Preparing to Start a Parisian Thanksgiving Vacation

It's been just over five months since I've last posted, but here I am two days away from a week long vacation in Paris. I'm sitting in a hotel room in Colorado Springs typing this up at the tail end of a three day work trip. Tomorrow I depart on a grueling series of flights (COS->DEN->PHL->ITH) to make my way up to my hometown in Upstate NY to meet up with my wife and daughter and see my family on my birthday. My wife, daughter, and I will then depart for Paris via Rochester (ROC->YYZ->CDG).

The last couple days have left me slightly stressed out. I've not been able to adjust to the two hour time change, which has caused me to wake up every morning around 4:30AM with no hope of falling back asleep. Last night I was only able to get about three and a half hours sleep. The travel to Europe will probably compound my lack of sleep, c'est la vie. Adding further to my current state was my six month pregnant wife's nightmare trip to Upstate NY with our daughter. She received notice that her flght had been bumped up from 6:50PM to 4:30PM, with less than an hour notice, while I was stuck in a critical work meeting. All I could do was read her panicked text messages. In the end it all worked out and she made it to her family's house unscathed.

Well now that I have some time to relax, I'm going to try to catch some Zs before I head out to a US Air Force Academy Football game (vs. Hawaii; man I thought I had it rough). Check back over the next couple days for some pictures once we get to Paris (Monday morning).