we will now.

SPEAKER_00: 30:11

We'll be walking through London.

SPEAKER_01: 30:12

Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_00: 30:13

We'll have to see somebody. I don't know how they'll do it in the future. They'll probably be over FaceTime or something.

SPEAKER_01: 30:19

That's probably what they thought about us now. People are still out there FaceTiming engagements.

UNKNOWN: 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 30:27

Well, y'all are doing it wrong. You should go to London in the Queen Mary's garden.

SPEAKER_00: 30:31

So the next day I took her to the crown jewels and be like, look at these itty bitty, pathetic jewels. Nothing like what you got on your finger there, babe. Queens. Eight pound diamond stone. Chump change.

SPEAKER_01: 30:48

That blue sapphire. I will never forget what it looks like. And you have to go in there and take mental pictures only. I thought that was kind of rude, but I also get it. I

SPEAKER_00: 30:57

think it's great because it... Like, it makes it real. Like, hey, this is how it is.

SPEAKER_01: 31:04

Gets people to come.

SPEAKER_00: 31:05

Oh, that is true, too. But I thought it was cool with the ravens. And it was just a really cool place. There was a lot to see. We did that. And then we hopped on the...

SPEAKER_01: 31:19

Well, I loved that day as well. Because it was a little bit rainy. Yeah. that day we got to see the tower and all of all of its gloom and glory man like what I learned about that whole entire trip was humanity like we were in places before Christ times you know that I mean to my knowledge I had never been to You know, like, I don't know anything about that and touching those things and like putting our hands on those walls and seeing the carvings where prisoners were and they had made tallies for the amounts of who knows what days.

SPEAKER_00: 32:15

Yeah, it was whatever. Yeah, there's just... more history than you could ever consume yeah there and it's super old the old world man it's the old world over there which is really neat and beautiful and uh... you still see like all the cool stuff that's come out of that now and just but uh... i appreciated it for sure and it was fun to do as locals do we did that was um... some of them on my past trips and i tried to make sure we did was stay as local ish as possible um... We did not eat at any chain, anything. And it's not the United States, so it doesn't have a lot of that. I mean, if you wanted to find a McDonald's or whatever, you could. And you could do that, but they're not commercialized like that. So we were able to eat real food. We didn't go to any...

SPEAKER_01: 33:08

Yeah, we walked into a McDonald's or a Burger

SPEAKER_00: 33:13

King. So I went... Well, we're fast forwarding now. Oh, let's not fast forward yet. We'll get there. Hang on. Yeah. So anyways, but so then we were coming up on our next lesson. So we went on, took the Eurostar, the big fast train that goes from London to Paris. Paris, we get there. It is insane amount of people. I knew it was going to be a lot of people and it's a major train hub station.

UNKNOWN: 33:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 33:42

like if you were going to continue on to go to like Brussels or, uh, I can't remember where else it runs to, but, um, like you'd have to switch there, but it was a major, major train station. It's an international train station. So getting out of there, they were doing, uh, construction outside of it. So you only, you, you were forced to cross across a street around construction into basically one or two areas, excuse me, there were corners, uh, Um, and there was just a crowd of people that are like loitering. Um, so it's no secret. There's a lot of pickpockets and, um, stuff like that, you know, petty crime, stuff like that, that happens in Europe, especially in Paris, especially in London. Um, we saw all of it in Paris though. So, uh, got an Uber, uh,

SPEAKER_01: 34:35

Yeah, if you had one of those color gauges, you were on a red. Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 34:41

Eye alert. So I was on a more elevated level of awareness and whatnot because...

SPEAKER_01: 34:51

You're really nice to yourself when you talk about that. Because... I was not that nice. about

SPEAKER_00: 34:58

you. You were not that nice about me at all. You had a lot of pushback.

SPEAKER_01: 35:01

I'm like, why are you being

SPEAKER_00: 35:06

so

SPEAKER_01: 35:07

serious? Can you just loosen up? It's not that intense. It's not that bad out here. They're just people living their lives. They're just trying to steal money. They're just trying to steal your stuff and my stuff. It ain't

SPEAKER_00: 35:21

happening. It

SPEAKER_01: 35:22

wasn't that serious.

SPEAKER_00: 35:24

All that Like I was saying before, I have to not just take care of myself. Because if it was just me, I could zip on through, get on with my day and not worry about it. But now I have a responsibility. I have to take care of you as well. So having to herd cats sometimes. I mean Rachel. I mean politely ask her to come along.

SPEAKER_01: 35:49

Yeah, but I'm also carrying like 100 pounds. And that wasn't very nice. Like, were you not to see that I was struggling? That was so much.

SPEAKER_00: 36:03

It's one of those where you got to manifest this and pull them bootstraps in.

SPEAKER_01: 36:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:08

But we did great. It was fun. It

SPEAKER_01: 36:09

wasn't made for backpacking.

SPEAKER_00: 36:10

Well, we did it,

SPEAKER_01: 36:12

though. I did it. Yeah. We did it. And you did great. I did it.

UNKNOWN: 36:15

I did.

SPEAKER_00: 36:15

And so we got there and we got to our hotel and our hotel. Um, it was kind of a luck of the draw. It had really good reviews and it was in the heart of Paris. So it wasn't, we were just like two blocks away from the red light district, but it was such a, uh, distinct, um, line that you could literally tell, like you could like a, line in the sand right like this is oh you cross this literally that's it it was such a contrast like that building sucks and then right next to it is not and it was yeah it was crazy but our place it was cool there was a couple bars down below us um we were

SPEAKER_01: 36:51

in the garden of paris is what it felt like we just so gardening

SPEAKER_00: 36:55

we very i mean

SPEAKER_01: 36:57

yeah i

SPEAKER_00: 36:58

mean marble is kind of

SPEAKER_01: 37:00

good no there were like flowers on every

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

oh sure sure i understand oh yeah So we learned that night, too, that Parisians stay up late.

SPEAKER_01: 37:09

Oh,

SPEAKER_00: 37:09

yeah. Every night. Not just... Every night. Every night. Because we got there, what, like a Tuesday, Wednesday, or whatever it was?

SPEAKER_01: 37:14

It was like midweek. Yeah. It wasn't even a party night.

SPEAKER_00: 37:17

So, yeah. But it's just... They love karaoke. They do.

SPEAKER_01: 37:22

They're good at it. I mean, they should love it. I listen to every song.

SPEAKER_00: 37:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01: 37:27

I heard it.

SPEAKER_00: 37:29

So...

SPEAKER_01: 37:30

Some of them had fans and they had people

SPEAKER_00: 37:33

singing with them. On our way there, this is where we go back to the McDonald's. So there's an old, like the movie Pulp Fiction, when John Travolta and Sam Jackson are in the car and he's like, man, you dig Europe, man. He's like, you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in McDonald's in Paris? They don't call it a quarter pounder. He's like, nah, man, they got the metric system. They don't know what a quarter pounder is. Well, they call it, he said, they call it a Royale with cheese. So I wanted to go see if it really do called a Royale with cheese. And I went in and luckily McDonald's has the digital menu by the door. Look through it right there. Royale cheese took a picture. I was like, cool, we can go. Didn't need it. Don't know what it tastes like, but I just wanted to see if it was real.

SPEAKER_01: 38:12

It's real fake food.

SPEAKER_00: 38:15

Sure. And we didn't eat it, but we went to a cool little cafe. And the thing about Paris is they are literally out in every corner. If you think of how in Southern California you see a 7-Eleven on every corner, every single corner, I mean literally every corner is a different cafe.

SPEAKER_01: 38:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 38:32

But we

SPEAKER_01: 38:33

did go to a chain. We went to Starbucks because I was tired of just getting those tiny espresso shots. I wanted an actual coffee and I knew Starbucks was a safe bet for the coffee. I like to drink. So I really did appreciate the

SPEAKER_00: 38:49

Starbucks. It gave you a chance to get some wifi.

SPEAKER_01: 38:52

Oh yeah. And I got to the wifi and I got to check my, check my stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 38:57

So I'm going to pass the next lesson learned on this as far as hotel. hotels and packing is every hotel has a hair dryer. And it may not be the super special hair dryer that you want, but it is voltage rated for European outlets unlike ours. And I won't name names, but somebody that was in our room blew up their hairdryer in their hand that popped the breaker for like the entire floor of our hotel and we had to go down somebody had to go down look a lot like me and be like we blew up our hairdryer please don't make me pay for this. It was, she's like, no problem. She got two screwdrivers, open a closet and reset the breaker. But yeah. Um, so that happened. And then her, seriously, her hairdryer, bam, like exploded.

SPEAKER_01: 40:07

And she

SPEAKER_00: 40:09

had a, yes, she did. And she had a look of like, don't you dare you say, I told you so. But lessons learned, they all have hairdryers and, um, It was, it was a cool hairdryer. So it didn't take up like a lot of space. It's not like whatever. I had

SPEAKER_01: 40:23

a wand, man. People

SPEAKER_00: 40:24

don't want. So it broke into two pieces. So it wasn't like it was taking a lot of real estate versus a traditional hairdryer.

SPEAKER_01: 40:30

I was really disappointed that that bit the dust.

SPEAKER_00: 40:34

Well, the thing too is like, if you're staying there and we pay, I, we paid. We got a nice place. So, like, if they're going to have that, use the amenities they have. I mean, it's there. I

SPEAKER_01: 40:43

mean, like, I know now. Sure. You know, the first time I went to Canada, I didn't know that they had ketchup.

SPEAKER_00: 40:48

Wow.

SPEAKER_01: 40:49

It's not that I just don't know and I don't know. So, like, why would they have ketchup? I thought it was an American thing.

SPEAKER_00: 40:56

It

SPEAKER_01: 40:56

seemed very...

SPEAKER_00: 40:57

Lessons learned was check the weather and that will help your packing as well. It rained a bit. Yeah. But we were prepared. We had little rain jackets. Do not leave your family My favorite rain jacket at home. Somebody might have done that. It might have been me.

SPEAKER_01: 41:12

That was not me.

SPEAKER_00: 41:13

It was definitely me. I didn't have a favorite rain jacket. It's my brand new one. It's favorite because it's brand new. And it was sweet. And I still don't have it back. But check weather, all that. It was good. It was a good time, though. And

SPEAKER_01: 41:27

go to the Louvre. Whatever you do, go to the Louvre. Oh, another thing about that is we got some intel about the Mona Lisa is... If you ever go to the Louvre starting next year or 2027. I don't remember. I don't remember either. But go soon because they're going to start charging an extra ticket. For the Mona Lisa. Thanks for finishing my sentence. See? Two peas in a pod.

SPEAKER_00: 41:58

Yeah. And... They know it's the most popular and the most sought-out attraction at the entire place.

SPEAKER_01: 42:06

All right, let me tell you why this is popular. And I thought this was a really cool story, and then we'll move on to the rest of our trip. But she said that the Mona Lisa was so popular because one time they had the Mona Lisa stolen from them. So because it was stolen and it was given to the king, And he was like, everybody needs to go find the Mona Lisa, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was gone for three years and all the countries knew about it. And then it basically was a media ploy and building up the Mona Lisa. It's not even that it's just like so spectacular, beautiful. It's just, it got stolen and now it's now a rarity. And so they found it. They gave it back to France. France has traveled with it one time over to the United States in to New York and that's when they did a bunch of films and stuff like that with it and then it's come back but it will never travel again because there's not a price on it

SPEAKER_00: 43:08

in case something happens to it you can't insure it

SPEAKER_01: 43:11

can't insure it and yeah That's it. That's the whole reason why it's cool.

SPEAKER_00: 43:17

Well, it was cool. I appreciated it for what it is. And it was something to say, you know, one of the wonders of the world. It's not, but like, it's like that, you know.

SPEAKER_01: 43:26

Kind of.

SPEAKER_00: 43:26

And saw it and like, I did not feel disappointed.

SPEAKER_01: 43:30

Oh, I didn't either. I was so happy about it. And as a matter of fact, some of those paintings in the art in that place had just took me. And it was an emotional experience for me. The

SPEAKER_00: 43:43

stuff I enjoyed the most probably was the sculptures.

SPEAKER_01: 43:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:47

I forgot about that. You know what I mean? I was just... So you automatically just think paintings on a wall. Right. And I totally forgot. Like, oh my gosh, there's all these... And then... i knew like those famous sculptures and statues that we saw i knew they existed i don't know why i didn't know they were there but i was like oh no kidding like dang that's that

SPEAKER_01: 44:08

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 44:09

yeah right so that was cool um

SPEAKER_01: 44:12

i really liked the beginnings of the Louvre and being down in the tour in the first parts of the dungeon and walking through that's one of the walls we touched and they were like don't touch anything after we were touching it we touched it first

SPEAKER_00: 44:29

but yeah it was I absolutely recommend everybody do that We went on a nice walk. And we saw... I saw all the major things that I want to see. Like the Arc de Triomphe was so cool for me. I don't know why. It's probably one of the ugliest structures it is. It's so basic and whatnot. And it's design, shape, you know, it's not like it's a...

SPEAKER_01: 44:54

Actually, its design was so intricate and

SPEAKER_00: 44:57

gorgeous. Well, the finish, but I mean, it's just a simple shape. That's what I mean. It wasn't like... all this engineering feats of, you know, but the art on it, the sculpting on it and everything was just awesome. And it's even bigger as well in real life than, um, you see the photos and stuff and it's like the, the gateway to Paris. And if you look through it, you can like line it up and it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01: 45:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:24

Eiffel tower was way taller and way bigger than I thought it was. I don't know why I, maybe because we see, um, like half-assed stuff in like vegas or excuse me whatever that you think that that's what it is but it's it was ginormous

SPEAKER_01: 45:39

yeah it was

SPEAKER_00: 45:41

lessons learned is you can every almost almost everything i bought pre-advanced tickets and stuff for you could buy at the counter without having to worry about it

SPEAKER_01: 45:53

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 45:53

so and if you want to do the thing do the damn thing i didn't have doing a tower Eiffel Tower tour on the bingo card, but I'm so glad that Rachel added it.

SPEAKER_01: 46:03

Well, yeah. I wasn't going to leave Paris without that one.

SPEAKER_00: 46:08

For sure. And I'm glad we did it. Timing. Timing, you definitely have to be...

SPEAKER_01: 46:12

He was real resistant about getting up in the tower, and I'm like, we're going. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00: 46:18

I didn't think we were going to make it in time.

SPEAKER_01: 46:21

We had a dinner cruise scheduled, and it was 6 o'clock-ish. And we didn't really know how far we needed to walk. But we could see how far we needed to walk once we got up in the tower, so it worked out. Right. You could see anything from the tower.

SPEAKER_00: 46:36

The dinner cruise was great. Got to see Paris at night and all the cool stuff in Paris at night. And then it was awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 46:44

So then the next day, we go to Normandy.

SPEAKER_00: 46:48

After... we walked all the way to Notre Dame.

SPEAKER_01: 46:54

Oh, yeah. Talk about right on time. We did everything that happened with us was right on time, from Boston to London to Paris to Normandy. Everything. It was. Yeah. It was uncanny. This was real special. It was really cool. We got to the cathedral right when church started.

SPEAKER_00: 47:16

Notre Dame, Notre Dame, whatever you say.

SPEAKER_01: 47:18

Yeah. Yeah. It was gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00: 47:21

Yeah, right as they were doing mass, it started. And, like, they have that going, and you can go, like, they have it, like, roped off. We did not plan that. No, and then we ended up taking communion. Well, I did, anyways. Yeah, I got blessed. Yeah, it was, wow.

SPEAKER_01: 47:33

Yeah, we had a whole, like, spiritual experience.

SPEAKER_00: 47:38

And we made sure we stopped along the way, got some snacks and stuff. It was cool. We, uh, it was perfect. There was actually a lot more in between all of this, but I've actually talking really fast and trying to get as much detail and even skipping some stuff. It could be an entire hour of just what we did, but we, so our trip was so dense with stuff we did that it, we really did three, four weeks worth of stuff in days. Um, But it was so cool. And actually with that, we saw everything we wanted to see, pretty much, like 99.9. And with that, we felt satisfied. There was nothing like, man, I wish we had whatever. I mean,

SPEAKER_01: 48:20

so with that, when we go back, we don't have to go there.

UNKNOWN: 48:24

There's nothing we have to make up.

SPEAKER_01: 48:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 48:27

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 48:29

That cathedral was everything, though. And it was rebuilt from the fire.

SPEAKER_00: 48:34

Yeah, and it was just the outside. It was just a little bit that was the inside. But yeah, everything. They just cleaned it up, cleaned all the soot off and stuff. I made sure I touched that place, too.

SPEAKER_01: 48:42

Yeah, I did, too. It was magical. I mean, the whole experience inside and just feeling that energy and seeing all the things that you can see. And it was just so, so neat to walk around and then be part of that whole entire thing. Mass. Like, we were just part of it. And we didn't know anything that they had said except the Peace Be With You song. I knew that one. Thanks to my men. And then, you know, we walked up there and I knew what they were doing. And I was like, let's go.

SPEAKER_00: 49:15

It was great. And I'm so glad we got to do that.

SPEAKER_01: 49:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 49:18

And then we got an Uber because we had to. And we picked up our bags and made our way to the train station. That was a

SPEAKER_01: 49:27

good lesson learned, by the way, a keepsake. You found the places that stored our backpacks.

SPEAKER_00: 49:33

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was real cheap. It was a real easy app. And I picked hotels. There was other businesses that did it, and I can't remember the name of the app or, like, the service. Like, Stasher. It was Stasher. And it was, like, 15 euros for, like, the whole day. You drop your bag. Because, you know, you have to check out of your hotel by 11 a.m. Like, well, we don't have to be back at the train station until 4 p.m. So we were able to stop at a big bag, kept our backpacks, and just had our to-go stuff and that was cool yeah but yeah uh so then we go to normandy and there was lessons learned pride swallowed on my end and just that not i've thought about it there's nothing i could have done to prepare for normandy that would have made the outcome easier it was literally i i Didn't know what we needed to do. I had an idea, but exactly how this we had to do it until you did it. There was no information. There was no formal, like, the ceremony starts at this time at this location. I just, we had to wing it. And I had no idea how big the beaches, there was five beaches. Well, we

SPEAKER_01: 50:46

went for D-Day specifically. We planned

SPEAKER_00: 50:49

our trip. We did.

SPEAKER_01: 50:50

At this exact time.

SPEAKER_00: 50:51

To be there on June 6th, which was the 81st anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy to liberate Europe. So we did that. So we got there the day before. So we did half in Paris and took up there. But we got, ended up, I got our hotel on the very end, on the opposite end, because there was five beaches that were invaded. If you look at it, if you're looking at the map, left to right, the American beaches were on the far left two, and then the Canadian and Brit beaches were the last, the three right. We were at the very last one, which was Sword Beach. We ended up meeting some cool Brits and stuff at this pub, restaurant thing up the way, hanging out the night before, but I had to bite the bullet. We didn't have the train, I just didn't have the timing right, so I paid like$100 for an Uber. But it was a long ride. It was like a 40-minute ride from there to there. With our backpacks. Yeah, so we had to do all this. There was no checking in or anything. But we got there. We got to the Omaha Beach where they literally just started the ceremony. Like they waited

SPEAKER_01: 52:07

for us almost to get there. And it was just bizarre how right on time we

SPEAKER_00: 52:11

were. We did all the things. I checked all out. pictures and I'm looking left looking right like which way do we want to go I'm looking I'm like well let's go this way it's towards the other one we won't make it all the way because we're at Omaha Beach we won't make it to Utah but like I don't know there's probably like a restaurant or something we can walk that way and it's probably a half mile to a mile away it was long we get there there was another memorial site that they were doing they just started another thing on and then But it was like

SPEAKER_01: 52:40

every time we showed up, they had started the

SPEAKER_00: 52:43

U.S. Yeah, and there was a restaurant there, and Rachel was like, can we sit outside? I was like, no, it's been raining often, and you have to sit inside. She's like, ugh, fine. Wasn't happy about

SPEAKER_01: 52:52

it. As

SPEAKER_00: 52:52

soon as we sat down at our table, the sky opens up. And he had to look like, I told you so. Not a lesson that I learned, but a lesson Rachel learned was... Cheese and butter in France look very much alike.

SPEAKER_01: 53:10

Oh, my God.

SPEAKER_00: 53:11

But also that the customs and culture over there are different and service is rendered differently. so did that we walked across a bridge to nowhere and i turned around and kept walking and you know and then we got to the museum the d-day museum that used to be an old medical like bunker dude that was a really cool hospital thing and got some cool swag and stuff and met and then we had the coolest uber driver he was hilarious took us to um train station hop on the train had a weird encounter with some with some fucking people there and then got back and then we didn't so when we got to got back to paris it was we stram we stream we stram i'm not saying it right we got there we literally were on like the wrong side of the tracks as in like that was like what you all everybody thinks of like the bad side of the tracks like it was all there we didn't know there was another side there was a walkway until we got back and that's where it dropped us off at we're like wait a minute we could have

SPEAKER_01: 54:12

what yeah

SPEAKER_00: 54:13

you know um we

SPEAKER_01: 54:15

were definitely sought after and it kind of sucked because we were dressed ice and we had our backpacks and things when we first got to Normandy so we were kind of like I don't know. I felt very targeted.

SPEAKER_00: 54:31

Oh, we absolutely were like, and I made sure to do our best to not stand out. Um, you're gonna a little bit like they may not have had the finger on us that we were American, but they knew we obviously weren't French.

SPEAKER_01: 54:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 54:44

Um,

SPEAKER_01: 54:45

but then when we left, it was different. It was a different story. Cause like you said, other side of the tracks, literally.

SPEAKER_00: 54:50

Yeah. So then we got back and then we caught, uh, we got back into Paris and it was, um, It was hard to catch a ride. And when we finally got one, got the ride to the airport, which our hotel, I had our hotel get at. So I don't know if the lessons learned, but a win would be we had our hotel right by the airport, about as close as you can get. It was like a half mile where we took a bus from there, a shuttle, trolley, train, bus thing.

SPEAKER_01: 55:17

That was super

SPEAKER_00: 55:18

smart. Which was, it just worked out. It just worked out well. We had a direct flight back to Cincinnati. But I had... an amazing time we'll have to do another one just to fill in some of the other things but i would say we learned that we could do more than we thought we could yeah with less um i think we learned that we were

SPEAKER_01: 55:41

a lot less

SPEAKER_00: 55:42

we were able to pivot pivot when we needed to and um we uh We're definitely elder millennials. We're not as tech savvy. We were like, I got the cash. Everybody's like, use your phone, Grandpa.

SPEAKER_01: 56:00

Yeah, never getting the cash again.

SPEAKER_00: 56:02

If we were to go back to Paris, I still would not get a rental car. But if we go back to France, basically anywhere that's not Paris, I would absolutely get a rental car.

SPEAKER_01: 56:16

Yeah, I think we could try the metro area.

SPEAKER_00: 56:20

Oh, sure. You

SPEAKER_01: 56:20

know, we didn't do that. No. And I think we should have. But, you know, Mr. Red Alert over here was not having

SPEAKER_00: 56:28

it. I was not feeling that. It was the climate. The social climate was not the time to be in a confined space. I didn't feel like.

SPEAKER_01: 56:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 56:44

I wasn't feeling it. I wasn't feeling very like that was the right way. Way to go about it.

SPEAKER_01: 56:52

So what was your best part about France? Your favorite part.

SPEAKER_00: 56:59

Oh man, that's tough. That's really tough. Um, I don't know. I don't know if I've got too many ties for first. I think it's going to be hard to pick just one or the favorite. I don't know. Um, Seeing the Arc de Triomphe in real life was pretty cool. That was really something. It was something, I don't know why, of all the French architecture and everything, like that one always fascinated me the most. I always thought it was the coolest. I think I even did like a little report model on it when I was in seventh grade, diorama or something. I don't know, there was something I just, and then to see it in real life and have it be even, it was better than I thought it was gonna, like I liked it even more Because it exceeded my expectations. It was the complete opposite of disappointment. The entire trip was like that, but that particularly was like that too. The Eiffel Tower was... I was in awe of it because I was like, oh my, this is something else. But it was uglier in real life than I thought.

SPEAKER_01: 58:07

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00: 58:08

It really was. Yeah, like the paint, the color. It was like an orange rust kind of brown. I don't know, but... I was like, that's uglier than I thought. I don't know why, but guys, cause you probably see it all lit up with all the lights and stuff. So it's like, Oh, it's magical. But in real life, I'm like, why are they painting over? I don't know. But, um, yeah, see, but see, then there's all, man, I don't know. Like it was all, it was all pretty incredible. Um, in Paris, uh, D I mean, going to Normandy beach, Utah beach, that was pretty incredible too. Yeah. Um, but that was different in Paris, but yeah, I'm so glad we did that. I'm so glad we did that too. And like humped and carried our own stuff.

SPEAKER_01: 58:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 58:50

Um, cause those guys didn't have it easy 81 years ago.

SPEAKER_01: 58:53

No, they didn't.

SPEAKER_00: 58:54

Um, and we met, we met the only Americans we met in the wild. We met there. And of course, but like, it was a dude that happened to grow up. Like he lived like blocks away from where I lived in Colorado. Like we did the same. We were the same. He went

SPEAKER_01: 59:07

to Littleton high school.

SPEAKER_00: 59:08

Yeah. And I, yeah. I know.

SPEAKER_01: 59:11

How bizarre. Of course it happened that way, you know? Like, of course it did. That was the most serendipitous trip of anything. Like, all of it. Yeah, you didn't ask me, but I'll say my favorite part in

SPEAKER_00: 59:26

France. Rachel, what was your favorite part about Paris?

SPEAKER_01: 59:32

Yeah. I loved... My most vivid memories are probably the cafe where we sat in that, what looked like a rose cafe where we set out and just, I needed to stop and get a refresher. So we did. And I just sat there and like everything was just so beautiful there. Like it didn't matter where I was in Paris. I felt like I was in this world. art piece it didn't matter where like even the little lights on the street had architecture designs on the light posts yeah i just thought everything was just so enchanting was just awesome

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:24

it's a it's a super cool place super pretty yeah super interesting the

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:29

smells

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:30

yeah it didn't stink

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:31

no it smells so beautiful like just the most beautiful perfumes

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:38

Oh, yeah, that was a thing. That actually was surprising to me. I don't know why, but it was like...

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:44

Just randomly get whiffs of people, and it wasn't gross. I'm like, whoa, I could live here, you know? It smells so good.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:55

It did.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:57

The croissants. They were

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:59

so huge. My favorite breakfast we had was that one. At

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:03

the little cafe. At

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:04

like the top of the hill. I feel like it was the top of the hill.

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:07

Where we had the croissant and the yogurt. Yeah, it was awesome. It was like a 10-course meal breakfast. I was like, holy moly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:16

And their food over there is so clean, so natural, so organic. They don't even use the word organic because everything is. And we went to one of the little markets. Across

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:25

the street. from

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:25

all the uh stuff they're selling it's like man if we could only but we uh yeah and i don't know if you did but i felt great the whole time

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:35

yeah i did

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:37

you know it probably helped that we

SPEAKER_01: 1:01:38

were walking 13 miles a day too

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:40

but i mean like we never really were tired we were never we were never exhausted we were and we were walking 12 mile days for sure we were never exhausted we um We were doing a lot. Like, we should have been, like, dead. I mean, we were dead tired. I mean, we were tired, but we weren't, like, babe, we were just more tired doing, like, some yard, like, just some... Putting up a swing set. Since we're back. But then, dude, we did, like, yeah. And we were also consuming knowledge and, like, culture. Yeah, it

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:12

was so cool. I loved Normandy for that... had such a deep meaning for everybody there. And you could just feel the energy and like the respect that just hands down, total tribute to all that happened.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:36

I've yeah. And it was, I've never been to a beach where there weren't people doing beach things, you know?

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:45

And I've never been to a North facing beach either.

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:48

It was chilly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:50

It

SPEAKER_01: 1:02:50

was pretty chilly.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:51

But it was humbling, and it was pride. It was just neat, man. And to do it on the anniversary, too. And that actually was on purpose by accident. I was lining up the dates for everything. And I wanted to do that if it did. And I worked out the timing for our flights and how we could plan the trip. I'm like, we could end the trip. It just lined up perfectly in the manifest. So then I made it. It was intentional that we're going to do that. And I'm glad we did. And to do it on the anniversary day. And that is, I like to do things that... Not necessarily that nobody else has done before. It's not that or to... bragging rights, I guess, sort of, but, like, to do it, like, I've been, like, I've been there, I've seen that, and so to go there on the anniversary was, like, it's like, it's like in the Navy, something I never got to do, well, I crossed the equator, right, so, the, I'm a shellback, but, so this would be, like, if you were to become a golden shellback, it's not just when you cross the equator, but at zero, zero, so you're considered a golden shell, zero latitude, zero longitude, um, so to be it was like that so okay i got to cross the equator which is going to normandy but then to do it at the launch to as well like oh wow the golden it was like the golden yeah thing so and as a veteran i i really have even more respect for everything that happened and they're on and then i i appreciated that you were like into it so then we watched the i had her we started the band of brothers, uh, series and she, you know, she learned that she didn't know about it and like, you really liked it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:04:34

Yeah, it was great. It, and I'd say that whole trip also, um, put a lot of perspective to on your, my views about you as a veteran. And I know that sounds, um, I actually don't know what that sounds like, but my views about you as a veteran, meaning, you know, maybe before I really understood what that truly meant before going on that trip to me, perhaps maybe meant, yeah, you were in the Navy and had a really great six years, but five years, but you know, but now it's like, You were in the Navy and could have been called at any point in time to be part of perhaps a D-Day, if that had to have happened. It didn't matter. But that just gave me such more pride to not only be an American, but also be with you as a veteran. And it really kind of... set home for me with like yeah marry this guy duh yeah so maybe a crush on you a little more it was

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:00

I'm glad I got to share it with you

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:02

yeah me too thank you

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:05

Anytime. Anytime.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:07

I love you. I guess I'll talk to you in a minute. But thank you guys for tuning in.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:13

Thanks for letting me talk your ear off.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:16

Yeah. I think we had some good lessons learned.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:19

Sure. Sure did. Yeah. And I think our next trip that we go to, hint, hint, it's in the Pacific, is going to be... It's going to be 10 times. I'm not going to say 10 times better, but we're going to be 10 times better for it from this trip.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:37

I'm just going to let you plan them all. I feel like that's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:41

I'm glad this is on the record. Everybody hears that. I'm planning the wedding. Oh,

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:45

yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:48

And what am I planning? The honeymoon. Exactly. The fun part.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06:51

Yeah, whatever. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you, boo.