Arrived safely in America

After waking at 4 am, we arrived in time to catch the flight at 7 am.  Great flight in a small Air France shuttle and arrived at Orly at 8 am.  Caught the DeGalle shuttle and after a long hour and half drive with heavy traffic, we arrived at terminal 1.  The flight was on time and the plane was very new... A 767 with lots of legroom!  A full plane, but a quiet bunch.  Lots of movie and tv choices kept everyone occupied.  Fun loving pilot announced that we should all keep our set belts on during flight as the plane goes very fast!   Small world again as seats were rearranged after our choices were made and my window seat became an end of the 3 seater middle row.  My 2 other seat mates turned out to be 2 physicians from Denver...one an ER doc at Children's and one  Internal Med from Kaiser.  We had fun talking about all the docs I worked for at National Jewish for 8 years.  They had met them over the years and became close friends with may of them!  They had 2 kids, 11 and 9 who sat at the 2 seat window area.  They sat through he 8 1/2 hour flight like angels...watching movies, playing games and reading!  I was able to watch the Story of Pi, which was a real treat!  Great movie and beautiful scenery.  Then I caught up with some tv programs and French lessons.  Landed at Dulles where we took an uncomfortable, long ride to DC and to Calla's apartment where she was waiting for me.  Can't believe it had been 6 months without seeing her.  We then ordered delicious Chinese food and caught up on my trip and her 10 day trip to Iceland....getting back the day before me.  She and I shared souvenirs, photos and stories.  Off to sleep early and woke up at 4 am.....nice we were both on the same jet lag schedule.  

Off to shop in Old Town Alexandria.  Had coffee and then went to Mount Vernon for more shopping after eating Popeyes fried chicken with red beans and  rice....was soooo good!  Then home exhausted, made calls to my next visitor in France, Jane, and Calla had to call MacMall to approve acceptance of the computer Tom ordered since it was a foreign transaction??? and had leftover Chinese and off to bed early again in anticipation of our visit tomorrow to the National Cathedral for service.