"Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one is a life diminished" - Dean Koontz

After Christmas Day and New Year's celebrations, Mark and I went through probably the roughest month we have had so far.  Christmas was a little harder this year than it was in Nantes because we stayed in our apartment.  It was hard not to feel far away and alone for at least part of the day, but we reminded ourselves of how lucky we are to be here together.  We skyped with family, which helped us to feel as though we were a part of the celebrations back home.  We loved watching Kaylea and Ava, our beautiful nieces, open their presents and bounce around on their new horsey bouncy balls.  After the holidays, we were able to travel a little more during the month of January, so we enjoyed a trip to Nîmes, where we were able to see the most well-preserved Roman ruins in all of France, and we took a 5-day trip to Barcelona to escape the cold weather for a little while.  Both trips were a lot of fun; however, our last day in Barcelona was not the best of days.  We found out our chocolate lab had cancer that had spread too far to operate, or even for chemo to be a viable option.  His loving caretaker Haley had been keeping us informed as she took him to the vet (she is one of the most amazing people I know-- I am sure she did not realize what she was signing up for when she agreed to keep our beloved pet for us, as no one could have dreamed that anything like this would happen), but by the time Solomon even began to act sick, it was too late.  After two and a half weeks of vet visits, they finally figured out what was wrong, and he was really sick and hurting by then.  So Mark and I knew what we had to do, and we also knew that we could not make him wait for one of us to come home and say goodbye.  My mom and brother went to Wichita Falls in our stead, and spent the last morning with him playing his favorite game (elephant dog), letting him walk his favorite lap around our house, and then making one final trip to the vet, holding him and telling him what a good boy he is until he quietly passed on, out of pain for good. 

 Solly, Kaylea and Ava-- he loved his cousins!

 He was indeed the Alpha Dog

 Helping Fido and Grammy make deviled eggs for Christmas!

And of course, his favorite thing to do-- swim and cook out at the lake!  He always had his own hamburger.

Mark's take:  I get excited to search for new places to visit. Sometimes our destination is a memory. Sometimes my top places to visit are happy days past. The loss of our beloved Solomon has taught me a valuable lesson:the present is a gift, one that only increases in value as distance grows between now and then. Somewhen is just as viable journey as somewhere. Thoughts, memories and reminders flood my mind, and I can't help but think of what we could have done better. The fault is no one's, but the weight of loss has been shared by many. For those of you who offered kind words, thoughts, prayers, vibes, juju and the like, thank you. That intangible, hollow feeling of wanting that last conversation with a grandparent or that last drink with a friend who was taken too soon is something that will occupy my conscience for a while. If the proverbial hindsight is 20/20, then I can now clearly see that he was the perfect dog. I selfishly wish we had the time to say goodbye to him, but I know that it was time for his pain to end. Everyone should be lucky enough to know a dog like Solomon. He quickly changed our relationship from owners and pet to best friends. We had a great somewhere and somewhen. Oh to be as lucky as we have been each day for nearly seven and a half years! Love each other and live while you occupy the where and the when. He was worth far more than rubies, and he was certainly worth much more than a paragraph. If a single picture is worth those 1000 words, then he deserves his own video:

Solomon - much more of a good person than dog > most humans.

Going home to an empty house this summer is going to be hard, but we are glad he is no longer in pain.  Rest in peace, Solly:  July 8, 2005-January 12, 2013.

Transitioning into the happier moments of our journey is difficult, but we don't want you to leave our blog in tears.  So, on a lighter note, here is a recap of our recent travels.  First of all, Nîmes--  we have a reduction on train ticket prices if we travel on weekends, so we headed out on a Friday and spent one night in the city.  We left early in the morning to receive the least expensive rate, and watching the sunrise from our train was incredible-- it was too difficult to get good pictures, but the beauty of that journey is still in my mind.  Once we arrived in the city, we found our hotel and then set out to explore:

 Our first view of the amazing amphitheater

 Inside the arena

 Mark, just hanging out in the rich people seats, waiting on the gladiator show to start

 A full view of the arena

 View from the top

 Getting ready to enter the arena and face his opponent

 The Maison Carrée-- this is the temple that only high priests were allowed to enter.  They would go inside to find out information from the gods.

 Front of the Maison Carrée

 Having a beer break!

 Having a kir break!

 The Italian Gardens-- yes, the sky is really that blue!

 Another shot of the Italian Gardens

 Going up the side of the hill to the big lookout tower

 The tower!

 View from the top-- we zoomed in a little so that you can see the amphitheater in the background

 We caught these cats playing a serious game of dominoes on our way back to the city center

 I loved all the provincial dolls used in this Nativity scene in one of the churches we visited in Nîmes.  Several of the dolls and pieces were mechanical-- the windmill really turned, for example.  It was the most detailed out of all the nativity scenes we have come across.

 These are all different photos of the coliseum lit up in different colors.  It was so cool to watch it at night!

 Soaking up the sun in the Italian Gardens before we had to catch our train back to Lyon

 Black swans walking on water

 Mark standing in front of Diana's Temple

We spent two days exploring the city, and then headed back to Lyon.  The Tuesday following our trip to Nîmes, we headed to Barcelona.  We discovered a new way to travel called "co-voiturage," or carpooling, and this trip to Spain was an experiment to see how the system worked.  Fortunately it was a pleasant journey, because the car ride from Lyon to Barcelona was about 6 hours!  We traveled with a lovely Spanish couple, both musicians from Barcelona, and the trip was much shorter than the train ride would have been, and MUCH less expensive.  However, after booking our ride over, we discovered that we could also fly by Easyjet for about the same price, and arrive back in Lyon in about 1 hour and a half-- so we flew home, rather than search for another ride.  Barcelona is a beautiful city, and the weather was fantastic-- about 60-65 degrees each day, and lots of sunshine.  It was truly a break from the cold, wet Lyonnais weather.  We stayed in a hotel near the center of the city, so we had easy access to all the sights:

It was nice to be in a hotel, rather than a hostel for a change!

Turtles!

The cathedral-- unfortunately it was expensive to visit the churches, so we opted out of exploring inside.

Beautiful Spanish market!

Lamp posts designed by Gaudi-- we went on tour of the buildings and houses he designed, but these lamp posts were his first, and last, commission by the city of Barcelona.  He went way over budget and charged a lot more than the city wanted to pay.  Given this information regarding a simple lamp post, you might have an idea about the buildings to follow...

Beautiful peppers in the market

View near the port

Gorgeous sunset and seagulls along the boardwalk

There was a protest one evening-- Mark liked how they portrayed the banks as sharks in this poster

Protestors

Delicious, refreshing rioja wine, a view of the sea, and a magnificent sunset

This strange sculpture is paying homage to the people who constructed the tallest human tower in Barcelona-- I believe it had nine levels.  Pretty impressive!

Let's play "where's Little Bit's cousin??"  My mom has a Quaker Parrot named Little Bit, and her kinfolk live in the trees in Barcelona!!

Cloister of the cathedral-- they keep 13 live geese in the cloister to remind passers by of the story of Saint Eulalia.

We went on another tour of the Old Town, and one of our favorite visits were the Roman ruins.  Mark managed this cool shot of the columns.

Mark standing next to a church that still bears the results of bombing from both the Spanish Civil War and WWII in the city.

Our favorite square in the city-- someone tried to assassinate King Ferdinand on those steps once!

The Arc de Triomphe, Spanish style

Gaudi house by night-- Mark calls it the Dr. Seuss house.

We ate paella twice and grew tired of it, so we opted for a delicious salad with chorizo in it instead on the third day-- yumm!

More kinfolk for Little Bit!!

Guess who designed it??  That's right, this is one of the private houses Gaudi was commissioned to build.

Okay, last one, I promise.  They really were everywhere!

Gaudi house by day-- it does look a little like something out of  Dr. Seuss story.  I could envision some Whos living in there.  There are several myths associated with the design; one of which is the story of Saint George slaying the dragon.  The roof top does look like the back of a dragon, and the balconies look a bit like skulls.

Another Gaudi house, privately commissioned.

And the most famous Gaudi structure-- the Sagrada Familia basilica.  It has been under construction for about 126 years, and they estimate another 25 before it will be finished.

Mark was pretty impressed

The inside-- Gaudi was apparently inspired by his favorite tree when designing the interior.  It definitely felt like you were in a strange, modern forest.

The canopy was breathtaking

Mark getting ready to eat-- he was impressed by the hatchet he was given to slice his food

We took a skylift up to the castle on the sea!

Made it to the top!

Mark was ready for the enemy

Beautiful view of the city

Playing with all the castle toys

View from inside a lookout tower

Lookout tower

Those are our latest adventures.  Mark is back in class, and I am continuing my experiments dans la cuisine.  It has been really rainy and cold here lately, so anytime the sun comes out we head to the park and spend as much time there as possible.  After my birthday, my monthly transport pass doubled in price so we will be using the city bikes a lot more often in the future.  Hopefully the next four months will be filled with warm weather, happy adventures, and great times.  June will be here before we know it, and it will be time to fly back to Texas-- we will try to enjoy the rainy days here because we know how much it is needed back home.  A +, tout le monde!