In Which I Discover Wax Museums are a Little Creepy, Grévin Museum, Paris (2016)

 Wax Museums.  I've heard about them.  Saw online stuff about them.  When my Mom visited Las Vegas this one time she visited Madame Tussauds and loved it, but mainly because she geeked out over Benjamin Franklin.

I've never had much interest in visiting one.  The idea of it all just sounds bizarre.  Life like models of individuals in wax, designed scientifically.  It all just feels like an grand invasion of privacy, as if there's not enough of that going one these days.

Tata Patou took my Mom and I to Grévin Museum in Paris.  I went out of curiosity.  Honestly, it was an interesting experience.  A lot of French celebrities I didn't know, some international stars that were familiar.  It was strange.  I don't know.  It's just strange.  The historical section was interesting.

Photos by Sarah and Robin Stufflebeam

Don't Put On Rose-Colored Glasses, Look Above

 "I am not suggesting you simply put on rose-colored glasses to make the world around you look rosy.  I ask, rather, that you look above and beyond the negative, the critical, the cynical, the doubtful, to the positive and the affirmative."

~ Gordon B. Hinckley

A good reminder.

And I hope you're enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather.  The trees in the mountains turned colors a month or so ago, but trees in the valley are starting to turn, and the colors are lovely.  This photo was taken in Ireland early September at Powerscourt, just when the leaves started turning.  This has been a wonderfully long Fall, which is nice because this is my favorite season.

The Eiffel Tower at Night

Last month I visited the Eiffel Tower with my Mom and Dad along with others from our tour.  This was my third time visiting the tower, but my first time at night.  I don't know how many times my Mom has visited the Eiffel Tower.  This was my Dad's first time visiting both the Eiffel Tower and Paris.

That morning we left Strasbourg with our tour for the long ride to Paris.

We got there sometime between 4-5 pm, and after settling into the hotel, my Mom, Dad, and I, along with two others from our tour, navigated the metro to the Eiffel Tower.  First off, there is now a glass like panel that runs around the base of the tower to help with security.  This is new and wasn't there back in 2016; A couple years ago when my Mom and I visited, just after the terror attacks, the security was very make shift.  Now security is tight.  Also, the lines are long!  I don't know if this is an end of season thing, but April 2016 we didn't have to wait long to go up the Eiffel Tower.  The line this time was about 1 1/2 hours, or so.

By the time we got our tickets it was night.

We all decided to go to the very top, so this wasn't just my first time visiting at night, but also my first time being at the very top.  The last two times my Mom, Patou, and I visited the second level.

 My parents.

 It was very windy at the top.

 But the views were amazing.

 Open air, but not too crowded.

 Afterwards we found a cafe on the way back to the metro.

 My Dad asked for a really large glass of soda and ended up with this.

We were all quite surprised.

 Dinner took a long time, the French way, but it was nice.

I had salmon.  And we all got crepes for dessert.  So yummy.

 "Vous êtes ici."

You are here.

When we were on the Eiffel Tower the lights started doing that sparkling, flicker thing.  It's quite the experience, flashes everywhere.

I wanted to see this from the ground, but didn't know when it happens.

Turns out every night at 8pm, 9pm, and 10pm, (not sure about 11pm), the Eiffel Tower sparkles for five minutes on the hour.

Our hotel has a good view of the Eiffel Tower from the top floor.  On our last night in the city, a group of us decided to gather around 8:00pm to watch.  I was five minutes early and was the only one there!  But a couple minutes later it seemed everyone came up the elevators at once, including my parents.  The balcony was closed, but a hotel employee let us outside to watch.  Even though the Eiffel Tower was far away, it was nice show.

A wonderful way to spend our last night in Paris.

Random Halloween Thoughts

Halloween!!!  Ahhh!!!!

Okay, so Halloween is an interesting holiday.  I LOVED it as a kid.  As an adult, I still think of it as a fun kid holiday.  It's not something I get into.  These days I enjoy seeing what my nieces and nephew dress up as, as I do candy duty for the neighborhood kids, getting annoyed by young 20 somethings who still think trick-or-treating is okay.  What is the age kids should stop trick-or-treating?  It's an individual decision.  I stopped when I turned 15, but still went around to take my brothers through the neighborhoods.

It seems as if more kids went trick-or-treating a decade ago than now.  There seems to be a decline.

A decade ago our neighborhood was the place to visit.  After Michael Jackson died nine years ago, one of our neighbors threw a huge Thriller tribute.  He hired dancers, costumes, makeup, effects, zombies came out of a storm drain, and there was a full on production right outside his garage every 10-15 minutes or so.  It was full blown impressively epic.  Crowds gathered, filling the entire street as word spread.  After the dance was done everyone dispersed, reminding me of the Halloween scene from E.T., just at night.  According to my brothers this neighbor and his family pulled off a cool haunted house the year before.  Somehow I missed it.  These neighbors have since moved.

When my family first moved here we actually avoided Halloween one night altogether and went to the movies.  I know, I know.  When we came out there was snow everywhere.  Our first snow of the season was on Halloween.  Welcome to Utah.  It hasn't snowed on Halloween in years.

I was talking with my sister-in-law Krista last night, and we wondered if the drop in kids trick-or-treating was due to increased trunk-or-treating.  Getting candy from car trunks will never replace going around neighborhoods.  When I was in the sixth or seventh grade I visited so many houses my trick-or-treat bag was completely full.  That was a good night. 

These days when I "dress up" for Halloween, I usually just put on my Gryffindor sweater and scarf.  Festive.  This year I just wore an Autumn sweater with a cute fox scarf.  (By the way, my baby niece was a fox for Halloween.  So cute.  My toddler niece was a ghost, and apparently earlier in the day when she was supposed to be taking a nap, she was standing up in her crib, blanket over head, saying "ooooh oooh ooh!"  Ha, super cute.)

Writing this is making me feel really lame.  Where's my sense of fun?  Dang.  Though I was thinking, if I'm fortunate enough to get married and have kids, it would be fun to dress up as Zelda, my unknown future husband as Link, and we'd dress our kids as chickens, carrying them around, no throwing allowed.  That would be hilarious.

My younger siblings did dress up.  Robbie and Lindsay we're dressed like the 1920's.  I should have asked if they were specifically dressed as anything.  Sibling fail.  My brother Steven was Captain America and his boyfriend Ty was Thor. 

Well, Halloween is now over.  Onto Thanksgiving.  When I was on candy duty last night I watched YouTube while waiting for knocks.  There was this video of Irish trying American Thanksgiving food that was pretty funny.  Though I don't really get into Halloween, I do enjoy Autumn.  I love the coziness of the season. The changing leaves.  An excuse to drink hot cocoa and eat pumpkin bread.  That's what I love.