last run in paris, then air france home!

fontaine st. michel

yesterday was long! i got up early to get in a few miles before packing up and heading over to the airport. i only ran 4 miles, retracing the bulk of thursday night's route down to notre dame, but skipping the ile de la cite entirely. instead, i stayed on the left bank and turned north at place saint michel and came back to my hotel via blvd. st. germain. the only interesting twist, i took a minute to run down rue git le coeur (probably the shortest street in paris) to catch site of the beat hotel :D

back at my hotel i packed up my stuff and had a quick breakfast w/my friends andy and jack. i would share a taxi to the airport with andy and marty, actually, since we were booked on the same flight home. jack, on the other hand, was getting on a train to germany - where he had some business to work on. as we were finishing up bkfst, marty came back from her morning run. i'd meet back up with andy and marty in the lobby in an hour.

our trip to the airport was uneventful, but security checkpoints were almost over the top this time around. it included having my hands and bag swiped and tested for gunpowder residue - that was a first. guess i must have fit a terrorist profile with the way i was dressed. but i was in good company since they put andy and marty through the same paces. our flight boarded on time, but we sat on the tarmac for an hour before taking off. the plane took off at 2:15 - exactly one hour after its scheduled departure.

the flight itself was uneventful. i added "sideways," "forgetting sarah marshall," and some bits and pieces of other movies to the list that i watched on the flight over (indiana jones #4, baby mama, and the 2007 marathon du medoc). the pilot actually made up a half hour of the delay and would have been only a half hour off the scheduled arrival time, 3:15.... but, at 3:45 instead of descending to jfk, we wound up circling the airport for 45 minutes! we landed at 4:30, and after a 15 minute taxi to the gate, finally deplaned and reached customs just before 5!

the first question i asked the customs agent when i reached his station, "do you know if the giant's won?" he cracked up! "you're the second person who's asked me that in the last 10 minutes - don't know. but if you find out, let me know - there's no internet access on this computer (as he pointed to his work station). when i saw andy at baggage pick-up, he'd found out the giants had won! so despite all the delays, it was a happy car ride home :D

i came home to an empty house because pat had to drop katie and some friends off at a party. but not for long, and she returned home carrying a pizza w/half anchovies for dinner. the anchovies half was for me, the plain cheese side for her. i washed that down with dogfish head punkin ale and then crashed on the sofa to catch football scores, the giants game recap, and reruns of house.

now, here in my office, looking at a desk full of work, it hardly seems like i was away!