There was a bona fide hippie rainbow over the festival campground.

The Happiness Parade at the Grassroots Festival in Ithaca Saturday.

Amy's physics project involves a real mousetrap.

The singer Wayne Coyne rolled over us in a clear ball.

The Flaming Lips concert in Canadaigua.

Megan and Amy made pink cake for Girl Day.

Post-punting elation in Cambridge town

Tom took us punting through Cambridge, the best way to see the world.

The lounge is like a Dr. Seuss book mixed with a garage sale.

We went to a trendy new part of London for cocktails.

Kids played in the fountain outside of Royal Festival Hall.

Teenagers in Soho lined up outside Les Miserables to pounce on Nick Jonas.

We saw the Ernesto Neto exhibit at the Hayward Gallery.

We got the best seats on the bus, top deck front row.

We took the bus downtown to the Southbank.

He's pretty cute.

Her parents have another new baby, Luca.

My namesake Baby Jess is so grown up already, she just turned 3.

We're staying at Chloe's house in Hackney, London

...which is where Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir apparently had many Mondays.

A very French Monday at St. Germaine de Pres.

Giant Charles de Gaulle on the Hotel de Ville.

You can see the Eiffel Tower from the 8th floor of almost any building.

The permanent collection is mainly Matisse, Picasso, Gaughin, Kandinsky, and Braques but the gallery exhibits are really unique (and nutty).

At the top you can order special girly cocktails and plates of raspberries.

The view from the escalator is so cute.

The Georges Pompidou Center has a japanese treehouse art exhibit now.

Seeing Notre Dame from the back at sundown is the best angle.

Now we're in a hotel in the Marais in Paris...with a cute view.

And we had dinner there, surrounded by creepy dead animals including an endangered rhino.

And a trip to a nearby "castle" where I photographed this model scientist.

Except for a trip that we took to Versailles.

The whole 5-day conference was held at the abbey.

Our 16th century room at the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay near Paris.

Babycat knows we are about to leave town.

And Meagan and Amy made a patriotic cake.

...while fireworks were exploded.

The Rochester Orchestra played patriotic music...

And I discovered a secret axe throwing talent.

Brad competed in an archery competition.

All the girls got exotic henna tatoos.

Everyone tried and failed because the insults were so distracting.

This guy hurls super harsh insults at you while you try to hit him with a tomato.

Renaissance Festival: my favorite time of year.

The knight who won the jousting match (and the ladies).

This is *not* what we are paying Meagan to do.