Just a quick update while I wait for Brenton to finish getting ready and eating (the free!) breakfast.

Thanks for the great posts on the board. It's great to know we have the support and love of family and friends back home!

Bob: I don't know if you've been over here recently, but the amount of police and military is amazing. There have at least 2 or 3 different types of law enforcement - military, police, and something else. City police seem to carry a handgun, taser, and club. But an equal amount of the military cops are in full fatigues with assault rifles. It can be a bit disconcerting since we are used to seeing a police officer every couple of days where we live. When there was the Iran protest at the Eiffel Tower there must have been a hundred cops in little mini-vans waiting for trouble. What's funny is a third were sleeping, a third texting, and the other third playing Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Granny: He's doing just fine over here. I want to push him to the edge of his comfort zone and then beyond so he can see what he is capable of. What a confidence booster for him to know that he could be dropped into a foreign country and navigate around without being stressed out.

Nana: I'll keep posting the pictures. I can't always get them over to this site so please look at the Flickr link. I'll post up some video clips occassionally. They are really large so it takes a while to upload. Each blog post plus pictures takes over an hour, and as you can see I'm getting impatient! We are about to kick off our city tour so I may be able to get these typed up while I'm on the train so I can impart some of the stories better. (The picnic yesterday in the rain was soooo funny)

Others: Thanks for the well wishes. And thanks for keeping work at bay!

We are off to Brugges, Belgium today by way of Brussles (home of Jean Claude Van Dam!). Brenton is going to try and navigate us all the way there by himself, so we'll see what happens!