Youth Conference

Adam, Kyra, Erica and I just got back from youth conference last weekend. We had an enjoyable time at Bear Lake. I went up with Erica just for the day, but it was jam-packed with fun.I was able to go out on a boat with Erica and Adam and see them get up on the water. Adam got up on 2 skis and Erica got up on a kneeboard. The smiles on their faces were priceless. Kyra got up on a wakeboard the day before I got there. Besides just playing in the water, the kids also played sand volleyball. There were two organized games: one was a build-your-own-raft race and the other was an underwear relay. Great memories. Read more!

Finished at Last

I had no idea when I started how much work went into getting London up on this blog. I just finished this morning, and it feels very liberating to move onto something else. A lot has been happening already this summer with the kids, and I'll get them on here as soon as I can. Read more!

London Day Nine -- click for pictures

The next morning was the most relaxed we’d had. After stowing our luggage with the hotel concierge, we took off to Hyde Park to see Speaker’s Corner. Unfortunately it was under renovation, and no one was there sharing intellectual thoughts. According to the guide book, it’s a place to practice free speech, and we were hoping to be enlightened during our stay. After that small disappointment, we walked further on to Kensington Palace to try to find the gates where so many people honored Diana with flowers. We’d been by the palace twice already, but kept managing to miss “the entrance.” Once we found it and took some pictures, we sat on the park-like grass areas and watched some very entertaining 3-4 year olds at a football (soccer) practice. Cute stuff. They sure do start them young. The weather was pleasant and fairly warm. Again, these parks are beautiful, so people were out in droves enjoying the sunshine, sitting on park benches reading newspapers, watching their kids practicing soccer, jogging, feeding swans on the lake, throwing Frisbees to their dogs, bike riding, you name it. At around 1-ish we got back on our feet and walked to the Peter Pan statue, which was a highlight I really wanted to see in Hyde Park. It was everything I had hoped. It was not only Peter Pan, but it had small animals and fairies intertwined around the base leading up to Peter at the top. Yes, I took way too many pictures of it. There are some things I just don’t want to forget any details of. We then headed back to our hotel to get our luggage, then rode our last time on the Tube, quickly and efficiently to Heathrow. It was a piece of cake compared to when we arrived. It was hard to leave. London is definitely a place where I’d love to spend some more time in – even live here for a little while to really delve into things. This trip was pure heaven – even with sore feet and tired bodies. Of course I’m home and all the tiny aches and pains are forgotten. I just remember the wonderful things I saw and experienced, and the added blessing of sharing them with Rikki. Very cool. Oh, another thing – we actually came home with English pounds in our pockets. Bonus!! Read more!

London Day Eight - click this for slideshow

We started out bright and early this morning because our trusty guide book said that the Portabello Market started promptly at 5:30am. Right!? We didn’t even know we were in the right place because people were just barely starting to set up. We knew we wanted to get there early because we had planned on Hampton Court Palace by mid-morning. So we got there around 7am, bought some hot chocolate to warm us up, and meandered down the street watching the vendors setting up. It was interesting to see the different booths’ contents . I took pictures of a few – of course the pastry, doughnut, cookie and brownie ones caught my eye. I also loved the bread booths – yes, where I finally got a baguette -- and the flower and vegetable ones were very colorful. The meat ones were questionable where they had raw chickens hanging, hamburger, fish and other delectables just “out” for all the bugs, germs, and little children to explore at their leisure. Ick. Lots of purses, T-shirts, jewelry, scarves (again!). I found an interesting military booth that I’m sure Bill would have made a few purchases at, but I wasn’t sure what to get. They had Nazi and World War paraphernalia, hats, coats, shirts, insignias, gun holsters, shells, etc. It was kind of cool in a war-type of way. They even had an original leather, fly jacket. Neither of us made any purchases, except the chocolate and baguette, so we headed straight towards the train station to take the train out of town to Hampton Court Palace. This was our first train ride by ourselves, and it was no big deal. We’ll be experts at public transportation when we come back. It wasn’t too different from riding the Tube. I’ll tell you what, though. They are PUNCTUAL!! When the clock says they leave at 10:02, the doors seal up at 10:01 and they are pulling away at 10:02. Good for them. It took about 30 minutes to ride out to Hampton. The ride gave us the opportunity to see some of London outside of the city. Before on our day tours we’d go right to a freeway and stick on it. This time we had an intimate look into people’s backyards, which gave us a glimpse into their lives. At one point we were overlooking the rooftops of a neighborhood right out of Mary Poppins. All the same height, same antennas, same colors. Once we arrived it was a few short blocks to the palace which was situated next to a river. I loved the front gates with a statue of a lion on one side (England) and a unicorn on the other (Scotland). They use the lion and unicorn together quite a bit. The architecture was really nice – especially the brick work on the chimneys. Apparently the palace expanded over the centuries so it wasn’t one genius’ idea, but different parts to make up the whole. We spent several hours here learning lots of history and seeing some phenomenal gardens. Rikki was a whiz getting around in the hedge maze. We only hit one dead end, and she just led the way and we were through. My pictures do most of the talking about the gardens, so I’ll let the pictures suffice. Compared to the other two palaces we’d been to, Hampton Court gardens were far and above the best. Beautifully laid out, colorful, manicured, fountains, sculptures, with a touch of wild, and a touch of water with swans. A few lucky swans and ducks and birds got the remainder of my baguette I was still carrying around. Obviously I can’t remember clear back to Versailles, but if I could, I would say Hampton had comparable gardens. It was just wonderful to drink the beauty in. I hope I captured it adequately on film. When we got back that night, it was around closing time when everyone was shutting down, so we popped into a few theaters to see if any discounted tickets were left. Les Mis & Billy Elliot were sold out, but we hit the jackpot on our third theater. We got front row seats to Grease for $21.00!!! We pocketed the tickets, found Ed’s diner – all American – and enjoyed a cheeseburger and milkshake, shared a sundae, then walked back to the theater to enjoy the show. It was a neat experience being on the front row, but I’m not sure I’d do it again. I like being higher up where I can take in the whole stage. I was constantly turning my head back and forth to view all sides of the stage, but I’m not complaining. The actors and actresses were right in our faces, sweat, breath, smoke (from the cigarettes) and all. I just thought it was a great way to spend our last night in London by attending yet another musical – and for only $21. Can’t beat that. I just probably wouldn’t do the front row again. Read more!

London Day Seven - Bath, Stonehenge & Salisbury

Click title for pictures -- Up early for our day tour to Stonehenge, Bath and Salisbury. Our tour guide this time was an English young woman who was a history buff and gave us lots and lots of information. It was interesting, but there’s only so much you can digest and take in on a comfortably, swaying bus that tries to lull you to sleep in between stops. . I liked her style, but most of all I like the English slang she used. I wanted to write it down, but never did. She used words like “let’s pop over here” , “he popped his clogs” “jolly good”, “hurrah!” and other silly-to-us verbiage. The day looked promising so I left without anything warm so to speak. I brought my light rain jacket – no liner – and that was that. Things quickly changed at Stonehenge. From horizon to horizon, a dark and threatening gray mass of clouds appeared. As we were getting off the bus, the wind and rain kicked it up a notch and my jacket was pretty much useless except keeping the wet off my torso. Our guide was handing our tickets out, and everyone was trying to go SOMEWHERE for shelter, but there really wasn’t any….until we spotted the gift shop – as well as the 60 other people there at the moment. I had bought a zip-up sweat jacket mid-week in the city, and didn’t want to buy another one, so I looked for other options. I picked up a knit beanie and a scarf that would somewhat probably work….probably. I was a little miffed that it didn’t even have the Stonehenge logo on it! I waited in line, with the 60 other people, and by the time I got to the front, I glanced out the doorway, and there was Rikki outside looking up at a clear sky. WHATEVER!! I put the stuff back on the shelf, got my usual collector’s pin, picked up our audio guides and went out to brave the still chilly wind. After being dumped with heavy rain on our heads, the wind was really cold. I kept thinking that the audio tour was too overly-long. Everyone was huddled with arms crossed to their chests, chins down and backs to the wind, trying to patiently listen to Mr. Stonehenge on the audio machine. I was grateful to be there, but the cold was just getting right through to my bones! I couldn’t wait to get back on the bus. Out on the plain, I was able to snap a shot of our little rain storm that dumped on us. It looked pretty mild from a distance, and I was surprised at how, when we were right underneath it, it seemed to stretch on and on in all directions. One new thing I learned about Stonehenge was the existence of surrounding burial mounds that were about ¼ mile off the site. They were huge – like what you’d see in 3rd world countries when they do mass burials in one grave. Our next stop was warmer. We drove to Salisbury, ate at another traditional English pub, then visited Salisbury Cathedral. Two distinguishing things about this one was the steeple on top that was the tallest in Europe (404 ft) and also one of the original copies of the Magna Carta was housed in their Chapter House. Some other neat things about their Chapter House were the friezes around the octagonal-shaped room that depicted Bible stories. They hit all the major ones. I’m not sure if frieze is the right word, but I think it is. It’s a small sculptured picture depicting a scene. Photography wasn’t allowed in here. I got a postcard of the Magna Carta, and now I wish I’d gotten some of the Chapter House friezes, because they were pretty cool. Maybe I can find some on-line. I was able to do that with other places we couldn’t photograph. Rikki was reading the stories in order while I was looking up and identifying which picture belonged to which. We were going at a good pace, when I realized that Rikki was just reading and not looking up to see them. Oops! We were 30% done at that point, so we went back a little. Couldn’t read a lick of the Magna Carta, but it was neat seeing a piece of monumental history. Freedom and liberty….that stuff goes WAY, WAY back. It was under glass just like the Declaration of Independence in D.C. We also learned that another copy of the Magna Carta – there were 4 – is also in the same room as the Declaration of Independence. Another oops! How’d I miss that? Guess I’ll have to go back  Another thing of interest in this cathedral was the medieval clock dating back to 1386, Europe’s oldest working clock. Right by the clock, they also had some regiment’s colors (flags) of battles back in the 1800’s. Some were so threadbare that it just looked like an obscure net hanging there on a flagpole, but others were very distinct. Each flag had their own plaque stating which regiment it belonged to. Being a Richard Sharpe fan, I’ve learned the value of the colors among the regiments. Very cool to see originals. We had an hour and a half ride through more beautiful English countryside to get to Bath. The first view of it was breathtaking. The king or whoever it was that had it built, designed it so all the buildings were made out of the same limestone from the same quarry. Bath is in a very beautiful green valley, and with the pale cream limestone buildings, it was just gorgeous to look at. I couldn’t get a picture fast enough from the bus, so I had to buy a postcard with some of the city buildings on it. Bath was the home of some Roman baths that were excavated. This was another overly-long tour, but interesting all the same. At least most of it was interesting. I know I started skipping numbers here and there (numbers that you’d punch into your audio thingy to learn more facts about a certain object or person). Half the time I was afraid I’d miss something “good,” but I was definitely getting bored and anxious to get out on the streets and explore. It ended up that we didn’t have that much time. We were able to stop in a woolen mills shop, where I picked up some “real English woolen” scarves that were cashmere soft and Rikki found some sweaters. My joke on this trip was about my first scarf buying experience. I found two beautiful scarves and immediately scooped them up as gifts in the Cotswolds, just to realize at the next town that they had “Made in Korea” stickers on them! Aaaahhh!!! Korea gets into everything, doesn’t she? We also poked into a couple tourist shops and a really nice glass-blowing shop. Tempted to buy some stained glass balls, but didn’t. They’ve always been something I wanted hanging in my kitchen windows, instead of miniblinds. When we had 8 minutes left, we quickly did a recon tracing our steps back to see if I could find a crusty baguette, but no luck. Everyone was closing. For a touristy place like England, it was sure interesting how early most shops closed. Harrod’s closing at 8pm? What’s up with that?! Even our JCPenney’s are open til 9! Read more!

London Day Six -- over to Paris!

Again, click the title for pictures. During our Cotswold tour, we decided to switch our originally planned schedule around a little bit to fit in a day trip to Paris. Europe has a train called the EuroStar that goes 186 mph in a tunnel underneath the English Channel getting you to Paris in 2:15 hours. It was slick!! And quiet and smooth….wonderful. We went through Grayline again, but opted for a different kind of tour. We just paid for them to get us there, take us on a double-decker route around once, metro tickets for the day for us to get around, and a ride back home on the train. This gave us more time to spend at Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and Notre Dame. Our day started by being picked up at 5:00am from our hotel. Grayline’s “taxi” took us to Kings Cross railway station. There was another couple in the back seat, so Rikki took the back and I got to sit in the front and drive on the wrong side of the road to the station. It wasn’t quite too hairy because the driver was very, very careful, but it was still an experience worth mentioning here. My mind would expect the car to go certain directions, and then it would do differently. The train ride was smooth and quiet. The countryside whizzed by and we felt our ears pop a little bit as we hit the Channel tunnel, which I learned later was called ‘the chunnel’ by experienced travelers. Passing other EuroStar trains was a rush! I’d start counting one-one thousand as I saw them, and by the time I had that out of my mouth, they’d already passed us by. Our tour got off to a rough start. Apparently the Paris team wasn’t’ quite communicating very well with London. For some reason they separated Rikki and I as going it alone, and had us follow a woman out to the double-decker bus. We climbed on and waited for a few minutes. There were already a few other people on. Suddenly it took off and we started driving the streets of Paris. Like London, the cars were very small and the roadways even smaller. A lot of people drove mopeds and motorcycles. It was common to see dozens and dozens of bikes/mopeds/scooters parked next to each other along the sidewalk. We were almost to the Opera House when the bus turned around and followed the exact same route back. For some reason the driver didn’t wait for the rest of our group. He was under the impression that he was on a normal route, while our dark and handsome guide argued that this bus was supposed to be a dedicated bus just for Grayline tours. It took them 15 minutes to straighten that out and then we were off again. We again headed to the Opera House. We didn’t get off the bus, just drove completely around it. It didn’t seem like anything from Phantom of the Opera, but maybe I was just missing some Hollywood embellishments. It still was a beautiful building. Our guide tried to talk to us, but I missed a lot of his words. He was standing in the middle of the bus, with the majority of the group in the back. Rikki and I were in the front because we were a little chilly, so he spoke mostly with his back to us or would turn his head and say a few last words of his sentence in our direction. Ah, well. We also drove up the Avenue des Champs Elysees. It was a long, green avenue with the Arc de Triomphe at the end. Along the avenue was very expensive shopping like Luis Vitton. I snapped a shot of a Disney store for my benefit. We circled the monument erected for Napolean and got a closer look at the statuary on it. Pretty impressive stuff. We also drove around a famous square full of monuments and an obelisk. I totally missed what the guide said about this square, and have no idea what we were seeing. But it was nice as far as parks and monuments and fountains go. Our second stop was the Eiffel Tower. Rikki and I jumped off and got into the queues along with hordes of other people. The top floor was closed while standing in line, but fortunately it opened as we approached the ticket counters. YAY!!!! It was closed the last time I was in Paris, and I was thrilled with the opportunity to go all the way up…..on an elevator that is. Last time I took the stairs to the first floor. I still haven’t forgotten the calf pain. We took the elevator clear to the top then worked our way down. It was a stunning view. The top was so high that it was all a little hazy, and the lower level was a little better for details and color. They had pictures of the city up there for you to look at and identify certain main sites of Paris. We didn’t know exactly how far we were seeing, but there was a sign that said “Los Angeles 5,000-something miles” pointing to the west. I got a kick out of the workmen working on the OUTSIDE of the tower, hanging there by a few cables. Not my preferred line of work. We went to the Louvre Museum after this and spent a long time here. Huge doesn’t describe the place adequately. It took 10 minutes of walking through courtyards just to find the entrance underneath the glass pyramid – new since my last trip in 1986. Very modern looking amid this very old structure. We got set up with an audio tour again and were off. The disappointing thing was that we chose the first tour which was “Highlights of the Louvre” and listened to 45 minutes of commentary on 3 items. Who has 45 minutes to spend on 3 items at the Louvre? We quickly shut off our auto guides after this and just found certain things along the way and pressed in specific numbers to the exhibits that we wanted. My very favorite sculpture in this place is the “Winged Victory.” I could go on and on about other artifacts and history, but I won’t. It’s a place that you drink in slowly and savor the items that grab you, and I won’t ever again expect to ‘get it done’ in a few hours. It’s one of those places where you meander for a couple hours one day and come back in a few more days and meander in another section. I loved it all – I loved being in one place, in one country, yet seeing so many art pieces from all over the world and from different centuries. We next headed to Notre Dame cathedral. It was getting close to the time when we needed to be heading back to the train station, so we didn’t give ourselves much time here. I’d forgotten about the unique gargoyles at the top, and wished we had a little more time here. All we did was walk around the inside footprint of the cathedral, and although it was beautiful in its own way, we had already seen 2 other cathedrals and they were starting to look the same, if you know what I mean. If I were to do things differently, I would have gone straight to the top and examined the gargoyles more intently, and then made a quick sweep of the ground floor. But what did I know? Live and learn. We took Paris’ Metro back to the train station and ended up waiting for ½ an hour for the other people in our original tour group. The thing we noticed on the Metro was that Parisians, if that was whom we were traveling with, don’t shower as often as Londoners. Going through ‘customs’ or check-in or whatever it was that we did was a piece of cake at the station. We were told to get there an hour ahead of time, and 15 minutes ahead of time would have covered all our bases. Ah, well. We played it safe because we were new, right? Read more!

London Day Five - click for pictures

We walked through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park again this morning as we made our way to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We stopped by Princess Diana’s Memorial Fountain, which was a little disappointing. It was like the Royals felt like they had to do something, so they just put this here. My pictures can describe it better than I can in words. It’s supposed to be symbolic of her, but it just didn’t seem to do justice. We got to Buckingham Palace in time to get some great spots to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony. It was a lot less pomp and circumstance than what I thought would happen, but it happened. The most surprising thing to me was hearing the the military bands play songs from Mama Mia! and Hairspray. It just didn’t seem to fit, but the crowd loved them. Rikki and I were expecting something more along the lines of “God Save the Queen” if you know what I mean. It went kind of longish – especially since we had timed tickets to the London Eye, but it ended right about the time we needed to leave. It seemed like half the people left before the whole thing was over. We walked across the Thames to get to the London Eye, passing Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We arrived a half hour early and they still let us right on, which was great. The London Eye was a large ferris wheel with glass pods where you can fit around 20-30 people in each. Then in 30 minutes it makes one revolution around. It was a neat experience to see up and down the Thames from so far up, but we’d already seen a lot of London from the top of St. Paul’s. On our way to the Tube stop to get to the Tower of London, we stopped and watched a street performer who was dressed like Charlie Chaplin. It was great fun. He did an amazing job and watching a little four year old get into his act was even more fun. I couldn’t quite get my video camera to capture the kid, but the entertainer was worth stopping for. We arrived just in time to take the last Beefeater tour of the Tower of London. Our guide was funny and witty and I enjoyed him. I learned a lot about the Tower which was really a series of buildings that started from medieval times. Kings added things here and there as time passed, all within the walls of the Tower. The most famous things here were the Crown Jewels which were resplendent. I learned that the world’s largest diamond sits in the Queen’s scepter. I’m sure there’s a name for the scepter but I can’t remember that right now. All the different crowns and thing-a-ma-jigs had names, but I have no recall what they were. Sir Walter Raleigh was a famous resident here, and his jail room looked quite comfortable, complete with desk and chair, bed, fireplace, etc. Elizabeth the 1st was also a resident while her sister Mary was on the throne. Henry the VIII beheaded two of his wives here. The famous ravens were still here, and jumped/hopped along the grassy areas. I didn’t hear our Beefeater say anything about the ravens’ prophecy, so I’m not sure if it’s still believed or not. Supposedly when the ravens leave the tower, than the tower will fall – so England has taken great pains to have the ravens’ wings clipped. The Beefeaters are retired military men and they have to live in the Tower to work here. They still bring down the 2 ton iron spiked gate every night and no one passes through it after hours unless they have a password from the Queen. We ate dinner in Chinatown this evening before seeing Wicked. I loved seeing the market stalls with all the different kinds of vegetables that I didn’t even know existed. I don’t remember seeing these types of things in DC’s Chinatown or San Francisco’s. I took pictures of a Chinese candy store and a bakery, plus a shop that hung plucked chickens up in the store front window for your pleasure. Most of the restaurants had their menus posted outside, and chicken feet were served regularly. Whatever. Just give me sweet and sour chicken, thanks, preferable off the bone in chunks. The restaurant we chose was pretty full so they seated us at a large table for 8 that already had a couple sitting there, and a single man joined us later. New experience. Wicked was sensational – it was everything that people had said about it. I loved the story, but didn’t fall in love with the music. It was very unfamiliar to me and maybe I should have listened to some selections before I saw the musical. I only recognized two, and one I knew I didn’t particular care for. I was extremely happy about the ‘happy ending.’ I worried (a little) throughout the show how they were going to get a happy ending out of the wicked witch melting in water, but they managed it! And Galinda’s character was perfect and laughable. Rikki got our tickets before we left, and when I asked her how much I owed her, she said Happy Birthday! Sweet. Our Tube ride home was very crowded and very entertaining this evening. Four stops before ours, we admitted a group of rowdy, drunken young men who enchanted us with drinking songs or school sport songs or something along those lines. I thought it was amusing since I’m not used to that atmosphere at all. A fellow rider – probably hoping they’d immediately leave – mentioned he’d just been to Mexico, and all the guys laughed uproariously and started singing “If You Know You’ve Got the Swine Flu, Clap Your Hands,” except they were banging the ceiling. Cheap entertainment, but I preferred Wicked. Thank you, Rikki, for the Wicked ticket as a birthday present. I told her she could buy me theater tickets in London any birthday she wanted. What a memory. Read more!

London Day Four -- click title for pictures

This morning we were at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater at 9:15am sharp. Adam had created an animated 3D version of this theater for an English project, so it was pretty cool to see it in person. (In order to read some of the exhibits, you may have to click the "previous" button at the top of the slideshow a few times to give you enough time to get through them. If the 'previous' button doesn't automatically show, move your cursor around the top and it should show up) They tried to the best of their abilities to create it from original materials for the most part. For instance they had over 600 wooden pegs in the place. I think the saddest thing about the theater was learning that the guy who originally came over to London to find it, could only find a plaque about it. He determined he was going to raise the funds to create a replica on its original site, and did just that, dying 4 years (or months, I can’t remember) before its completion. Besides having a guide give us the ins and outs of theater life in Shakespeare’s days and explaining some of the physical characteristics of the theater, they also had an exhibit in the basement where it showed pieces from that time period: clothing, patterns, tools, money, weapons. They had pictures of what London used to be like at that time, and different models of the Globe. Matinees and night performances were currently going on. Since it’s an open air theater, their season is a short one. Following the Globe we walked over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We had a live guide on this one and it went REALLY long. There was just too much information to cram in. No pictures were allowed in here, but my fingers were itching to snap a shot of the Geometric Staircase where various Harry Potter scenes were shot. I bought some postcards at the end of the tour to have at least some idea of what we just saw. The only pictures I could take were of the outside. Inside the Crypt are the tombs and memorials of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Florence Nightingale, the painter JMW Turner, the poet William Blake and the architect Sir Christopher Wren. I loved the galleries as well, probably because they were made famous by the DaVinci Code….or was it Angels and Demons? After a quick lunch stop in the Crypt Café, we stood once again and climbed to the Cathedral floor before starting our step exercises. Even though our feet were killing us, we climbed the 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which lies just underneath the dome. You can whisper on one side and hear it on the other. We next climbed another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery which takes you outside to enjoy some panoramic views of the city. There was also a Golden Gallery another 152 steps further, but it was closed for some reason. Moving right along, we jumped on the Tube and headed over to the British Museum, which is kind of like Paris’ Louvre with not quite so much art. It has artifacts from all over the globe and could take you 12 days without eating or sleeping to devote 60 seconds to each one, 6-1/2 million to be exact . It was overwhelming to say the least. I’m not sure we saw the whole thing – although our feet felt like we had – but we saw quite enough. When we first walked in your eyes are automatically drawn upwards to a glassed roof containing 3,312 unique glass triangles. This covers the Great Court – the middle of the museum. This was a recent addition, and by doing this they created the largest covered public square in Europe, and it was VERY striking. I was entranced with the Egyptian area with all their mummies and Egyptian stuff. I took LOTS of pictures here. My children are for sure going to ROLL their eyes. It was like walking into a history book, better yet, re-living Mrs. Beattie’s humanities class at Davis High. Besides seeing mummified princely people, we also saw mummified cats, dogs, fish, and crocodiles, along with the jewels and amulets that people liked buried with them. They had x-rays available to see how well preserved the bodies were, plus a variety of instruments displayed that they used for the embalming process. And yes, some of it was gruesome, but fascinating. If you weren’t rich enough for a coffin, they also had a body that was perfectly preserved in a sand pit buried with his jars of food and paraphernalia. We also saw some bodies that were buried in baskets….a step up from the sand pits. London has the richest collection of Egyptian funeral art outside of Egypt. We also saw sculptures from the Parthenon, called the Elgin marbles, said to be some of the greatest sculptures ever created. And I believed it. Their muscular detail and fluidity of movement coming from a block of marble was incredible. My kids at home questioned why so many statues had heads and arms missing, but it didn’t seem to bother me at all. Maybe I’m used to it. Also in the museum we saw the Rosetta Stone, lots of Greek antiquities, a statue from Easter Island, the façade of the Nereid Monument (from Turkey), the Mausoleum of Halikarnassos (one of 7 wonders of ancient world), treasures of the Soo Hoo Ship Burial – richest treasure ever dug from British soil, the Lewis Chessmen, and the Benin Bronzes (900 brass plaques found in Nigeria depicting court life and rituals). Much, much more, but those are the highlights. We attempted to see the Lindow Man (one of Britian’s most senior citizens, found perfectly preserved in a peat bog in 1984) but he was on loan elsewhere. Scientists were able to determine that he was around 25 years old, a victim of Druidic sacrifice (clubbed, garotted and throat cut) who had eaten some cake shortly before his death and was blood group 0. Would have been cool, but….. I’m okay with loaners. I live in Salt Lake City, where most things are loaned to us  After being inundated with ‘things’, we went to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum to attend an A-list party. We arrived at 5:02 and were disappointed to learn that our discount 2 for 1 tickets weren’t valid after 5  And there was absolutely no give there. So I hoped it would be worth the $30! For the most part they did an excellent job of most of the celebrities, very real and life-like, and others were just so-so. The kids didn’t even recognize Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and told me I’d wasted my digital memory on Zac Efron. We found dozens of celebrities to take pictures with. I posed with Captain Picard just for Bill. Close by was Regent’s Park so we walked around that before getting on the Tube to head back home. It was yet another beautiful park with a meandering stream, dozens of flower beds, mature trees, very tame squirrels and this particular park had Queen Anne’s Rose Garden. We only found 2 roses that were out, but you could tell that it was going to be magnificent in one more month. The whole thing put just a tiny spark inside me that I could make a better effort with my own yardwork! Each bed was labeled with its particular kind of rose, and trellises looped around in a ring. That night we ate dinner close by our hotel in a pub called Friend in Hand. Tons of people were there cheering on their soccer team, but we were able to find a small table on the opposite side. We tried our first official English fish and chips and guess what? They tasted like…..fish and chips! BUT how many times do you get to eat fish and chips in an English pub?! I reveled just being there. Read more!

London Day Three - click title for pictures

This was our first day out in the city by ourselves. We first went to Leicster Square to a discount ticket place to see what kind of deal we could get for this evening. This particular booth only sells tickets the ‘day of’. We got there almost an hour before it opened and there were already 8 people in line. By the time it opened the line was close to 50. While Rikki waited in line I meandered a little bit about the square snapping shots at the ever present pigeons, vagrants sleeping on benches, and one older gentleman playing a flute for some coins. The funny thing was he was playing the same 3 measures over and over and over again. We acquired tickets for Jersey Boys. After this we went to Kensington Palace and did the 90 minute audio tour there. I came to love the audio tours. The device hung around your neck and you either held it up to your ear like a phone, or had earphones on to free your hands for pictures. It was a ‘tour at your leisure’ kind of thing, and that worked for us. I didn’t feel they let you see much of the palace, but I guess some is better than nothing. We saw a few rooms. In the basement – what we’d call the basement -- they had Princess Diana’s dresses exhibited along with a special exhibit on debutantes and what their life was like during ‘the season.’ It was interesting. The clear skies in the morning tricked me into wearing a short sleeve shirt this day, and I paid dearly for it by 10am. When we exited Kensington Palace, the skies were overcast and threatened to sprinkle at any moment. It actually did, but didn’t last long. What lasted was the chilly breezes. I decided that it was time to get my souvenir sweatshirt. It was perfect for the rest of the time here. My light rain jacket kept the rain off, but didn’t quite warm me up. From there we walked through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and St. James Park to get to the Buckingham Mews – the place where they keep the horses, carriages and cars of the Royalty. The carriages all started looking the same even though our audio tour pointed out the differences on each. The grand finale was seeing the 4 ton gold-gilded coach that carries royalty to weddings and coronations. It was massive, and was an art piece all by itself – without horses attached to it! We felt sorry for the horses to lug such a monstrosity, but I guess that is their lot and England’s tradition. We walked over to Westminster Abbey after this. It was beautiful, but they wouldn’t let you take pictures inside. The first thing that struck me was how crowded it was with memorials to the dead. It was almost cluttered with statues and sarcophagi. We had an audio tour here and it covered just the highlights. You could spend days reading every inscription on every monument, and even more days trying to translate the Latin ones. I was having a heck of a time with my audio guide – the battery died 3 times and I had to keep going back for another set. We had planned on getting to Westminster late enough in the day to attend Evensong at the abbey. There was a boys’ choir presenting the vocal parts this particular night and it was simply beautiful. Some of the phrases were very difficult musically and they had to sing a lot of Latin. The “program” was some kind of a ritualistic thing because the words were printed on a laminated card for the audience to follow along, and they repeated exactly what was on the card except for something they called the First Lesson and the Second Lesson, which were short stories from the Old Testament and New Testament. A lot of kneeling, standing, praying and listening. I think we both thought we were going to more of a concert of the boys, but were grateful to hear them sing at all. We walked our little socks off today! Rikki wore a pedometer for the first 4 or 5 days and we were averaging 10 miles a day. The Saturday we arrived we walked 9 miles, and this day we put in 12! And yes, our feet were feeling it. Thankfully we had both brought 2 sets of shoes. I think we ate dinner on the run that night, trying to get back over to Leicester Square for Jersey Boys. I thought it was a phenomenal musical. I had no reticence about jumping to my feet for a standing ovation when the four came out for their bows. The musical was based on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and their ups and downs to stardom. Being from Jersey their language was pretty crude, but it was really fun to hear so much music I recognized and didn’t know that it had originated with them. It also gave you some background of how a song came to be, or what events were surrounding it. I knew I wanted a CD as soon as I could get out to the lobby. Read more!

London Day Two - click on title for slideshow of pictures

This morning we were up bright and early ready to be picked up for a Grayline tour into the Cotswolds countryside and a visit to Blenheim Palace. We had to leave before the hotel opened up breakfast, so we grabbed a quickie breakfast from the convenience store a block away and walked to Russell Square to eat it. Although it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, the air was still chilly so we only lasted a few minutes while we ate breakfast on a park bench, then meandered over to the hotel where we were to be picked up. It was called the Russell Hotel and had all the opulence of the Ritz. Beautiful marble, tile mosaic floors, marble columns on which sat beautiful flowers, luxurious velvet drapery, gilded mirrors and plush chairs. It was just a meeting place, but I had to take pictures of the inside. Blenheim Palace was an hour away and I enjoyed getting out of the city to see some countryside. England has lush, rolling hills squared off by stone fences and prickly hedges. Our first view of Blenheim Palace was breathtaking. After winding through a small town, we turned a corner and a beautiful scene met our eyes. Grassy rolling fields were before us dotted with English oaks and a serene lake nestled in a small valley. A river emptied into the lake that gently meandered through a stone bridge that straddled Blenheim Palace on one side and the Marlborough Monument on the other. White swans were dotted here and there on the lake. We could hear the whole busload take a breath of wonderment. Historians have labeled this view as the ‘best of the country’ and I didn’t doubt it. The palace itself was imposing as a palace should be, an example of English Baroque architecture. It really wasn’t even a palace; the land was given to the 1st Duke of Marlborough for a decisive victory of his in Bavaria, and Queen Anne also gave monies to get a place built. Only dukes lived here, but it pretty much looked and smelled like a palace. This was famous for being the birthplace of Winston Churchill. We only had a short time to explore here, and ended up getting in the wrong line wasting precious time. Once we got in THAT tour of a multi-media presentation upstairs about the palace’s occupants, we rushed through it and tried to get in the downstairs tour of the ground floor. That also had a line and we knew we wouldn’t make it out to the bus on time if we waited around, so we turned around and somehow went underneath some ropes and ended up in the middle of that particular route and hurried through half of that as well. The grounds were spectacular I’m sure…we just didn’t have time to do them any justice. We saw one tiered garden off the café side and walked to the front gates that looked out to the bridge and monument. By that time we had to rush back to the bus, or else we would have explored more in depth. The map of the grounds looked very promising and beautiful. After the palace, we drove deep into the Cotswolds, the traditional English countryside where quaint thatched roof cottages were the norm. We stopped at three such towns, Bourton on the Water, Stow-on-the-Wold and Burford, where we stopped at an English pub and had lunch. We both had Steak & Ale pie, with “spotted dick” for dessert. The tour bus kind of chuckled when our guide announced the menu, but he had a deadpan face on and said, ‘No kidding.’ I guess ‘spotted dick’ is whatever they are serving for dessert, in our case being apple pie with cream. The Bourton on the Water village was the most beautiful with a lazy and wide stream meandering through Main Street. There were stone walking bridges over the river to conveniently get you over to the shopping, complete with waddling ducks here and there. The structures were really, really old in these towns and the roofs looked like they couldn’t keep water out if they tried. But after questioning this with my guide, he said that actually these roofs were pretty much a lifetime deal. Some looked like thatch, but on a closer examination, they were actually stone slabs overlapping each other. He said the roofs were so heavy that they had to brace up the walls to hold it up! And to have a thatched roof was kind of a two-edged sword. They were beautiful to look at, but they were also protected by English law. If you ever needed to replace your roof, you HAD to re-do it in thatch….and it was quite pricey, upwards of $50,000. It’s all done by hand. The weather this day was spectacular, chilly enough to throw our light jackets on, but beautiful, clear blue skies with fluffy white clouds. That night we took the Tube over to Waterloo station to see some distinguished graffiti in a nearby alley that was listed as a “must-see”. I saw some pictures of it on the net and it looked interesting, but there wasn’t much left of what I saw when we finally got there. The city gave full license to anyone to get as creative as they wanted down there as long as their art wasn’t graphic, racial, demeaning, etc. I took some pictures anyway, but it was mostly pictures of words. Wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. Read more!

London May 2009 -- Day One

I decided to break down my London trip into separate entries. So today is Day One. If you click on the title, it will go directly to a Flickr slideshow for pictures. On some of the pictures I put titles on them, but they will only show if you click the "Show Info" button on the top right. I will eventually have the slideshows listed on the bottom right, with my others, but can't remember how to do that again. And help WAS NOT just a click away. My journal entry is as follows: Day One Our energy for our first day came completely from adrenaline. We left Salt Lake at 4:00 on a Friday and arrived in London at 12:30 the next day. Rikki brought ear plugs – which was ingenious – because on our transcontinental flight were two newborn twins, both wailing at decent intervals. I watched one movie and somehow fell asleep for about 5 hours. It was intermittent, but it was still some kind of sleep. We arrived in the hustle and bustle of Heathrow Airport, retrieved our luggage and began our first adventure. Trying to travel on a shoestring, we needed to go first to Paddington Station to pick up our Travelcards in order to take advantage of some 2 for 1 discounts to several attractions. I had explicit directions from TripAdvisor on how to get there, and we commenced ‘popping’ all over the subway system, called The Tube. We had to change several lines, and that entailed long hallways, very tall escalators and several sets of stairs. The laughable thing was that every time we encountered stairs, we had to unhook our compact luggage sculptures in order to get them in hand to lift. Then we’d descend…or ascend…..put our luggage back together just in time to turn a corner and find another looming staircase. It took us several hours to get to Paddington, find the correct ticket counter and then make our way to Russell Square to our hotel. Our very last ‘straw’ happened on our very own Tube stop. We had just barely squeezed into our train, trailing 10 days of clothes and toiletries, separated a door apart to make sure we both got on. We were crammed against our door with dozens of other Tube riders that just wanted to go home. I actually had one Londoner turn around and apologize to ME that her back was being skewered by MY suitcase! We only had to hold our breath for a minute as we had only one stop to go, and as luck would have it the door slid open on the opposite side of the coach when the train pulled into our stop. Pushing and squeezing, and I’m sure I accidentally rolled over a couple pairs of feet, I lunged out the other side of the subway, yanked all my luggage out after me and looked up as Rikki emerged in the same condition one doorway down. We looked at each other and then doubled over with laughter. We had arrived….somewhat laboriously, but we had arrived. I thought finding our hotel would be easy since the address was “Russell Square.” I just assumed everything facing that square would have that address. What we soon learned however was that Russell Square contained several perpendicular streets that also had the same address. Luckily there was a sidewalk salesman right outside the Tube stop who got us pointed in the right direction, after first declaring how good of quality his products were – handbags, luggage and scarves. He eased off gently after noticing that we didn’t quite need another handbag or piece of luggage at this time. We stayed at the President Hotel, very conveniently placed around the corner of the Russell Square tube station. The outside looked like a 1960’s architect’s experiment, but the inside was very nicely done in dark wood and red carpet. We checked in and made our way to Room 449. Our key was the old-fashioned kind that Cinderella’s stepmother protectively kept in her pocket, attached to a foot long piece of steel tube. I don’t think we were going to lose this masterpiece, but just in case, we had to drop it off at the front desk every time we left the hotel. It looked like it could open just about any other room in the hotel, but we never tried. Our room was small – just like the internet said it would be – but that was just fine for 2 girls. We only needed it to sleep in. The bathroom was more updated than I had anticipated, which was a bonus, and our shower head was a DREAM. My hair was completely rinsed in 2 seconds flat. Rikki wondered if putting conditioner on was doing any good since the water pressure barely left your strands of hair connected to your head, let alone leaving anything on them to keep them moisturized. We changed quickly and headed out to explore the city first by jumping on The Original London Sightseeing Tour. Getting to the office to validate our tickets was a small chore since getting directions proved to be difficult. We ended up asking 3 separate people as we slowly got closer and closer to our destination. It was kind of like playing the Hot and Cold game; they couldn’t give us start to finish directions, it was more like telling us we were getting warmer. This specific tour was the double-decker bus tours that give you a nice taste of what there is to see. Believe me, we had already done our research on what there was to see, but we couldn’t travel over 5,000 miles and not get on a double-decker bus. You could opt to jump off-jump on, but we just stayed for the hour-long loop since we already had a plan in place. The highlights we drove by on the yellow route were: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, #10 Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade grounds, Shakespeare’s Globe theater, the London Eye, Scotland Yard and the Sherlock Holmes Pub, Nelson’s Column, Covent Garden, Fleet Street, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, the Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly Circus, Marble Arch, Hyde Park, London Dungeon and we crossed the Thames on 7 bridges. Phew!! Lots to see. Our last stop was Piccadilly Square where we found a place to eat. The Square was packed with people, with a bunch sitting at the base of a statue….just sitting and watching the world go around. We noticed this happens a lot. During the lunch hours, the parks and piazzas were packed with business men and women enjoying a lunch outside. We enjoyed fabulous weather during our stay, and it took me a few days to realize that if I lived in London, I too would be taking advantage of a beautiful day to sit outside and eat. We knew about the constant overcast skies and drizzle that England is famous for, but were blessed to have plenty of sunshine while we stayed. We must have brought it from the States!! I even got a little sun burned that first afternoon. Riding the tube during our stay gave us plenty of opportunity to people watch. The first thing I noticed though, I noticed with my ears. All around us several different languages were being spoken all the time. London was definitely a melting pot of the world. Although the Caucasian skin color dominated, the darker Eastern races were certainly making their presence. The clothes choices were all over the board. I loved seeing the traditional business man with dark suit, bowler hat and cane. That was ‘cute,’ if I can use that term to describe a professional. Rikki described the clothes trend as ‘anything goes.’ And it certainly DID. There were a lot of minis with tights and boots. We even saw a young man in tights and a short tunic that made us do a double take to make sure he really was a young man. Scarves were all the rage, no matter how warm the weather and the young men also participated. It was common to see a young man in jeans and T-shirt with a scarf thrown around his neck. Scarves were EVERYWHERE! If they weren’t being worn than they were being vended right and left. ALL tourist shops were selling scarves right alongside the typical touristy stuff. The people were also generally kind and genuine; not snobbish like we’d read about. I’m sure they were perturbed if we weren’t standing on the right side of the escalator, but overall they were okay. We were both offered a hand when it came to hauling our suitcases up sets of stairs and I also saw other people given the same treatment. We had our first English dinner in the Pie House over the Crown Pub…same establishment, but I guess they wanted to distinguish their sit down restaurant from the bar. Rikki had a fish pie (prawns & scallops?) that came with a slice of crusty bread and a leaf of lettuce that was advertised as a ‘salad.’ I had a chicken and leek pie that came with creamy garlic mashed potatoes and some broccoli and cauliflower. We both ordered homemade lemonade, and agreed that we liked the American version better. We soon learned that the English do not season their foods like we do at home, and although it was fun to try new things, most things were pretty bland……lemonade included. After dinner we made our way to Harrod’s. The department store was built like a palace on the outside, and looked very beautifully lit. We only had a few minutes before closing time to walk through a few departments, eyeing handbags with price tags of 200 pounds and rhinestone headbands priced at 125 pounds. Yeow!! We somehow meandered into the chocolate and candy department – that was the size of my house! – and splurged on a treat. I bought a mini cupcake for 1.10 pounds and Rikki got a slice of carrot cake for 3.85 pounds. It was unfortunate that the salesgirl was a little overwhelmed at the end of the day and gave Rikki the wrong box, so she ended up with something else. Read more!

Technical Difficulties

I'm learning. At least that's better than being stagnant. I just learned how to edit my 'html code' so I can have expandable post in this blog. What this means is that now I can have a couple of beginning sentences to each entry, and then there will be a 'read more' link if you want to continue reading. And of course you do want to continue reading, because why else would you be on my blog? So when I made the changes -- and they only apply to the main page, they don't extend into the archives -- it changed all the main page posts to have the 'read more' link at the bottom of each post. This is incorrect! There is nothing to 'read more' before this post. And apparently it will always read this way -- I cannot choose when to have it and when not to. Frustrating, but that's as far as my technology knowledge goes. So I apologize up front when you click 'read more' and nothing more appears. Sorry! Read more!

Adam's Tango-Cha Cha Performance

Here's Adam's 1st dance number at his ballroom showcase in April/May. The waltz was his second. Please disregard the video job. I was having trouble getting used to the new camera's functions, plus people kept standing up in front of me, plus the added annoyance of Bill right next to me trying to tell me what to do and I kept losing sight of Adam on stage. So.... I had to make a lot of cuts. He starts the number on the very front left and ends the number on the back left. Click on the title to go directly to youtube.com, and it will start playing automatically. Read more!

Junior Prom

Adam had a great time at his school's Junior Prom. This year he went all out and rented a limo with his buddies. Since I didn't fund anything, I didn't ask how much the limo was. I really don't want to know. But I have to question why a limo can be afforded, and professional pictures cannot???

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Awards for Kyra

At the end of the school year, Kyra was invited to an awards evening where she was given academic and citizenship awards. She's been very conscientious this year, achieving 4.0's the whole year and perfect citizenship.

She was also invited to another special awards breakfast where she was given a Citizenship/Leadership award. Each term the school chooses one girl and one boy from each grade to be presented this award. It was quite an honor, but better than the plaque, was reading all the emails that teachers and previous teachers over her 3 years at Farmington Jr. High had written about Kyra, why she deserved this award. A very, very proud moment for Mom.

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End of the Soccer Season for Jake

Here are a few pictures of Jacob finishing up his soccer season. Thanks to a great coach who stopped his whining in its tracks, he was given numerous opportunities this spring to get 'into the game' and run and sweat and kick the ball. He showed more aggressiveness than I've ever seen. We're proud of you, Jake, for such a great finish. The final picture is of Kyra on-the-job. She referee'd a game of Jake's and our neighbor said he was disappointed that she didn't show any favoritism. Way to be partial, Kyra. She enjoys this part-time job and is looking forward to the fall to start up again as a seasoned referee.

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