Ground Control to Major Mom

18 July 22: An exhausting, emotional, and educational day. We visited 8 sites throughout the Utah and Omaha Beach areas, painting a story of the American forces’ role in Operation Overlord. Once we got >1 km from the coastline — such as in La Cambe and Carentan — the heat became somewhat debilitating. Because of this we decided to forgo the Maisy Battery in Grandcamp Maisy.

17 July 22: We made it to Port-en-Bessin-Huppain, a town on the French northern coast, in the early afternoon. This town is the junction between Omaha and Gold Beaches (for you history buffs). But it’s also a thriving seaside town with lots of touristy activities for visitors from throughout Europe. We have an AirBnB right on the shoreline overlooking the port.

17 July 2022: We made it to France!! We got the rental car and are on our way to the Normandy coast!! I’m only on Wifi for now…we are at a rest stop now just outside Paris after a chaotic trip out of the city. Tim’s doing a great job navigating…and Jacob’s 5+ years of French is being put to good use!

16 July 22: We flew from Denver to Newark, then Newark to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

I had been watching the FlightAware app for weeks tracking delays and cancellations. We did well — we had a 30 minute delay between Denver and Newark, and then another 30-45 minute delay between Newark and Paris.

This is the first of our Daily Selfies from the trip.