Gone Sailing

So, on my Summer 2012 hit-list was seeing the white cliffs of Dover, which was on it because I thought we were going there. We weren't. However, we did see some white chalk cliffs, which means I checked the box with pride.

And here they are. 

This is on the eastern coast of the Isle of Wight (I think). I can't remember the name of the beach, unfortunately. It was such a blessing to have island native Sam choose the activities and drive us around everywhere, but it meant that I can't remember the names of all the places we went. I think the positives way outweigh the negatives on this one.

Here is beautiful Jen manning our little sand patch. The fabric thing on sticks behind her is called a wind break. I couldn't figure out what it was for, and then she said, "This is what the English are usually huddled behind in horrible weather on the beach so we don't get sand in our sandwiches." I think it's also meant to provide shade, but we had the sun directly overhead for most of our time there. We Americans have umbrellas for the sun, and we don't stick around for wind storms on the beach.

And now for the main event... sailing! Nathan was so, so excited about sailing with Sam. He read two books about sailing before we left for our trip, and he talked about it multiple times a day. Sam is a great sailor and a great teacher, and they had a lot of fun. 

Here's my sailor and his knotted rope.

Sam's parents are expert sailors who race and enjoy their boat several times a week, and they very generously let us use their Wayfarer a couple times.

Off they go! When they got back, he was boasting about his tacking and jiving (which is actually supposed to be jibing) and how he used the toe strap and hung out the side of the boat to balance it. He's pretty much Ben Ainslie now, who is the most bad#$% sailor ever. I loved watching him in the Olympics. 

Basically, two guys teamed up on him and said he hit a buoy, which meant he had to take a penalty turn and lose the lead. However, he had the last word when he won the gold medal in the Finn class a few days later. He's won medals (one silver and four golds) at each of the last five Olympics. Nathan accused me of having a crush on Ben Ainslie, and I didn't deny it. Whatever. He has a huge crush on Christy Brinkley that I don't bug him about. 

The boys talked me and Jen into sailing around the harbor a little. I was so, so, so nervous. The water was cold. I left my insulin pump with Nathan because I didn't want it to short and break if I went overboard. That would have been... *shudder* disastrous. A funny little difference in vocabulary: life jackets are called buoyancy aids.

I can now say that I had fun, but I won't be doing it again. 

Coming back to safety!

After our sailing adventures, we enjoyed the best burgers in all of England from the sailing clubhouse. What a gorgeous night!

Next up, we visit Queen Victoria's summer house. Coolness!

Night on the Isle of Wight

After our time in London, Windsor, and Eton, Nathan and I traveled down to Southampton, where we caught our ferry to the Isle of Wight. Our friends, Sam and Jen, were already there visiting Sam's parents.

Our ferry

The beautiful solent

Captain Creeper totally photo bombed our picture.

When we arrived we had comfort food - lasagna! The weather was just gorgeous, we were welcomed by our dear friends, and we ate like royalty. Life doesn't get much better.

After dinner we went for a walk around Sam's old stomping grounds, including the school field where he broke the island record for most jumps over a line in one minute... only to be beaten by his little brother about an hour later.

Tomorrow there is more fun to be had. Let the beaching begin!

Windsor and Eton

There are a lot of red coats in this post. This is because tourists cannot take pictures inside any buildings at Windsor Castle or St. George's Chapel and the only thing left to take pictures of - besides the outside of the buildings - is soldiers. I must say that everything was gorgeous inside and that it's worth the money to pay a visit to the Queen's weekend getaway. 

The only reason Windsor Castle is open to the public is because it caught on fire. That's right. In 1992, large parts of the property were burned. Because it wasn't insured (doh!), there was a big debate in the country as to who should pay for the restoration. Technically, the government paid for its upkeep, but the press wanted the Queen to pay for the damages out of her own income. It turns out she couldn't afford to fix it, so she opened most of the property to the public, and the ticket sales paid for it. Good thinking. 

We got there right when it opened, along with 2,347,884,057q98479adfug7 Chinese middle schoolers.

A free audio tour came with our entrance fees, and we learned a lot from it!

The castle keep and surrounding gardens

We were so blessed to have gorgeous weather.

One of the features was a room with 60 photos of the Queen over the years to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee, 60 years on the throne. The pictures above and below were my favorite.

I can imagine her having said something like, "Straighten up, you dummy!" Oh wait, that would have been Nathan's grandpa, nick-named Grumpa.

Soldiers marching toward the changing of the guard

A Yankee Doodle-like tune... but not.

A very nice man offered to take our picture, but he cut off our feet.

This reminds me of this (it's toward the bottom of the post).

He's looking at me. That's not allowed.

This is in Eton, where all the poshest of posh boys go to school. It's a paradox, Eton. And that's all I'll say about it for now. 

Eton College. Check out some famous alumni, including Princes William and Harry, on the Wikipedia page here.

I thought the man spitting into the pipe looked quite modern.

The chapel is covered by this massive tree. Sorry.

This is the bridge between Eton and Windsor. So beautiful!

Next stop... the Isle of Wight to meet up with Sam and Jen!

Westminster, Evening and Morning

After my really hot tour of the Olympic sites and Nathan's book store extravaganza, we met up in Westminster and joined our new friends, Danny and Jocelyn. Jocelyn is the sister of a friend from church, Alyssa. The newlyweds very kindly fed us and let us sleep at their place, which was about a two minute walk from Big Ben. They were so, so kind, and they reminded us both of our dear friends Luke and Laura, both in looks and in mannerisms. 

We went on a pre-dinner walk around Westminster.

My love's silhouette

I love the light shining through the windows of Parliament.

That night, Nathan told me that he was going to go for a run in the morning, just so he could say he went for a run in Westminster. I told him to have fun. However, at 5:45 I awoke to Nathan whispering to me, "I can do hard things!" So, I went. I am neither a runner nor a morning person, so this was a big deal.

Holla! It's before 06:00 and I'm exercising!

This is what it looks like with no traffic.

He is so, so proud of this shot.

I whip my hair back and forth.

Big Ben says that 06:20 is a great time to stop and take a picture. We look tired. And hot.

Next stop - Windsor Castle and Eton!

My Olympic Tour

It was the first day of our vacation, and I was PUMPED. I planned to go on a tour of the Olympic sites with a friend from Bakersfield, Shannon. Nathan wanted to go to a used book store. Geneva Books is actually 30,000 volumes of theology and church history in the charmingly eccentric Colonel Underwood's house. We  took off from Durham at eight in the morning with the vision to part ways for the afternoon. My tour was at 2:15. Surely it wouldn't take more than six hours to get to London, right? Wrong.

Driving in London is so stressful. We flew down to the outskirts of the city in about four hours, and then we sat in traffic for more than two. The heat was stifling, and we don't have air conditioning in our car. We weren't moving. We kept seeing signs for congestion charges. We heard that you can be charged for bringing a car into high congestion areas. You don't pay a toll, but they do send you a bill to your house. We heard it was about ten pounds a day, which we were fine with paying. 

Spoiler alert: It's actually 60 pounds a day, and we had the car there overnight, which means we were charged 120 pounds. Oh, and Nathan got a parking ticket in Westminster, which was another 40. Moral of the story: Do not drive in London. Just don't.

Back to the story... I was stressing out that I was going to miss my tour! Finally, I jumped out of the car at a red light, found a Tube station, and arrived at the appropriate stop (West Ham) in East London about fifteen minutes late. The good news was that I was able to catch up with the group because Shannon was keeping an eye on them for me. 

The bad news is that she couldn't stay. We said hello, got this picture, hugged a big hug, and then we said goodbye.

This was our guide. I was the hottest I've ever been since moving to England. Like... sweating. Bad. This guy's shirt was completely soaked by the end of the tour, but he insisted on wearing the blazer and everything. He needed his pockets, you see. You can see the ring of sweat about down to his second button in this picture, taken about 30 minutes into the tour. By the end, the sweat ring was down to his belly button.

As he was talking about the area, loads of port-a-pottys were being brought in for the Olympics. I think they're called port-a-loos here. They all had zip ties on the doors, so we couldn't use them. The first hour of the tour was a little disappointing. We just traipsed around back roads and looked at sewage pipes and things. All of the good stuff was blocked off for security reasons, so it probably would have been better to do the tour of the Olympic sites several months ago. However, it got better the second hour...

Here we are at the Prime Meridian. Greenwich Mean Time can be seen here if you just stand in the center, like a sun dial.

The Olympic Village! Actually, this is outside the Olympic Village. On the other side of the pink thing, there were athletes singing "We Are the Champions" with a live band.

In the background are the apartment buildings where the athletes and coaches and officials are staying, all 17,000 of them. Can you see the flags of the people who have moved in already? In the foreground are lots and lots and lots and lots of security tents.

This is a better view from the steps of a new mall.

Woohoo!

This is John Lewis, the anchor store at this brand new mall. It. is. fabulous. On the top floor is an official Olympics store. We ended the tour there, and I got treats for my contest winners, my dad and Melissa R.

This is the view from the third floor of the department store. See what I mean about the security tents?

And here's a portrait of the queen made out of jelly beans. I told you it was a cool department store.

From the department store I had to take the train/Tube back to Westminster, where we were staying the night. It was so crowded. I'm realizing more and more that I'm just not a city mouse. It was an electric atmosphere. Everyone was excited to be there, which was really cool. However, it felt like all the tourists were lost and taking pictures every five steps. Everyone moved very slowly, and no one spoke English.

This was taken two days before the Olympics even started. I can't imagine how crowded it must be right now.

Here's the view from my first train. Cool, huh?

Because I joined the tour after everyone had paid, I didn't even think about forking over my nine pounds for the two-hour tour until we were in John Lewis, at which time I lost our guide in a sea of people. I am officially a criminal. But after what London did to us in parking tickets and congestion charges, I don't really feel that bad. 

There is so, so much more to come on our holiday down South. My computer is being a little frustrating right now, but I promise I'll keep working on things until it's all been documented. Stay tuned!