Love In Unexpected Places ✓

Chapter Three

It had been hard for me to fall asleep the last few nights. In a day's time, we would be in Paris, enjoying baguettes and ratatouille, while sightseeing the Eiffel Tower and the Luxembourg Gardens. I could hardly contain my excitement.

My parents felt the same way. My mother kept rehearsing French phrases prior to our flight so she could speak French fluently.

When we had woken up this morning, my parents had worked together to prepare a scrumptious breakfast of pancakes, sausage, eggs, and bacon. After we devoured the breakfast, they washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen back up.

We had to eat well and rest up because the next morning we would have to be at the airport at 5 AM for our 6 AM flight. The flight would take about ten hours in its entirety. We had a very busy day ahead of us.

"Enchanté! Je m'appelle, Blair. Comment allez-vous?" Mother said as she walked through the house, throwing things into her duffel bag for our trip.

When my mother had finished packing her bag, she came upstairs to help me pack for our trip. I put my sundresses, some jeans, shorts, my Paris shirts, socks, and tennis shoes in my suitcase. I had also packed my toiletries, and a couple of books to read on the plane.

When dinner time came, we decided to order Chinese for the night so we wouldn't have to worry about cooking a big dinner and cleaning up afterward. My mother ordered chicken lo mein with fried rice and egg rolls, my father ordered bourbon chicken with fried rice and egg rolls, then I ordered honey chicken with fried rice and egg rolls.

We sat around the dinner table enjoying our Chinese food and expressing our excitement for the day ahead of us. Even though this was mother's dream trip, I think it soon became everyone's dream trip.

When night fell, I ran upstairs to my bedroom, and climbed into my bed. My parents came in right after me to tuck me in and say our nightly prayer. When they walked out of the room, I stared up into the ceiling just waiting to fall asleep. Some part of me had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to sleep much tonight.

I tried to get some sleep, but my mind was running a thousand miles a minute as the excitement began to take its hold on my thoughts. Every time I closed my eyes, I only slept for a little while, before jolting awake with excitement. I awoke every hour, on the hour, as my subconscious was overly anxious.

When I finally woke for the day, I rubbed my tired eyes, while looking at the clock. The clock displayed the time as 4:04 AM. It was still dark outside when we started getting ready for the airport. The moon was shining brightly in the sky, accompanied by the twinkling of many stars.

My father gathered our luggage and put them in the backseat and trunk of our family van, before driving to Krispy Kreme to get us some donuts for breakfast.

We enjoyed our donuts with some Sunny D before it was time to leave for the airport. Before leaving, my father gathered us together into the living room to say a prayer for our safety on the trip.

After the prayer concluded, the three of us gathered into the van and made our way to the airport.

The ride to the airport was met in silence. I think we were all too excited for words. When we arrived at the airport it was five minutes until 5 AM. We walked inside and checked in, then put our luggage on the conveyor to be checked. Time passed rather slowly as we waited for the message that our plane was ready to board.

I was a little anxious about riding a plane for the first time, so I clung to my mother's hand as we walked through the gate, and onto the plane to take our seats.

Before take-off, the flight attendant instructed us on safety measures in the case of an accident. We put our seatbelts on, and began taxying the runway to prepare for take-off. We began accelerating as we climbed higher and higher into the sky. I kept my eyes peeled out of the window of the airplane to watch as the earth slowly faded away. When we reached our acceleration into the sky we were instructed to unbuckle our seatbelts. I watched as the clouds kept floating underneath us like waves.

I decided to read for a bit to pass the time, so I pulled out one of my favorite books, and rested my head on the back of the seat. After a while, I felt my eyes begin to get heavy, as they closed into a peaceful slumber. In my dream, I could see us arriving in Paris with the beautiful sky overhead, and the Eiffel Tower in the background. We stopped to take a photo op. I saw a little blonde-haired boy who caught my attention. My parents were talking to his mother who, luckily, spoke some English. I have to admit, the little boy was definitely cute. Probably not something my mother would want to hear her ten-year-old daughter saying.

After a three hour nap, I awoke to my mother's arm nudging me, asking me if I would like a snack. The flight attendant had come by to ask us if we would like something to snack on and maybe a little something to drink. I told them that I would love to have a snack. A moment later the flight attendant brought me a small bag of pretzels, string cheese, and an 8-ounce bottle of water.

Before we knew it, we were being told that the plane was preparing for the descent into the Paris-Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France. I couldn't see anything on the ground below me except a few blinking lights. Night had already fallen upon Paris.

We finally arrived at the airport, and walked over to the baggage claiming area to get our luggage. A big clock read 10:30 PM as we left the airport.

After we left the airport, we checked into the Hyatt Regency Paris Etoile. We took our bags up to the room and decided to rest. We ordered some pizza from Pizza Nuit Paris, which would deliver straight to the hotel. After all, there weren't many restaurants open to choose from.

Our pizza was soon delivered to our hotel and we enjoyed every bite. I have eaten many pizzas before, but nothing tasted quite like this one. When we finished, we laid down on the bed, flipping through the channels on the TV to relax for a moment.

We later decided that we wanted to visit the Eiffel Tower so we could see the lights radiate over the beautiful structure. We got into the rental car and rode over to the Eiffel Tower, which was a little over a mile from our hotel.

It was almost 12 AM in Paris. The Eiffel Tower has lights that shine every hour on the hour for five minutes from nightfall, until 1 AM. We made it with two minutes to spare until the next light show. We got out of the car and made our way over to the iconic landmark. I couldn't help but stare up in awe and disbelief, hardly able to accept that I was standing right in front of it.

In a matter of just a couple of minutes, the tower began illuminating golden lights that sparkled in the dark and lit up the city. It was a beautiful wonder to behold. My mother quickly snapped a photo of the lit-up tower with her disposable camera, one of many she brought with us on the trip. After the light show was over, we made our way back to the rental car, and then back to the hotel.

We planned what we would be doing and the places we would be visiting the next day. We had decided to have breakfast in the hotel lounge before taking a trip to the Luxembourg Gardens, shopping at the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, then back to the Eiffel Tower to take family photos.

As we relaxed on the bed my parents would be sleeping on, I recounted my dream that I had on the plane to my parents. They thought it was cute that I would dream about some blonde-haired boy that I would meet in Paris. What would ever be the chance of that happening anyway? Besides, as my mother stated, "Aren't you a little too young to be thinking about boys?"

My eyes were getting tired and I felt as if I could hardly keep them open. I decided to retire for the night. I climbed into my bed as my parents pulled the tan and green colored comforter over me, and gave me a goodnight kiss on the forehead. My parents had forgotten to say the goodnight prayer with me, so I said one in my head as my eyes began to drift off into a deep slumber. Before my eyes closed in sleep, I could hear my mother talk about this trip with such excitement in her voice. She was so excited about finally getting to live her dreams. I had only hoped that one day, I would be lucky to find a man like the man my father is. The next day was sure to be a start to memories we would never forget. One day we can look back at all of our photos and remember all of these special moments.