Keeping up with the Koske's: September 2014

This trip started like many others to the European continent at SFO. The difference this year is my folks went over really early, Lindsey and Oliver met them in Paris four days before me, and I pulled up the rear. The trip for my folks was good (if you want to hear about it, you'll have to ask them). I wish the same can be said about Lindsey's trip over. I had to drop Lindsey and Oliver off early because I had a flight to So Cal to catch for the first case of Spinal Kinetics' US clinical trial. So, Lindsey and Oliver got to SFO at 11am for a 2:40pm. Not horrible, but then her flight was delayed till 5pm. I definitely think there are better ways to spend 6 hours with a high energy three year old. If a 6 hour wait was the worst that Lindsey's trip had in store I would not have even mentioned it, but I'm afraid it got worse. 10 minutes before Lindsey and Oliver were to board their plane, Oliver ran a few steps ahead of Lindsey and she told him to stop. He stopped, but also grabbed onto the rubber rail of the escalator. Somehow his fingers got caught underneath it and burned the skin off from his middle and ring fingers, nearly from his first knuckle to his second knuckle on his palm side. In the meantime I had landed in LA and was at the surgeons office preparing for the case the next day, when I received a call from Lindsey, who was surprisingly calm explaining the situation. She said his fingers weren’t bleeding, he could move his fingers, got antiseptic cream and bandaids on the cuts, and wanted my opinion on what else to do. I told her if it wasn’t bleeding and his fingers didn’t seem broken, I didn't see a reason not to fly. So, on the plane she went, with a three year old who nearly got his fingers cut off by an escalator at SFO. Surprisingly he was really good on the flight. He ate a good dinner, watched some movies and slept for 5 hours.

Oliver with bandaged up fingers on the plane

Made it to Paris

Coffee Time

Lindsey got to Paris Wednesday afternoon and met up with my folks, who met her at the airport, and they made their way back to the apartment my folks had rented on Ile St. Louis. If anyone is ever looking to go to Paris and stay on the island in a VBRO apartment, let me know and I'll get you the details. It was a cool place. While Lindsey did gods work getting a three year old over jet lag, they visited Sacré Cœur, the Montmartre area and the Rodin museum.

Lindsey and Oliver at the Moulin Rouge

Hi mommy

Mommy there's a big p---s up there

Look at my body

Too much fun!!

After an uneventful flight I got to Paris on Saturday. I decided to give the RER train a try from the airport, so after collecting my luggage I made my way to the train station, got my ticket, and waited for the right train. I believe all of the RER B trains go to paris from the airport, but according to my French travel advisor (French colleague in the office next door to mine) it's best if you take the express trains that bypass over a half dozen stops that go through the part of town that cars were getting burned in a few years back. So I got on the right train and was on my way to Paris. About 25 min from my stop I receive this text from Lindsey, “So…His hand looks infected and we are at emergency room.” By the time I met my dad and put my bags in the apartment Lindsey and Oliver were done at the Hospital. Turns out when you’re a 3 year old American you get cuts in line at the local emergency room. We met them at the pharmacy down the street from our apartment so we could pick up all of the supplies we were going to need to dress his hand every morning. Best part of the trip to the hospital, other than Oliver getting fixed up, it didn’t cost us a penny.

The damage.

The supplies

With Oliver’s hand squared away, we decided to hit the town. We made our way to Saint Chapelle to see the fabulous stained glass. I would definitely recommend seeing Saint Chapelle the stained glass is amazing. After we finished up at Saint Chapelle, we made our way back to the apartment to clean up for dinner. For dinner we made our way over to the Left Bank, where we searched for a restaurant that serves Raclette (a French/Swiss cheese that you melt then drizzle over a variety of accoutrements). They’re actually a dime a dozen on the Left Bank. When the cheese was gone, we made our way back to the apartment by passing by Notre Dame, which is beautiful at night.

The stained glass at Saint Chapelle

Oliver at Saint Chapelle

Raclette with my folks on the Left Bank

All of us at Notre Dame

Poppy and Ollie at Notre Dame

The next day was probably Oliver’s worst day of the trip. We got up early to get to the Eiffel Tower, so we could hopefully keep the waiting in line to a minimum. After we had a little breakfast and I cleaned Oliver’s hand we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Luckily Oliver has plenty of practice waiting in lines from our trips to Disneyland. With that said the Eiffel Tower pushed Oliver beyond his limit. The problem was we were playing with fire regarding the proximity of meal time. I’m not sure we got a picture of Oliver smiling at the top. He needed food in his belly, now! We got down to one of the lower levels and got him a pretzel which appeased him for a little while. It’s funny because it you ask him now what his favorite part of the trip was, 9 times out of 10 the Eiffel Tower.

Oliver running around in line at the Eiffel Tower

Mom and Lindsey enjoying a Champagne on the top of the Eiffel Tower

Oliver at his happiest on the top of the Eiffel Tower

Pretzel and Chocolat Chaud and Oliver is finally happy...for a bit

When we were done with the Eiffel Tower we decided to walk across the Seine up to the Trocadéro to find a place to eat lunch. That’s when Oliver sees a merry-go-round and wants to ride on it, but he hasn’t been behaving himself. So we tell him if he’s good at lunch then maybe we can do something fun. At which point he completely melts down all the way across the bridge over the Seine. We tell him he needs to get in line or the next time we pass something fun we’re not going to do it. Well sure enough on the other side of the Seine…another merry-go-round. Damn. Oliver still wasn’t behaving, so no merry-go-round. I don’t negotiate with terrorists, I mean 3 year olds. He continued to scream for the next hour. Well, probably not an hour, more like 15 minutes, but it felt like it. He finally calmed down, we made it to the Champs-Élysées, and we found a spot for lunch.

By the end of lunch Oliver was back to himself. We decided to walk down the Champs-Élysées a bit after lunch. We walked by a Toyota store and due to Toyota’s presence in the 24 hours of Le Mans this year they were having a competition to see who could change a tire the quickest. So, Lindsey and I donned some googles and some gloves and set to work changing a tire. It’s safe to say that Toyota will not be hiring us for their pit crew anytime soon. Once we were done playing with tires, we decided to climb to the top of the Arc de Triomphe. With all 40 lbs of Oliver in my backpack we headed up the stairs. You definitely notice how many stairs there are when you have a passenger. We took some photos at the top then marched back down. On the way back to the apartment to get ready for dinner, Oliver passed out in the backpack, I’m glad someone got some rest.

Not to be confused for the real crew...plumber maybe

Oliver practicing for a future job

Climbing to the top of the Arc de Triomphe

Oliver and Lindsey at the top

Oliver passed out after a long day of crying and being carried around Paris

A boat ride on the Seine was on the agenda for the evening. Before we got on the boat we had dinner at a little restaurant called La Rose De France near Pont Neuf on Île de la Cité, which was really tasty and we met a nice family from Santa Cruz. The boat ride was as cool as ever. I really suggest a sunset boat ride on the Seine. You get to see the Eiffel tower lit up which is amazing.

Awesome restaurant on near Pont Neuf

My Dad and his yummy desert

Boat ride on the Seine

With Oliver’s bad day behind us we decide to check climbing to the top of Notre Dame off the list. So, with Oliver in the pack again up we went. The view from the top was spectacular and Oliver loved getting up and close to the various gargoyles that were perched along the top of the church.

View from Notre Dame

More stairs

At the top of Notre Dame

A bored looking Gargoyle on Notre Dame...must not be any evil spirits around

After lunch we made our way to the Musée de l'Armée (French army museum). Last time we were in France we missed it because we didn’t plan our days very well and it was closed, so we were determined not to make that mistake twice. So we got there and 90% of the museum was closed for some reason. Awesome. We did get to see an exhibit on the Musketeers which was cool. There was an exhibit where you clap your hands and animated sword fighters went at it ending in one of the character running through the other with its sword. It’s cool for 3 years olds to see that right? Well Oliver seemed to like it. Then we checked out Napoleon’s Tomb. We started working on Oliver’s church voice a month or two before we left. At dinner we’d all practice whispering. It actually worked pretty well by the time we were in Paris going through Cathedrals and Tombs Oliver was pretty good at using his church voice. We visited the gift shop and got Oliver some little plastic knights which he’s a big fan of and now he wants to be a knight when he grows up. For dinner we went to La Petit Chaise, supposedly the oldest restaurant in Paris. The food was tasty. I normally don’t order Foie Gras, but since they outlawed it here in California every place we went that had it on the menu we got it. I guess I can’t blame Eve for eating the forbidden fruit. We made our way back to the apartment to finish packing, as the next day we were headed to Belgium.