This morning I woke up at 4:00 <sigh> but at least that made it easy to get in line early (before 8:00, when they opened) at the massage school and sign up for today's two-for-one deal.  (I was by NO means the first one in line!)  

Carol can't go until after church, but last time we waited until then to head over they were already filled up for the day.  Now we have a space reserved, around 2:00.  Of course that was before I found out (later this morning) that her daughter Mindy set up an appointment for someone to come over and look at the kiln this afternoon.  I may have to push our appointment back.

Speaking of getting-rid-of-large-objects-that-take-up-space, that reminds me - Tom is getting rid of his drafting table, which looks like this.  

It's possible Lisa may have room for it in her new place (she stands up to use her computer, grade papers, etc.) but if she doesn't want it, maybe one of you do?  (It would certainly make a great craft table for the right person.) If so, make us an offer!  

This morning I sent off the first batch of photos to some of my fellow 'bus cruise' travelers - thought they'd enjoy seeing pix of themselves in France.  To start off my cruise pix, here are Mom and me on the top of the boat in Lyon, where we were docked for days.

See that long flight of stairs, which of course we had to traverse many, many times? There were no railings for Mom (or anyone else) to hold onto. On the plus side, that fountain and large flower sculpture made it easy to find the boat!  (Usually I helped Mom up/down the stairs, but on the day that I was busy taking pix and fell behind, our cruise director Martine was there to help.)

And here are some pix of the boat itself. Our first glimpse, from the bus:

Home, sweet home!  Our room was down below; notice round portholes, barely above water level.

The portholes on our side of the boat faced the dock... and the sun!  

The room across the hall had a better view: the river (and no glare.)

Our sitting area (not that we ever found time to sit there....)

Our 'bedroom' (there was a TV on the desk.... that we never turned on.)

We had two bathrooms: this roomy one (against my bed's wall) for showering

and this smaller one (against the closet wall) for 'technical stops'; 

it took some getting used to French toilets with no 'regular' seats!

This is where we dined on all those scrumptious breakfasts, lunches and dinners:

Here's our intrepid captain checking things out as we wait our turn at the lock (on the one day we sailed.)

Here we are, docked in Lyon (where we spent several days.)  We barely eked out a view - of the wall!

These were the stairs down to our room - poor Mom!

Here is Grand Circle's other ship, the Chardonnay (on its way downriver doing the same trip as us, but in reverse) on the one day we sailed.  Everyone was very happy that (some of) the locks were finally deemed safe, and open for boat traffic!

We didn't splurge on a room with a balcony, figuring we wouldn't use it much.  Here Claudette is visiting Dave and Evelyn on theirs, possibly lamenting the fact that their view (which did not include the river) seldom changed! One advantage of those rooms, however, would have meant Mom would not have had to schlep up and down the stairs...

And here is our crew saying goodbye.  They were extremely attentive - it was pretty easy to get used to being taken care of!