Saturday

Today Cameron & I decided to explore some more on our own. We rode the tube down to Oxford Circus, which is where there's a main shopping district, to shop until we dropped. Well, unfortunately for me, the new fashion here appears to be what we American's were wearing in the '80s. Big hair, side ponies and lots of neon. I'm sorry, I already did the neon. So, for my bank account it was good, for my closet even better, and for all of my friends - well, they'll thank me for not bringing back neon pink shoes to wear with a neon yellow dress when we go out. Cameron and I did go to Hamley's, which has been around in one shape or another for about 275 years or so (I think since 1766). This store puts FAO Schwartz to shame. It's about 5 levels of fun for kids, and mostly reasonably priced. Cameron bought a dragon model made of wood which is actually a robot that he has to put together to make it work. One thing I did find out about London is that a basement is actually called -1, ground floor is 1 and then it goes up from there. (So I guess I live in -1). It was a cool shop. They had some really neat Harry Potter items, one notable item being a 294 pound (Price) Chess Set, which Cameron was drooling over. We ate a late breakfast/early lunch at a local restaurant that was decent. I've noticed that people here start having pints pretty early in the morning, I however did not join in on that local custom.

After we shopped (I found a cute store and bought some t-shirts which are definitely NOT neon), we dropped our things off at the hotel and then walked down to another shopping area - Oxford Street. As we walked and walked, we discovered that all of these places we've been taking the tube to are really not that far from our hotel. Again, nothing purchased, but lots of fun. We treated ourselves to a gelato (Cameron had flakes w/ his, I did not - "flakes" are a local Cadbury candy bar that they stick in ice cream). It was delicious. We walked through Notting Hill, saw Portobello Road (sang the song) and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up.

My friends Shad and Nikki have a friend named Rodney who owns a tavern in Wimbledon, and Shad let him know we were going to be in town so Cameron & I headed in. The tube ride took about 30 minutes with transfers, and when we got there Rodney was not in because his wife/girlfriend (I'm not sure) was in "labour and he wasn't expected to come in this evening at all." I left him a note saying I stopped by and that Shad and Nikki were thinking of him. It was a really cool music place, I think I'll have to come back to have a pint there.

All this shopping and walking and riding left Cameron and I hungry. So, we went to Carnaby street to a restaurant called The Red Onion, which is a Mediterranean restaurant that we went by the other day but it was a 30 minute wait. It was really good. I ordered a ravioli porcini carbonnara, which I soon discovered was a mushroom ravioli. Dammit! It was delicious! I have always had a thing against mushrooms, but now I guess I don't. Cameron enjoyed his spaghetti. We've had nothing but great food here, which I am glad for because I was nervous about eating only "fishing chips."

We head home early tomorrow and we'll get the site updated with Cameron's History Lessons, including a video he narrated about the Globe Theatre. Thanks for your support while we've been gone with your comments and just reading along with our journey!

Just found out a cool tidbit about our hotel - this whole block is a big gigantic mansion of hotels, and at one time time it was just one home of one family who had a big ballroom on the ground floor (now the lobbies of the hotels), the second floor (where our room is) was the bedrooms, the basement (breakfast) was the servants quarters, and the back (behind our room) was where they kept their horses. Apparently, this was the home of one of the Lords of Parliament at the time when England was the super-power in the world. I'm definitely going to have to do some research on that. I'll take a picture tomorrow to add to this post. Man, don't you just love history???!!!???

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Day 4

Today we got up really early and got ready, then headed to the tube for Victoria Station to catch the coach for a tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath. We couldn't find the place at first, and I didn't even think of mentioning to Patrick the coach station, but we found it and caught the coach for our tour. Our tour guide was a woman named Jessica who was very funny and also pretty interesting.

Our first stop was Stonehenge. It was pretty amazing, to say the least. In the middle of all of these green fields there are a few stones which the ancients, from about 6,000 years ago (about the same time that the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico were being built,) yet there was no communication between any of them. Audio tours are big here, I think because there are so many tourists from so many countries that it's cheaper for the sites to have one source that they can give to all to choose their own language from. We walked around the stones and learned their significance, and the fact that the larger stones were brought from 19 miles away - they aren't sure if it was from logs that were rolled and placed in front of one another as they moved or possibly sleds. What I found to be amazing was that the smaller stones, called Bluestones, were brought from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, which are about 240 miles away! AMAZING! The smaller stones weren't small, just "smaller" than the large ones. They also used wood working skills to build this particular henge, as there were earlier henges built of wood. The stones that are upright in the ground go about 1/3 of their length down, and then have a point carved into them on which the stone that overlayed them had depressions carved into them so they would fit and not moved. Kind of like a shoulder socket and arm.

After Stonehenge we went to Salisbury and to the Salisbury Cathedral. It is one of the oldest Catholic Cathedral's in England, it was consecrated 751 years ago. It is a gorgeous building that is the burial site of many a person, and many a famous person in England who was Catholic. It is also the home of one of four existing copies of the Magna Carta that was made in 1215 at the time of the signing. On the ride from Stonehenge to Salisbury, our tour guide filled us in on the history of Richard the Lion Hearted and also King John. I think most people are like me, my understanding of the two Kings pretty much comes from the Disney cartoon Robin Hood, and I recall learning about the Magna Carta in high school. That's about it. Basically, Richard was a thug-type who enjoyed fighting and proving his manlihood, so he joined the Crusades to have an honest way of harming others. King John was a momma's boy who trusted no one but his mother, and taxed the people of England mercilessly to pay for wars and things that he wanted. The Barons and others (who were the basis of what today's Parliment is) didn't like this and forced him to sign the Magna Carta, which started the idea of "Fair Trial," and promoted the idea of the separation of Church and State. Back when the Cathedral was being built, only those who were in the clergy were educated. One went into that business to be educated and then they worked as advisors for various kings and queens, etc. pushing the ideas that the church promoted at that time. The serfs and others who were underneath them in the feudal system just went along with it because they didn't know any better. It wasn't until the printing press was invented in Germany that brought the bible and other ideas to the people in their own languages (prior to this everything was in Latin and only the educated read Latin, and the educated were those who were wealthy or in the Clergy) that the idea that the Church and State should be really separated (hence the Reformation, Protestants and King Henry VIII - that's another story.) Cameron told me a really facinating story about King George (whose statue was next to that of St. Patrick's on the outside of the church) which I'll have him retell at a later time.

After Salisbury we headed to Bath. I slept the whole bus ride, but Cameron heard the whole story. He's asleep right now, so I'll have him tell me tomorrow and I'll transcribe what he knows. We'll post more tomorrow, I'm tired as it's been a long day.

Day 3

Today we woke up early and went down to the basement for our breakfast before heading out. We had two choices English or Continental. The English Breakfast consisted of a fried egg, rashers, sausage, toast, beans and coffee/tea; while the Continental was comprised of toast, jam, cheese and coffee/tea. There was also a buffet of cereals and juices. Cameron and I had an English Breakfast and Patrick ordered the Continental (which really wasn't that much food for him). I have discovered that I like tea with milk, and coffee with a little bit of milk as well. The coffee here tastes really different from the coffee back home, I'm not sure why. After breakfast we headed out to start our adventures for the day.

Our first stop was Buckingham Palace, we rode the Underground to Victoria Station and then walked up to the Palace. We heard yesterday that you needed to be on queue by 11:00 AM to have a good viewing of the 11:30 Changing of the Guard. We got there about 10:15 and were taking pictures of Victoria's Monument, the Palace and other things around there. It is really beautiful and I can see why it is such a popular tourist destination. While we were there, we were able to see some of the Guard march by with their drums and the horses, it was cool! While we were distracted by this, a few news vans and police cars pulled up and were around the Canada Gate and in front of the Victoria Monument. I thought that maybe something cool was going to happen, but we weren't sure that we wanted to hangout for another hour to see a few guys change places (that's how Patrick described it) and I know that we were also anxious to get on to the Tower and other places we wanted to see. So we left, and we found out later that the Queen went to the Palace and gave an award to a man who helped save people when the Underground was bombed here a few years ago. So we missed seeing her. Bummer!

After the Palace, we headed to the Tower of London and purchased the audio tour to walk around with. It is really an amazing place. We were able to go into the room where King Edward II slept! We saw the prayer room that King Henry VI was reportedly killed in. The story was that he was poisoned or died of natural causes, but witnesses reported seeing his blood when his body was put in the casket so he became a sort of martyr to the English. We saw the Crown Jewels, which is in the most secure room in England. Holy cow! They were so beautiful! The diamonds were HUGE! The gown that Queen Elizabeth II wore for her coronation weighs 20 pounds and is made with gold thread. The history in one small place was amazing. Not many people were actually executed in the Tower itself, just famous people like Ann Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and others. (Cameron found a way to remember Henry's 6 wives - which must be the way the British children learn it - divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.) A majority of the people who were executed for treason were actually hung on Tower Hill just outside the Tower because they could build bleacher-like seating for the thousands that would come, and the executions inside the Tower were reserved for a select few onlookers. It's amazing what one could be executed for, it's a good thing justice is a slight bit better today. We decided to cut our visit short because we wanted to head out and do a few other things, and just the small part we were able to see took almost 2 hours.

After the Tower, we took a boat ride on the Thames to the Dali Experience. That was quite the museum. There weren't any of the Dali paintings that we are all familiar with, but it was cool nonetheless. We saw his infamous "Lobster Phone" and the "Mae West Lip Couch" he made. We found out that he was "for snails" and "against spinach," which Cameron particularly thought was hilarious and could agree with him about. One thing I was particularly impressed with was the dresses that some designers like Ferragamo designed based upon his paintings. Cameron really enjoyed the sculptures that were there made of bronze that were based on his paintings. Downstairs from Dali was a small exhibit on Picasso. We were able to see some drawings, pottery and even rugs that Picasso made. Some of the pictures make me think of the pictures that Cameron draws or that kids draw for me at school - anyone can be an artist if they really set their mind to it and want to do it. This left us thirsting for a little more art, so we headed over to the Tate Modern.

One super-cool thing about London is that nearly all of the "public" museums are free. We went into the Tate and were able to see so many fabulous REAL works of art. We saw Dali, Picasso, Monet, Johns, Pollack, Miro, Ernst, Basquiat, Raedecker, Matisse, Kadinsky, Mondrian, Cezanne and Lichtenstein masterpieces to name a few. I had always wanted to see a Jackson Pollack to see what the fuss was all about, my class learned about him last year in Art Masterpiece but I didn't really get it. Seeing a painting of his up close and in real life made me see the beauty in it. I was particularly intrigued by Joan Miro's paintings - the colors were amazing. We learned little things like how Piet Mondrian disliked green and didn't use it or have any of it in his house. The Basquiat painting was "Tobacco vs Red Chief"and was amazing. I really enjoyed this museum and am glad we went. Cameron knew a lot about some of the artists, again, because of Art Masterpiece and from Mrs. Garza in Art Club.

We left the Tate and walked next door to the replica of the Globe Theatre. Shakespeare's original Globe Theatre was actually on the other side of the Thames than where the replica was built. The original theatre burned down during a performance of Henry VIII when a spark from a prop canon ignited the theatre. Around this same time Oliver Cromwell came into power in England, and he was a truly awful man. Although the Globe was rebuilt, it was not put to much use after that because Cromwell was a puritan (amongst other things like enslaver of the Irish) and decided that the country and people would be better off without art and plays, and had all the theatre's closed down - including the Globe. After that, it wasn't of any use to Cromwell or his puritan cronies, so they had it torn down and built tenements there. Such a shame!!!! It seems like the Globe was a wonderful place full of laughter and even of education. I think that sometimes people who are egomaniacal and are in power are afraid of their underlings knowing too much and discovering the truth about them.

All this thinking about art and Shakespeare made us hungry, so we ate at a restaurant called Pizza Express. Sounds like a fast food place, but it wasn't! It was actually pretty fancy. Cameron and I shared a thin crust called "The American," which we thought was pretty funny. Patrick also had "The American," but a thicker crust. It was really good! We've seen them all over town, but weren't sure about them - the name implies fast food, but looking inside they seemed too fancy (wine glasses on tables, low lighting, etc.) All in all it was delicious and I'm glad we went. By the way, "American" is a pepperoni pizza. All the others had all kind of flavors of toppings on them.

We walked back across the Thames on the Millennium Bridge (known to the Londoners as "Wobbly Bridge" because when it was first built it wobbled and shook) to find an Underground station. Cameron and I seem to have better luck finding one on our own than we do when we're with Patrick. We found one and headed back to the hotel to grab jackets, today was windy and a bit overcast. Then we went shopping because Thursday's the late night for stores. Late is really not an accurate descriptor of the time. We only got in about an hour, Patrick did some damage at Zara; Cameron and I found an outfit each at H&M. We'll go back on Saturday to do some real shopping . Tomorrow is going to be another long day, we're headed out to Stonehenge, Bath, Salisbury and where the Magna Carta was signed. This should be really interesting. We are really looking forward to it.

Day 2

Today was quite a busy day. We woke up, had a proper English breakfast (I don't think I've ever seen Cameron eat so much!) and then headed out to start our day. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, about 60 and sunny. Since we did not finish the double-decker tour from yesterday, we decided that would be the thing to start off. It was so interesting!! To add to the hanging site of the Marble Arch, we also found out that two really well known phrases were coined there. The first being "one for the road," because when they would take the condemned to be executed, they stopped for a very strong pint called the hangman's pint to get them drunk to make the hanging easier and the pint was in the middle of the road because it wasn't at an inn at the time. So, if you took the drink, you were "having one for the road." The flip side of that was if the condemned decided not to have a drink, they stayed on the wagon, hence the term "on the wagon" for staying away from the drink.

We also learned that the Great Monument was built to commemorate the Great Fire of 1666, and that it's height is so specific that if it were to fall , the flame at the top would land at the site that the baker's shop stood on where the initial flames started the fire that destroyed Old London, but allowed for Christopher Wren to build the New London. This monument is down by the London Bridge (which is built about 6 feet from where the original London Bridge was). We also were able to "drive" around that infamous circle from the movie European Vacation where Chevy Chase's character says "Look, Kids! Big Ben! Parliment!" over and over again. (We had to say it, too.) We rode all over London, saw Buckingham Palace, Herrod's, 1 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square (where there's a statue of King George the First from where all distances to and from London are measured), Big Ben and Parliament, the re-built Globe Theatre, sooo many places!

After that, we headed to the London Zoo. Cameron & I are pretty good at manuvering about on the Underground, we can get almost anywhere now I think! We rode to Regent's Park and then walked through it to the other side to get to the Zoo. There were people playing rugby, lacrosse, football/soccer and just sunning in the beautiful weather. The Zoo was pretty cool, it's one of the oldest zoos around, and they posted quite a bit about their history all around so you knew what you were looking at. They also work hard at modernizing the zoo and making sure that the enclosures are appropriate for the animals now in our day of conservation. There was an old birdcage that used to hold ravens that was so small, but they showed that it's no longer in use and how they've learned from the past. We really enjoyed ourselves and enjoyed the Reptile House, where they filmed scenes from the first Harry Potter.

We were pretty hungry after all of our walking and decided to head back towards Soho to find something to eat. We couldn't figure out if the pubs were ones where we could eat or just for drinking, so we headed to Chinatown and ate at a different restauarant than last night. It was good! We figured out how to manuver around the whole Picadilly Circus, Soho and Shopping District so I feel more comfortable knowing how to get to certain places. We headed home and now Cameron is sound asleep. I think we're going to the Tower tomorrow as well as trying to see the changing of the guard's at Buckingham Palace. All and all we love this city and are enjoying ourselves immensely!

Day 1

Well, we arrived at about 7:45 AM England time, which was about 12:45 AM Gilbert time, after a long flight of not too much sleep because of excitement. I watched the sun rise over the Atlantic with the moon just over the wing. It was really beautiful. Cameron watched movies on the little tv and was able to sleep just a little, but not too much. He was really excited to get here.

We got in, got through customs pretty quickly and then found the train that would take us into London proper. It was a gorgeous ride, all of the green countryside and the gardens everywhere. We got into Paddington Station and then spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out where exactly our hotel was. Luckily, when you ask people for help here they are more than happy to give you directions and a nice old lady pointed us in the right direction. We found our hotel and checked our luggage so we could go out and start to enjoy London.

Our hotel is near Hyde Park, so we figured that was as good of place as any to start out. Beautiful!! It's a huge park and we wandered through it in search of caffeine to keep our eyes open and ended up at a McDonald's near the Marble Arch. We also happened to find a double-decker tour like Cameron and I have taken in New York and San Francisco, so we bought tickets and hopped on. We found out that the Marble Arch was placed near the site of most of the hangings that happened in London, and that at an average public hanging there would be over 200,000 people in attendance! WOW! It was actually built for Buckingham Palace but Queen Victoria didn't like it so she had a coach built that was too big to fit through it so it had to be moved to Hyde Park (site of Kensington Palace).

We rode through various sections of town, learned some trivia (the first Indian restaurant was opened in 1809, but closed soon there after and now Indian food is more popular than fish and chips in London), found some good places to shop later this week and hopped off at the The National Gallery to see a Picasso exhibit.

The National Gallery is this huge museum that is free to the public and full of wonderful treasures of art. We saw pictures by Picasso, Da Vinci, Michaelangelo and so many others. There were pictures that were painted in the 1200's and still as colorful as the day they were painted. Cameron explained many a picture to me that had some sort of mythological basis or ones that he's learned about because of Art Masterpiece. He was loving all the art. By this point, we were EXHAUSTED and cranky, so we headed back to the hotel for a quick nap.

After our nap, we took a while to figure out how to get around on the Underground and headed for the Tower of London. It's a fairly impressive building, to say the least. We arrived too late in the day for a proper tour, so just walked the River Thames, saw the NEW London Bridge, walked across it and then walked and walked and walked. We saw remnants of the Roman Wall, old ships, monuments, St. Paul's Cathedral, Big Ben... so many things just walking this wonderful old city. We walked from The Tower to Trafalger Square to Picadilly Circus to the Soho area. We were hungry by this time so found Chinatown and ate at a place that had a decent Sweet and Sour Chicken, according to Cameron (he claims it was the best he's ever eaten). Then we took the Underground back home for a well deserved night of sleep.

I am writing this at 4:30ish AM London time because I woke up and couldn't sleep. Sorry for any errors or ramblings - I'm tired (but a great kind of tired!) We'll add more tomorrow. We'll add the pictuers tomorrow, it's taking too long right now.

Flying Over the Pond

Tomorrow is the big day. We are heading to London, we're all packed--- and full of excitement. I am so nervous about flying that far, I haven't done it since I was a little kid. I have been over and over our checklist for packing, I hope I remembered everything!!!! (I'm sure there will be something I forget, I always do.) I am not sure the whole picture of the trip has hit Cameron and myself, I think we'll realize it when we actually land. I hope that we are able to post each day, I'll never be able to do what my mom did when she and Patrick went to Ireland last Spring Break, but we'll give it our best shot. Check in often and email me if you're not seeing enough. :-)

THE CHAMPIONS

ON THURSDAY AT THE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME WE WON 5-2. I WAS THE MVP. I WAS THE ONLY KID THAT DID NOT GET OUT. I SCORED THREE RUNS AND I WORKED REALLY HARD. MY TEAM SAID I WAS THE BEST KID ON THE TEAM.

Kickball

Today I had playoff game for kickball and I won! So, my team is going to the championship game on Thursday. My team (The Marlins) plays the Pirates. Wish me luck. ~ Cameron

(UPDATE: Cameron's team WON!!! We'll be posting some pictures soon!)

THE BOY: 1st Post

My grandma has blog envy. She's envious that we have had 7 comments already and we haven't been up for 24 hours yet! Go visit her at http://irisheyesshannon.blogspot.com and leave her a comment, PLEASE!!! :-) I am excited to post about my trip!!

Cameron

Testing, Testing 1,2,3...

Taking the torch from my mom, and Cameron's grandma, we are going to be posting our trip and various things about our lives to those who care to read. There will be posts from ME (Kerri) and posts from THE BOY (Cameron).

We are going to London in approximately a week, and I want THE BOY to not only enjoy the trip, but report on it for posterity's sake. We are going to be trying all sorts of things with this blog - hopefully we will be able to post some videos of things via the computer and our new video camera in addition to our rantings and ravings. This could end up being the greatest idea ever - or the exact opposite of that. This is the beauty of the interweb.

WE (this is ME & THE BOY) will attempt posting prior to our trip to get used to this. Please note that our blog will consist of this: WE (ME & THE BOY), ME (Kerri) and THE BOY (Cameron). We may occasionally host guest bloggers and take various positions on music, politics and life. WE hope that you understand that our views are strictly our own and in no way-shape or form-are those of our sponsors. Also, this may become a place for ME to voice my angst and opinions in a public manner... and THE BOY to do the same. WE'll see how it all goes. Thanks in advance for reading this and supporting us in our trials and tribulations.....

Love,
KERRI & CAMERON