Success in France!!!

SUCCESS!!! I've been locked out of my blog for the past few days and I just figured out why! AND I fixed it. All by myself. I feel like such a big girl. =) Now for the interesting stuff! - I'm currently back in France (since Wednesday, February 13th)visiting a cousin near Bordeaux. I'm onto round 2 of visiting my French family and my goals now are: 1.) See all my French family once more before heading back to the States 2.) Also a bit more international travel before heading home....ideally I'd love to visit Prague, Istanbul, bike in Tuscany, and hike the West Highland Way in Scotland. We'll see if this is all doable by the end of June! 3.) Figure out what I'm doing next with my life! (I have some ideas and am looking into various possibilities, at times the uncertainties are exciting.... at times they are terrifying!!) - Yesterday my cousin didn't have to work, so we went to the beach with her two kiddos and built sand castles and played "rugby" and had a picnic by the sea. SO FANTASTIC!! Blue sky and sunshine, and the opportunity to act like a little kid again. Excellent! It had been yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeears since I'd made a sand castle. Even though this one wasn't very impressive, I still had a grand old time building it. =) - Struggling like crazy to figure out how to coordinate the travels and visits. Yes, yes, I know, boohoo, the first world complaints of the traveler. I realize there are far faaaaaaaaaaaar worse things to worry about in this world, but at this particular time in my life, I'm very lucky that this is one of my greatest challenges. Especially to find reasonable prices on transportation, everything has to be purchased in advance, and at this point, I just don't know. Too many places to go! - Case in point, I waited far too long to purchase tickets to the south of France, and every mode of transport was absurdly expensive. But I'm splurging and doing it anyways! It's for a special occasion. =) When I was little, my grandparents had an apartment in a town called Menton. Every year they have a lemon festival (La Fete du Citron). Sounds a bit odd, but it's really impressive (from the postcards I remember seeing as a child). I did go to one, but I was only 4 or 5, and don't really have any memories of this citrus heaven, so when I realized the dates would work, I decided I couldn't miss it. So I'm off to the Fete du Citron, for their 80th celebration, and theme "Around the World in 80 days." Cote d'Azur, here I come!!