Arrival in the USA

Home. Has a lovely ring to it, doesn't it.

We ended our world tour on July 31 and arrived in Dallas on Aug 1, 2009. The kids were sad to leave, but thrilled beyond words to get to travel home in business class. I actually think it turned out to be 1st class though because B and I sat on the front row of the plane. Very nice. She especially loved the seats which she was constantly adjusting :-) and the custom hot fudge sundaes. She got to pick all her sundae toppings. I think she was in heaven. L was back a few rows with DA adjusting his seat over and over too and over-dosing on movies. It's the simple things in life, you know!
I shed a few tears on the journey home. Sad to be leaving the adventure behind - and all my wonderful friends. Just a flood of emotions to be both sad and happy at the same time.
My parents and sister and nephews met us at the airport. OF COURSE, we went immediately to our favorite restaurant and ate some Mexican food. Love it.
Unfortunately our home was empty, so we did not get to move right back in. Stayed with my sister and her family for a while.
The craziest thing ever is that 36 hours after arrival, we started a major refurb on our house. I will never be able to fully express how overwhelming that was. I didn't even know which side of the road to drive on and I was being asked for paint colors and tile selections. I really wanted to be reconnecting with people, not shopping at the tile stores. My eyes were glazed. for days. for weeks. for months!
Many really frustrating things happened during our re - entry. They range from not being able to live in our house, to 4 people living out of 5 suitcases for 3 months, to moving to 12 different places to stay this summer before we could move into our house, to not being able to take delivery of our items when they arrived, to our mail office closing and not being able to find our mail - ever!, to several other really inconvenient events. whew. then comes the unpacking, including unpacking things I haven't seen in almost 3 years. What craziness.
I don't want to be a whiner, but I just want to record for my own memories that it was a heck of a reentry. All the difficulty I had been warned about was all true. Coming home was almost as crazy as going over there, not in the same ways, but still challenging on many levels.
As of this weekend, we will have been back for 12 weeks. Still not settled completely, still have to check before I open the car door to see if I'm getting in on the right side, still drinking my tea in my favorite English pottery - but happy to be home with my family and pets.

Wales

Our last trip was to Wales. Both DA and I believe our ancestors are Welsh, so we were glad to be able to visit there and let the kids see where their ancestors lived. Funny thing is that Wales is not really that far from where we had been living all that time, just needed to make ourselves get over there.
We stayed in a charming little pub/hotel called the Golden Pheasant. Unfortunately, it wasn't in a very convenient location to what we wanted to see, so we spent an hour or so each morning and evening driving to /from where we wanted to go.
We really enjoyed going to the top of Snowdon Mountain. One day we walked up part of it (too windy to go very far - nearly blew us off the mountain), and the next day we took a train from the bottom all the way to the summit. It was so cold at the top. We were not really dressed for that kind of weather. Also toured a slate mine. So sad that the slate industry has dried up. That little town had to basically fold up and move away.
Wales has more castles than any other country. They are everywhere you turn. The kids were really hoping we would just drive on by them all, but had to do one tour. Colwyn Castle and medieval village.
The kids enjoyed seeing the "smallest house in Britain". Cute little thing built in what looked like an alley between two buildings.
Our TomTom satnav decided we could handle all the tini-tiny roads in backwoods Wales, so it took us on some of the most remote routes. I noticed that Wales is sparsely populated - it's mainly open land with a few little towns along the way.(only saw about 2 gas stations the entire time - not too helpful when you are in the car an hour, need a drink or something to eat).
Pretty, pretty country, but not a lot to see.
One of the loveliest spots is Portmerion, Wales. It is associated with the pottery called Portmerion - and they sell it there, but I think the association is something about that the town was built or designed by the daughter of the pottery maker. We were there during the hydrangea blooming season. Oh, oh! gorgeous hydrangeas. Prettiest trees I've ever seen. I did buy 2 Portmerion pieces that had flowers on them to remind me of the gardens in Portmerion, however the pottery was made in my beloved Stoke on Trent in England.
By the end of the week, we were ready to get back to Cobham to wrap up the last details. It's hard to be focused on traveling when you are trying to move internationally. Enjoyed it, but I don't know if we did justice to Wales - our thoughts were too scattered.

One last trip to the Lake District

After our trip to Glasgow, Scotland, the kids and I drove down to the Lake District for one last look around. I love that area. So pretty and scenic. We stayed in the same lodge again, but this time it wasn't quite as cushy as our last stay. A little on the "hmmm" side of things. Definitely worth it to spend more on the upscale cabin if you can.
We did a hike, rented a boat on lake Windermere for the air show, did kayaking on the lake, and our favorite thing - the GO APE course. GO APE is a high ropes course that is a franchise company. One of their great courses is in the Lake District. All the tall trees make for a perfect high ropes course. We were able to zip line for what seemed a 1/4 of a mile over the road. It took 3 hours to do the course without stopping. Fun for the whole family! Do it if you have the chance. Fortunately B was old enough and tall enough to do the course. I think it might end up being her favorite thing EVER in Europe.
I took lots of photos since I didn't know when we would ever get back here.
(postscript : our photos are no longer in our possession. Everything was stolen - computer, SD card, and our back up hard drive...Unfortunately we never made a photo book of the Lake district area so all those thousands of photos I took have to stay in my head :-( wish I had at least uploaded some of them to the blog.)
It rained most of the week we were in Windermere, but that was ok by me.
One crazy side note - we were traveling with all of our luggage that we needed for the entire summer (5 heavy bags plus a couple of carryons) - remember we are without a home at this point. We were required to have all our jewelry and important papers with us since the movers would not insure those things if they were taken inside the shipping container. Anyway, I made the major mistake of leaving my jewelry bag in the safe in our Glasgow hotel, but the safe was OPEN. Could have easily been stolen. Had I only known that was a precursor to what was coming later in the summer. Anyway, we had moved out of the house, so our phone number and address that the hotel had was null and void. The hotel graciously put my jewelry case in their main safe and tried to contact us, but we were unreachable.
Oh, by the way, my jewelry case also included OUR PASSPORTS!!! and my wedding ring. Not good at all.
DA happened to ask me where the passports were and that is when we discovered that we didn't have possession of them any more. I took a train back to Glasgow the next morning and was so fortunate to be able to pick them up from the hotel. Major, major blessing.
Needless to say, that kind of put a gloomy spell on the rest of our stay in the Lake District.
... Moving on... literally... we moved on to our last and final touring spot, Wales.

Way behind on blogging

I am so behind on my blogging. Sorry Mom and Dad :-)
We've been traveling around the UK and the internet connection has been spotty at best. There was no way I could upload photos, so I will fill in the missing travel entries soon.

However, today was our LAST DAY of touring in the UK - and what did we finish with?????

A very fitting old, empty medieval castle...where, as L says, "somebody lived, they did something famous, now they're dead and this is their castle."

Stopped in Ludlow, which is a scenic Elizabethan town in Shropshire in Western England with lots of timber houses. Just like what you would picture it looking like when Shakespeare was writing plays. It was pouring down rain all day, so my photos didn't turn out too well. For you Tudor fans, Ludlow castle is famous for being where Catherine of Aragon and her first husband, Prince Arthur stayed. Prince Arthur died at Ludlow on their honeymoon, and Catherine went on to marry his brother, King Henry VIII and was the first of his six wives.

We have all our "moving luggage" with us in a small "saloon" car, as they say. Americans call them sedans. We had to put 3 suitcases in the back seat so the kids rode for hours in a tiny little cramped space. No wonder they were more interested in getting back to our town instead of hanging around and touring Ludlow.

We are spending our last 2 days getting some last minute details taken care of and then we are off to Texas. Touring is done. If it's not marked of the list by now, it'll have to wait til another visit.

the Open Championship

The Open Championship golf tournament (aka British Open to us Americans), is being held at Turnberry in Scotland. We spent the day at the tournament today. Saw Tiger CHOKE and Tom Watson get some great shots. What an unexpected result. Nice to see our home town kid, Justin Leonard playing well too.

Cameras and phones are not allowed at the course, so we don't have photos. Just as well. DA would be consumed with getting the perfect shots, so this way we were all watching together ;-)

Here's one shot from the car park. Notice the "welcome to Turnberry" with the Aisla Craig island in the distance. That's it folks. Only picture we took!!!! (that's amazing - not the image, but that we only took one picture)

L was determined to get an autograph, so he snuck behind the stands into the media area by shimmying up to a photographer and walking in with him. He didn't get the elusive autograph, but he got all the way down to Tiger's car and Tiger waved to him before he got into his car. There were several guards around him, so a wave will have to do. L was pleased with himself that he made it back to that area. Just know it was NOT his mother who encouraged him to do so!

The weather was spotty - some clouds, some light rain, some sunshine, but definite wind. Not as windy as last year, but enough to keep you chilled. B wore shorts, but by the end of the day, she had 3 jackets on layered on top of each other.

Staying in Glasgow. Not too many hotels out by Turnberry. It's a great course right by the Irish Sea, but it is located on a 2 lane road. That is probably fine the other years that it's not the Open course, but on this particular week - that 2 lane road is packed. Traffic took a long time to wind through all the local villages all the way back to Glasgow.

Here's B in the Irish Sea (stopped in Troon for this shot).

Packing problems

People, it's hard to pack when it's cold, rainy and 59 degrees here. Gotta have clothes to stay warm and then when we hit the 100 degrees in Texas we have to have clothes to stay cool. Coats and long pants take up too much room. Not fitting in my bag!!!!

12 Days of cruising

We did it, completed our 12 day cruise. It was great. So glad we were able to go and enjoy being with our friends one last time before we all go our separate ways.
I highly recommend letting your kids stay in a separate room on a long cruise. Those rooms, even the nice ones, have very limited storage and bathroom capacity. It would have been very difficult to manage with all 4 of us in one room for such a long time. The kids absolutely loved running around the boat, eating ice cream and doing all the activities and swimming.
The Baltic was so pretty, not as pretty as the Mediterranean, but very interesting to see that part of the world.

#6 Stockholm, Sweden

Ok, for all the dullness of Helsinki - Stockholm really made up for it. Stockholm is lovely. Especially the old town area which has shades of Salzburg, Austria with it's narrow cobblestone lanes and iron shop signs.
Stockholm is right on the Baltic Sea coast and it utilizes boat shuttles to get you around the city. We had lots of fun walking and boating around.
Took a tour of the Nobel Museum where they honor Alfred Nobel who created the Nobel Prize and a museum about all the winners. It was great to get to see real Nobel Prize medallions and "diplomas". The tour was a little boring for all the kids though.
There is a shop outside the museum - a yellow building - that has THE BEST hot chocolate. Also did lots of shopping in that square. Cut little red horse souvenirs that they are famous for in Sweden.
The Vasa Museum is another very interesting museum showcasing the Vasa ship which sank several hundred years ago. The ship was brought up from the ocean floor and they have built a building to display the entire ship - it is huge. I think the Pirates of the Caribbean movie ships were based on this ship. I wish we could have spent more time there and in the entire city, but we didn't have enough time in Stockholm. It is definitely somewhere I would travel back to though. Lovely city.

#5 Helsinki, Finland

Hmmm...not really sure what to say about Helsinki other than "been there, done that". There isn't much to see in Helsinki, and we were a little disappointed with that city. It's a fairly newly built area and no real historical buildings to speak of other than the "church in the rock" and the Olympic stadium. They did have some cute shops though - Marimeko is from Finland so lots of her cute designs.
One funny thing that happened was that when we were walking through the outdoor market area we came across a jewelry maker who took coins from around the world and cutout the background of the design and sold them as pendants. We were looking at them all and finally picked one up that looked like a US coin except NONE of us were familiar with the coin. Had never seen it. I think it was a John Adams coin. Really made us realize how long we had been living outside of the USA that we couldn't identify our own currency.
In the end, we were all glad to get back on the ship and move on to the next city.

#4 White Nights in St Petersburg, Russia (formerly Leningrad)

I never, never, never thought I would have the opportunity to visit Russia. How cool is that? My kids have a Russian stamp in their passport - crazy - and on the 4th of July. The other ports we visited have a open border with the cruise ships (no passport stamps), but Russia is a major pain to enter. The visas are so expensive. The tours are expensive. It is really difficult to do by yourself, so you almost have to go on an organized tour. Just getting through immigration alone was a huge ordeal. I think we probably got about 10 pages of instructions on how to enter, what to have with us, how to fill out the papers, etc. Our tour guide even met us right at the immigration desk to help us get through.
Our tour took us around the city, and it looks like nothing I ever imagined. In my mind Russia is a dirty, old, run down, grey city. However, St. Petersburg is a "palatial city" that reminds me of an old Paris with shades of Venice too. The guide told us that it is more sophisticated than the rest of Russia and that even 100 km outside of the city, they still use outhouses and such.
St Petersburg is made up of 42 islands that are all connected by bridges. Something I never knew about the city. We crossed the water over and over. It is also made up of several brightly painted palaces. Very picturesque.
The Summer Palace just outside of town was impressive (aka Catherine Palace). It was basically destroyed by the Germans in WWII, so we were even more overwhelmed that it had been so painstakingly restored. It's known as the Russian Versailles. If you've seen the kid's animated movie "Anastasia", it is based on Catherine Palace and the Alexander Palace.

The Ball room - hall of mirrors. So beautiful.
Getting inside the Summer Palace was a real pain. We were happy that we had a Russian tour guide that got us in without waiting in the 4 hour line. We saw the bureaucracy and corruption of their system at work!!!! Major bonus that our guide was a pit bull as far as getting things done. We would have been lost without her.
I got a kick out of the Russian McDonald's sign.
Lunch was at a great restaurant (not McDonald's). The food was surprisingly really tasty. The kids even found something they liked. B had the chicken cutlets and L ordered Russian meat dumplings. I was proud of them for trying something outside their comfort zone. No pasta today!
We also had a 2nd day in St. Petersburg where we saw more of the sites withing the city. The Hermitage (Winter Palace of the Romanovs) is beautiful - and HUGE. We walked through the palace part and the art museum part. Massive, massive museum with some of my favorite impressionist paintings included.
My favorite site in St. Petersburg was the "Cathedral on the Spilled Blood" which is gorgeous inside and out. It's only been open without scaffolding for the last 12 years, so relatively few people have seen it (built in the early 1900s immediately before the revolution). The outside is so neat with the onion domes covered in glazed tiles. Even better is the inside which is 100% covered in mosaics. So, so pretty. We thought it was actually a cathedral (hence the name), but religious services have never been held there - it's really a memorial building.
The one unexpected thing we saw were wedding parties. I bet we saw over 100 bride and grooms all over the city. They have a tradition where they get dressed in their wedding gowns and tuxes on their wedding day and go around the city to all the memorials and lay flowers in honor of soldiers and leaders - which is exactly the same spots we were visiting. Brides and grooms were ev -er -y -where! And limousines - crazy amount of limos. Lots of Hummer limos too - even pink ones. so funny.
For lunch we had the traditional Pirogi (pie). They had both savory and sweet pies. We ordered the mushroom pie and the minced meat pie. They were delicious. The sweet pies tasted just like regular pie at home even though the crust is different. The pies are very similar to the "pasty" that they sell in England. They became popular as a quick, easy way for cooks to serve left over meat the following day after a good dinner - meat enclosed in pastry.

We were in St. Petersburg at the end of their White Night season. It never gets totally dark during the night. So weird for the sunset to be around midnight and then the sky just stays a light grey the whole night long - like a rainy day in Texas. That is until the sun rose again at 3:30am. The kids really had a hard time going to bed. Seems like you are just taking an afternoon nap.

Our heads were spinning though about dealing with currency. We would convert from Russian Rubles to Euro to US dollar to GB pound (that last conversion to GB pounds because that is our most familiar currency and it would let us know how much something REALLY costs). We had all those currencies in our wallets and some vendors would accept either Rubles or Euro and since ATMS are NOT AT ALL readily available in Russia, we would borrow cash from one another and then repay in pounds and dollars. Trust me. It was a currency mess. Sounds silly, but I think we spent LOTS of our time doing conversions.

All in all, St Petersburg was a real highlight. So happy and grateful to have the opportunity to travel there.
(one note for the average historian. St Petersburg is named after St. Peter the apostle, but it is confusing to some because it was Peter the Great who built the city. Common misundstanding - some people think Peter the Great was called St Peter)

#3 stop - Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is not a place I had ever heard of until I booked this cruise. Estonia was a former member of the Soviet Union. I had low expectations, however Tallinn is so charming. Especially the Medieval part of town. That area is a UNESCO World Heritage site which is a good clue that it is something special to see. Tallinn was a highlight, and if you ever have a chance to visit there - go. It's worth the time.
Cobblestone streets and lots of medieval costumed locals working in the town. It is so perfect looking - charm, costumes, folk music, decent food and beautiful weather. The real deal Medieval town.

Baltic Cruise stop #2 Warnemunde, Germany

Warnemunde... otherwise known as the stop for Berlin. I tried to learn how to pronounce this name, but I still butcher it.
We traveled to Berlin recently so we decided just to explore the port towns of Warnemunde and Rostock instead. Cute seaside towns with lots of boats and shops along the boardwalk. The kids manly liked the beach area. Rostock had some great photo ops. and pretty buildings. Just a quick train ride between the 2 towns.
There were millions of jelly fish on the beach and in the water. I was a little freaked out at first, but once we saw kids picking them up, playing with them, stacking them into pyramids, etc, we realized that these jelly fish are not the stinging variety. If you're a Spongebob cartoon fan, - the designs in the jelly fish we saw look JUST LIKE the background in the Spongebob cartoon. The kids got a kick out of that. Guess that's why Spongebob is always going jelly fish hunting!

Baltic Sea 12 Day Cruise

ah...what an awesome way to end our tour of Europe before moving home - a cruise of the Baltic Sea. Two other families we know took the same cruise, so we all had fun hanging out. The kids really liked having school friends on the boat.

Our ship, the Norwegian Jewel (NCL)

Our rooms were behind the little life boats with "an obstructed view"! The life boats are the red and white small boats hanging across the side of the ship.

My kids love cruising because 1)endless ice cream, and 2) the independence they have picking when to go to kids club, when to swim, when to go to the shows, etc. They love it.

We left out of the port in Dover, England. I really appreciated not having to fly before we boarded the boat. Just drove right to Dover and hopped on.

The "white cliffs of Dover"




The fun area of the ship. Pools were so heated that they felt like a "hot tub".
Note the winding steps of the yellow slide. L fell on those on our last day and busted his knee. Needed stitches but through a complicated situation, L refused the stitches and instead chose to have knee bandaged and has to keep it straight for 10 days to let wound heal. Had I been in that room, he would have stitches in that knee!!!




Leaving port in Dover.




First stop, Copenhagen, Denmark.


We chose to do a bike ride in Copenhagen. It was different than our other city rides in that the leader wasn't at all concerned with us keeping up with him. Made for a much more challenging ride. It was also about 20 miles (we think). The kids were really worn out and had not eaten a hearty enough breakfast to get them through that ride until 2:00pm. They just about revolted to escape to a 7-11 store we saw. I think they thought a slurpee would be tasty.


Copenhagen is famous for being the home of Hans Christian Anderson. We rode by his grave site. It's in a less than wonderful part of town. He wrote the story of the Little Mermaid, so there is a very famous statue of the little mermaid by the sea.

It's a little strange because she sits with her back towards the sea. There is some story about Denmark "having it's back to the world" and it's associated with this statue, but our guide had such a thick accent that we didn't really get the whole story about it.


Lunch at the Hard Rock. Of course the kids bought t-shirts. L wouldn't smile here, he was too hungry.
Town Center

Here we are trying to figure out the public bus system. There's a problem in that there are 2 bus #26s and only ONE of them goes to the pier where our ship was docked. We got on the wrong bus and really, really, really cut short our time getting back to the boat. We had to run the last 1/2 mile and that was after our long bike ride. I believe there were only 2 other people out of 1800 that got on after us. That is cutting it too close.

PS. the boat will leave without you!

Happy 150th birthday to Big Ben

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8145668.stm

Hopefully we will be able to get into the city tonight to see the "festivities"

Farewell to our stuff

As of today, our stuff is officially on it's way back "home" on the slow boat to the Americas (sounds better saying "slow boat to China", but that might jinx our stuff to get on the wrong ship!) The truck pulled away at 3:00. Tomorrow we transfer the Mini Cooper to the new owner. I will hate to hand over those keys.
Sold all our other UK electronics so we are just about down to the clothes in our suitcases and papers we have to keep with us.
Some of our sweet, kind friends have either fed us, offered use of their car or letting us stay in their home since our beds are gone. Very, very generous people.
We are taking care of some last minute business on Friday and then off on a cruise on Saturday. I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit on the cruise. 2 other families who are good friends of ours are going on the same cruise. It should be fun.
Life in the UK is winding down.....
(think we have time to get to Wimbledon tomorrow? our last chance)

the joys of moving

Our packers have moved really quickly this week. As of this morning, we were corralled into the conservatory as they were finishing up the rest of the house. Here are DA and B as they did their computer work - UNDER THE TABLE!!!! Laying on the hard tiled floor. Glamorous isn't it?
The sun had such a glare in the conservatory that they couldn't see their screens - they needed the shade of the table top. It's extremely rare to have a sun glare problem in England!

Everything is packed up! Waiting to load it on the truck in the morning.

Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice. L wanted me to blog that it wasn't dark yet at 10:20. We love that!!! Had a BBQ at a friend's house to celebrate Father's day. Fun evening.
The summer solstice brings out all the weirdo's to Stonehenge. I guess they had another huge crowd this year - made the news. I stay as far as possible away from that place around this time of year. The druids are just too strange for me.
Spent the rest of the day gathering our things for our suitcases. THE MOVERS ARRIVE TOMORROW. I cant believe our little adventure here is coming to a close. Difficult to pack for so many different situations over 6 weeks and get it all into 2 bags each. Get this - we've never really been known as light packers :-) but for some reason my daughter has decided that we should only travel for all that time with 1 bag each. I'm not sure we can pull that off, but I guess we've been shamed so many times by European taxi drivers - that she now thinks 1 bag for the rest of the summer is just fine. We'll see.....

Henry VIII coronation

This weekend we went to a celebration of the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII's coronation. They had a big shin dig where the 'king' and his "queen" boarded a flotilla (boat) at the Tower of London and floated down the Thames River to Hampton Court. We missed the arrival on the flotilla, but we did head out to the yew tree garden (the mushroom trees) and had a picnic with several families. Got a kick out of our kids playing American football out in the gardens. I'm sure the little English kids that were standing around trying to get into the game wondered why we had a funny looking brown "rugby" ball.
They did a big fireworks show at the end of the night. We laughed that it wasn't even dark yet when they started the fireworks at 9:45. It wasn't quite as long or as elaborate as what our kids are accustomed to, but it was very nice and will have to do as our July 4th celebration since we will be gone then.
Happy coronation day, Henry!

My favorite place in England

You may think this is a joke, but when thinking back to all the places in London and greater England that we've visited - I have to say one of my absolute favorite places of all is Stoke-on-Trent. Specifically the Burgess and Leigh (Burleigh) factory in Stoke. My own personal OZ!! It is where I bought the transferware pottery that I love. Fortunately, my friends share my love of pottery, so we've have a great time finding pieces. We even had a complete Burleigh tea party a few weeks ago with a full set for 7. Cream tea with homemade scones and clotted cream never tasted so good!

What I love about Burleigh is that it is still being handmade in the same Victorian factory as it has for the last 150 years. Spode and the others are now mainly (or even exclusively) made in Maylasia. If you'd like a little background, check out this webpage. http://www.burleigh.co.uk/burleigh-process.php

No specific reason to post this... I just had to list all our stuff on the insurance shipping forms so I had to spend time today looking up their replacement value. Just made me wish I could have time to visit again before our movers arrive. I wont, but I do have some great memories visiting there. My breakfast tea cup and saucer just make my English tea taste even better. Wonder if it will taste the same in Dallas????

Royal Ascot

My Ascot hat.

Really it's called a "fascinator". It looks like a gravity problem, but it sits at that wonderful angle because it is attached to a discrete little headband. Feel free to laugh. I chuckled everytime I caught a sight of myself.

The Queen, the Queen.... today we went to the Royal Ascot horse races. It was opening day and the most beautiful weather - sunny and 70 degrees. The Queen attends these races. There is a royal procession every day for a mile stretch of the track. It was lots of fun to be so close to her and get a good photo. She was wearing a sunshine yellow coat and hat. Prince Phillip was looking dapper in his top hat.

She is waving at me.... ha!

The Queen's grand entrance - the Royal procession.

One of the only times I've heard the song "God save the Queen". The horse at the rear is having problems because the song started right then and that horse was right beside the speaker.

Ascot is a very famous horse race - at least in England. Famous for the ladies hats and gents in cutaway morning coats and top hats. Really, they wear them!!! We thought we bought the "right" tickets, but come to find out, we were in the equivalent of the outfield seats at a baseball stadium. We were a little frustrated, but when the races finally started we realized we were in a very good location. We had a table right at the track rail. The horses ran right next to us, about 4 feet away. The ground would just rumble as they ran by. Very exciting!

We got a kick out of people watching and checking out all the fancy hats. We - of course - had to buy hats since they are not part of our normal wardrobe. Hats are required in some areas of the grandstands, but "suggested" in the other parts. I only saw a handful of ladies the entire day that weren't wearing a hat. My special hat came from Marks and Spencers. (A fancy "Target") I thought I would see 100s of the same hat, but fortunately only saw a couple. Some ladies go all out and spend hundreds of pounds on their hat - not always money well spent - some crazy, crazy contraptions.

DA kept kidding my friend in the green hat that the local peacocks were circling, wanting their feathers back. I thought it was very pretty.

We had a really fun time. It was a little bittersweet for me though because it will be the last time I see some of these good friends. They are leaving this week for the summer and we will already be back in Texas when they return. sniff, sniff.

Concert at Hampton Court

Summer time brings lots of outdoor concerts in London. One close to home takes place at Hampton Court Palace in one of the large courtyards within the palace.

We went to see James Morrison there. He has officially become my new favorite singer since I saw him perform at the London Olympic celebration last summer. Great show and the palace looked really cool all lit up at night (my gazillionth trip to Hampton Court, but my first visit at night.)

They do something like a "English Tailgate party" out on the grounds before the show. Very civilized and reminded me of "the Grove" at Ole Miss before a football game. Our gang ate at a restaurant instead due to the predicted heavy rains. It was so unusual to attend an outdoor concert that started at 9:00pm and it was still light at that time. Just seems like concerts should start when it's dark outside.

One funny thing is that the tickets specifically said "you must remain seated for the entire performance". That is so awkward since the performer is standing up there rocking out and the audience is quietly sitting staring at him. Finally there were some rebels that started standing. The folks behind got mad, the ushers tried to get folks to sit or go stand at the edge. It was comical. I have never been to a rock concert where people sat the whole time. So weird.
I know he's spent some time in the US, but not nearly as popular there as he is here. Keep an eye out for him - James Morrison, cute, British R&B singer

A fond farewell dinner

The gardens at Great Fosters

Hard to believe that it's already time to start saying our goodbyes, but with school letting out in 10 days, folks will leave the following day for their summer break, so that left this weekend and next for our get togethers. Last night we had a wonderful farewell dinner for the families in our group who are permanently leaving the UK this summer. We picked the historic Great Fosters restaurant to celebrate our time here. It's a really impressive and beautiful place.
It was a great evening with great friends and great food. We will miss them dearly. They've been our family while we've been living our lives on this little island. "Good people" as we say!

Here we are as we took our tea in the great hall (built in the 1500s). Out of the shot is a beautiful fireplace that had a fire burning. (still chilly here!)
As you can see, DA wasn't able to be with us. He's traveling at the moment. We really missed him.

GREAT FOSTERS
History says that it was once the hunting lodge of Henry VIII. There is even an Anne Boleyn room. Henry's daughter, Queen Elizabeth I also stayed at Great Fosters.

(from the website www.greatfosters.co.uk)
At the far end of a wide gravel driveway, Great Fosters stretches out in all its splendour – an outstanding 16th century red-brick house dominating what is believed to be an Anglo-Saxon site, backing onto formal gardens and surrounded on three sides by a moat.

Over the centuries, Great Fosters has been extended, embellished and renovated, yet with each addition the history and charm of the property have been faithfully preserved. Wander through the house and at every turn intricate craftsmanship, celebrated artistry and acclaimed architecture bear testament to Great Fosters’ distinguished past.

The centre of the house is believed to date back to around 1550, when it was most likely built as a symmetrical U-shaped Elizabethan homestead. The slightly larger brickwork in the porch and at the sides of the house suggests a later extension, around 1600.

Elizabethan craftsmen excelled in designing varied styles of tall chimneys, and whilst a bomb blast during the war necessitated all Great Fosters’ chimney pinnacles to be removed, they have been so accurately replicated that they won Great Fosters an award in the 1970s.

Another dominant feature of the house is the windows, all of which are stone mullions and transoms with leaded lights. The History Within Entering Great Fosters through its central porch you walk through a doorway, above which the arms and initials of Queen Elizabeth I date to 1598. From here, a stout inner door gives way to the main hall and the wealth of treasures within.
Here is the "stout" doorway. The tiny door within the large door. This is the main entrance and they had everyone enter through the tiny door. We got a big kick out of it.

a relaxing weekend at home.

Much to the kids excitement, we planned on spending a relaxing weekend at home, cleaning out the house - getting ready for the move. Turned out to be a great weekend - beautiful, sunny 70 degree weather - but not much cleaning out.
Friday lunch at a great pub in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!!! with good friends. It's literally at the end of a road off the end of another road in the Surrey Hills. (Friday Street in Abinger Common). Very pretty setting.
Stopped off in Dorking for some antique shopping on the way home. Ended up buying an old cast iron kitchen scale with a copper bowl. It weighs a ton. Cute though. I have no idea where to put it!
Met some ACU college friends for lunch on Saturday in Hampton Court village. Glad we could get a moment with them on their whirlwind tour through London.
Afternoon strawberry picking at the local "pick your own" farm. I think they are really about a week away from being really good, but overall, I believe strawberries are Britian's best natural resource. so good.
Saturday night BBQ outing with good friends who we will miss when we move. B asked if we were eating BBQ, but no, that is just the general term used for cooking outside on the grill and having an outdoor party. The weather was fabulous.
Today L and I went to Thorpe Park for some thrilling amusement park rides. On the hottest day of the year so far (27 C). If you want, check out www.thorpepark.co.uk and click on "rides" and then "extreme rides" to see the ride videos. They show some of the crazy ones. We rode Colossus and Nemisis. That Colossus video will make you sick with all 10 of the cork screws. Just imagine how that feels in person. lots of fun.
I also rode "Saw" - it was intense! L opted out due to the fact it goes straight up in the air at 90 degrees and flips right over to go straight down. Me? I sat on the front with some random teenagers. I'm sure they were wondering who the crazy old lady was.
B isn't into roller coasters too much, so she and DA went to see Night at the Museum 2 instead. (A note about Thorpe Park - if you remember a photo of Princess Diana going on a Log Ride with Princes Wills and Harry when they were young boys- that is Thorpe Park. We went on that ride today too.)
Fortunately for me :-) DA is a much better organizer/cleaner outer/stay on task- packer upper than I am, so he still managed to make good progress on B's room. My contribution to the day???? I went to pick up hamburgers from the hamburger shack that parks on the high street after 6:00pm. The kids keep asking why we dont have any "real" food. I guess all the bits in the pantry dont count. Besides I'm trying to clean out the pantry, not refill it! (can't ship back any food items).
No cool European travel, but enjoyed some good ole British fun instead. Great weather just makes everything better.
And the cherry on top ... Chelsea won the FA CUP. Go Blues!

Dream trip to Scotland

(posted by DA)

What a great weekend. I recently was able to mark two items off of my “Life Adventure List.” Each was as great as I had hoped and dreamed.

The first was a trip to St. Andrews Scotland, the home of golf. On the first day we played the Jubilee Course and then day 2 - The Old Course. I went with three close friends, Craig, Chuck, and Chris. They were great traveling companions and made the trip really fun. I took lots of pictures and will be more than glad to show each to you with a thorough explanation. ("beware," says Bridget)

I won’t bore you will all the details. Believe me; I could give a hole by hole account of my play. I had a great caddie named Frank Carter. He knew every part of the course, and I put my complete trust in him. There were several highlights for the trip, but my favorite memory will be hitting into the famous greenside bunker on #17 (The Road Hole). I hit my first ball successfully out and landed it about 12 feet past the flag. It was a great shot if I say so myself.

I was fortunate enough to be able extend my stay in Scotland for a day. I drove down to The Borders area of Scotland. This is the home of the famous Tweed River; one of the great trout rivers of the world. It was beautiful. My fly fishing guide was Steve. He was raised on the river and was extremely knowledgeable. It had rained hard the day before, so the water was brown instead of its normal crystal clear. Unfortunately, I didn’t land the big one. I fished really hard all day and only caught three. We tried nymphs, dry flies, and even a setup called “czech nymphing”. Oh well, I just enjoyed being out on the river.

It was a great trip. One I will never forget. I plan to do my best to get back to Scotland one day to play the other courses at St. Andrews and to catch the ones that got away.

O-V-E-R the top

I'm almost too embarrassed to post this story, but it's a part of my crazy life, so here goes.

DA planned a guys trip to play golf in Scotland (Old Course at St. Andrews) and do a little fly fishing as well. It just so happened that I was invited to go on a "plein air" painting course in France that same weekend. I declined so that DA could go golfing without any conflict of babysitters, getting kids to/from school, etc. I've had lots of opportunities to go and do with the girls and he has been working hard at the bank. Lo and behold, he surprised me by planning the babysitter and setting things up so I could go to France while he was on his trip. Earned some brownie points there!!!

Here I am sitting in Carla Bayle, France doing a little painting.

More scenes in Carla-Bayle just asking to be painted. ha. It's a very artsy town with tons of art galleries. This is just one colorful corner. Post office has the blue shutters.

Plein air (pronounced PLAIN air) means painting outside in the elements - quickly and with a limited color palette. Now I havent picked up oil paints in probably 35 years, but I did my best.

Our gite (pronounced zsheet)

The place we stayed (Manzac D'en Bas in Castex) is in the south western part of France. Our "gite" overlooked the Pyrenees mountain range that separates France from Spain. Our hosts bought this old farm house 6 years ago and have spent the time redoing every square inch themselves- including digging out and installing their pool. It is amazing the amount of work they've done from the run down, falling down farmhouse of old, to this fabulous charming little get away. (the family lives in the middle section with the green shutters). They saved every single thing they pulled out of the house, including lumber which they had denailed - and reused, to rocks to roof tiles to hay feeders, etc. They stored it all carefully and have tried to use it all in order to be environmentally responsible. Very impressive.

It was so beautiful there and the French food was amazing.

View from just above the house.

We went to a little Sunday market in Mont Bruen (??? spelling) that was filled with interesting characters and fabulous old buildings.

Market town. Aren't those buildings cool?

Here I am with my buddy Julie at the market.

We thought we'd be in for a little shopping experience, but it's more for the locals to buy things they need like juice, veg, fruit, plants, clothes, etc. plus Native Indian leather clothes (that was a shocker). I didnt buy anything, just people watched . The majority of folks were plain ole hippies. Dred locks, tie dye, haram pants - the works.

Our host family was so attentive that we jokingly ended up calling the husband "Giles, the sherpa". He carried our paint tables around, served breakfast, "elevenses", lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. He took us out on our field trip painting and kept the coffee/tea coming when we painted at the gite. It was so fun. Lots of fun and laughs - mainly geared toward our pitiful paintings!

Here's a sample of our work laid out in the "drying room". Mine are the 3 on the bottom right hand side.

I dont think I'll be selling or even framing my paintings, but hey, when will I EVER in my life have the chance to go on a painting course in southern France. What a blessed life!

Guten tag from Berlin, Germany

German and European Union flags

Took the first May bank holiday weekend to travel to Berlin, Germany - one of those important European countries that we had not visited yet. Wasn't sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The interesting sights are within a fairly small area, so we were able to hit them all on one day. Their infamous history is so recent, and it absolutely amazed me how quickly things have developed there over the last 20 years. This November is the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the "wall".

Here are 2 images of the same sight - the Brandenburg gate:

This one just 20 years ago - it is taken from the West side facing the East side of Berlin. The wall is in front with the graffiti on it. (one confusing part - it wasn't the cardinal east and west side of the city. I think those were just descriptions of the controlling political sides).

Here is the same area today. Folks are free to walk through at their leisure. (Images are a little fuzzy since they are actually part of a hologram.)

There are 2 rows of cobblestones through the streets of Berlin that show the placement of the wall before it was torn down. Plaque reads "Berliner Mauer 1961- 1989"

One major fact that I had not really clued in on was that the wall wasn't always there. At first the border was open between the East (Communist) side and the West (Freedom) side. Folks would live on the cheaper East side, buy their goods there, but then work on the West side so that they could earn 4 times the salary. One night the wall was put up in secret, so in the morning the folks were cut off from their families, jobs, friends and even automobiles that were on the "other" side of the street from where the wall was placed. The animosity grew between the 2 sides and the death zone between the borders was heavily patrolled with illegal defectors shot on the spot.


Here we are at checkpoint Charlie, one of the more famous checkpoints to travel between the 2 sides. This building is actually a reproduction, but it is in the correct location.

I felt a little weird taking pictures of these places knowing that it was a place of death and strife for many. We tried to be respectful while at the same time learn facts about life at that time.


This shot is especially meaningful as we can just casually stand on each side of where the wall was placed, even though, within my lifetime, folks were killed for trying to make it to the Western side. Crazy to think about.


One really ironic thing is that this is a section of the original wall that is still standing. As hard as people worked to make the iron curtain fall, they have now actually had to put a fence up AROUND the wall to protect it! I'm sure there are some Germans who cannot even fathom that the wall is being protected.



We ended up taking a 5.5 hour bicycle tour through the city. It sounds challenging, but it is very fun. (Did the same thing in Barcelona). You ride on these cruiser bikes for about 5 min. over flat terrain and then the group stops for information about that sight and then you move on. It's very, very easy riding plus it's good, informative and the kid's don't mind spending all day on the bike. Great type of tour for our family.


This plaza was the sight of the massive book burning that took place in Berlin in 1933. Over 20,000 volumes burned.

Here we are with the Dom (Cathedral) in the background.

DA at the Brandenburg Gate. The brand new American Embassy is located directly to his right.

Pergamonmuseum -housing the original Ishtar gate of Babylon (of Nebuchadnezar's time). A replica of this gate currently stands on location in Iraq close to Saddam's former palace.

Pergamon alter - "the largest and most important treasure of Berlin's museums". From the Greek ruins of Pergamon (now in Turkey).

One especially impressive area in Berlin is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It is a very interesting plot of land with over 2,700 blocks of concrete set at various angles on undulating land. It is very disorientating to walk through, but really cool at the same time. Hard to describe and give the correct impression of it. A "must see" though. There is a museum underground, but it was too graphic. The kids and I walked through the first section of the museum and after that B decided it was too sad. She didn't want to see any more. I only learned later that museum is for 14 year olds and older. oops. Should have stayed above ground in the cement block area.

the kids within the cement blocks in the memorial to murdered Jews of Europe. (really, that's the official name)

All in all I'd place Berlin in the "been there, done that" shelf. Happy to have seen it and experienced it, but don't think I would ever make a point to go back as a tourist.