Eleven???

I cannot believe that our vacation here has come to an end. However, I cannot think of a better way to spend our last day than celebrating Adeline's eleventh birthday. We went back into downtown London, saw the Olympic Torch and arena being constructed for next years Summer games,

We saw the final Harry Potter movie in their LARGEST screen available (it was about the size of our TV at home). We loved the film anyway and loved that we were in the place it was based on as well.

We ate dinner at Jamie Oliver's per Adeline's request, visited Trafalgar Square and were disappointed that instead of flocking pigeons that you could feed and allow to swarm you, there were water fountains and throngs of people instead. So, here's to you Adeline or should we call you Queen Adeline for after all not many girls get to turn eleven in London!

As I am typing away on this final vacation blog, the rest of the lot is down at the Kabab shop saying their goodbyes and feasting one last time...I am sure that the Kabab owner will be sad to see his best customers leave as well. I, on the other hand am smiling because I can take my obsession home and I have a load of it in my suitcase right now.

Soggy on the Seine

All I have to say is...good thing we got to see everything yesterday...it was another one of those not just rainy days but good old fashioned soakings. We spent most of the day wandering around Paris ducking into as many crepe shops and cafe's as possible. We literally ate our way through the city today. Here's some of our findings:
Croque Monsier's (basically a ham and grilled cheese sandwich smothered in more cheese on top), jambone and fromage sandwiches on baguettes (ham and cheese on one of the most amazing breads you've ever tasted), parisian hot chocolate (think thick, creamy and double chocolatey), and sucre or nutella crepes (sugar or chocolate hazelnut spread crepes) are all some of the best foods we have sunk our teeth into for sure!!! I am chocking the next mishap to the fact that 2 of us are Cubs fans....we went to go into the Louve if for nothing else to get out of the rain and...

Low and Behold...it was closed, only today which is Tuesday though, so that's good news..oh, wait we head back on the Chunnel train tonight, oh well!

Perfect Paris

Warning: it is late and I have just realized that these pictures were imput in the reverse order...so here's our 1st day in Paris, only backwards...
We ended the night on top of the Effel Tower looking out at the beautiful city of Lights.

The Metro we needed to take to get the tower was closed (of course) so we had to walk quite a way to get there...but were rewarded by this lovely first sighting.

We took the river boat tour and learned about the famous Lock and Key Bridge where lovers go to scratch their initials onto paddlocks and pledge their eternal love by throwing the keys into the River...

The Chocolate Lover's Historical tour was amazing! Our tour guide, Iris took us all around the Paris streets for 2 hours letting us taste our way through the bakeries and chocolate shops, all while giving us little nuggets of history along the way!

Our first crepes....the stuff my dreams are made of.

Sunday Roast Meal

Today we attended the Maidstone ward for church. It was fun to meet some of the people that were in the ward when T was a missionary here 18 yrs ago. After church we headed to Margate to meet up with one of our fav British families, the Newmans. They took us to their favorite place to eat a proper roast dinner with all the fixins'. It was alot of fun for sure!

White Cliffs of Deluge

This day starts out on the blog looking alright...us posed in front of Canterbury Cathedral all nice and dry...but as you'll see it didn't start out that way... Here's me doing a few items of laundry (including drying my jacket for the day) at the Laundrette

and...here it is...the moment that the heavens decided to open up and unleash their fury upon the town of Dover at the very moment we hit the top of the castle keep. I hear it was a good view from up there...I wouldn't know- I just saw water in several forms...rain, mist and clouds.

We did get to go underground for the secret tunnels used for the 2nd world war base...that was cool!

Taking the Plunge

We began our day at Brighton Palace. This is the very place where 12 years ago T and I ate in Queen Adalaide's tea room and were inspired to name our Adeline similarly.

A.J. got to cross "swimming in the English Channel" off of his bucket-list today...no one else dared stick more than a toe into the frigid water. The Brits had no problem sunning their pasty whiteness in their bikinis on the rocks though!

As you can see we had beautiful weather today...I am convinced that it is because I dressed for the cold again so of course it was hot.

This is Arundal Castle which is about a 45 min drive from Brighton Beach. The thing that makes this really neat is the fact that it is actually lived in by the Duke of Norfolk and his family. They live in the East Wing. The West Wing and part of the grounds are open to the public a few months of the year. The bedrooms we toured today were actually used when the Duke had extended family visiting a few weeks ago. It was neat to see an actual working castle.

On our way home this evening we drove to the London Temple. We went into the visitor's center and talked to the Missionaries and the Temple President. It was really neat to see the beautiful reflecting pond and grounds around the temple as well.

p.s. T and Adeline had another Kabab and you guessed it...I had chocolate

British Open...only for the brave hearted

We got up this morning the first time the alarm went off at 5:30am...we were out the door at 6:30am. We drove for about an hour and felt really good about our early arrival to the Open until we came around a bend in the road before the town we were supposed to be heading into and saw "it"...the long, snaking line of cars. We then spent another 1 hour slowly creeping along until we finally made it to the parking lot. Yahoo, we thought, we made it...until we looked down the hill to see a huge line at the bottom for the buses. After waiting for another 30-45 minutes for a bus we spend another 30-45 mins on the bus at a snails pace due to insufficient traffic control and street sizes for the buses. There was a small revolt and half of the bus passengers (including us) got off the bus and took our chances on foot. After another 30 minute walk we finally saw the line to the security checkpoint/bag searches. All in all it took us 4 plus hours from the time we left our hotel to just get inside the front gate of the open...you would think that was enough, but oh no, we were then treated to a beautiful British July day including gale force winds and rain. Actually,believe it or not, we all had alot of fun trapsing around the greens and seeing all of the golfers up close!

This is a picture of a picture (sorry for the crink in your neck now) that they took at the Open for us...as a gift for all of the time it took us to just arrive I assume...I don't have any other pics due to the fact that cameras were not allowed in.

This is Adeline on the car ride home...she looks exactly the way we all feel tonight. Exhausted but grateful for the day's adventure!

To Market, To Market

We had one of those mornings...the alarm went off, we hit the snooze button. The alarm went off, we hit the snooze button again. Finally around 10am we made it out of the hotel room. Today we are shopping! We took the scenic route through Little Venice which is nothing like Venice, Italy and is most definately "little". We strolled down Portabello Road with Adeline singing the song from Bednobs and Broomsticks along the way. The Toilet situation here in Europe is always risky business. Like for example this public toilet in the middle of the street where one person can enter through an electronic door, do their business and then it will self clean before the next patron enters...quite an experience. Needless to say Adeline would rather hold it all day than try her luck in one of those.

A Cupcake shoppe was too much of a pull for me to pass up...chocolate with pink frosting and sprinkles are delicious in any country!

St. Pauls Cathedral was next on our docket. We enjoyed an incredible audio tour on individual ipods that had headphones attached and told you about everything as you walked around the place. T, and the kids all took the 600 plus stair climb to the famed whispering wall that goes around the inside and outside of the dome at the top of the cathedral. I enjoyed the organ music and sturdy chair at the bottom:)

A.J. wanted to try a "Proper Roast Dinner" so of course we hit a traditional pub for dinner. A traditional roast dinner (in case anyone cares) includes: a roast meat of some sort, ( tonight it was beef) mashed potatoes, gravy, a yorkshire pudding( which is a kind of bready pop-over), roasted vegetables, (carrots and green beans) and lastly roast potatoes (think crispy on the outside, creamy in the middle).

We spent hours in the Covington Garden area of London wandering through the markets which sold everything from fruit to jewelry to lip gloss shaped like Krispy Kreme Doughnuts...and no, I didn't get one on these.

Because he didn't get his "fix" last night, T had to polish off another Turkish Kebab at the local shop that now consider him a regular...I call the owner T's BFK (Best Friend Kababer)...I, you guessed it...had chocolate instead!

Hampton Court Miracle

At the British War Museum we learned about the tunnels under the streets which were converted into British Intelligence during the World War II, but more importantly we learned that, "To Dress Extravagantly in War Time is Worse than Bad Form it is Unpatriotic".

Hampton Court Palace was quite the place! Adeline's favorite part was the fully functioning kitchens and A.J.'s was the maze in the gardens.

Laugh it up people, but, yes...I did find a Food Network Star's restaurant all the way in London. Jamie Oliver's Italian was delicious. We had bruschetta, fried ravioli, potato gnocci, spaghetti bolognese, mushroom ravioli and an amazing angus burger with proper chips (fries). YUM!

Lastly, the "miracle" part of the day. As we left Kingston around 9pm this evening, T was reminiscing about the lady he used to live with on his mission named Sister J. He drove around trying to guess which street she lived on and stopped in front of a house to knock on the door just to see. That was not the house...it was 2 doors up! We went in and talked to Sister J for over and hour and had us all a good laugh.

What not to do in London

Yesterday I left my camera in the room...oops! We went to the Tower of London to learn about the BeefEaters, the Ravens and the Traitor's Gate. We then went on a river cruise to see Big Ben, the London Eye (huge farris wheel)...then a donner kabab for all but me, AGAIN. I had chocolate!

No Nine Fingered Normans here...Phew!

It's Sunday, so...First thing this morning we attended a church where T served 18 years ago. I loved it and the kids had a ball in primary and YM's. A.J. passed the sacrament and Adeline sang a solo in Primary because all the other kids wanted to hear her accent.


Next, we headed downtown to hit the London Zoo. One of our favorite areas in the zoo was this monkey enclosure where you can go in and the monkeys are running around all around you-even close enough to touch. We agreed that all of you at home would get a kick out of this sign... it reads: Meet Norman Nine Fingers, he tried to feed the monkeys...but notice the bloody finger and corresponding monkey mouth. hee, hee, hee!

Here's Adeline with one of the monkey's right over her head.

We walked all through Regent's Park on our way to dinner at an Italian Eatery and saw people ballroom dancing in the middle of the park and alot of beautiful flowers.

On the way home to our hotel, T took us to an area that he served in called Bromley and walked us to the park where he had his famous "Bromley Brawl" fight...Quite a tale!

Road Trip

Nothing like logging a good 200 miles of beautiful English countryside... First stop: McDonalds breakfast overlooking Windsor Castle. Our favorite parts of the castle tour were the Queen's Doll Collection and the Weaponry Room. (You'll never guess who each fav belonged too)

A.J. was a little nervous to get a pic with the castle gaurd...Adeline wouldn't even get in the picture frame

After a quick stop in Kingston for lunch and a change of plans at Hampton Court Palace (it was packed with people for a 4 day flower show) we headed to Stonehendge.

Last stop was Salisbury Cathedral which dated back to the 13th century. We sat in on an actual service and read all about how it was constructed...amazing!

I didn't get a pic of the last thing we did today which was eat a Doner Kabab...if you know T you'll know how very excited he is about these little beauties. Even A.J. and Adeline are craving the lamb kababs....as for me, I think I'd rather eat a Mars bar for dinner:)

Zombies Abroad

We arrived in London at 7am after an all night flight. Adeline decided that she wasn't tired on the flight and so she and T didn't get any sleep...
This is NOT Adeline on the plane, it is one of her 30 two minute naps during the day. On the train, on the "tubes" and in her dinner...

The Tube rides, aka...the subway.

Of Course we had to get a pic in one of the famous red box telephone booths. Look closely for a sign as to how well it smelled...hee,hee,hee!

We have arrived! Stay tuned for more misadventures across the pond.