Our Winter Wonderland!

I know that most people in the state have a lot more snow than we do, but this is the first time in 17 years living here that we have had this much snow. As of this afternoon (Sunday, Dec. 21) we have 12 inches. The picture taken out of the office window, the foot measuring stick on our little outdoor fireplace and the deer under the tree were taken either Saturday or Sunday morning. The others were taken Sunday about 3 pm. Our picnic tables look like they have marshmallow tops and the other picture is our roof. The pipe on the left side is the vent from our master bathroom and on the top of the roof just right of center is our Direct TV dish. Guess who doesn't have tv? Maybe in a few days if the snow will stop. Did I tell you that it started this morning and hasn't stopped yet? Big flakes that are just full of water.

I'm thawing out my turkey for Christmas in the garage, but it has been so cold that after 24 hours it is still frozen solid, just like it came out of the freezer. I'm worried that the Vickie, Dave and Cooper will not be able to make it down. They are leaving for Vegas Christmas evening(if the airport can get back on schedule) and the roads have been just terrible. We can't even get out of our driveway or up onto the main road. It is the curse of living out in the county - the beauty and the pain. Oh well. Everybody have a wonderful and marvelous Christmas and New Years. All will work out for the best and everyone will be thinking of each other, even if we can't see them on Christmas day.

Bear and Bobby

We finally got to see the grand kids and give them their souvenirs from London. Hayven got a new outfit for her bear - he became a member of the Royal Guard, fuzzy hat and all. He was very cute. As you can see we brought D a police hat. He wasn't too sure about it, but he did put it on once so I could get a picture of him in it. We thought he was a good looking "Bobby"!

I can't believe how much they have grown and changed in just the short time we haven't seen them. Hayven has gotten to be quite the young lady. Being in first grade has made her seem so much older. D went to the Pumpkin Patch with the kindergarten class I volunteer in today. We had a great time and what a change from last year. He is so much more ready to be in a school setting. He participated in quite a bit of the class activities. He also got to take his first school bus ride. I was informed that now he was ready to ride Hayven's bus. I love being with him! He can be such a sweetie. It was a good day for all!!!

We are now home from London!

This is the Millennium Bridge. It is a pedestrian bridge across the Thames River. For us it was the quickest way to get to the next subway stop. It was the scariest walk that I have ever made. We walked down the middle and I held tight to Dick's arm. He would stop to take pictures and all I could do was look straight ahead. We made people go around us. It was the only way I could make it across. Probably not one of my saner decisions.

Well, we made it home on Saturday. Our flight out of Houston to Seattle was 1.5 hours late, so we didn't arrive until 9:30 PM and made it home at 11 PM. Our body clocks are slowly getting back to normal time.

We had a very good trip and saw lots of tourist traps. We had never thought about visiting London, but when the conference came up, it seemed like a good opportunity to visit. With everything so familiar - food and language, it wasn't hard to adjust to their country. That made it that much more fun. We never had fish and chips, but we really didn't miss that. We had so much else to try. The money rate of exchange was really bad for us - 1 pound was $1.90. We just kept saying everything was double for us. That didn't stop us from buying souvenirs and taking tours. It's only money!! If you ever get a chance to visit the U.K. you should. The history that our country and theirs share is incredible.

This is my last blog about our trip, but I hope to add to this blog site in the future. Check back sometime and you might see something new posted.

Friday, October 10th

Today we went to the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.  It takes about 45 minutes and thousands of people gather at the fence and on the statue across the street from it.  We got there about an hour before and were just one person from the fence and had a pretty good view for getting there that late.  I have to admit that if anyone ask me if they should go see it, I would say "No way".  It was slow, boring, and the band played show tunes - My Fair Lady and the theme from James Bond, for 2.  While they were playing they just slid in the changing of the 4 guards.  I think we could have spent our time in a better way.  After that was over we went to meet John and Maria at the Convent Garden Market.  It is a huge shopping center with store fronts and open air stalls.  It has been a market since the 1630's.  It was great fun and finally found some bargains.  We were close enough to our hotel to walk home, so we turned in our Oyster Cards (for the Tube) and got a refund.  We sure couldn't do that in Washington D.C.

We are spending the evening packing and repacking to try to keep our checked luggage under 50 pounds.  I think we are just about there.  We leave here at 4:30 in the morning and fly out at 8:30 AM.  We are going to be exhausted by the time we reach Seattle and are looking forward to our own beds and having ice in our drinks again.  I post again probably on Sunday with more pictures.  Good night to everyone!!

Thursday, Oct. 9th

Yesterday, Wednesday, we moved hotels again and this one is located in the theater district.  It's about a 4 block walk to the subway station (it's call the Tube).  This is our main means of travel.  We've gotten pretty good at it.  The last 2 times we have taken it there has been a problem and we had to take a taxi one time to get back to our hotel and then last night it was just slow.

After moving hotels we went across the river to see Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.  It's not real large but very interesting to learn the inside information on it.  We also had lunch at our new favorite restaurant - Wagamama's.  After our tour of the Globe we rode the Tube to The Hard Rock Cafe.  Of course we had to get some of their London Hard Rock items.  They were having a private concert in the main restaurant, so everyone (who was nobody) had to eat in the bar.  45 minutes of wait time we were sat by the bar and had to talk really loud to carry on a conversation.  We still had fun.

On Thursday we took a bus tour of Windsor Castle, the Roman Baths in Bath, and Stonehenge.  I bet you can guess which picture is which!!  It was a beautiful day and a great trip.  Not enough time at Windsor.  We all agreed that we could use a full day there.  How embarrassing we were late getting back to the bus and were the last to board.  You better believe we were almost the first to board at the next stop.  Stonehenge was no surprise.  It isn't real big, but what really surprised us it that it is in the Y of 2 highways.  One runs right on the edge of the area fenced off for Stonehenge.  Gwen, they keep the grass cut low by SHEEP!  They had a few running free in the Stonehenge area and a flock just on the other side of the fence.

Tuesday Oct. 7th

Today I took a walk before heading over to the National Science Museum. It’s fun to visit the neighborhoods around the hotel. I checked out all the real estate windows as I walked pass and most of the apartments or townhomes were renting for between 650 and 1600 pounds a week. The townhomes were selling for 1 to over 2 million pounds. It’s not cheap to live in this city. All of the apartments and row homes that I have seen are made of some sort of brick. Regular red brick or large stones that are painted, unusually white. This is one of the more interesting row of homes that I came across today.

I walked by Hyde Park and then down to the museum. I passed the Royal Albert Hall. It is a well known venue for concerts.

We leave this hotel tomorrow (Wednesday) and will go to the Waldorf Hilton until we leave Saturday. It is in the middle of the Theatre District. We won’t make a play, but just seeing the night life will be a people watchers dream.

Monday October 6th continued

Today Dick started his conference and I went site seeing by myself. I decided to go to the Natural History Museum. It is only about 4 blocks from our hotel. What a beautiful building. Of course I loved the dinosaur exhibit. They have 14 complete skeletons, 2 animatronic raptors and a full-size robotic T. Rex (I took several short movies of T. Rex). As you can see how large the building is by the dino skeleton in the entry hall. I thought the right foot of the Iguanodon was great. They also had it’s front feet and how they use them like hands with one thumb spike, 3 fingers (to support and walk with) and a flexible finger to help grasp food with. Who knew - not me!

I walked down to Harrod’s after several hours in the museum. It was about another 8 blocks down the road. It is a huge department store and I couldn't afford anything in it. It is like the old department stores in the US. Different rooms for each department and lots of people to help you. A very upscale feel to it. The travel book says that they have been known to turn people away because of their dress! They have a food court where you can eat at counters or just buy food to take-out. They also had fresh meat, veggies, fruit, breads, desserts, just about anything you could imagine.

My feet were hurting by this time, so I decided to take the long way back to the hotel. I saw a lot of the neighborhoods around South Kenningston. All row houses - but very nice and small shops and markets. All was very interesting.

Monday October 6th

Picture of front entrance of Natural History Museum.

We arrived at our new hotel yesterday. It is very nice. Top hat doorman and all. Too bad they do things a little different than we are use to. No clock, ice bucket or ice machine, old plumbing and (mom you will love this) an iron with no steam. That made pressing Dick’s suit a tiny bit harder. Oh, well we can’t beat the price and it’s nice to be in another section of London for a few days.

I guess I haven't said anything about the weather. People say that London is like Seattle in its weather and New York in its people and city life. It's true. We've had rain, lots of chilly wind, beautiful blue skies, and gloomy overcast. We haven't minded it at all, but our friends from Texas are a wee bit cold. Also the time change is odd for us. We are 8 hours ahead of Washington. So when the presidential debate is on 6 PM your time, we will be watching it at 2 AM Wednesday morning. When we come home on Saturday we leave here 8:30 AM London time (12:30 AM) and will be back in Seattle 8 PM (4 AM London). We will have traveled for almost 24 hours.

Our Last Stop Saturday

Our final stop on our cruise was Greenwich pier. I never really thought about it until the tour guide on the boat mentioned that this is the home to Greenwich Prime Meridian. We had gone to visit an open air market that is held every Saturday and Sunday. It was like a food and craft bazaar, only better. Maria and I went to that (we bought good stuff for dinner) and the guys hiked up the hill to the Royal Observatory (top picture) to straddle the prime meridian (longitude 0 degrees). The weather was not so good, rainy, cold and very windy and on top of that they close at 5 PM and it was about 10 after when they got there. So they just took pictures straddling the line that was outside the Observatory. That is the bottom right picture of Dick standing in both the East and West Longitudes. The bottom left picture is from Friday night. Remember I said that we went on a Jack the Ripper tour, well this is the church that is the famous White Chapel. It's a real church.
That's all for now. We are moving to the Conference Hotel tomorrow, so will have to find another Internet site to use.

Churchill's War Room

Dick wanted to see the Churchill Museum and War Rooms, so we hopped off the boat and headed inland (about 4 blocks). It was very interesting. The building it was in is the refurbish bunker that they used during WWII. They had pictures and people to help them put everything back to the original condition. Some of the rooms they just straightened their desks up and walked away after the war ended. They just sealed them up. All they had to do was some cleaning in them. The top picture is of the war room that Churchill and his advisers used. His chair is just in front of the map. The bottom left picture is the Map Room with all the original maps they used. Beside the original rooms, they had a big room that held all the exhibits for Churchill's life and the war years. It was worth seeing. The bottom right picture Dick thought was something you don't always see. This is just down the lane from 10 Downing street. I think that the residence of the Prime Minister is well guarded. The fellow on the right has an machine gun!

Saturday River Cruising

On Saturday we decided that were going to use a boat instead of our feet. We hopped on the City Cruise boat about Noon at the Tower Pier and we headed up the river to the Westminster Pier. You can see we saw many of the famous sites in London. The British Airways London Eye. We realized as we went by that it never stops. As they are emptying one car they are loading up the one in front of it while it is still slowly moving. Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. I didn't realize that the clock is so beautiful. A very bright gold. Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and Exhibition is quite amazing to see. The Globe is the white building on the right side of the bottom picture. It is a replica of the original down to the thatched roof. Several years ago they were digging a foundation for another building just over the highway from the Globe and they found the original foundation for the Globe. All I know it that there is a nice new modern building on the Globe's original site.

The London Tower Bridge

This is the Tower Bridge. I always thought that it was the London Bridge. There has been 3 London Bridges in history. The second one was sinking into the river mud and so they sold it and it was put up over a man-made lake in Arizona. The one they have how is just a plain old looking bridge. I like this one much more.

Friday Sight Seeing

Friday, October 3 -- We started our day out what seemed to be early. We had breakfast at 8:30 London time (12:30 AM) PT. We didn't get much sleep in the last 2 days. Oh Well! We came to site see and we made the most of it today. We figured out the Tube and then went to Piccadilly Circus to pick up our London Passes and meet up with our friends, Maria and John. After that we again took the Tube to the Tower Hill Station. It is just above The Tower of London. We spent most the day exploring this great place. Not at all what we expected - it was much more! We just about closed the place down, but we need FOOD. None of us had eaten since breakfast. We went to Wagamama's. Japanese noodles and they tasted the best (could be because we were hungry). Then on to the Jack the Ripper night tour. Not scary but lots of fun. Of course we had to talk about it and what we were going to the next day in a Pub. Lots of fun, but we didn't get home until 11 PM

Hayven and D

Hayven has now lost her other front tooth. This is the first chance that I have to get a picture of her. What a first grade smile!


D is such a poser! He gave me his best look. He is such a funny and cute kid.


Sometimes D can be good when he has his picture taken. We love his little face!!!

My newest addiction

This is my newest addiction - Fun and Done quilts. I have made these 2 for our grandkids futon beds at our house. They are a little smaller than what the twin pattern called for, but are plenty big for their beds. I'm now going to try the pattern that is just strips. No points to match - YEAH!!

Hayven's new look

Hayven lost her top front tooth in July and still is our cutest granddaughter, even though she talks funny now. This is tooth number 4.  She spent a week with us in August and we did a lot of cooking, baking and tea partying.  Her new teddy bear and Barbie Doll each got a new outfit.

We all went to Desert Aire to visit Uncle Ralph and Aunt Sharon.  The grand kids went swimming while we went to the Tom Petty concert at the Gorge with their parents, Greg and Robyn.  I think everyone had a great time.  We hope Sharon and Ralph did too!!