Our last morning in London was spent packing up and hauling our stuff to the airport. We decided that since Heathrow is such a busy airport we would just arrive way early. We ended up being there 4 hours early though because we didn't think the Tube would get us there that fast!
We had a leisurely brunch and wrote and sent some postcards while we waited.
As our gate opened we headed down to the area and met a nice couple from Canada who were on our flight. We chatted with them through the various check points on the way to our gate.
As they started calling people to board the plane, Eric pointed out a man carrying a very battered, old looking instrument case. He asked me what instrument I thought it was and I told him it was a violin. Then we started commenting on the man carrying the instrument. Eric said that he looked just like Elvis Costello. I agreed and we chuckled about the similarity.
When we boarded the plane the man was sitting in first class having a discussion with another man in his row about their seats. We made eye contact as I passed and exchanged a friendly smile. I didn't really think anything else of it.
When we got settled in our seats, Eric informed me that the man was in fact Elvis Costello! So we have had our first celebrity sighting! That was kind of a fun way to start our journey to Irealnd.
The flight was uneventful and even though the customs guy was irritated with me when I couldn't understand what he was asking me, our first impressions of Ireland are pretty friendly.
We took a bus to our hostel and got settled before heading out for some grub. We ate at a little pub on the same block as our hostel because the restaraunt was closed when we entered the dining room, so the owner took us down to the pub and served us there. Very nice of him! I had the lamb stew and it was incredible! I could eat that everyday. In fact, we're going back tonight because Eric wants to try it too!
Our hostel is very nice in hostel standards, but in Jessica standards, it lacks a lot. It's basically like living in a college dormitory, which I've discovered I'm too old for. The bed sucks and the "breakfast" consists of corn flakes and toast. (Yuck) It's only for a few days though and I'll live. Eric tried to convince me that it's like fancy camping... whatever. ; )
Thursday, May 10, 2012
3,000 Stairs
Our second full day in London was packed full of activities! More walking, more Tube and a never-ending supply of stairs.
We started our day at St. Paul's Cathedral. Worth every "pence" we paid! It was an audio guided tour which was very well done. I wasn't expecting to be as impressed as I was with the cathedral. We'd seen it from the outside the night before and it was spectacular for sure, but what awaited us inside was breathtaking. Unfortunately they don't allow you to photograph the inside of a lot of these places. Lets just say that the acoustics are so incredible I wish I'd had my flute!
We climbed to the top of the highest point in the cathedral and got a spectacular 360 degree view of London. By the time we got back down to the crypt we were SO tired from going up and down nearly 2,000 stairs that we kind of just skimmed through it so we could go eat lunch. (Good training for St. Helens though!)
It started to rain right after we got done with our tour so we headed back "home" to pick up our coats and to purchase a couple umbrellas. After a quick lunch we headed to the Tower of London.
The walls and all the buildings at the Tower were really cool! In America we're just not accustomed to seeing things that are several centuries old. Some of the things that were on display were beautiful artifacts that were well older than our country!
The best part of the Tower was getting to see the Crown Jewels. Of course, they don't let you snap photos of those either. As my good friends will probably guess, I liked that part a lot. Pretty, shiny, sparkly things always attract me. ; )
We headed back to St. Paul's at that point to get some exterior shots since the rain had stopped.
When I'd taken my fill of pictures we headed back to Westminster Bridge and had dinner (fish and chips with Guiness) at a small little pub on the river. I wanted to get some nighttime shots of Parliment and Big Ben all lit up.
As I finished with my shooting, the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. We ducked into another little pub along the river and had a pint to wait out the storm.
We learned that the tube system has a TON of stairs in it. We figured we walked around 3,000 stairs over the course of the whole day. Our legs were SO sore when we fell into bed that night.
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| View from the top of St. Paul's looking west. (I think) |
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| The Tower of London |
The walls and all the buildings at the Tower were really cool! In America we're just not accustomed to seeing things that are several centuries old. Some of the things that were on display were beautiful artifacts that were well older than our country!
The best part of the Tower was getting to see the Crown Jewels. Of course, they don't let you snap photos of those either. As my good friends will probably guess, I liked that part a lot. Pretty, shiny, sparkly things always attract me. ; )
We headed back to St. Paul's at that point to get some exterior shots since the rain had stopped. When I'd taken my fill of pictures we headed back to Westminster Bridge and had dinner (fish and chips with Guiness) at a small little pub on the river. I wanted to get some nighttime shots of Parliment and Big Ben all lit up.
As I finished with my shooting, the skies opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. We ducked into another little pub along the river and had a pint to wait out the storm.
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| Parliment and Big Ben |
We learned that the tube system has a TON of stairs in it. We figured we walked around 3,000 stairs over the course of the whole day. Our legs were SO sore when we fell into bed that night.
Clocks, the "Tube" and Kamakaze Pigeons
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| Look! We have a stowaway! |
Our first day in London was fabulous! We walked everywhere... or at least it seemed like we walked everywhere.
Since we had such a creepy experience on the tube our first day we decided to avoid it and walk into town from our hotel. It was a nice enough walk, but we discovered that we were definately in the "bad" part of town. We found a Starbucks on our way and all was right with the world.
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| Olympic countdown |
We started at Trafalgar Square. There's an olympic countdown at the foot of the steps to the National Gallery. Eric got dive-bombed by a kamakaze pigeon! Apparently the pigeons don't care if you're in their airspace!After looking around at the Square, we took a stroll up the Mall toward Buckingham Palace. The palace was bigger than I thought it would be. It was fun to see all the funny guards marching around and getting their pictures taken. I'd hate that job!
Westminster Abbey is right there so we walked all the way around it too. We didn't take the tour because it was Sunday and they weren't open for tours. We decided against attending as worshippers because we had other things we wanted to get to.
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| Westminster Abbey |
Once you figure out the Tube system, it's not that bad. It's pretty efficient and amazing how extensive it is. The voice with the english accent that says, "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform." never gets old! Although, we are easy to entertain...
We ended our evening by walking along Victoria Embankment again and getting nightime shots of the Tower Bridge and some of the other sights that are lit up at nighttime.
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| Tower Bridge |
My feet hurt so bad by the time we got back to our hotel that I could barely walk. It was worth every blister though!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Landing in London
Travel day one: complete. WHEW!
Our departure from PDX was sad, but easy comparatively speaking. We flew in a little tiny prop plane which wasn't good. I tend to get motion sickness on little planes. I should have known to just take the Dramamine, but I thought it would be okay. It was fine, but I was left with a yucky feeling in my stomach and a wicked headache.
The Vancouver airport is really pretty! Very nicely laid out, very clean and lots of shops and restaraunts to explore. Our flight was delayed nearly 3 hours because of thunder storms in Asia, so instead of having a 2 hour layover it was almost 5 hours.
The flight from Vancouver to London was the longest flight of my life! I sat next to a very nice South African man who lives in southern England. He had some helpful tips on how to navigate the hugeness that is London.
After disembarking in London we waited for an hour in the customs line. We got our baggage and exchanged some currency. It took a while to figure out the Undergroud, but we did it and were on our way to our hotel.
I want you to keep in mind that I'm extremely tired, hungry and thirsty at this point. We've been eating nothing but airplane food and fast food so I'm not feeling very well either. We were standing on the underground chuckling at the "mind the gap" reminders when this little family gets on the train. Eric moved aside so the man could push the stroller into the car. After about one stop the man steps up and puts his face about 2 inches from Eric's and just stares at him. When Eric asked if he could help him and what he wanted, the mand didn't respond. He was just trying to intimidate him or something. It was way creepy and I was thankful that we only had a few more stops.
When we got off the train, I lost it. We found a sopt to stand where we could organize our stuff and I broke down in tears. I was shaking from the creepiness of the nasty dude. We discovered that you have to tap your Oyster card on your way out of the underground too. The guard chased us down and explained it to us. By the time we got out into the street I was a wreck. We stood on the curb while Eric tried to hail a cab and I just cried.
The cab driver was great. He said in his 10 years of driving cabs he'd never taken anyone out "so far" to their hotel. Whatever. It wasn't that far... at least I don't feel like it was. He was helpful in calming me down and reassuring that the creepy dude was a "whack job". I think I tipped him too much, but whatever.
Our "hotel" is very ghetto. It's more like a hostel than a hotel. It has a kitchen down the hall equipped with everything we'll need including a washer and dryer! The bathroom is also down the hall which is a complete bummer.
We walked to a grocery store for some basic food stuffs. I made a lame attempt at dinner by cooking some pasta and adding a prepackaged sauce. Thankfully I found peppermint tea, which should soothe my stomach.
We'll have to do quite a bit of walking tomorrow to get where we want to be, but I don't really care about that at this point. We're here and I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed (regardless of how small and ghetto it is).
I'm sure this isn't a very well organized blog post and that my grammar isn't very good. For that, I appologize. Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll be more cheerful and organized about writing. I'm going to take a shower and wash the stench of this day off me!
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| It's blog time!!! |
Our departure from PDX was sad, but easy comparatively speaking. We flew in a little tiny prop plane which wasn't good. I tend to get motion sickness on little planes. I should have known to just take the Dramamine, but I thought it would be okay. It was fine, but I was left with a yucky feeling in my stomach and a wicked headache.
The Vancouver airport is really pretty! Very nicely laid out, very clean and lots of shops and restaraunts to explore. Our flight was delayed nearly 3 hours because of thunder storms in Asia, so instead of having a 2 hour layover it was almost 5 hours.
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| Eric waiting at YVR. |
The flight from Vancouver to London was the longest flight of my life! I sat next to a very nice South African man who lives in southern England. He had some helpful tips on how to navigate the hugeness that is London.
After disembarking in London we waited for an hour in the customs line. We got our baggage and exchanged some currency. It took a while to figure out the Undergroud, but we did it and were on our way to our hotel.
I want you to keep in mind that I'm extremely tired, hungry and thirsty at this point. We've been eating nothing but airplane food and fast food so I'm not feeling very well either. We were standing on the underground chuckling at the "mind the gap" reminders when this little family gets on the train. Eric moved aside so the man could push the stroller into the car. After about one stop the man steps up and puts his face about 2 inches from Eric's and just stares at him. When Eric asked if he could help him and what he wanted, the mand didn't respond. He was just trying to intimidate him or something. It was way creepy and I was thankful that we only had a few more stops.
When we got off the train, I lost it. We found a sopt to stand where we could organize our stuff and I broke down in tears. I was shaking from the creepiness of the nasty dude. We discovered that you have to tap your Oyster card on your way out of the underground too. The guard chased us down and explained it to us. By the time we got out into the street I was a wreck. We stood on the curb while Eric tried to hail a cab and I just cried.
The cab driver was great. He said in his 10 years of driving cabs he'd never taken anyone out "so far" to their hotel. Whatever. It wasn't that far... at least I don't feel like it was. He was helpful in calming me down and reassuring that the creepy dude was a "whack job". I think I tipped him too much, but whatever.
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| Our ghetto "hotel" room. |
We walked to a grocery store for some basic food stuffs. I made a lame attempt at dinner by cooking some pasta and adding a prepackaged sauce. Thankfully I found peppermint tea, which should soothe my stomach.
We'll have to do quite a bit of walking tomorrow to get where we want to be, but I don't really care about that at this point. We're here and I'm looking forward to sleeping in a bed (regardless of how small and ghetto it is).
I'm sure this isn't a very well organized blog post and that my grammar isn't very good. For that, I appologize. Hopefully after a good night's sleep I'll be more cheerful and organized about writing. I'm going to take a shower and wash the stench of this day off me!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
T-minus...
2 days, 15 hours and 42 minutes
That's how much time I have until our plane takes off for London.
Did you catch that?
LONDON! We're actually going to Europe!
Our long planned, long awaited trip is finally here! The guide books are read, dog-eared and reread. The tickets are purchased, the reservations made and the luggage is out, waiting to be packed. All I have to do is clean the house, do the laundry and pack.
This trip is a big deal. It's not just a big deal because it's our first trip overseas or because it's the longest vacation we've ever taken or even because we've never been away from our children this long. It's a big deal because we came from near financial ruin to being able to save enough money to go on an extended vacation like this.
It was a lot of work and through our consistency, determination and God's provision we have met our goal! That's an awesome feeling!
So do you want to know where we're going? (As if you don't already know!)
We will be spending 3 days in London.
Then we fly to Dublin and spend another 3 days there.
After that we rent a car and drive around the rest of Ireland for 11 more days.
Our last two nights in Ireland will be spent in a 14th century castle!! We figured we should end the trip with a bang.
I'll post as often as I can along the way. I'm really excited about the photo opportunities I'll have and can't wait to share what I shoot!
That's how much time I have until our plane takes off for London.
Did you catch that?
LONDON! We're actually going to Europe!
Our long planned, long awaited trip is finally here! The guide books are read, dog-eared and reread. The tickets are purchased, the reservations made and the luggage is out, waiting to be packed. All I have to do is clean the house, do the laundry and pack.
This trip is a big deal. It's not just a big deal because it's our first trip overseas or because it's the longest vacation we've ever taken or even because we've never been away from our children this long. It's a big deal because we came from near financial ruin to being able to save enough money to go on an extended vacation like this.
It was a lot of work and through our consistency, determination and God's provision we have met our goal! That's an awesome feeling!
So do you want to know where we're going? (As if you don't already know!)
We will be spending 3 days in London.
Then we fly to Dublin and spend another 3 days there.
After that we rent a car and drive around the rest of Ireland for 11 more days.
Our last two nights in Ireland will be spent in a 14th century castle!! We figured we should end the trip with a bang.
I'll post as often as I can along the way. I'm really excited about the photo opportunities I'll have and can't wait to share what I shoot!
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Race for the Roses
For the last 12 weeks I've been training for a half marathon. I did the Race for the Roses here in Portland last year, but I hurt so badly afterward that I decided if I trained a little better, maybe I wouldn't be in so much pain.
The training schedule was intense. (At least for me.) It started out at running 15 miles in a week and worked up to 29 miles in a week. Every Saturday was the "long" training run. It was anywhere from 6 miles to 12 miles.
While the training was challenging and I had my bad days, on the whole it was really good. I did a lot of the shorter runs on the treadmill so I didn't do too much damage to my body. All of the long Saturday runs were either on the track or on the street.
Two weeks ago I did the 12 mile run and it was fabulous! I didn't struggle with it at all, the weather was nice and I felt really good afterward. So I wasn't really that worried about the actual event. Let's face it, if you can run 12 miles, 13 isn't going to be a big deal right?
I learned the hard way that I was wrong.
Everything depends on how you're feeling that particular day and when I woke up Sunday morning, race day, I knew right away that it was going to be a hard run. I can't really explain it. My body just felt a little "off". I hadn't slept well the night before, my stomach was a little uneasy and I just felt exhausted.
I was determined to finish though.
I did struggle from mile one, but I had a few moments of easier running. My hubs and kiddos came down and stopped along the route to cheer for me and that meant the world! There was a time that I was ready to cry I was so frustrated and I looked up and there's all my guys cheering for me on the side of the road. That gave me the pick-me-up I needed!
My goal from the beginning was to beat my time from last year. That didn't happen, but I did finish strong. I'll go back next year and try to do it again.
My official time was 2:38:45 and really, that's not horrible. I ran my second half marathon and that's nothing to sniff at!
The training schedule was intense. (At least for me.) It started out at running 15 miles in a week and worked up to 29 miles in a week. Every Saturday was the "long" training run. It was anywhere from 6 miles to 12 miles.
While the training was challenging and I had my bad days, on the whole it was really good. I did a lot of the shorter runs on the treadmill so I didn't do too much damage to my body. All of the long Saturday runs were either on the track or on the street.
Two weeks ago I did the 12 mile run and it was fabulous! I didn't struggle with it at all, the weather was nice and I felt really good afterward. So I wasn't really that worried about the actual event. Let's face it, if you can run 12 miles, 13 isn't going to be a big deal right?
I learned the hard way that I was wrong.
Everything depends on how you're feeling that particular day and when I woke up Sunday morning, race day, I knew right away that it was going to be a hard run. I can't really explain it. My body just felt a little "off". I hadn't slept well the night before, my stomach was a little uneasy and I just felt exhausted.
I was determined to finish though. 
My goal from the beginning was to beat my time from last year. That didn't happen, but I did finish strong. I'll go back next year and try to do it again.
My official time was 2:38:45 and really, that's not horrible. I ran my second half marathon and that's nothing to sniff at!
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| Me and my little dudes after the race. |
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
"Remind Me Who I Am"
Today my day started out just like any other day. My alarm went off at 7:15, I woke the kids, fed them, packed their lunches and got them off to school. Then I got some breakfast for myself and sat in my office to browse Facebook while I ate. (Because you know, life's too short not to multitask.) That's when my day changed.
A friend posted a music video. In itself, not unusual. I wouldn't say I know this friend particularly well, but I enjoy her posts just the same. It was a song called "Remind Me Who I am" by Jason Gray.
Mr. Gray sings about needing to be reminded who he is from time to time because of regret, loneliness and other such things. He sings about needing to be reminded that he belongs to God and that he's a beloved child of God.
"When my heart is like a stone
and I'm runnin' far from home
remind me who I am.
When I can't recieve Your love
afraid I'll never be enough
remind me who I am.
If I'm Your beloved
can You help me believe it?
Tell me once again who I am to You
who I am to You.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You
That I belong to You."
I clicked on the video and every lyric I listened to got to me. (Especially the above second verse.)Music generally speaks to me louder than anything simply because it's a language I understand well. You name a situation, and I can probably come up with a song that fits it. Well, this time the song fit me perfectly.
God's timing is always perfect. He knows more about me than even my husband. He knows my hopes and dreams, my insecurities and failures, my thoughts, intentions and even the deepest desires of my heart. He can count the hairs on my head and the freckles on my nose.
This song was a good way of telling me that God is the perfect person to remind me of who He knows I am. And that I NEED to be reminded of that.
I've been mad at God for quite some time now. I've got several reasons, none of them good. Because of that fact my spiritual life sucks. I'm not saying that because of this song, that's all going to change. It's just not that simple, but this song has given me a new place to start praying. Obviously I've lost my way somehow and need to be guided back to the designated path.
I'm not writing this because I want you to feel sorry for me, or to get attention. I'm just sharing my thoughts in the hopes that maybe it speaks to someone else who needs what I need...
To be reminded who we are in Christ.
Here's the link to the video if you'd like to give it a listen. ; )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyY8zfjBMQ&ob=av2e
A friend posted a music video. In itself, not unusual. I wouldn't say I know this friend particularly well, but I enjoy her posts just the same. It was a song called "Remind Me Who I am" by Jason Gray.
Mr. Gray sings about needing to be reminded who he is from time to time because of regret, loneliness and other such things. He sings about needing to be reminded that he belongs to God and that he's a beloved child of God.
"When my heart is like a stone
and I'm runnin' far from home
remind me who I am.
When I can't recieve Your love
afraid I'll never be enough
remind me who I am.
If I'm Your beloved
can You help me believe it?
Tell me once again who I am to You
who I am to You.
Tell me lest I forget who I am to You
That I belong to You."
I clicked on the video and every lyric I listened to got to me. (Especially the above second verse.)Music generally speaks to me louder than anything simply because it's a language I understand well. You name a situation, and I can probably come up with a song that fits it. Well, this time the song fit me perfectly.
God's timing is always perfect. He knows more about me than even my husband. He knows my hopes and dreams, my insecurities and failures, my thoughts, intentions and even the deepest desires of my heart. He can count the hairs on my head and the freckles on my nose.
This song was a good way of telling me that God is the perfect person to remind me of who He knows I am. And that I NEED to be reminded of that.
I've been mad at God for quite some time now. I've got several reasons, none of them good. Because of that fact my spiritual life sucks. I'm not saying that because of this song, that's all going to change. It's just not that simple, but this song has given me a new place to start praying. Obviously I've lost my way somehow and need to be guided back to the designated path.
I'm not writing this because I want you to feel sorry for me, or to get attention. I'm just sharing my thoughts in the hopes that maybe it speaks to someone else who needs what I need...
To be reminded who we are in Christ.
Here's the link to the video if you'd like to give it a listen. ; )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKyY8zfjBMQ&ob=av2e
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