2011 Summer Family Cruise to the Baltic

Back last summer, when it was so hot 'round here in Middle-Of-Nowhere, Georgia, I said to myself "Self...wait to write about the summer family cruise until it's the middle of winter. When it's so cold and gloomy, you can remember when it was so sunny and HOT in the Baltic."

Sunny? Hot? Baltic?

YES...sunny and HOT in the Baltic. One of the warmest summers on record. In typical family "Potato Famine" Irish luck, we chose to go somewhere cool to escape the hotter-n-hell Southern summer, and wound up taking the heat with us. Well, the residents of the area were happy about it...and we did have a blast.

This year, the crowd was a bit diminished. We had all had a huge family get-together the weekend before at Andy and Brittany's wedding, so it was just the James gang...with the addition of my first cousin, Ashley, and her husband Buzz and daughters Mary Cecile and Julia. We had been wanting the Hancocks to join us for years, and they finally managed it--and a welcome addition they were.

So Empress Alix and I hopped in the car and took off for the Atlanta airport to meet up with everyone arriving from Shreveport. The flight over to Stockholm was via Paris.





We had a few hours' layover in Paris--time for a bit of a leg stretch and a good baguette.

Like father, like son..boys with their toys.



Here's Julia, or JuJu, as she is called in the family. This is the quietest you will see her.



Taxiing for takeoff to Stockholm, we passed one of the Concordes--how I would have loved to fly in her!



Some pretty clouds on the way...



The second coldest thing I saw on the whole trip......



And then the clouds broke and we could see the beautiful Swedish archipelago.



That will be us soon!!!!

In the blink of an eye, we were out of the airport and safely gazing out our windows in the beautiful Grand Hotel in Stockholm.



Look out, Baltic...we're BACK!!!