Edinburgh

We took the Flying Scotsman up to Edinburgh for the day. The train ride was nearly as fun as the city. Hannah joined us for the day trying to make up for our missing kids.

Our train had a problem so it was "finished" at newcastle and we had to get on a new train. We were nervous because we hada such great seats on the first train, but we managed to rush the train and get some good seats.

It was a beautiful on the royal mile.

A view from the castle.

The Scottish Parliament.

Jeff found a sculpture that he had an esthetic experience with.

The Scotland national gallery.

Headed home at the end of a great day.

Museum of Childhood

It's amazing how much fun the teenagers could have in the toy museum. You can tell we've been to way too many historical sights.

Lots of fun on the horses.

Eliza , Elizabeth and Emma deciding which way to go next.

Hansen and Mitchell putiing on a great puppet show.

The Lord Mayor's Parade

We went to the Lord Mayors parade in the city. We watched right by St Paul's.

They had a little carnival set up in Paternoster Square. It seemed a bit out of place.

Their idea of a float. I don't think that it would have made the cut in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

They do a much better job with their uniforms though.

We saw the second half of the parade from Fresh Italy's window, while having a liitle snack. It was like having box seats.

Finally the Lord Mayor's carriage came by.

Dover and Canterbury

A sunny, cold day at Dover Castle. You could see over to france it was so clear.

Marin, Hannah, Eliza, Hansen, and Katy at the castle.

Jeff and Henry, both men of power.

You can't see the people, but Canterbury Cathedral is spectacular.

The kids in the cloisters.

Eliza and Elizabeth looking like eskimos.

Hansen and Gary trying to bargain for a better price on their hats.

Cabinet War Rooms

We had a great afternoon at the cabinet war rooms. On our walk to the cabinet war rooms from the bus we went past the Methodist Hall and went in. It was beautiful, we had never been in before. The war rooms have a new Churchill exhibit room that was amazing.

The lighting was great on Westminster Abbey on our walk back to the bus.

That night Eliza and I went out with some of the students to see oxford street turn o their Christmas lights. Westlife sang, but we were a little late, so we didn't hear much. They had a count down then turned on the lights and lit off some fireworks.

Some of the party girls.

A Day With The Queen

We had a wonderful day with the queen, except I don't know if she even knows that we exist. Oh well. It was the opening day of parliament, so there's a lot of hoopla when the queen goes from Buckingham to the houses of parliament. It wasn't too crowded and it was a beautiful day.

Eliza, Marin, and Katy waiting for the Queen.

Bartons and Ringers.

The Queen, but you can only see prince Phillip.

They fired cannons in Green Park after the parade. It was crazy loud.

Rochester with the Dickies

We had a great excursion with the Dickies to Rochester. It is a little city towards the east coast with a castle and a cathedral. It is not on the tourist circuit though and it had a fun high street and not many people. The Castle was right on the river. It was mostly a ruin that you could climb around the inside and up the towers.

It was a small cathedral, but the church volunteers loved having visitors and told us all about the church. It had some norman architecture that was really beautiful.

We enjoyed watching Dickie struggle with his camera all day. Of course he got some great pics.

Everyone got very silly on the train ride home and because this was the real Guy Fawkes Day we saw some bon fires and fireworks from the train on the way home.

Leading up to Guy Fawkes Day

Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had some fun family excursions.

First we wandered through Regents Park and then up on to Primrose Hill. Then we walked over to Camden market where Hansen got another soccer warm-up from our favorite soccer dealer. Then we headed down towards the British Library, but found this great little church and park on the way. Sir John Soane was buried there, the trees had beautiful fall leaves and there was this tree that they had ringed with headstones when they moved them to make room for the train tracks.

Crazily when we got to the library we ran into the Bartons. We spent quit a bit of time in the masters room looking at all the original manuscripts.

We spent the next day out at the Docklands. It is such a fun area, kind of like a little New York.

Even though Guy Fawkes Day was going to be on Monday they did the big fireworks on Saturday night. We went down to Chelsea and watched them from across the river. They were shooting them off in Battersea Park.

Oxford

The students had gone off to live-in. (that's when they live with a british family for a few days) So we took off for a family day trip to Oxford. We took the Oxford tube, which is actually a bus, out there. Some of the students didn't go to live in, so some of them and the Bartons went out with us. After we got there the kids were hungry for lunch, so they got to do one of their favorite things and eat at pizza hut's all you can eat buffet. They stayed for an hour, so that they could eat as much as possible. Hansen ate about 8 pieces and Eliza ate 6 I think.

This is the Ashmolean, a great museum in Oxford.

We also toured Christ's church, which is one of the colleges. More importantly they filmed some of Harry Potter here.

These are the stairs that they were standing on before they got sorted.

In the church at Christ's church there was this cool scary skull head.

Walking along the back of the colleges.
It was a really fun day, but I could spend a couple more there. There's never enough time.