#7 Traveling with baby

Tom’s son Adrian and granddaughter, Josephine, have been visiting us for the past few days. They flew in from Warsaw, Poland on Monday and returned Wednesday evening (8/16-8/18). While they were here, we did a few touristy things together. After settling in, we hopped in a car we rented for the week and drove to Stonehenge. Although Tom and I did this tour two years ago, it is still impressive to see again.

Little Josey was completely unimpressed with the huge stones that towered above the many visitors who gaped at their massiveness while listening to audio tapes narrate this historical/archeological site. She was however thrilled with the grassy field around them and gave her dad a merry chase.

Tuesday, we drove up to Oxford and spent the afternoon walking around some of the college buildings and gaping at the many spires that are so characteristic of this college town. Students on foot and bicycle weaving in and out of traffic all add to the academic atmosphere. Tom was thrilled when he found the school of theology so of course we had to sit in one of the great halls and absorb the muse while Josey played “little miss cute”.

After a long day of driving and sightseeing we went to a popular restaurant referred to as a "carvery". The food is basic fare and a lot of it--kind of like a scaled down Ryans but nicer. Josey exerting her independence by being totally uninterested in food, however, discovered gambling machines--"move over dad, I've found my calling."

All packed up and back on the plane for home, Adrian called the next day to say that Josey slept a full 12 hours just recovering from her big adventure. Yes, the pleasures of being a grandparent--spoil them, then send them home for Mom & Dad to deal with.

#6 Around London

3Now that's a marching band!

Tom and I took a few days to go to London. I have always wanted to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, however it does take some planning since the schedules change at different times of year and in August it only happens on odd numbered days and if the weather is favorable. So, we jumped on the train into the city, switched to the Underground (subway) and voila there we are along with thousands of other tourists stretching and gaping to see the bright red uniformed soldiers marching up to the palace gates.

waiting for the palace guards

Buckingham Palace gates

It always helps to be tall when in a crowd, but with this many people, it was hard to see much of anything. However, I did find a choice spot to see clearly the moment when the replacement guard was marched to the narrow guard house and with great dramatic flare pushed the other guard from his post to begin his
                                                         own duties.


Many of us “know” London from novels, photos and Beatles songs. But getting around a very congested city to actually see the sights takes some work. However, like many favorite tourist locations, tour buses do a great job of getting around to show off the attractions at a reasonable rate. From the top of a double-decker bus, we had quite a view of the city streets and as the tour guide narrated we snapped the camera to capture as much as possible.

Who would have thought we would find this place?

Also known as Tom's Pub?

However, we had lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, built in 1662 and rebuilt in 1667 after a fire. It has remained open through 15 sovereigns and has been a favorite hangout of such notables as Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.

Tom at stage doors of Globe Theater

This spire is what inspired a baker to create the now popular style of wedding cake.
 
 One of the nice things about these tour buses is that you can hop on and off to browse a certain area that seems interesting.. And, there are different routes, including a boat ride on the Themes River, giving tourists a full day of siteseeing and shopping.

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower of London

London has had quite a few fires that destroyed much of the city. In 1666, most of the city was consumed by fire. Christopher  Wren was commissioned to design many of the major buildings to rebuild the city. St. Paul's Cathedral is one of them and has survived for centuries.

The famous Tower of London had a castle built around it to keep out raiders. If you recall your world history, many unsuspecting souls waited in this dreary place for their sentence to be fulfilled, which usually ended in their head being removed. Now please don't give the LSPD any ideas, they are already proactive regarding evil-doers.

#5 A Walk Around Town

(Please don't mind the blank spaces, I am still figuring out how to manage this blog program -- also new computer with courser that likes to jump around a lot.)



I love to walk around the neighborhoods and look at the homes and gardens. Unlike in the US, homes in other countries are often surround by walls or fences. No matter if the building is old or new, traditional or contemporary the British love to plant flowers. In garden beds, window boxes and hanging baskets, wonderful displays of color brighten up the stucco, brick and mortar buildings.

Tom & Ken approaching chapel

Friday afternoon, Tom and I went off to Windsor with a new friend,  Ken Bradley. Ken picked us up and drove us to Windsor Castle for Evensong services at the Knights of the Garter chapel. I sat in Emperor Hirohito’s seat and viewed the ancient chapel built in 1475 with great awe. The service was a spoken one since the choirs are on holiday for the month of August while the Queen is in Scotland. Having grown up in the Episcopal church the responsive readings sounded quite familiar.  

Tom arguing his case before Queen Victoria

Ken walked us around the shops and noted points of interest, narrating British history, particularly kings and queens who occupied Windsor Castle.

The informative day was followed by a wonderful traditional British supper beautifully prepared by Ken's wife, Susan.

#4 Together Again

Thursday, Aug 5, plane lands at Gatwick Airport, London. A quick pass through customs, a long wait for baggage and Tom and I are reunited! It had been a long day, starting Wednesday morning dashing off to the airport and boarding plane to take off by 7:25a.m. an uneventful flight to Charlotte, NC to spend 8+ hours in the airport followed by a long overnight flight to London, ironically landing at 7:25a.m. the next day.

Our accommodations are at Unity of United Kingdom, Maidenhead, England. This old house was built in 1896 or so and has been owned and occupied for the past 30-40 years by the Unity folks here in UK. Kimerie Mapletoft (isn’t that a wonderful British name?) is the director and together with Tom has arranged the classes and workshops he will present during our stay.



As you can see, the house is a grand, old, three-story brick place and our apartment is at the top. (see me waving at you?) Hauling the suitcase up the stairs is quite a chore and after what seemed like an endless flight of stairs, I realize there are even more stairs to manage. We quickly learn to plan well before leaving the apartment so as to avoid additional trips back up to get the missing items.



All settled in, Tom and I walk down to The Pond House, a local sports pub for a traditional British dinner, glass of Fosters and a football match (soccer to us). It’s Liverpool vs. some other team--no one knows who they are and it makes no difference because everyone is rooting for Liverpool. After all, they gave us the Beatles didn’t they?

#3 Are You Kidding Me?

Back to our travel adventures… Tom is retired US Army, and has Space A travel privileges. The A stands for available, and is based on # of seats for a particular flight and individual seniority on a sign-up sheet. In other words, first come, first serve and if they have enough room. So the game begins by figuring out where you want to go, then when, immediately followed by the optimal sign-up date that will assure placement on flight and yet not so far ahead to put you off the list if you get bumped on the first attempt. I know, very complicated and risky.

So here we are at the terminal, our names have been selected along with others and we are now waiting for the bus to take us to the plane. Oh but wait, here comes the young man with official looking clipboard. “So sorry folks, we have one too many people for the number of seats available. Sir, your wife can’t fly with us.”

Tom springs to action saying, “I am not going without you!” and leaves with the young man in uniform. Fifteen minutes later I find him at a computer looking up commercial flight schedules. Selection. Purchase. Kiss, kiss. “See you in a few days.” And now I am driving home to fly out of Kansas City.
* you can get more on Tom’s blog by visiting:    

                                     http://revtom-theo-blog.blogspot.com

#2-Getting Ready

Preparing for vacation is never easy for me. I start thinking of all the things I need to do until I drive myself so crazy I have to start making lists. You know, the “to do” lists for the kids to manage the house while we are gone, my own list of things to do such as: pay bills, get passports out, notify credit card co. of our traveling, suitcase, new underwear, etc. Then there is the selection of clothing, shoes (always a problem), toiletries--how many 3oz bottles can one get into a quart size bag? How many shampoos in a 3oz bottle? How many .5oz tubes of toothpaste do two people need for one month? Can you get Crest in England?-- Lay it all out, mix & match, delete/add. Where is my travel umbrella? Wow, I know it is summer, but doesn’t the house seem unusually hot? Why is it so hot in here?

The answer, if you haven’t already guessed, the air conditioner went out 9 days before we leave for vacation. Ok, that should be simple, just call AHS (home warranty service) and get a repairman out. 5 hours later, repairman #1 emerges from the basement saying it is way to complicated for him, it is not the air conditioner, but the blower on the furnace that is out and our system is too sophisticated for him to fix.

 So, more phone calls to AHS and search for repairman #2. However, this is Friday afternoon so the soonest we would see #2 is Monday noon. Now to give you an idea of the urgency at this point, the lowest temp. in 3 days was 95 degrees with high humidity.

Enter day 4 without air conditioning and it is the 4th week of July. #2 shows up and confidently states that he should have it fixed shortly. Three hours later he emerged from the basement saying a part needs to be ordered from the factory and shipped here. Noon, day 5, and still no word…so I call #2 company and get transferred to owner who says, “Your system is too sophisticated for us, you need a factory trained specialist to do this repair! So sorry.”

So again I call AHS and not so calm this time. GET ME A REPAIRMAN, NOW! Enter day 6 and repairman #3--my hero. However, it took until the end of day 7 for him to emerge from the basement with the air conditioner running once again. Thank God, since the heat index by that time was at 105F and I only had enough energy to sit in front of a fan and sweat. As a side note, that night I spent hours in the basement mopping up water condensation that had accumulated on the floor over the past week. Did I really need all this stress? Ah yes, character building you say--well do I have enough character now?

Let's Go On Vacation

Sunday, August 1, here we go, bags packed, car loaded and heading out for our 2010 adventure. For those of you who are not up to speed on the Shepherd’s latest “great escape”, let me fill you in…

Last fall, Tom in his usual manner started talking about going on vacation… more like, “I want to go somewhere exotic this year! I really need a vacation, not just a few days at the lake where the kids can show up and their fun starts and our peace ends.”




“Well dear, where do you propose we go?”

“Ummmm, we could go to Hawaii or how about South America?”

“Wow, love the way you think dear but that is not very practical…”

And thus starts the usual debate of Tom suggesting far away places and I countering with reasons why not. So to stop the action, I threw in the clincher… “Listen, how about you deciding where you want to go and I will go along on these conditions: figure out how to get there, how long to stay, where to stay, etc. -- Oh yeah, also pay for it up front and no credit cards!”

Well low and behold, he did it! After much planning, emails, working extra engagements and saving for the past ten months Tom put together a plan for us to go to England for the month of August--without kids!

Besides the fact that we love visiting the “Mother country”, our church denomination -- Unity -- has a center in Maidenhead. So, Tom negotiated a deal.  He will teach a series of classes/workshops in exchange for letting us stay at their flat for the month. For the most part, the workshops are on the weekends, so we'll have 3-4 days in between to play tourist.