Enjoying a Little Time at Home

Since getting home from vacation there has been a lot of yard work to catch up on.  While we were in Europe experiencing great weather it was raining here.  I am so glad that it worked out that way.  I came home to green, green, green.  And it rained again last night so I will not have to put the sprinklers on for a bit yet.  I have just been trying to get lots done around here before I have to return to work on Tuesday.  It has been so nice to not have to work for more than two weeks.

I missed the lilacs blooming but the snowball bush which Esme calls the "meatball bush" is in full bloom.  They are the only flowers I will be able to take to Grandpa and Grandma Thomas' and Nana's graves.   

I don't think the lawn has ever been this green.  I love it.  I got the beds weeded and got the new mulch in.  I love looking into my backyard.  Now all I need to do is get rid of the voles.  I tried the Juicy Fruit gum method.  I am not sure if that just made them mad or what.  They are alive and well and still digging holes in my back lawn. 

I finally made it to one of Hannah's softball games.  It was the last one but I was there.  Here she is in left field waiting for a ball to come her way.

Maren enjoying the ball field experience. 

I did not ask them to be so serious but I like how the picture turned out.

I picked up from dancing and came back to "I spy Jonas".  Of course she wanted to get up there as well.  I told Jonas he had to dust up there and all the ledges and shelves in order for her to get up there in her dance leotard.  He did it.

She made it.  She is happy.  You can tell by the toe pointing.

I can't believe I let them do this.  I even gave Jonas cinnamon toast to eat while he was up there.  What a treat.

Hope you are all having a great Memorial weekend.  I am trying to savor every minute of it because I know this Summer is going to be crazy.

Paris in 8 hours or less

We made it home today but I wanted to do a blog on Paris.   Due to an unforseen incident that Shelley will address we got to Paris a day late and had half a day to see all of the sites that we wanted to see.  We took the Eurostar train from St.Pancras Station.  We had booked first class tickets for Sunday morning but ended up going on Monday afternoon and were relegated to the pull down seats when we bought our tickets prior to boarding.

  As you can see we were sitting in the baggage area.  We had to sit on the seat that you can see.  It was crazy when we were trying to get off and we were sitting there amongst the bags.  Awkward.  We were just happy to make it to Paris.  There was a time when we were not sure that we were going to make it or not.

We jumped off of the Train at Gard du Nord train station and hiked a just a few streets and were at our hotel.  It was near the station and called the Albert Premier.  Not so premier but it was a roof over our heads and a bed to lay our weary heads.  We had to hit the road running so we hopped on The Metro (subway) and easily found our way around.  We started at the Cite looking for the Cathedral of Notre Dame.  I knew that it was near the Seine.  I took this picture not knowing that the Cathedral was in the background.  We wondered off to this tower thing soon to find out that it was not the Cathedral.  We consulted the map and got back on course.  The Cathedral has the 2 matching square spires in the background of this picture.

The famed Rose Window.  All cathedrals have these type of windows. 

Scary looking gargoyles.  That was their purpose I suppose, to scare off bad spirits.

Then it was off to find the Louvre.  We had to hike around a bit to find it.  The map confused us a little but we did eventually find it.  This pyramid was built in 1989.  It doesn't really look like the scenery around it but it would be hard to build things like they did that long ago. 

  I wish we could have gone inside but there was no time.  I plan on going back and seeing the inside some time.  This place was massive.  The buildings are set up in big rectangles with big open courtyards in the middle.  There are several buildings and it is more like a complex similar to the Smithsonian although they are all connected. 

From The Louvre you walk down through the Jardin des Tuileries to the Champs Elysees.  We walked on this dirt/sandy walkway for quite awhile.  My shoes and pants were very dusty. Notice how all of the trees are trimmed at the same height at the bottom.  It was interesting.

We saw this fountain and its twin on the way down to the Champs Elysse.

The is one of the windows at Laduree a famous Patisserie in Paris.  We were told by Stacy last year when she visited that it was a must see.  We stopped by and got some of the macaroons that they sell there.  They are not coconut macaroons but little cookies put together with filling in the middle.  I brought home a box that I packed in my suitcase.  They did not survive so well.  I opened up a box of crumbs with a few of the cookies intact.  The crumbs are just as good in my book. 

I snapped this picture before I got scolded by a Frenchman.  "No photos" he said.

Then we finally made it to the Arc de Triomphe.  Since I was a little girl I have wanted to see this monument.  I was taught how to say the name properly when I was young and I have been saying it ever since in the hopes of seeing it some day.   It was huge for me to see it and it was huge in real life.

I had to snap this picture very quickly as I was crossing the road.  I was trying not to get hit.

Just to prove we actually saw it.   This was an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower.  It was a very busy place but still very amazing.  We were not right down by it because we had already walked  and walked and walked so we were fine with this view.  We were told by Stacy that we needed to see it at night with the lights on and so we decided to get a bite to eat at a sidewalk cafe an then come come back for the night pictures. 

Just playing with the new camera a bit.  Morgan would be proud of my skills.

Can you guess what I had for dinner?  No these are not instruments of torture. 

Yes, I had escargot.  I really liked it.  I had to work to get them out though.  It was fun to eat snails in Paris.

We ate at the Cafe Kleber.  We sat beside a French speaking couple who were really Chinese.  There is a surprisingly large Chinese population in both London and Paris.  Who knew?   I had the best salmon I have ever eaten.  The French do amazing sauces from what I hear and this had an amazing sauce.  Yummy.  Shelley had steak and frites.  Then she had amazing chocolate mousse for desert and I had crepes with chocolate sauce. 

I love this picture

Then we took The Metro home and collapsed in our little beds.  We were very grateful to have made it home safe and sound today.  We are none the worse for wear other than our cankles from sitting for 11 hours straight.  It was a most amazing time.  I am so glad that Shelley and I were able to do this.  I am however glad to be home and sleep in my own bed and get some yardwork, housework etc. done.  Oh ya, and get over my jet lag. 

Edinburgh the Old and the New

I can't believe we have been traveling for near on a week.  I am suddenly talking like a Brit.  Sorry it just slips out.  We have been sitting in the bar at our hotel for a few hours trying to do some blogging and catching up.  I am listening to a conversation between to Scotsman and I can make out about every other word.  I forgot to tell you earlier that I finally got my camera to work and it has been working like a gem since.  It seemed to work fine in the hotel and soon as we would hit the streets of London it would freeze up.  All good now.  The above picture is of our morning tour of Edinburgh said Edinburah with a rolling of the R.  The Scottish like to roll their R's.  We were driving around looking at the old and new sides of the city.  The new side would be built in the 1700's or later.  How is that for new.  We have the most amazing view from our room and the most amazing view from the room in the bar.  Because we are so far north it is still quite light and  it is going on 9:00pm.  I have many more pictures but I am using Shelleys pics right now to blog.

Just a bit of greenery.  This was up in the hills a bit as we drove around.  I just love all of the green.  What am I going to do when I get home.  Maybe my lawn will look just as green with the rain and snow happening at home.

This is Hollyrood Palace.  One of the Queen's palaces in Scotland.  The other one is Balmoral.  It was closed and so we could not go in.  This is from the gate. 

Then it was more driving around the city.  Mind you this is still the new side. 

Now we are onto the old side.  This is Ediburgh Castle.  We got to tour this today.  It is built on an old volcanic hill.  This city is quite hilly because of the old volcanoes.

The castle is of course the walls and armaments around it.  Then in the castle is a large church and a very small church.  It houses the Scottish crown jewels which we could not take pictures of but you can Google them to see them. 

This is on one of the battlements looking out into the North Sea.  Look at the clouds looming.  Nary a drop of rain though.   P.S.  I just noticed our bus driver at the bar takin in a pint.  His name is Keith and he is a master of the bus on the road.  I have seen him miss another bus by 5 inches today.  Brilliant.

At the castle we ran into some Royal Scottish Dragoons. These are young lads in the army who I believe came out for photo ops with the tourists.  Anyway they are very young looking are they not?

Here is the Royal Mile.  It is the road that connects the Castle to the Palace that I spoke about earlier.  Lots of shops that we stopped at and did a wee bit of shopping.  Lots of tourism in these cities we stop at. 

Then we made it back to our hotel for some tea. 

It was cranberry tea and cakes and sandwiches.  It was quite tasty.  I can't believe all that we have seen.  It has been truly amazing.  The interesting thing about these cities is that they are not large cities.  We have been able to walk around all of them and see what we want to all on foot.  Other than swollen feet and plantar fascitis, I am in excellent spirits and looking forward to seeing Yorkshire tomorrow. 

Bath to Chester

This morning we woke up bright and early at 0600 to start the day.  We have been meeting with our tour group for some of our meals and we got together this morning for breakfast and then we were off again. 

 We drove through the Cotswolds.  The Cotswolds make up a few villages nestled just below the Midlands.  It all looked very pastoral.  We saw lots of beautiful green fields.  According to our guide, this is why Great Britain is so desirable.  The Romans, Saxons, Normans, Vikings, etc.  all came because of the farm land.  

  We stopped in the town of Stow and had a quick look around.  There was a beautiful little hotel that we took  the above  pictures of the gardens.  Beautiful gardens everywhere. 

Then it was on to Stratford on Avon.  Avon pronounced Aven is named for the river that runs near by.  Speaking of how to pronounce things, our guide is always telling us how to say things correctly or properly as he would say.    We of course took in Anne Hathaway’s Cottage shown above.  Notice the thatched roofing. 

Then we were onto the birthplace of Shakespeare.   

Notice again the beautiful flowers.    I saw a color of poppies that I did not know existed.   

 When we went through Shakespeare’s house we were told not to take pictures.    We were just a bit naughty and snapped a picture anyway looking out of this amazing Tudor window.  Then we were off to North Wales to a town named Llangollen.   It is on the river Dee.  It had a canal near by that they used to transport goods and building materials before the railroads came.   We are staying the night in Chester. 

We did not have any free  internet access last night and so we both posted today in Chester.   By the way we sat down to dinner with a couple tonight from our tour group.  We exchanged niceties and were talking about where we were all from.  The lady stated that she was from outside of Chicago.  We told her that we had a sister that lived in Batavia.  She sort of gasped and said "that is where we are from".   That broke the ice and then we had a lovely conversation over dinner.  She was also a nurse.  So between the topic of healthcare and Bativia we were set.  It is off to bed for us and then it is onto Scotland and the haggis is awaitin, so we hear.

blog update

London Day 2

My Dahlings it is the end of another day here in London and so an update is in order.  We were called "my darlings" all morning long by our tour guide.  It has been slipping off of my tongue all day.  It just doesn't sound the same unless it is with a British accent.  Anyway it was charming and I enjoyed it. But I am getting ahead of myself.

This picture was from Saturday night when we hit the road to see a few more sites.  London has been very surprising to me.  We have been here for 2 days and we have seen everything.  So much of it is within walking distance and so we covered a lot of ground on foot yesterday.  Shelley is pictured with one of the horse guards.  He was quite stoic and focused on his job, just standing there is what his job was.  That and being photographed all day.

Then we happened upon the beloved one-eyed, one-armed, Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square.  Not that you can tell from the picture.  We were told that today on our tour.  The National Gallery is in the background.

Lots of signs so we didn't get lost and knew which direction to head, or not, because Shelley was completely turned around and would have had us heading off to toward Scotland instead of to Waterloo Bridge which we were trying to get to eventually.

Then we headed straight into St. James Tavern in Piccadilly for a little pub grub.  It had award winning Fish and Chips and so we decided to give it a try.  It was delicious.  I just ate mine with the traditional salt and malt vinegar.  The atmosphere was cramped and loud but very authentic which is what we were going for. 

This is in the pub from our table.  There is a doorman that check ID and makes sure that the maximum capacity limits are observed.  I saw him turn some people away.

We, or should I say I was excited to see this building.  I thought it was Thames House.  I guess I was having an MI-5 moment.  We were all pleased with ourselves for finding it and then were told on our tour this morning that it is in a completely different part of town than this one.  So this is our fake MI-5 headquarters.  I thought it was sort of strange that MI-5 had decided to put topiaries out front. 

Shelley was pretending to pick the lock of the MI-5 headquarters in the picture I took of her, which is not on the blog.

Shelley recognized this establishment from reading many Georgette Heyers.  Apparently the White Hart was an Inn and Tavern.  It is the oldest one in London, so the sign says.

View from across the Thames. 

This is a view from beneath The Eye of London.   It was built as a temporary structure with a five year lease but has been such a hit that they are keeping it up for 25 more years.  My guess it that it will stay indefinitely.

Now I cannot help but be a little bitter when I see these pictures.  I am going to have a Montell moment and go on a rant about my camera.  Yes, I bought a new camera for the trip and have tried unsuccessfully to take pictures with it.  I got here and tried to turn it on yesterday and nada.  Then again today after charging and making sure the lens cap was taken off in the proper order, etc.   Then I finally got it to work for the taking of 3 pictures today and then dead.  Everything is going wonderfully here but this small dappening issue that I cannot take any pictures of these fantastic sites with this new camera.  I just turned it on and it says that the battery is fully charged but my guess is that by tomorrow morning when I try and take a picture it will be dead and not turn on.  That sounds really pessimistic but very accurate in how I feel about my Nikon Coolpix P500.  I hope Whitney is having better luck with hers than myself thus far.  So we were at St. Pauls Cathedral which is the above picture when I discovered for the 3rd time that my camera was not going to turn on no matter what I did.  Tuppence a bag anyone?  I think this is where the little old lady sold her bird seed.

Shelley snapped a picture of the interior before she found out that she was not supposed to.  So here I am in St. Paul's Cathedral.   It was pretty amazing inside.  So old, just like everything here is.

St. Pauls Cathedral looks alot like the Capitol does it not?

Here is the front entrance to Westminster Abbey.  This is where Kate the Duchess of Cambridge entered on her wedding morning.

The Royal Horse Guards. 

Shelley ran like the wind so she could get this picture of them.  The tour guide said, "Drop Everything on the bus, and just run!"  So she did and got there just in time, and many people didn't run as fast and missed out.  We found out later that we were going to see a lot more of these.  It was good exercise for her because she had eaten a large breakfast and needed to burn the calories.  Shelley wrote that.

We stopped for a potty break at St. James Park which is right next to Buckingham Palace. There was a little garden full of pretty little flowers.  I was introduced to Foxglove the first time I came to England. That makes me sound as if I ate some foxglove.  No I did not, that would have been fatal.  I just admired it and wanted to try and grow some.  I have been unsuccessful.

One of the Royal Guards marching back and fort.  He had taps on his boots.  No kidding. 

I, for some reason, really wanted to see The Royal Albert Hall.  We were only able to see it on our bus tour this morning so there is a bit of a glare.  Across the street from it is a huge golden statue of Albert.  It had 6 or so layers of 24 carat gold on it.  Can we say excessive?  But I am rather fond of Prince Albert so I was okay with this excessiveness.  It is not my tax dollars so I cannot judge.

After our bus tour we decided to get brave and master The Tube system.  We didn't really master it but we did ride the Underground which is the name of the subway or metro.   We took it a few stops to get to Kensington South and then made a change to the Picadilly line and went one stop up to Hyde Park.  I had wanted to see the Hyde Park Corner where many of the early church missionaries preached. 

We found some amazing rose gardens.  There were other flowers as well but mostly tons of roses.  Everyone of them smelled amazing and they were in all colors. 

Here is a florabunda.  We just don't see many roses like this in our part of the world.

This is looking out from Hyde Park Corner to The Wellington Arch.

We passed this shop.  It is the House of Mcqueen which is the fashion house that designed Kate's dress.   This feather dress did not come in my size and they were fresh out of feather shrugs.  Dang it!

Then after the park we decided we wanted to go to Harrods.because it was close by.    It is hard to keep the Sabbath Day Holy while shopping in Harrods.  Do not judge us. 

Here were people having tea in the Harrods tea shop.  I am so curious as to how much it cost.  The food looked really good, you know little sandwiches, scones, tarts, etc.  Nothing to rival our own tea parties at Chez Lizee! 

This is a little out of order but here is Buckingham Palace.  We were there to watch the changing of the guard.  This was hyped up a little too much for me.  It basically was a little marching band and a bigger marching band passing by us on the street.  There were tons of people there to watch and it really was not that impressive to me. 

Then we got home this afternoon and crashed.  This time difference has really taken a toll on me.  Well dahlings it has been wonderful in London.  I can truthfully say I have seen and done everything that I wanted to.  Tomorrow we will move onto Stonehenge and Bath.  Somemore adventures await us. 

And on a more optimistic note.  I just turned on my camera and it worked.  The battery is juiced up and we shall see if it is going to perform tomorrow.