Another quickie

While I'm sorry to disappoint our fans, this blog post will not contain any pictures. I just don't have the patience for 2+ hours of uploading 5 measly pictures, so the photos will be posted when we return to France (Sunday!!!).

So. Where did I leave off?

Saturday we went up to Broummana for lunch with Henry, Yasmina and their two adorable daughters. Lunch was at a nice Italian place, set in a gorgeous garden-- the kids played and we ate. After a leisurely lunch, we headed back down to Beirut to rest briefly before turning around and driving waaaay up into the mountains above Jouhnieh, to a village called Chahtour, where Geo's godfather Chady comes from. (It's also one of the many places C's family fled to during the war-- C lived there twice.). As Chady Kallas likes to brag, when God needs a vacation, he goes to Chahtoul. By the way, these spellings are total approximations of the names. I'm just guessing here.

So this village is high up in the mountains in the midts of this gorgeous pine forest. You get the sense that the population was totally isolated from the world until quite recently. The climate is cool and damp and you can see all the way down to the sea, when the clouds lift. It's lovely. Chady Kallas' house is spacious and comfortable and has a really beautiful garden behind it, and a huge sandbox / play area in front. Heaven for Geo!

We had a nice dinner and spent the night (it's a long drive back to Beirut!).

On Sunday, after breakfast on the terrace, we drove home. In the afternoon, C and Jiddo took Geo to a park that C used to go to when he was little-- and the equipment hasn't changed in 35 years!

Monday morning, back into the car for the drive back to Kfarhouna, where Geo was thrilled to see his relatives (I need to check Chris Heinrich's handy relative chart to figure out their relationship!)-- Alain and Julien. We spent two quiet days resting, and came back today (Wednesday) morning.

Geo is currently off playing at Jungleland with C and Henry and Henry's daughter Lynn. Time off for mama!

So I'm off to take a nap-- this evening C and I are going to a concert in Jbeil to see C's good friend Tony play the drums.

There's so much more to tell, I will definitely fill in the blanks as soon as possible!