| June 15, 2013 -- Seattle, WA |

Today Val, Dylan (11) and Brent left Seattle for a two week vacation to France, which includes a couple of days in Paris followed by 9 days biking through the Loire River valley and its various châteaus.

Our traveling companions include the LK family -- Robin, Julie, Jane (11) and Kat (8) and the F family -- Eric, Amy, Jordan (11), Lawton (9), and Maggie (8).

The picture for this blog entry shows DB and VS snoozing on the way to the airport, where we will be flying Condor Air, canned sardine class, for 10+ non-stop hours to Frankfurt, Germany.

The pannier with all of my tools and hardware for adapting the tandem bike so that Val could ride without pedaling -- including two wrenches, u-bolts, and wooden foot platform sailed through security. However, the pannier with my clothing in it took three tries before TSA found and confiscated by finger nail trimmers because they has a small blade on the nail file.

We boarded the plane about 2 PM Saturday and arrived in Frankfurt the morning of Sunday June 16. Our circumpolar flight path, so close to the summer solstice, meant that we saw daylight all the way there.