June 3, 2003 – Tuesday

Chateau Morges

Got up early to pack and headed for Morges because we were going to go to Firenze with my parents. We were running pretty late, so we had to take a taxi from the Morges station to my grandma’s house. The taxi driver was totally sweet, and shut off her meter early, so I left her a fat tip.

My dad was just returning from the hospital as we arrived. (Earlier last month, he had herniated a disk, and his back, neck, and shoulder were still hurting.) He had been given a couple of morphine shots, so he was feeling a little better. On the way home, he had found out that several of the trains would not be running because it was the last day of the G8 conferences and they were expecting trouble.

It was decided that we would leave tomorrow instead. Since we were going to take the 6am train, my parents thought it would be best if Kelsey and I stayed the night in Morges, so we did not have to run around like crazy again.

We ended up walking through Morges to see the chateau and vineyards in the area. We were hoping to see the museum in the chateau, but it was closing just as we arrived. We passed by some soldiers on the walk, and my dad got Kelsey and I to pose with them for pictures. The weather started getting pretty hot, and we had already walked abut 6 miles already, mostly uphill, so we were heading back. (I’m still shocked my dad could handle that walk. Morphine is a wonder.)

When we got back to my grandma’s, Kelsey saw this see-saw, and was dying to try it out. Unfortunately, it was more butt-bruising then exciting, and I think I was walking a little bowlegged back to the apartment.

The pull-out sofa wasn’t very comfortable, and my grandmother had all her lights on, so it was difficult to fall asleep. On top of this, Kelsey had developed a nasty sunburn that afternoon, and was wincing and hurting every time she rolled over. Just as we were finally starting to fall asleep, my grandmother’s cats started making these really weird meowing/caterwauling noises, like they were in heat. After a while though, they shut up, and we finally passed out.