2012--Off to a Busy Start

It's been so long since my last blog post!  The start of 2012 was so busy that I barely had anytime to do any leisurely solitary activities, so blogging took a temporary backseat to life.  So far this year, I've been much more comfortable with relaxing and doing "nothing" and I've been enjoying that.  Last Sunday, I spent the entire day watching TV.  I think that's the first time in my life I have done that when I wasn't sick.  I watched both football games (and both my teams, the Texans and the Packers, lost) and then I watched the Golden Globes.  Usually I can't sit in front of the TV that long because I just get antsy and I feel like I should be doing something more productive.  But last Sunday, nope, that wasn't the case.  I sat on the couch all day and it was wonderful.   I also watched most of the first football game yesterday and watched the Giants win in the 2nd game.  We'll definitely be rooting for the Giants in the superbowl! 

I was so busy I could barely catch my breath during the last week of 2011 and the first week of 2012.  We spent the new year in Houston--we had bought tickets to see our alma mater, Northwestern, play in a bowl game at Reliant Center in Houston.  They played on New Year's Eve against Texas A&M and sadly, we lost.  NU did put up a good fight though, so at least we didn't totally embarrass ourselves.  I had never been to Reliant stadium before and I was pleasantly surprised.  It was a really nice facility.  Everything was really large--Texas style--just how I like it.

 

I always have to get something to eat at sporting events so I got this giant baked potato with brisket on it.  I ate the vast majority of it AND we went out to eat after the game with one of my best friends, Jacquelyn, and her fiancee. 

Mark's Nachos

We had bought our plane tickets for this trip a few weeks before we actually went on Dec 30th.  Sadly and very unexpectedly, my aunt (my dad's sister) passed away on Dec. 28th.  This was a big shock to everyone and a great loss for my family.  I was very close to my aunt, as she had lived in Houston for as long as I can remember.  Growing up we were always over at their house and since I haven't been living in Houston, I often see her and my cousin when I am in town.  She flew all the way to Evanston to see me graduate from Northwestern and flew to NJ twice to attend special events--one being my wedding and her most recent trip was in May 2011, to see me receive my Ph.D.  We always spend Christmas Eve with them and my cousin makes a fantastic and special dinner.  She will definitely be missed this Christmas.

My Family Waiting for the Wedding to Start

Christmas Eve 2008

 I am glad we were able to attend her funeral and it was purely coincidental that we had already planned to be in Houston during that time.  I had a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins fly into town for the funeral and although it was a very sad event, it was so wonderful to see everyone. I love spending time with my family and miss them so much!

My Cousin and Her Family

My Cousin's Son, Horatio, the Sweetest Boy!

Final Thoughts on London

Phew!  Finally done with the recap and pictures of London!  That was just a small portion of the pictures I took.  I think I took about 350 pictures in the 7 days we were gone.  I'm going to make a photobook on Shutterfly at some point, just have to wait until I have several hours to do so.

So final thoughts on London...I honestly can't even find the words to describe what a great time we had.  I think it was the perfect place to pick for our vacation.  I also think it was the perfect time to go...not many tourists...we didn't have to wait in line for anything and all the touristy sights we visited weren't super crowded.  It was nice to have the conveniences and familiarities of America balanced with so many new and exciting things to see and do.  I remember the first few nights I had some trouble falling asleep because I was just so excited about what we were going to do the next day.  Everyone we met there was friendly and helpful.

I haven't traveled the world, but as far as I've seen, London has the best public transportation system.  I know Manhattan has a pretty good one also, but Mark and I were highly impressed by the London system.  First, you can buy a day pass for about $10/person that allows you to take buses and trains all throughout the day for a flat rate (I wish Manhattan had that).  We relied heavily on the trains and there was one time where we waited 3 minutes for a train.  Other than that, we literally waited less than 1 minute for every other train we took throughout the 7 days!  Their buses are also phenomenal, there are so many of them and they are easy to use--there are visual and audio signals on the bus letting you know what the next stop will be. 

Honestly, when we chose London as our destination, I wasn't super excited about it.  I mean, I wasn't against it or anything, and I obviously agreed to go, but I wasn't passionate about going.  London hadn't been on my list of "places I must go."  I think I was thinking it would be so similar to America, and I didn't know what there was to see there.  When I first got my guidebooks, I had never heard of the Tower of London or the British Museum or several other places.  Maybe I was just naive or maybe not well-educated--those Texas schools tend to focus on Texas history more than anything else.  I can tell you anything you would want to know about Santa Anna.  In any case, I'm so glad Mark suggested that we go to London and I'm so glad that we went!  Now I really have the travel bug and can't wait until our next trip.  We are thinking of going to Australia next fall...I've been once before but I'm excited to share that experience with Mark this time around!

Day 7 in London--10/7/11

Our last full day in London!  I didn't want to plan too much for this day because I wanted it to be more chill as it was our last day.  We decided that we wanted to go back to Harrod's.  We rushed through it too quickly our last time there, so we both wanted more time to browse.  We went to their Christmas World and got an ornament and some gifts.  I also took the time to look thoroughly (and be utterly impressed) by the food halls.

We had lunch at a pizza bar in Harrod's. Again, the picture is only of half of our pizza because I forgot to take one before we started.  I'm usually good at remembering to take pictures of my food, but on this trip, I guess I was all about digging into the food first, or forgetting to take a picture altogether. 

Harrod's Lager--We Brought the Bottle Home with Us

Hustle and Bustle of the Pizza Bar

Our Pizza--Chicken, Kalamata Olives, Roasted Red Peppers

I didn't want to eat anything too heavy because I had made a reservation to have afternoon tea today.  Of all the places to choose from to have afternoon tea, I made a reservation at St. James's Restaurant in Fortnum and Mason.  My grandma recommended this place and it was in one of my guidebooks. We got to Fortnum and Mason pretty early because I wanted to walk around their store.  I knew they sold stuff, but I thought it would just be one floor of teas and biscuits and things of that nature.  Boy, was I wrong!  The store was 5 stories and they sold all kinds of things!  The first floor was all the food products and on the upper levels they had a whole bunch of random things--perfumes, china, kitchenware, men's accessories, etc.  It was a really neat store, wish they had something like this in American!  The clerk who checked us out at the register said that around the Christmas holiday season, there are about 5000 customers on the main floor!  Cah-razy!

Fortnum and Mason-outside

Entryway

Ground Floor of Fortnum and Mason

Ground Floor of Fortnum and Mason

Ground Floor of Fortnum and Mason

More of the Ground Floor

Christmas Area

Another Floor of Fortnum and Mason

After walking around for a while, it was finally time for our afternoon tea reservation.  We both had high tea, meaning we had one course that was more of an entree size (as opposed to the tea sandwiches) and also scones  and dessert.  We each had a pot of tea--I finished mine and Mark had about 3 cups of his--he did very well for a person that doesn't drink tea!  The food was really good, I had an english muffin with poached eggs and smoked salmon.  Mark had the cheddar souffle.  The scones were also really good, especially with the jams.  I'm not a big fan of jam actually--not that I dislike it, it just doesn't do all that much for me.  But these jams were delicious!  The jars of jam that you see in the pictures, they open new jars for each table and you don't end up using all that much of it.  They throw away whatever is left...what a waste of delicious jam!  I asked the waiter about this and he confirmed that they throw away whatever is left, so he said I could take mine.  I brought it all the way back to the States with me! 

My Place Setting, with Tea and Lemonade

Mark, making sure his tea is just right, or at least as good as it can be for a non-tea drinker

English Muffin with Poached Eggs, Hollandaise, and Smoked Salmon

Twice Baked Cheddar Souffle

Assortment of Plain and Fruit Scones and Desserts

Clotted Cream on Top and Apricot Jam and Strawberry Jam (Mark is jokingly saying it's time to go in the background)

This was another great day and a wonderful way to end our vacation!

Day 6 in London--10/6/11

Today started out the exact same as yesterday.  Woke up a little before 9 AM, left our hotel by 9 AM.  Got on the tube to go to the Grovesnor Victoria hotel to wait for our tour...again.  We went to the exact same cafe as we did yesterday, then went to the hotel to wait.  I let the concierge know that we were there and we decided that today, I would wait by the concierge table and Mark would wait outside.  We had a strategy today!  We were trying to increase the likelihood that we would see the tour guide and not miss our bus again.

They were supposed to pick us up at 10:30 AM.  At about 10:20 AM, I met another family in the lobby that was also planning to go on this tour.  They were Canadian and taking a 32 day vacation throughout Ireland, Scotland, and London.  I hope to be able to do that one day!  In any case, it was nice to meet up with other people there so that we could have more eyes looking out for this tour bus.  Well 10:30 came and went, and still no tour bus.  This wasn't looking good.  By about 10:35, I asked the concierge to call the tour company, just to make sure they hadn't come already.  The tour company said the driver was running late and verified that we were all supposed to be on the tour today.  More waiting...  By 10:50, they still weren't there yet so I had the concierge give them another call.  The tour rep said the driver was late due to traffic.  Actually, just as he was finishing up his conversation, the tour guide came in to the hotel lobby with Mark.  I was relieved!!!   

We finally got on the bus and we went to Windsor to meet up with the tour group that already started.  We had the option of taking a full day tour to Windsor, Stonehenge, and Bath, but those tours left at the butt-crack of dawn.  And I'm not a morning person and this was my vacation, so there was no way I was waking up that early.  So we opted for the "half-day" tour that just went to Stonehenge and Bath.  It's the same tour though, we just met up with the tour group after the people who opted for the full-day tour finished seeing Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle

From Windsor, we went on our way to Stonehenge.  Our tour guide was pretty good and gave us information about Stonehenge on our way down there.  No one exactly knows when Stonehenge was built, but they approximate it to be built around 2500 BC.  2500 BC people!  That is a really long time ago, over 4000 years!  Essentially, no one knows why Stonehenge was built but our guide talked about different theories, such as--aliens built it, it was built to be a hospital, a worship to the sun, etc.

We finally got to Stonehenge, got off the bus, and entered Stonehenge with an audio guide (which all tourist attractions seem to have now days).  The first thing we noticed when we got off the bus is that it was freezing and there were literally 40+ mph wind gusts!  The wind was going straight through my fleece jacket and scarf...it was SO cold!  It was so cold I couldn't even hold my audioguide to my ear to listen because my hands were too cold and I was too cold to even pay attention.  We decided to ditch our audioguides and just walk around ourselves and take some pictures.  That was going OK (though we were really cold) until about 1/3 of the way around Stonehenge it started to hail.  That's right, I said HAIL!  The hail then turned to freezing rain, on top of the strong wind gusts.  We ended up running around the other 2/3 of Stonehenge, which wasn't so easy because the air was so cold it was hurting my chest to breathe in.  Obviously, it would have been nicer to walk around it more leisurely and listen to our audioguide, but at least we saw it and I got a few good pictures also.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

From Stonehenge, we went to a town called Lacock.  Don't remember exactly how you pronounce it.  I think it was either "la-cock" or "lay-cock."  Either way, I was making cock jokes on the bus.  Yes, sometimes I have the attention span and humor of a 5th grader.  This was a really quaint and cute town.  They actually filmed some scenes from the Harry Potter movies in this town.  We ate at a pub there called the George Inn that's been around since the 1300s.  Yup, that's right, 1300s.  We had Beef Wellington and it was delicious!

Front of the Inn

Dining Room We Ate In

Where Mark and I Sat

Beef Wellington

About the Filming of Harry Potter in Lacock

Close-Up of the Info of the Filming of Harry Potter in Lacock

Town of Lacock

Bus Stop--Looked like a Jail

General Store in Lacock

House in Lacock

One unique thing about this pub was that back in the day, they had a rotisserie spit--you know, the rod that slowly turns your meat as it cooks over the flame.  In any case, guess what made the spit turn...a little dog running on a wheel!!  They actually still have the wheel and the spit in the pub.

The Wheel the Dog Ran On to Turn the Spit

The Turnspit--Where They Used to Roast Meat

From Lacock, we continued on our way to Bath.  Bath was also another really cute town.  Lots of little stores and Bath Abbey was quite impressive.  Bath is known for the Roman Baths that were built there during the time of the Roman empire.  The baths are about 2000 years old.  We toured the baths and that was pretty cool.  The baths were so old and it reminded me of the things I saw on my trip to Italy about 5 years ago.  It's so neat to imagine the people that used these baths and the times that they lived in. 

Roman Bath

View of Bath Abbey from Inside the Roman Baths

Inside the Roman Baths

The Original Steps that Led to a Temple They Had at the Bath

We only had about 1.5 hours in Bath.  You could have easily spent a whole day or more there.  We had to get back on the bus at about 5:30 PM for a 2.5 hour bus ride back to London.  The bus we were riding on all day was a nice coach bus.  I don't know why, but for the life of me, I could not stay awake on that bus.  Every time we got on it, I fell asleep.  Oh well, at least I got my rest that day.

When we got back to London and were no longer with our tour group, we decided to have dinner at a pub in the city.  I had a steak and ale pie, which is a common British meal.   I thought it was delicious!  Mark had steak and eggs, well we thought it was steak but then it looked more like pork--we still don't know for sure what it was, but he liked it. 

Steak and Eggs

Steak and Ale Pie

After dinner, we still weren't ready to go back to our hotel yet, so we ended up taking the bus to the Westminster area.  We wanted to see this part of town at night.

Westminster

Big Ben with the London Eye Ferris Wheel in the Background

Westminster

Finally, we decided to call it a night.  We saw so many new things today and as cliche as it sounds, memories I will cherish forever!