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Day 1 London and Amsterdam 2023

This trip is centered around Billie's 7th birthday. She remembers the trip Lola and I took in 2020, where we visited London, Amsterdam, and Paris. So she visited Paris last year and wanted to get a chance to visit the other spots on the list. So this year we decided to make it happen. We also invited my (Dan) niece Abby along with us. Abby is 18 and lives in East Texas with her family and hasn't had a lot of chances to see the world. What better gift than a trip to Europe? So she's included on this one. We decided to start the trip off by driving from El Paso to East Texas (Longview area) and visit with my family a bit before leaving the country. Coming to this area and flying from Dallas also saved us 900$ worth of flights, so double win. The only cost was the drive overnight, which is 11 hours. It was no easy thing, but Lola crushed it and we arrived at 230a and got into a hotel room. We got up around 8a and spent the day with family. We did some shopping in Longview, and...
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Day 3 Austin (ACL)

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One of our favorite spots in Austin is the corner of Lamar and 6th. At the corner you'll find 24Diner, Waterloo Records, Book People, and Whole Foods. Sort of a perfect mix of things that Lola and I love. And while there's plenty of gentrification and Austin stupidity, this corner has stayed pretty stable over the last 10 years. So this morning we invited our Austin-based friend, Adelle, to join us. Our first step was to hit up Waterloo Records, as we were waiting for a table at 24Diner and the two are in the same building. Didn't pick up any records, which is sort of shocking, but did pick up a set of vinyl dividers to help make sorting records a bit easier. We got our text saying the table was ready and we went to eat breakfast. Adelle came from across the street, she was reading at Book People. Our meal was delicious. Lola fell in love with 24Diner while she was in college and we always make it a point to visit the spot when we're in town. All three of us had waffles...
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Day 2 Austin (ACL)

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 Woke up in the hotel a little earlier than the rest of the fam, so I went down to the breakfast area. I know this isn't a review site, but holy cow! the spread was above and beyond. I had some biscuits and gravy (because white), then went back to Lola and Billie to wake them up (as the breakfast was only open for another 30 minutes. They rolled out and also expressed delight at the sheer amount of quality food. Neither had biscuits and gravy though! I went to the front desk, as the ladies finished their meal, to find out when the pool opened. I was informed that the pool was closed because it was "out of season." Some stupid BS right there. We had picked this hotel with the goal of swimming in the morning, so that kind of sucked. Billie was less than thrilled. So we filled our bellies and then wandered back into the room. Checkout wasn't till 12, so we lounged a while before leaving. The drive into Austin was just 2.5 hours from Junction, so it was a short leg. We ha...
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Day 1 Austin (ACL)

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When Lola and I were still just dating, we went to Austin City Limits Music Festival. Lola was pregnant at the time, so several times during that weekend, we'd have step out of the crowd and find a shaded spot for Lola to catch her breath and relax. That year, we saw Drake, Chance the Rapper, TV on the Radio, Alabama Shakes, etc. It was a good year. In the years that followed, we would plan on going again but each time, something would come up and we would bail on the idea. Until this year! With Billie now 6 and excited about travel, we decided this was the year to take her to Austin for ACL. And though the lineup of acts wasn't as interesting as years past, we knew we'd have fun regardless. So today was travel day one. We decided to get a hotel halfway to Austin (in Junction, TX). The drive was a bit longer in feel than we hoped. We got on the road from El Paso around 530pm and arrived in Junction around 1230am. It was a quick check in and we were in our hotel room. Tomorr...
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Day 6 in Paris 2022

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As part of this trip, we had purchased unlimited rides on the Metro, but the day limit was 5 days, so today is the first day we could REALLY embrace the use of Paris' Metro system. We've used it on previous trips and, to this day, people who are weirded out by it baffle me. Great system, easy to understand, efficient, effective, top class. I love it. Today had originally been schedule to be a visit to Versailles, but thanks to the Ukraine situation, the EU heads of state were using the palace as a meeting place and all tickets had been refunded. So a free day on the schedule meant a day of walking the main sites of Paris, as the majority of the group had never been (everyone but Lola and I). Thanks to the flexibility in our schedule, we all slept in and got a later start on the day (everyone was still beat from the trip to Rouen). We took the Metro to the area around the Arc de Triomphe. What some people don't understand about this landmark is that it's surrounded by a ...
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Day 5 of Paris 2022

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One of the best parts of our November trip to Amsterdam was the couple of day trips we scheduled. The benefit of having been to a city a couple of times is you know what you HAVE to see and what you can pass on, freeing up more time in your itinerary. Adding a trip outside of your main stop allows you to get a feeling for the wider country, rather than the one city you're in. For us, visiting Utrecht and Gouda in the Netherlands really flushed out our experience there. In a way that just staying in Amsterdam might not have. So on this trip to Paris, we decided to add in a day outside of the city and, after budgeting and looking at time investment, decided to visit the city of Rouen. If you don't know anything about the city, it's an ancient one in northwest France with a population about 100,000. The city has been around since before the country of France existed. Famous for being the city where Joan of Arc was murdered by the English, it has beautiful winding streets, char...
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Day 4 of Paris 2022

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The big keystone to this trip was Billie's birthday, so we were definitely going to Disneyland Paris on her birthday (3/10). Lola is a massive Disney fan and Billie is growing up in her footsteps. I didn't have much connection to Disney when I was younger, but watching my daughter and wife thrill to the parks and movies is enough to keep me coming along for the ride. And, sometimes I have a little fun of my own!  The trip out to the park is a 45 minute train ride out of the city. It's hard not to enjoy a fast train through the Parisian countryside. You can tell your headed to the right stop because they put the mickey ears on the name, you can't miss it. Billie was hopping up and down the whole way, because she's 6. It's fun to let that energy power the entire day, until it runs out of course! We arrived at the park early enough that there wasn't much of a line yet. But we got into formation to wait to get in, excited to storm the park before the crowds arri...
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