New Post - SOON!

I will be posting photos and writing about the trip to DC that the Boy and I took this summer soon. Just waiting for the camera cord so that I can upload pictures. By soon I mean within the next month. :-)

Nostalgia

Today I spent some time re-reading all of our posts about England & The Great U.S. Trip of 09. I've been remiss in my postings, and I think I need to take it up a notch. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this site - as it is Cameron & Kerri's Excellent Adventures - but I'm going to make more of an effort to post on here.

So far this summer the boy & I have only 1 spectacular trip planned - which we can't wait for! We're heading to the DC area at the end of July to go to a family wedding. This would not be possible for us to do without Tia. Thank you, Tia, for allowing us to have this amazing adventure. We're really looking into what we can do to get as much history as possible over a week.

Last summer, we had a similar trip - but more people were along for the journey. I am looking forward to this one because it is just Cameron and I (and Tia, but we're dropping her off with her sister-in-law so it's really just us for a few days.) We're definitely hitting all the places we missed (Hello Jackson Pollack & The other Smithsonians we missed!!!) I can't wait. I love that I have a family that gives us the opportunity to go around our great nation and learn all that we can. Thank you. Thank you.

In the meantime, I just may post a few things - I'm trying this new "go with the flow" thing - and as I'm typing am realizing the release that blogging does. I will not be posting everyday - that's what Facebook is for, right? But, if it's amazing - maybe I'll let you know.

Road Trip!! (AKA 2 Weeks in the Car with 5 People, Part 1)

So, Sonya's getting married. She lives in Carbondale, Illinois now - instead of just down the street. Which is good, because I so much prefer the man she's marrying to the boys she's dated in the past and am happy to attend this wedding. Because Illinois is not down the street, we decided to Road Trip It. "We" being myself, Cameron, Patrick, Fernando and my mom. YEP! 5 of us in the car TOGETHER for 2 WEEKS!!! Could be great, could be yikes! I'm thinking it's going to be a mixture of both, but because we are the age that we are, we can make the most of it and deal with it without too much of a meltdown, just minor crankiness.

We left Saturday afternoon with the intention of making it to Albuquerque, as I have some friends there - one in particular. The Official Road Trip started at about 2 PM Arizona time, and we drove north and headed for the I-17 to make it to the I-40 to get across Arizona and partway across New Mexico. There was quite a bit of rain on the way there, but it was just gorgeous. Northern Arizona, on the 40, is so different from any other part of Arizona. The Navajo nation lands are amazing. I can't believe how much the wind cut across various parts of the land and just created amazing canyons and caves.

Patrick drove the whole way, which was good because our Google directions for the hotel were way off. I thought we were getting a hotel just a few miles from my friend Tyson's house, as we were supposed to meet up to get drinks and I didn't want to have to go too far. Uh, Google was WRONG! I had to text him with our location and the hotel address to direct us, but Fernando also was checking his GPS so we were good. Drinks with Tyson was saved! [Side note, Tyson is a friend I had back as a teenager in Douglas who I lost touch with for about 20 years (really!) and recently reconnected with due to the lovely interweb & MySpace (pre-Facebook). I've gone out to Albuquerque twice to hangout, and it's been great to reconnect and become better friends as adults.] Tyson came and picked me up, and we decided to hangout at the hotel bar because it was close, and that way my mom could come have a few drinks, too. It was a lot of fun! I'm glad that my mom, Fernando and Patrick were able to meet Tyson - now they have a face and person to put to my friend.

Next day, we leave for Oklahoma City. I'll tell you what, Albuquerque to Oklahoma City is a loooong drive. It's pretty damn flat throughout Texas. Not really all that pretty, not like Austin. We came up with all the George Strait songs about northern Texas as we drove through, but that was about it. We did see the "Biggest Cross in the Northern Hemisphere" though! Saw some pretty funny signs as well : "Gusty Winds May Exist" (we decided this would be the existential question for the new millennium) and "If You Think All Casinos are the Same, Think Again!" were just a few - lots of religious ones that were pretty funny, but don't want to offend anyone. Animals changed as we drove through the various states. I swear that there were gazelles in Texas!! Then, we remembered the "Home On The Range" song and remembered that they're antelope! Whoops! Made it through seeing a few antelope, a couple of weird road kill animals (camel? kangaroo? chupacabra?) Patrick drove from Albuquerque to Amarillo, I drove from Amarillo to Oklahoma City. We made it to OKC, saw the interesting downtown buildings (one looked like the Empire State Building, just MUCH smaller) , and once again Googlemaps failed us. Drove us to a dead end. No hotel in site. Great. I am not a big fan of driving in unfamiliar cities with speed limits which are below my lead-foot limit to start with. But, we eventually found it (we made Patrick go in and ask for directions and then related the information to the previous hotel 8 miles from where googlemaps said to go) and checked in. It was about 10 when we finally checked in. Oklahoma City at 10 PM on a Sunday does NOT leave you with many options for dinner. Really. We ate at Denny's. Really. A Denny's without beer. Really. I was ready to go to bed and then leave OKC.

We woke up early this morning (well, it's central time so it's 2 hours earlier than back home) and headed out for the Oklahoma Memorial Site. I wasn't too sure how I felt about going there, I wasn't really excited about going to see the Twin-Towers in NYC, and this was the same feeling I was having about going to a place where a complete and total nut job decided to prove a point about the government by killing a shitload of people. Why should I go there? Then, I got there. I saw the fence where little kids put pictures and bracelets and memorials for the kids killed there. I saw the fence where parents put pictures and memories of their adult children and kids who were killed there. I saw the faces of the innocents who went to day care or to work like any other April 19th. I thought about going to Auschwitz and other concentration camps - we go there so we can remember, reflect and make sure that it doesn't happen again. Why should Oklahoma City be any different? We need to go there so that we can remember, reflect and make sure it doesn't happen again. I'm not sure if everyone will agree with me, but that's the perspective I took this morning, it is a place of pure quiet and peace now, but was at one time a very busy place with laughter and talking and noise, until one person decided to change that. I thought going to somewhere where people were killed for no good reason was wrong; that going would be recognizing what that person did to the innocents. But I found that going there recognized the innocents and that by not going there I would be giving that power to the person who wanted to take that away from all of us. If I can, I am going to post a picture of something that a rescuer spray painted on the building next door that touched me most of all "Team 5 4-19-95 We Search For The Truth. We Seek Justice. The Courts Require It. The Victims Cry For It. And God Demands It!"

Cameron was really affected by the site. He has a friend at school whose uncle was killed in the bombing. Their family is from Douglas (for more about the story, go to my mom's site). We found the chair that represented him and he sat there for a few minutes and thought about his friend and her losing her family. He looked at a tree that survived when it shouldn't. He saw the building next door that was partially destroyed by the bombing, but they repaired it as a reminder of the day. He saw all of the outpouring of love and caring that children from all over the world sent via tiles that they decorated. The National Park Service has done an awful scene justice and presented it in a way that is really appropriate.

After OKC, we headed out for the 7 hour drive to St. Louis. Missouri is really a beautiful state. They have some weird stores, like the "Kum 'n Go," which we laughed over for hours. We are trying to find as much levity in the trip as we can, which we have to with 5 people in a car. Our hotel here in St. Louis is directly in front of the Mississippi River and the Arch; two blocks or so from Busch Stadium. Really pretty. Can't wait to explore tomorrow. We're heading to the Zoo tomorrow (Cameron, my mom and I) and Patrick and Fernando are going to Six Flags. Fernando, Patrick, Cameron and I are going to see the Yeah Yeah Yeah's tomorrow night, so I'm not sure when my next posting is.

I apologize if there's a bunch of rambling here. Think about all the sleep I've missed out on!! I will add pictures later, the "Free Wireless" sucks!!!

Due to Popular Demand....

Due to popular demand (well, demand of a few specific friends who mean a lot to me), WE'RE BACK! Tomorrow we embark on a monumental journey from Gilbert to our ultimate goal of Carbondale, Illinois for Sonya and Jason's wedding. This journey will last two weeks (YIKES!) and is a road trip across the central part of America. Our first stop will be in Albuquerque tomorrow night, where I hope to meet up with a few friends to start the fun. After that, I believe it's Oklahoma City and then St. Louis. We're going to spend a few days in St. Louis soaking up the history and sites, and then on to Carbondale for the Special Occasion. After that, it's Chicago for a few days and then to Mount Rushmore. After the beauty of the Badlands, we're heading to Leadville to see where we're from. I can't wait to see the sites and learn the history. The Boy is excited! If you have any suggestions on places to see and/or eat, leave them in comments. My goal is to update this daily, but we'll see.

After the trip, I'm home for two weeks and then off to Atlanta for a conference. I will be posting from there, so I don't forget what I learn. I am going to meet my family in Baltimore on the 30th and then we're off to Washington, D.C. for the next day of site seeing (and possibly seeing some AZ family). Then, it's an East Coast Scott Reunion over the 4th of July weekend. We'll post then, too. We're hitting up Monticello, Jamestown and other sites that started the U.S. It'll be a wonderful contrast to England and seeing what we did to start our country. Hope you check in often and leave comments. If I'm not posting, let me know that you want me to, and I will! I'm also going to have Cameron (the Boy) keep a travel journal on the site to get his writing skills up to par. Love you all, thanks for your patience.

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.