I was very glad that we spent the night in Valloire on Monday evening.
The road up the mountain was closed off very early, so this would have made for an early morning had we stayed down the hill.
The kids did not wake until 7am and then we began to get organized and packed up, as we were driving home after the start of Stage 16.
We managed to get everything and everyone back in the car and we found a parking spot close to the start.
It was incredibly cold, so this was a good thing.
We had to wait a little over an hour for the guys, so we walked around and I treated Eston to a yummy waffle with honey.
He was very interested in the motorcycles...
The staff on Rory's team gave Eston a sticker for his bike.
Eston is incredibly proud of it and points it out to anyone and everyone!
It wouldn't be the Giro d'Italia without some flashy Italian dancers.
Eston sat and watched for quite some time, hah!
Riding his bike past the beautiful chapel in Valloire...
This dog was in the pink Giro spirit!
Eston loves dogs and made quick friends with this guy.
He was waiting for his owner, who was getting her hair done in the salon.
Eston sat with him for ages and it was adorable.
There were vendors all over the place selling pink Giro souvenirs.
I promised Eston that he could choose something on the last day.
He wanted this pink stuffed animal, but then he saw this dog backpack in a shop window.
I told him it was not a "Giro" souvenir, but just a nice souvenir from our trip.
He insisted it was what he wanted, so I gave him the money and he went in and purchased the dog.
He has not let the dog out of his sight and it is pretty cute...
Daddy arrives at the start line!
Eston wanted to ride with him to sign-in, but a lot of photographers were trying to get a photo of it and Eston was not having it.
He wanted all the photographers to go away, though that is easier said than done.
Koen's team was kind enough to give us an extra room they had at the hotel.
Eston managed to leave Johnny Monkey at the hotel (I had no idea).
We got a message from the team director saying he had something important of Eston's in the team car.
That monkey has been everywhere and now he has been for a ride in a ProTour team car as well!
Anyway, Johnny Monkey arrived at the start line in style and Eston was so excited to see him.
Special thanks to the director who had far more important things to do that morning, but made sure to bring Eston his Johnny Monkey.
The start line area was tiny, so the buses were not brought in before the start.
This was great for Eston because he was able to follow Rory around non-stop for 30 minutes.
All of the team cars are ready to drive 238km to the finish line...
We watched the start, waved goodbye to the team cars and buses, loaded ourselves back in the car, and began our drive back to Spain.
The kids did great, though Eston was a bit antsy the last hour and I had to break out the DVD player and jelly beans.
I owe a huge thanks to Kaitlin for all of her help...there is no way I could have done this trip alone!
We had a lot of good laughs along the way and I am sure she will wait a few more years before she and Koen have children, hah!
I am glad we went because not seeing Rory for 28 days would have been a bit rough for our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment