(This picture is of Ryan walking in JoAnna's shoes. He picked hers out all by himself!)

I realize I need to say a very public "thank you!" to Susan for taking care of the kitties while I was gone! Thank you so much, Susan! See you tomorrow!

Wow... I seriously canNOT believe it's almost the middle of August already.

So, to catch up on the rest of the time JoAnna was here: The day after we got back from our Grand Adventure, we went for a jog around the Stray. We let Ryan out to run around, which he always loves. After that, we got cleaned up and ran errands out at MHS.

JoAnna had wanted to try some authentic English food, so in the evening we went to The Nelson Inn. Some restaurants seat you, while in others you seat yourself. We weren't sure what to do, so after a few moments I asked the bartender. He told us to sit anywhere. We picked out a spot, and waited. And waited. And waited... while servers would look right at us and walk on by. It was getting ridiculous, so we left.

We wound up going to a Thai place that I'd always wanted to try, and we had a great experience! The service was exceptional and the food was very good. (I am ecstatic that I've finally found a good Rainbow replacement!) To top it off, the place was air conditioned!  (It was still warm and muggy at that point.) What was really the icing on the cake, was that they were so nice to Ryan. They brought him books to play with and were fussing over him. (I think it helped that he liked the spicy chip-type appetizers they brought us, that kids normally don't like!)

Later on, we put Ryan to bed and spent a pleasant evening on our computers, drinking tea, and watching "Sex and the City."

The next day, (Sunday, July 29th) JoAnna watched Ryan while I had my hair done at a local salon. That was soooo nice. I hadn't had my hair trimmed in a year! When I got back, JoAnna had a facial at the same salon. That was a fun, girly thing to do. It felt good and relaxing for us to pamper ourselves a bit.

Later on we had dinner with Susan at a place called The Kestrel. After telling Susan what happened at The Nelson Inn, she told us that in a lot of places you're supposed to order at the bar, then they bring you your food. Oh. Oops. I suppose it would have helped if we had known that! However, I don't think it would have killed anyone at The Nelson to have told us that. I'm sure we looked lost and in need of help. Oh well. At the entrance to The Kestrel, they had a huge sign telling you exactly what to do. Now that's what I'm talking about! A, "Hey Stupid!" sign!

JoAnna was finally able to get her fish and chips, and we all had good food and a good time. After dinner (thank you, Susan!!!) we went over to Susan's house for dessert: apple pie and ice cream. Yum!

Sunday, JoAnna and Ryan and I went to the mall in Manchester in search of Manchester United jerseys. Ironically, we found out later we could have gotten them in Harrogate. Oh well. It was still fun to go to the mall. I wound up spending $$$ on Ryan at the Early Learning Center (an education-minded toy store with lots of cool stuff), and JoAnna got to see all kinds of stores they don't have in the States.

That evening, Susan had agreed to watch Ryan so JoAnna and I could have a girls' night out. It was dusk when we dropped Ryan off. At JoAnna's suggestion, we opened up the sunroof on the car, and blasted our music. I can honestly say that was one of my favorite moments of Jo's visit out. Something about the English countryside at dusk in summer, the air and the music, the bond of shared travels and friendship, and just us girls... magic!

The main character in the book JoAnna and I were reading said that getting ready for an event was really the fun part. I kind of have to agree. Once back at my house, JoAnna and I spent quite a while getting ready. She loaned me dangly earrings and even helped me straighten my hair! By the time we were done, we were two very rockin' chicks. The funny thing was, here we were, all LA lookin', walking through thoroughly sleepy Harrogate on a Sunday night. There were places where things were going on, but we were hungry so we decided to get something for dinner. There was a happening bar with a live musician. That seemed promising. However, I don't think they served food. TGIFriday's was next door, so we went there. It was completely dead. By the time we got done eating, it was time to walk back to my house and go get Ryan. Susan had to work the next day, so we didn't want to be out too late. Even though we really didn't get to do much besides have dinner, it was still really nice to go out just me and JoAnna.

On the way to pick Ryan up, I saw a falling star. First one since I've been here.

The next day we went to the James Herriot museum in Thirsk. http://www.worldofjamesherriot.org/ That was fun and interesting. Afterwards, we went back to Harrogate and had lunch at Betty's at the Garden Harlow Carr. JoAnna and I shared "Tea For Two."  It was finger sandwiches and little tarts and lovely tea. Quite nice! Later on in the evening, we got Indian food from Asda (I think I may have mistakenly written that we did that the night we got back). After Ryan went to bed, JoAnna and I had a wee bit of vino...

The last day JoAnna was here was fairly low key. It's funny, we had tacos for dinner her last night here, and we'd had tacos her first night here. I didn't plan that!

The next day (Aug. 2), I took JoAnna to the airport. We checked her flight online before we left, and all seemed fine. When I got home, I checked it again, and found it delayed. It was supposed to leave at 11:20am, and was delayed two hours. I checked again later in the day, and it was delayed until 4:30pm! I felt awful for her. There was no way for me to get a hold of her, though. I left a message on her computer, just in case she had it and got some wireless access. After 4:30 I couldn't get any more flight info. Turns out the flight was canceled entirely, and she had to stay overnight in a hotel! I really wished we had known and she just could have had one more day and night in Harrogate. On the bright side, she got to fly back first class all the way, and the hotel and food and everything was paid for. (For JoAnna's account, MySpace users click here: http://www.myspace.com/joannasark)

Probably most of you reading this have heard about the madness going on with the high terror alerts in the UK and the US. In light of that, I'm really glad JoAnna got out when she did. Larry is still Stateside, due back on Tuesday. I'm wondering how it all will affect him.

The first few days after JoAnna left were hard. It's gotten better though. A week ago I baby sat for a fellow co-op member and friend, Aimee. Her kids are great and Ryan enjoyed a change of scenery.

Sunday I met my friend Carissa and her husband and kids at The Hydro. I hadn't taken Ryan there since last summer. He had a great time! He loves the water. Before long he was jumping off the side of the pool (with my help and close supervision, of course!). He's fearless, which is not necessarily a good thing!

This week has kind of gone by in a blink, or is that a blur?  Monday there was a URG meeting. Those are a semi-social occasion, so that was nice. The rest of the week has been filled with running errands, running (well, a bit of jogging around), going to the shopping area, playing with Ryan in the back patio, trying to catch up on my blog, that sort of thing.

It's raining right now. It seems like we only got about three weeks of summer. It started raining the Monday before JoAnna left. We've had some sun off and on since then, but the temperatures have definitely cooled. Even when it's still warm, the warmth has a softness to it, a quality that seems to say, "Summer's winding down. Enjoy this while it lasts, because it won't much longer." In the evening air, there's starting to be a whisper of an edge that says autumn is getting close. While there's still light in the west after 9pm, the darkness is creeping closer. I'm sad to see the sun and warmer weather go, but I have to admit, I have really not missed the burning heat of my native SoCal.

There's a tree I can see from my kitchen window. My view is from the north. In the evening, the golden light from the setting sun sets off the top third of the tree, the leaves limned in gold. I don't know why, but this captivates me. It's quite moving to me, but I can't say why. I would try to take a picture of it, but I know it wouldn't do the scene justice.

I was driving home from MHS a couple of days ago, and saw a road sign: No Cats Eyes. My reaction was, "Huh???" I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it seems to be the Brit version of Botts' Dots. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat's_eye_(road) (I apologize, but it's not letting me put this full link in. You'll have to cut and paste to get that last character in, otherwise the article won't come up.) The guy that invented them is from Yorkshire. Woo hoo!

Tonight I baby sat for another friend/co-op member, Carissa. Again, it was enjoyable since Ryan and I were out of the house and Ryan enjoys the different venue. Also, as Carissa says, other kids' toys are always more fun!

A few days ago, Ryan came down with a little cold in his nose. He seems better already, which is great, especially since a couple days after he got it, he passed it to me! I've been doing what I call, "the tea cure." I drink loads of tea all day and night to flush out my system. Actually, it seems to work. It's only been a couple of days and I feel better already. (Of course, since Ryan's virus only lasted a couple of days and I got the same one, it may be neither here nor there. However, I enjoy an excuse to drink excessive amounts of tea!)

Wow, I do believe that catches me up!

Today it's been exactly a year since Ryan and I got to England. Crazy. Time does fly.

It feels good to have finally caught up on our big trip! I will write more about what we've been up to since soon. Right now, Ryan and I have colds. I am about to get to bed (as soon as the benedryl kicks in!).

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

            Our first morning in Paris, we wound up sleeping in and missing breakfast. (Luckily, Ryan slept in, too!) The plan was to take a bus tour of the city. We went to the Metro, and somehow I managed to get stuck – with Ryan – in a turnstile. (The machine didn’t like my ticket.) I handed Ryan to JoAnna and managed to crawl out.

            We had lunch at an Italian placed called Pizza Restaurant Domenica. It was good and the people were nice. They didn’t have a high chair, but we were in a booth, so I made do with Ryan. He was fairly well behaved.

            We went to catch the bus for the city tour. You’re supposed to pay at the bus, but for whatever reason they couldn’t take payments, so we didn’t pay! (We really didn’t feel too badly about it, since we paid an exorbitant amount for the bus tour we took in London. We figured it evened out!) We didn’t stay on the bus for long, because it was really hot. We got off the bus and shopped along the Champs Elysees Avenue. That was fun. Luckily Ryan slept through a lot of the shopping, since he’s not too keen on it. I got some tank tops at the Gap, and wore one of them out of the store feeling a bit more fashionable.

            I would like to mention here that our days in London and Paris were punctuated with stops for ice cream. It was the perfect pick-me-up refreshment for walking around in hot weather. It was definitely a hit with Ryan!    

After shopping, we walked to the Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph). From there we turned right around and made our way back towards where the bus tour started. It was quite a long walk. Along the way, we let Ryan run around in a park. He seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit.

We wound up having dinner in the same restaurant we had lunch. (Well, it was good!) Afterwards we had ice cream from Haagen-Dazs for dessert. In the shop, I leaned over to give Ryan a taste of my ice cream. I looked up to realize a boy of about ten was looking straight down my tank top. Oops. I straightened up and figured he’d probably seen a lot more, considering the advertisements posted around Paris!

We were back at our hotel at a decent hour, but since Ryan was right there in the room with us, he didn’t fall asleep for quite a while. JoAnna and I stayed up late reading our books.

The next morning we managed to miss breakfast again. Ryan was up before we were ready to be, so I pulled him into bed with me. By this time, his blankie truly reeked. I didn’t see how on earth he was dealing with it. I didn’t want it anywhere near me! However, if it was keeping him happy, it was keeping me happy.

The blankie wasn’t Ryan’s only comfort item. I don’t know if it was the night before, or this particular night in Paris, but one of the nights in our hotel, Ryan walked over to his stroller and sat in it. We weren’t going anywhere, and I didn’t belt him in. He just sat there in it. I took a shower, and JoAnna told me he sat there the whole time. I think the stroller (and his blankie) became his only real constants, therefore they were his comfort zone. I have to say, he was quite the trooper throughout the whole trip.

Since we’d missed breakfast, we decided to walk up the street and look for a café. We found a little place and had café au lait and pain du chocolat. (We got orange juice for Ryan.) Yum! The place was very authentic, including proprietors who didn’t (or weren’t inclined to) speak English. We had our breakfast at a small table outside. It was really nice. I thought of how it would be to live somewhere you could do that every day: have your coffee and croissant outside while watching the world go by. Paris is a really pretty city, and very much a place to experience joie de vivre.

After breakfast, we went to a local store and picked up juice boxes and milk for Ryan. That made our load heavier, but it was nice knowing we had provisions for Ryan.

Our next destination was the Sacred’coeur. This had plagued me a bit last time I visited Paris. I had spent five days there and had seen and done a lot. However, this was the one thing that for some reason unknown to me, everyone kept asking me if I’d seen, which I hadn’t. So this time I made sure to see it.

We took the Metro, then walked up a somewhat shabby street filled with souvenir shops. From there we rode a funicular (oh I just love that word!) up to where the cathedral was. This was JoAnna’s first cathedral (actually, I think it’s a basilica, but I’m not sure what the difference is). It was definitely beautiful. It had been a while since I’d been inside of one. I kept my tradition of lighting a prayer candle. JoAnna lit one, too. They had these huge pillar candles you could get for ten euros, the thought being your prayer would last just that much longer. Unfortunately, some of those candles had melted awkwardly and had extinguished themselves after a short time. Wonder what those prayers were for.

A little way outside the basilica was a disabled man talking animatedly in French while making cute little doggie keychain souvenirs. JoAnna bought one for herself and one for me. (Mine lives on my purse’s zipper now.)

We started walking and wound up in Montmartre. I fell in love with it! I was so glad we went. It’s a village on the highest hill in Paris. It’s very artsy – literally. There are artists everywhere painting and drawing portraits. JoAnna wanted to get hers done. I was just going to wander around and wait while she did, but I got sucked into getting Ryan’s done when an artist asked me if I had pounds, which I did. After haggling over exchange rates between the euro and pound sterling (I’m still not sure who got the upper hand, but I suspect it wasn’t me), I sat down with Ryan and had his portrait done. It turned out pretty well, and I’m glad I did it. It’s so neat to have something where I can say, “Yeah, we had that done in Montmartre.”

Just in case you thought you were safe from any mentions of a certain bespectacled fictional wizard, while walking around Montmartre waiting for JoAnna’s portrait to be done, I saw a portrait of said character on display. I laughed to myself. I wasn’t going to mention it, but when JoAnna walked by it with me and Ryan, she pointed it out. “Harry Potter is inescapable.” (For those of you familiar with Glen Cook, yes, that’s a Garrett Files reference!  At least the “inescapable” part is.)

From there we went to the Louvre for about two seconds to see the Mona Lisa. I think it’s weird how noisy it is there. I always thought museums were supposed to be quiet. Parts of the Louvre are almost more like a mall, atmosphere wise.

We had dinner in a nice café with a friendly staff. (Again, there were no highchairs.) We discovered that all this time, Ryan’s been speaking French! Even the waiter thought so! Ryan’s at that point where half the stuff he says is intelligible, and half is still in his own language. While we were in Paris, it was remarkable how much what Ryan was babbling really did sound like French.

When we got back to our hotel, Ryan was in dire need of a diaper change. I was trying to clean him up and he was struggling. (For some reason, he thinks that’s funny.) I was saying, “Ryan, stop!” To my utter horror, he looked at me and said, “YOU stop!” I was stunned. He’d never done that before. I know you’re not supposed to laugh, but JoAnna was laughing, and Ryan was laughing a demonic little laugh, so I gave in and started laughing, too. JoAnna tried reassuring me by saying he was just repeating me and probably didn’t know what he was saying. I sincerely hope that’s true! (My hopes are buoyed by the fact that for a while after that, Ryan would at random intervals for no particular reason spout off, “You stop! No!”)

On the bright side, he also said, “I love you,” for the first time while in Paris. Unfortunately, he was just repeating what his toy phone said. I can’t wait until it’s directed at me!

That night there was a really cool thunderstorm. It was very windy and the storm lasted a long time. We had the window open for a while to let the wonderful rain smell in.

The next morning we finally had breakfast at the hotel. It was good. It was very similar to the European style breakfasts I had so many times while living in Germany.

After breakfast, we checked out. We had a rough time getting going, at first. Apparently there are no taxis to be had in entire freaking city of Paris on a weekday in the morning. For some reason, I find this hard to believe. However, the concierge at the hotel was unable to raise one on the phone for us, and we were completely unable to hail one on the street. We wound up having to lug everything onto the Metro. Luckily some very nice people helped.

(I am proud to say that during our whole trip, I only got us going the wrong way on the Metro once!)

We got checked in and onto the Eurostar just fine. There were nice people on the train. It was very international. There were Spanish speakers in front of us, and German speakers behind. Ryan made friends with a little German boy, and they kept each other busy for a while playing peek-a-boo.

Breakfast was good. They were serving French toast, so we couldn’t pass up a French version of French toast! Breakfast also had all the expected accoutrements, such as yogurt, juice, pastries, coffee, tea, etc. They also served hot chocolate, much to Ryan’s delight! We could have had champagne as well (I can’t remember, but JoAnna might have had some).

After a while, Ryan fell asleep on the train.

As I said a while back, it took us quite a while to get home. It was a three hour ride on the Eurostar, then another hour or so on the London Underground. It was a short walk from the Ruislip station to the car. During the walk, I kept praying for the car to be ok. It was a leap of faith leaving it parked in an unsecured lot for three nights. However, it was just fine. When Ryan saw the car, he started clapping enthusiastically while saying, “Bye! Bye!” We let him run around for a while before packing up the car and heading home.

It was another three or four hours on the road before finally pulling into our driveway in Harrogate. I couldn’t believe it, but when we got out of the car, Ryan went right around to the trunk wanting his stroller, as if to say, “Ok, where to now?” He seemed distraught at going inside the house. I tried to tell him that we were home. I thought that after being gone a week, he would have been happy to be home! He did calm down after a while.

Even though we were tired, we did wind up taking a walk to asda for a few things. That made Ryan happy. I’m not sure, but that might have been the night we tried Indian food. I’d always been curious. Asda has it to go, where you just heat it in your oven. It was pretty good.

All in all, our trip to Ipswich, London, and Paris was a great one. I’m so glad we went!

Paris

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Love,

~Holly and Ryan

Happy birthday Robert!!!

Love,

~Holly and Ryan

            I forgot to mention that when we arrived very late Sunday evening back at our hotel on RAF Alconbury, we were locked out! Because it’s a very busy time for the hotel, we could only reserve our room a few days at a time. Luckily we were able to extend our stay for the duration we’d be in that neck of the woods. However, our room key card hadn’t been updated. After a quick trip to the hotel’s check in desk, we were good to go.

            And go we did, the next morning.

            Usually I read the fine print on things – especially travel tickets and reservations. I don’t know why I didn’t on the Eurostar (the train that goes from London to Paris) tickets. I realized that we were supposed to check in an hour ahead of time. I hadn’t budgeted that time into our morning. To make matters worse, we hit some serious traffic on the way to Ruislip.

            The funny thing was, the whole way from our hotel to the Ruislip station, then during the tube ride to Waterloo station, I had the feeling that everything would be alright. The minutes to the train’s departure ticked down. We got to the gate with our tickets in hand just in what I thought was the nick of time, only to be told the train was leaving and we’d missed it. Oddly, I still was hopeful. I felt bad though, because it was my fault for not budgeting more time for us to get there. Poor JoAnna was lugging around my heavy luggage, as well as her own, while I had Ryan and the stroller and our smaller odds and ends.

            We were directed to the ticket counter, where there was a bit of a line. Apparently we weren’t the only ones who missed that particular train. My main concern was how much we’d have to pay for new tickets. We had first class tickets as part of a promotion the travel agency was doing when I arranged our trip to Paris. I imagined ala carte they might be expensive.

            We got up to the counter and I told the man behind it that we’d missed the train. He didn’t say a word. He just typed away, then handed me fresh tickets and said, “1:15pm.” That was it!

            I thanked the Powers That Be and we wasted no time starting the check in process (it was about noon at the time).

            I had no idea getting on the Eurostar would be so involved and time consuming. It was almost exactly like everything you do before boarding an airplane. We had to go through security and passport control. We got stamps in our passports for France! That was neat. Instead of an airplane in the upper corner of the stamp, there’s a train.

            We made our way to the platform, and was met by a friendly Eurostar employee (I’m not sure if “porter” is the right word, since they didn’t take our luggage). We did get help with our luggage and Ryan, but stowing it was up to us.

            Let me just say that first class is the way to go! There’s lots of space and it’s very nice. I didn’t realize we got fed during our journey. I’d bought a bagel sandwich at the train station and was busy eating it. One of the train attendants (I can’t think of the right word for that job!) said, “Don’t eat too much! We’re serving lunch soon!” He and JoAnna and I laughed. I made sure to point out that I didn’t know we got food. I was a bit embarrassed!

            It was interesting having Ryan on the train with no car seat or real way to contain him. I held him mostly. He’d sit on the seat a little bit, but was restless like any near two year old would be. It was a three hour train ride, and Ryan finally fell asleep during the last hour (of course!).

            The staff on the train was very nice, and friendly. One of the male staff sang, “Roxy” to JoAnna (upon seeing her Roxy surf shirt)!

The food was interesting. (No, not in a bad way!) It was that sort of food that is mostly prettier to look at than to eat. Since Ryan’s seat was paid for, he got a tray of food as well, though he didn’t really eat much of it. (Lunch was, “chicken, mango and coriander salad with sweet chili lime dressing and a carpaccio of courgettes, glazed salmon steak on a potato rosti, leeks, sugar carrots and a golden beet cream sauce, apricot and peach trifle with crème anglaise.”) We were plied with all the tea, coffee, wine and champagne a person could want! I dare say we fair buzzed our way into Paris!

Unfortunately the buzz came to an end once we were off the train. It was hot and muggy and we had all our stuff and weren’t entirely sure where to go or how to get there. Usually Larry does all the navigating (and thinking) when we travel. The London Underground was a warm up for the Metro. I managed to get us on an extremely crowded, and unbelievably stifling RER train heading towards our hotel. (Someone even asked me if I had a bottle of water for Ryan.) Someone offered me their seat, but I would have had to climb over people and luggage to get there. While I appreciated the offer, I declined.

We got off the train (not sure what the difference between the RER and Metro is, except that they are two separate lines, and the RER seems grungier), only to find that the line we needed was closed at that station. We decided we’d had enough and got a cab. It was expensive, but sooooo worth it!

I have to say it was fun being in a, “foreign foreign” country again. I’d been to Paris before and had an infinitesimal amount of French, so I actually felt very comfortable.

Our hotel, the Residence Imperiale, turned out to be a Best Western. It wasn’t bad. Our room seemed tiny compared to the suite we’d had at Alconbury. However, the room was blissfully cool thanks to that rare commodity in Europe: air conditioning!

We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower. We hit the plaza at sunset and it was absolutely gorgeous. We walked down to the Tower itself, then took our place in line to get to the top. The lines were much shorter so late in the evening, but it still took us a couple of hours to get our tickets. Unfortunately, by that time, they’d closed the very top. We could still get to the second level though, and the view was still impressive.

At night the Tower is lit up. On the hour, it glitters with sparkling white lights all over for about ten minutes. It’s really pretty and almost magical.

After a while we decided to leave. Getting down from the Tower was a pain. There was only one elevator that didn’t accommodate very many people, and everyone wanted to leave at the same time. It took a long time for us to finally get down.

I got a crepe from a nearby vendor, then we started the walk back to our hotel. We paused back at the plaza and admired the view of the Tower from there.

It was a long walk back and we didn’t get to bed until 1:30am!

Here are the photos:

Paris Day One

Click here for a link to my previous visit to Paris: https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/parisandnormandy/

            Sunday (the 23^rd) was our last full day in England. Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to mention this! I think it was Friday morning that the car was almost completely out of gas, so we drove to the gas station on Alconbury… and it was closed! (Again, this seemed in keeping with our trip.) There was some sort of malfunction with the control box for the pumps. A technician had been called and would arrive “sometime.” Apparently RAF Alconbury is the only US military installation around that will sell gas for POV’s (personally owned vehicles). We tried another base down the road, but no dice. We wound up getting a tank of gas on the economy, which wound up costing about $96. Yep. Almost 100 bucks for a tank of gas. For a Honda Accord! *sigh* That was definitely the most expensive tank of gas I’d ever bought. (JoAnna very graciously insisted on helping pay for gas during our trip.) Thank goodness we get decent gas mileage!

            The pumps were again closed on Sunday, but thankfully I had plenty of gas for our intended itinerary.

            You know that photo of JoAnna next to the Ipswich sign that I posted on July 31? That was actually taken on Sunday, not on the day we originally went to Ipswich. JoAnna really wanted a picture of that sign, and we’d been too fried to get one when we were there before. So yep, we drove all the way back to Ipswich just to get the picture! All told it was probably a couple hours out of our way, but worth it. I didn’t mind driving and I thought it would be just too sad if JoAnna went all the way there, but didn’t get a picture with that sign.

            From there we made our pilgrimage to the Ruislip tube stop, again parking in the lot across the street from the now-closed base. When we entered the station, there was a sign posted listing delays. There was also an announcement over the intercom by a smooth and efficient female voice stating the Queensway station was closed due to a person under the train. What?! It was announced the same way one might announce the day’s weather. JoAnna and I just looked at each other. We both thought it was completely awful that somehow, someone managed to get under a train. Apparently so did the man working at the Ruislip stop. As he gave instructions and updates, he sounded absolutely mournful, as if he perhaps knew the aforementioned person under the train.

            We never got any more details, and thankfully except for a ten or fifteen minute wait at Ruislip, the whole thing didn’t affect our trip into London. Coincidentally, there was also a big power outage affecting several stations in the King’s Cross area. (Ok, I admit it: the Harry Potter geek in me thought it would be fun to take my picture between platforms 9 and 10, but I didn’t mention it at the time. However, since we weren’t going anywhere near that area and the power was out anyway, it clearly didn’t matter.)

            The weather was a bit cooler that day, which was nice. It had been so unbelievably hot. JoAnna had come to England from the Southern California desert hoping to get away from the heat. No luck. In fact, I got e-mails from my mom and Larry stating that there was a heat wave in Europe and the UK that had made the news at home.

            At the beginning of our whole trip, I’d decided to let Ryan have his blankie as much as he liked. He would not be parted from it the entire trip. It did not matter how stiflingly hot it got, he held that wadded up blanket and would not let go. There were some times I couldn’t see how he could stand it, it must have been so hot. However, it was his choice, and he survived.

            JoAnna had really wanted to see Buckingham Palace, so that was the first place we went upon arrival in London that day. Apparently it opens to the public once or twice a year. We were going to miss that by just a couple of days! Also, we missed the changing of the guard by one day. I felt bad for JoAnna, missing out on those two things.

            That day Ryan got to get out of his stroller quite a bit. He got out to walk and/or run at least three different times throughout the day. It made him AND us much happier!

            We went to the Hard Rock Café for dinner. Couldn’t go to London and not eat there at least once! Another thing JoAnna had wanted to do was visit Abbey Road. We asked our waitress (while a Beatle’s video happened to be playing) if she knew how to get there. She was very nice and gave us directions. (Guess a lot of people ask.)

            We were surprised to find that Abbey Road (and the recording studio on it) is in a residential area. Not at all touristy. In fact, the cross walk made famous by the Abbey Road album cover is simply a cross walk, just like any other, which just happens to be on a very busy road. I think JoAnna and I both thought it would somehow be cordoned off or something; somehow set aside for posterity and tourists. This was definitely not the case.

            What made us laugh is that we weren’t the only people there with the idea of getting a picture while walking across that cross walk. We had to wait our turn. While we were there, there was a steady trickle of somewhat giddy people dodging two way traffic trying to get that famous shot. It was hard! There was a lot of traffic, and let me tell you, if I had to drive down that street on a regular basis, the tourists would probably annoy the hell out of me. I can see how it would be tempting for a local to just run one over upon occasion, as an example for the rest!

            After a while, we did get that photograph. JoAnna offered to take one of me on the cross walk, but honestly, I didn’t feel the need (as cool as it would have been to have a picture like that). Also, it was difficult finding a gap in the traffic, so I decided to let it go.

            I admit that I wasn’t really affected by Abbey Road, at least not at first. I thought it was cool that we were there, but that was about it. Then I wandered over to the studio and saw the Wall. The entire wall in front of the studio was covered in people’s signatures and messages. It was like a huge, open guest book. (I imagine the wall is repainted on a fairly regular basis, since all the entries were pretty recent.) As I started to read what people had written, the import of the location and the impact the Beatles and their music still have on society to this day really hit me. The more I read, the more I was moved. I decided to add my own scribbling to the mix.

            As we watched other people taking their pictures and signing the wall, JoAnna said it was amazing, “one corner making so many people so happy.” It’s true.

            I walked away so glad that JoAnna had wanted to go there. It’s something I wouldn’t have thought to do that turned out to be quite an experience.

            Of course from there we were on a mission to buy Abbey Road to listen to on our drive back to Alconbury (from Ruislip). Turns out that even London goes to bed early on a Sunday. We couldn’t believe not one music store was open. We got trapped in a mini-mall from hell, but managed to escape after some maneuvering. We grabbed some Starbucks and began our journey back to Alconbury.

London Day Three

            Saturday morning, we found the naval base in Ruislip just fine. However, when we approached the gate, the security personnel there informed us the base had been closed for three weeks now. Well, of course it had!  That was completely in keeping with the way our trip had been going. I seriously was not at all surprised.

            We were informed that there was a lot across the street that, while not secure, was patrolled by the local police on a fairly regular basis. We were welcome to park there. I figured we paid to park somewhere that the car got thrown up on, so I was willing to park for free and take my chances. Also, I didn’t know where else to park!

            We realized when we found the right part of Ruislip that we’d previously been at the wrong tube station. I was surprised such a small area had multiple tube stops. We rode into London much the same as the day before. Have I mentioned that Ryan seriously hates the tube? He would cry every time we’d get on, then fuss every time the doors opened, wanting to get off. It took several days into our trip before Ryan stoically accepted riding on the tube. I suppose he figured out that we would get off eventually.

When we emerged from the tube, there was a big (war) protest going on. More than anything, it made me angry. I appreciate everyone’s right to free speech, but I can’t stand the right to be stupid. If you’re going to protest something, at least get your facts straight first. JoAnna and I also noticed throughout the day that everywhere the protesters had been, they left tons of trash behind. That’s nice. To me, that just shows the sort of people they are.

            JoAnna suggested we take a bus tour, so we set off to do that. The protest has thrown things into chaos a bit, so we were ping-ponged between two locations before finally catching the bus at a third.

            I bought Ryan a toy car – a mini – when we bought our tickets. I thought it would be nice for him to have a toy, since I forgot to bring one with us that day. Also, I figured it would make a nice souvenir. I noticed later that the toy car was left hand drive! (Probably made in China, too.) Ryan liked it and it seemed to entertain him.

            The weather the day before had been sunny and hot. This time, as we sat on the top level of an open double-decker bus, it was cold and we were getting soaked with rain! At least JoAnna had the sense to buy an umbrella. I held Ryan close to me hoping body heat would keep him warm and that my body was keeping most of the rain off of him.

            The live tour guide was entertaining. He kept accidentally swearing into his microphone in response to the weather, before giving up and going below deck.

            We got off of the bus where the guide said was the stop for Harrods. It was a filthy lie! Harrods was nowhere near the stop. It took us a very long walk to find it. When we finally got there, I was feeling really tired and Ryan was out of sorts. Since it was a weekend, Harrods was extremely crowded. I felt bad for JoAnna because she’d never been there before, and because of how Ryan and I were feeling, we didn’t stay very long. I was just worn out from all the driving we’d been doing, and of course traveling with Ryan. He’d been great, but it’s still a lot of work traveling with a toddler, no matter how well mannered.

            We went to Hyde Park. Ryan got to run around a bit. Throughout our trip, whenever we got the chance, we would try to let Ryan out of his stroller to run around. We realized it was tough on Ryan to be in his car seat, then in his stroller all day long, especially with the amount of energy he’s got!

            We decided to get back on the bus to finish the tour. Unfortunately, Ryan was being fussy at that point, and the toy car wound up going over the edge from the top of the bus. I admit, it was a good deal my fault. I was trying to get the car from him because I thought he was going to throw it. I accidentally knocked it from his hand and down it went. I didn’t expect to see it again, but people who were on the sidewalk brought the wreckage up to me. Over the next day or two, the car slowly disintegrated.

There was a dance show being recorded in Trafalgar Square (I think that’s where it was). That was fun to see a glimpse of. Unfortunately, the tour went on a lot longer than we intended. I did have to laugh to myself when the tour guide pointed out the school that Dan Radcliffe supposedly attends when not filming the Harry Potter movies.

 The rain from the first part of the day was gone, replaced by sun and heat. By the time we finally left the bus, we were tired and hungry.

We had dinner at TGIFriday’s. I think it was there that I took Ryan to be changed, and when he saw the extra cozy, padded changing area softly lit from above he said, “Night night!”

I am pleased to report that when we got back to the car in Ruislip, the car was just fine. There was a patrol car circling the lot, so that was reassuring.

When we got back to Alconbury, it was very late. I was just quickly setting all my stuff down, and in the short meantime Ryan crawled up onto a chair and was almost asleep!

Here are the photos for our day: London Day Two ps - I've had two people tell me the photo is over the text on the July 28th entry. I'm not sure what to tell you. It looks fine on my computer and I don't think there's anything I can do from my end. Sorry! (Thank you for letting me know, though.)

(A couple of odds and ends about our hotel: the plates on the side of the doors to the bathrooms had “Hollymade” stamped on them. Also, there was a piece of yellow paper on the dresser in my room that caught my eye. It was a form for reporting bomb threats.)

Friday, July 21, we set off for London. We were planning on parking at the naval base in Ruislip, then taking the tube to London city center. We got to the town of Ruislip fairly easily, but it was another odyssey of turning around and feeling lost while trying to find the naval base. After a long while and many circles around the town (including a stop to ask for directions that turned out to be utterly unhelpful), we gave up and parked at the tube station’s parking lot. It cost 2.20 pounds and was monitored by video.

I had borrowed an umbrella stroller from my next door neighbor, Denise. It turned out to be a lifesaver. While navigating the tube and the metro, most times there wasn’t an elevator, so having a stroller that could be fairly easily folded up and/or carried with Ryan in it was imperative. It was interesting getting all our luggage AND Ryan down and up stairs and escalators and on and off trains. JoAnna was so great and took my big, heavy suitcase with all of my and Ryan’s stuff in it, as well as her own luggage and purse. I took Ryan, the stroller, and diaper bag, etc. Thank goodness for two things: one, that generally people were very helpful and most times when we were loaded down the heaviest, someone helped one or both of us, and two, that there is handicap/stroller access through the turnstiles in the Underground and Metro. (Luckily we only had to lug ALL our stuff going to and from Paris. The rest of the days we just had our purses and the diaper bag. Even just that was challenging, though. After a while, JoAnna and I developed a sort of system where we would take lifts (elevators) when we could – which wasn’t very often, then failing that, escalators. I could handle Ryan in his stroller going up, then JoAnna would grab the bottom of the stroller and we’d both carry Ryan in the stroller for trips down. Ryan got to see a lot of the Underground and Metro’s ceilings! JoAnna would do the same for stairs, grabbing the stroller and helping me carry it. There’s definitely no way I could have negotiated the tube and metro stations with Ryan without help. I have to mention that my mom gave me this wonderful bag for Christmas that I could put everything in, then hang from the stroller’s handles. It was great since the umbrella stroller didn’t have any place to store stuff.)

To make our journey even more arduous, it was very hot and muggy. The tube ride from Ruislip to London was stifling. It was also about an hour long. We were dripping with sweat by the time we emerged on the streets of London. We popped out at the Piccadilly Circus, since I remembered that was pretty much in the thick of things. The first thing we did was stroll through a small market in front of St. James church. The next thing we did was almost get run over by a bus. Oops. I wouldn’t have mentioned our lapse and lucky miss, except that a woman with green eyes approached me and admonished me to be more careful. I admit I was a bit rattled – though I think more by the woman than by the bus! I do believe in messengers though, and while I would never purposely endanger myself or especially Ryan, we all lapse now and then, so I took her admonishment to heart.

We needed some refreshment, so we stopped for a drink and a snack at a little café called “Fait Maison.”

Unfortunately, by the time we had driven from Alconbury to Ruislip, then taken the tube to London, over half our day was gone. However, JoAnna was content to just be in London, so we wandered around a bit. Our wandering led us to Waterstone’s (a bookstore), which was having a sale on “holiday reading,” (aka, “beach books”). We both bought a signed copy of a book called not that kind of girl, by Catherine Alliott. We needed something to read on the tube and at night. The book would prove to be a very fun element throughout our trip. JoAnna and I both read it at the same time, and it was fun to compare notes and chat about the characters and the story.

We decided to check out Leicester Square. We had some ice cream and took in the scene. As we were walking around, a polite young man asked us if we liked hip hop. Turns out his name is Zuby and he has a cd. It was only four pounds, so I bought it – and had him sign it! You never know. That cd might be worth something someday! (I added Zuby as a friend on MySpace.)

Larry had gone to London last year before Ryan and I moved to England. He said the Globe Theatre was something good to see. I hadn’t seen it in my previous trips, so JoAnna and I decided to check it out. After a tube ride and a long walk, we found we missed the last tour of the day by seconds. *sigh* Oh well. We took some pictures of the Millennium Bridge and walked back towards Piccadilly.

At this point it was high time for dinner and we were all hungry. JoAnna suggested the Rainforest Café, thinking Ryan would enjoy the restaurant’s rainforest theme. It’s a loud, fun place to take a family to eat. Every half hour a “thunder storm” breaks, complete with thunder and lightening. The place has a very Disney feel to it. We had a good time. The food was decent, and JoAnna got some very cute pictures of Ryan.

After dinner, we took the long tube ride back to Ruislip. Once at the station there, we walked back to the car, only to find someone had thrown up on it! EEEEWWWWW!!! It was completely disgusting. It was on the driver’s side window. It was also half dried and hard to get off. I made an interesting discovery though. We stopped at the nearest gas station to clean the car. Apparently British gas stations have free plastic gloves for patrons to wear so they don’t get their hands dirty while fueling or window washing. Very cool. I was grateful for those gloves, let me tell you! It took a while, but I got pretty much all the barf off the car. I mean really, who throws up on a car?!?

London Day One

Here are links to my previous London trips: https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/id11.html

https://hkvlayman.tripod.com/id35.html

(I don't know why, but for some reason this blog building utility isn't letting me rename the hyperlinks like it used to, so that's why they look like that.