…UK.
Just wanted to let everyone know that we arrived safe and sound in the UK this morning. Along with 2 kids and 14 of our bags. Besides a bumpy first 1/3, the flight was uneventful.
Image from az1172 via flickr
Stuffing in the Turkey
Has to be the best thing in the world. Of course, in my book, there isn’t any other way to have stuffing. If it isn’t in the turkey, it is just overcooked, dried out, and burnt 😉
Image from sushiesque via flickr
Wow
I can’t believe it is already time to leave the US and return to England. At the beginning of the summer, I never thought 5 months would pass so fast. I also never thought that I wouldn’t get to do so much stuff. I left the UK with lots of plans….I’ve done about 1/2 of it.
But, we drove tons (our jeep had about 11,000 miles put on it over the summer). We got to see lots of friends. We got to see lots of friends that we hadn’t seen since we left the US 4 years ago. We got to do some sightseeing (Cass, etc…). I did a lot of not blogging (I’ve only blogged a few times and most of that was in the past week).
I expect I’ll get back into blogging when we get back to England and get into the swing of life again. I’ll try to post that we’ve arrived. I’ll also try to make a post when our small crate of stuff gets there.
Image from pnp via flickr
Today we went to….
…the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We had a great time and Lydia and Isaac got to see TONS of neat fish.
Just a few things to comment on:
* Parking was horrible. $17 (and that is with the $3 discount!)
* They use fake coral in their exhibits. I always thought that real coral was necessary for salt water aquariums to function properly. I guess not.
* They had this quote about rainforest extension. We are now 20 years out…I wonder how true it is?
Bag
Holy cow….I can’t believe it has been all summer and I haven’t posted anything. I’m sorry about that. I’ll blame it on bad internet and travels.
But, before we fly back to England, I had to get a new bag. I bought the ebags Motherlode mini 21. I was looking for a caryon sized bag made of nylon. I travel a lot for work so I wanted something sturdy. And roomy.
I think I scored on this bag. It has a lifetime warranty. It is built rock solid. And it is real roomy. Eventually, I’ll post some shots but I’ve got everything in it that was in my older caryon with room to spare. The blue that came was more grey-blue than in the image, but everything else was spot on.
My only complaint…..it came with some rods I had to install. The instructions pointed to a page on the ebags site that doesn’t exist. So I did a search. I finally found the right video on installing the ebags tls rods. The link is here for anyone else that is searching. Feel free to fast forward to the 4 minute mark…the first part of the video is simply a sales presentation.
[Update 2011-09-21 10:43:22] I forgot to give credit for the picture. It is actually a screenshot from the ebags website. I snagged it and put it on flickr just so I could use it for this post. Thanks ebags.
[Update 2012-04-24 20:20:11] My bag started to come apart. it looked like a manufacturing defect. Read more about how bags dealt with this here.
I want to go on record….
 |
…and say that everything in Washington is royally messed up. You know all of these cuts they are talking about? Well, they aren’t real cuts…they are simply cuts in the rate of increase. ARG! Tonight, I wrote my Senators and Representative and urged them to vote NO on any debt ceiling bill that does not call for REAL cuts in the budget. I urged them to support the Connie Mack Penny Plan. 1% real reduction in the federal budget! 1%. 1 penny on the dollar. In summary, here is what it does:
If Congress and the President are unable to make the necessary cuts, the bill’s fail-safe triggers automatic, across-the-board cuts to ensure the one percent reductions are achieved. Image from The Suss-Man via flickr |
[Update 2013-01-09 07:10:07] I just noticed this is post 1776
Lydia
First off…I know I’ve been rubbish at posting while we’ve been here in the US. I could make lots of excuses, but I won’t.
Anyway, while we were in Richmond, we ran into a friend at Short Pump Mall. He’s a photographer and takes pictures of everything. Like all photographers, he whips out his camera (an iphone) and tries to get Lydia’s picture. Sometimes she shies away from the camera so he tried and tried and tried. Eventually he stopped so I thought he just gave up.
Fast forward a few days….we run into him again. THIS time he whips out his iPad and says he wants to show us something. I figured he was going to show us the pictures of Lydia. Sure enough, he did, but he showed us his blog too. I never knew he blogged!
Anyway, go have a look around at his photoblog — The Father of Click. Here is a link to his picture of Lydia.
back in the US
we’ve been back in the US 2days. we have our mobile phone situation sorted. I finished the final for a class I was taking this morning. right now I’m sitting at a Barnes and noble reading my kindle and drinking a cup of coffee. I’ll write more in a few days about bring back. thank you to everyone who prayed for us the past three years and on our trip back.
I can’t believe
in less than 1week we’ll be back in the US. that is incredibly hard to believe. I wonder what it will be like. I know one thing though … it will be difficult to leave our English friends for the summer.
If anyone says they can’t be married…
…speak now or forever hold your peace. Would have been funny if someone actually spoke up. Why do I say this? Not funny for Kate and William, certainly. But, for the same reason I say that I like sports teams loose. For the crazy fans. Sometimes other people make way too big of a deal over things.
[Update 2011-04-29 21:09:51] I’ve thought about this today and wanted to clarify….my comments here were directed at the people who watched NOT from countries within the Commonwealth. Those in the Commonwealth should be interested….at some point in the future, the child of William and Kate will be their king.
Image from edwin11 via flickr