Strasbourg, France....

Clean Plate Club for this guy today...

Feeling rested and ready to tackle the day, we began about 7:30 am.  Cozzie and I got ready and headed to breakfast or Petit dejuener in French, where we both had great appetites and filled our tummies with good things.  Cozzie had a nice high chair so could properly and attentively eat.  By 10am he was back in bed for a 2 hour nap.  Check out was 12 noon so that worked perfectly.

The old part of Strasbourg...

We all had a few hours before we could get into our new hotel or do the Load In at the venue.  We decided to head back to the old section of town where we knew there was a playground for Cozzie with nearby cafe's for lunch options.

Lunch spot is in the section hanging over the river...

Enjoying lunch in old Strasbourg.

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I took Cozzie to the playground with the cool Wooden slide structure while the others started having lunch...

"I know you want to take my picture but it's really funny not to look at you!!"

"It's also really funny when I trick you by sliding off the horse so you can't take my picture!!!"

Such cool wooden structures at this playground.

By the time we were all finished with lunch, it was time to check in to the new hotel.  We are settled into a comfortable spot and Cozzie is back in bed for a nap.  He was having trouble settling down and I think it was because we were out of milk again.  I decided to head down to the office to buy some milk.  There is a restaurant attached to this hotel and the kind couple who were working in the office, filled 2 sippie cups with milk and wouldn't let me pay for it.  Now my little fellow seems to be in dreamland.

James and Bryan are doing load-in while Shara takes a nap also.  She has an interview after sound-check, before dinner.

While being at the park today, a couple of college girls were having some lunch seated on the ground near the swings.  Cozzie noticed one gal eating a pear as we walked by.  He walked toward her with a finger pointing at her pear which was half eaten.  She offered to let him have a bite and held the pear out for him.  He didn't take a bite but kept pointing to the pear.  I told him that was the girl's pear so he couldn't have it.  She started speaking English and told us that she had another pear which she would give him if he wanted it.  She seemed insistent and serious and I know that he loves pears so I told her he would enjoy that.  She got it out of her bag and handed it to him.  He began eating it immediately.  We stayed to visit with the 2 girls for a few minutes.  They are friends and had come here for a weekend together.  One was from this area of France and the other from further away.

Camille is eating a pear so I'm going to stop and look at her pear.

"Camille is really nice and she gave me her other uneaten pear.  I really enjoyed it."

Camille, the girl from this Alsatian area of France, said that she speaks better English than Alsation.  I mentioned that my husband and I had spent 8 weeks in Strasbourg in 1970 as seminary students doing a Quarter Abroad program.  At that time many people spoke Alsatian which is a combination of German and French which is spoken in this area of France which at some point in history has been part of Germany.  She knew that was true at that time but said it is feared that language will die out with her parent's generation.  She said that she and her generation do not know that language.  She is a Special Education major.

With Cozzie asleep, I will work on tweaking my photos and adding them to the blog.

Later:

Some privileges come as the tiniest member of the band.

In the "Old Days", Papa played the drums but now that is Brian's role except if he's unavailable when Cozzie wants to drum a little. 

Papa arrived, Cozzie's nap ended and we headed to the venue about 6:30pm.  Spent some time with Mama, did a little drumming and had dinner.  She is on at 9:30ppm which is right now after he's in bed and I'm wrapping up this blog.

Tomorrow is a long drive day - leave here at 8am!  So it's time to say Good Night and get some sleep in order to get up early to see more French countryside and enjoy more van family time.

James's health is improving and Brian is still healthy.  Lots to be grateful for and we are.