Day 9: BEN...BEN...BEN!!!

Yesterday was all about Ben....driving to him, finding him, stuffing him in the car, taking him to Annecy, to his sleeping accomodations, to dinner and keeping him awake long enough so he could sleep off his 36 straight hours(with just a short 1 1/2 hour nap on the plane) of up time...

It was a humbling day for the travelling trio of Dan, Peg and me...  Humbling for Dan in his navigation skills, humbling for Peg in her worrying skills and humbling for me in my patience and parking skills.

We headed out from our dear Casa Ressia, saying goodbye for now to Alessandro, and being on the road by 9:30 meant we should have no problem making our way north on Italy's autostrada, past Turin, into the Aosta Valley, through the Mont Blanc Tunnel and skirting the southern tip of Switzerland to slide into Geneva's airport without riding on any of the Swiss Autoroutes...and thus pleasantly avoiding a one use fee of 40 euros.  How hard could that all be???  First we missed the turn to avoid a circular route to get onto the Italian Autostrada, then we missed the west of Turin route finding ourselves on the east of Turin route...things calmed down a bit until we missed the exit for the geneva airport and had to go 20 minutes in the wrong direction before we were able to get off the French Autoroute and start heading back to the airport to get...already now we were 20 minutes late.  Then we attempted, in our best French to convince the Swiss border guard to let us on to the Autoroute without paying the 40 euro..since the mama was only going to the airport to pick up her big boy.  He stopped looking at us after the first "but", and pointed to the u-turn option saying simply...FRANCE....but ...but....didn't work as we saw his right hand slowly reaching for his sidearm, (not really), so we u-turned it and spent another 45 minutes winding our way through the eastern part of France trying to navigate to the airport without the use of those very direct, well signed, built specifically for airport arrival type of roads.  I finally dropped Peggy and Dan at the arrival parking area (only 45 minutes late) and went spinning around the airport twice to avoid paying the 2 euro parking fee...Steve, are you loving this???
On my second loop, there they all were...and we squeezed Ben's luggage onto the floor and in the middle of the tiny backseat, and he flopped into the front seat, from whence began Dan's threat to keep him awake by any means possible, (kick him in the face) if he fell asleep on the drive.  We were expected in Grenoble at 7pm, and it was 3pm...so we had some time to kill...from the first photo with Ben, I'm not sure this was his idea of a good time?  Getting gas....but Peggy made the most of this quick gas break by practicing her amazing Polish balancing skills in case they were needed again in the future....

 To give you an idea of the size of our car...look back and notice how Danny is skying over it:)))  Our time "waster" was on our list of things to do...Lake Annecy and Passion Fruit Gelato...for Elva.

 Had to take the famous picture of Ben taking the famous picture...all the while our mis parked car acquiring increased improper parking fees...unbeknownst(?) to me....

 A rainy but joyful experience for all...especially after the canal-side beverage stop where I had an espresso (bam), Ben had nothing, Peggy had a German draught and Dan had a Chocolat Chaud....somehow I bet you could have guessed each of those beverage choices just by their faces...

 8 years ago, or so, we stood at this same spot waiting for 15 minutes for Steve to get on his little boat taxi, go across the 20 foot dock area (which he could have walked around in 42 seconds), go to the toilette (that's French spelling) and return before we could continue our walk around this beautiful lakefront.  I can still remember Steve's hat, as large as that little boat, which he proceeded to lose that day when we later stopped for that amazing gelato.  All that to say....this is one pretty lake and 1 pretty lady!!!

 How could you not take a picture of 2 butts and a swan??? nuf said...

 returning to our car, there was a smallish, folded triplicate copy of a parking ticket in my windshield.  Going up to the parking officer with Danny in tow to help explain that we didn't know it was a paid parking area...we were informed that our 11 euros had to be paid within 45 days, that we had to go to a Tabac store to get the receipt and that we had to mail that receipt to the address on the ticket or all international _ _ _ _ would break loose.  Somehow Dan was silent through it all:)

Upon arriving in Grenoble in the pouring rain, we decided to try Pizza Row where 24 pizzerias are lined up one right next to the other (I'm not kidding) for 4 blocks straight.  The one suggested to us was providentially closed, so we quickly found our favorite Tavola Calda...in the center of Grenoble just off the Place de Notre Dame.  Our favorite Italian restaurant still stood, and had the exact woman and chef as we remembered.  We visited there with Steve, Elva and Alyssa 8 years ago...she also remembered us, gave us free wine and kissed us continually on the cheek, because we went there so many times when Peggy was pregnant with Danny...and for her to now see him in all his glory, and to see Ben whom she remembered from when he was 9...It was a joyful reunion.  Weird huh, that so much joy could come from a restaurant lady ... I guess we ate out alot!!!!  (Oh yeah, I didn't notice it while taking this photo below, but as I see it now, it appears Ben MAY be standing on his toes....again...so he can sky over Dan)

So with another wood fired brick oven experience in our bag...and having loved every morsel that proceeded from it...I'm hoping Nick and Dan really will complete this amazing construction project so that when we arrive in Granite Bay on the 19th of July, it will be Wood fired, brick oven Pizza Party time!  For now it's drop off Ben and hope he gets a bit caught up on his jet lag.  [Sleep update...it is the next day while I write this, already 12:30 in the pm, and Dan says Ben is still sleeping...Yahoo!  We will wait for his awakening, and then set out in search of some more memories...] Au revoir and a bientot...