Weekend With The Boys - Jan 22nd to Jan 25th

By: Rich

Hey! 

This is finally my first post since joining blogs with Katherine! I'm so nervous! (hehehe) It's been hard trying to sneak in a post. We were far behind on our England and Christmas posts! Katherine has been working very hard to catch-up! THANK YOU Katherine!!!

That being said; this weekend, the boys were with us from: Thursday to Sunday. We got an extra day with them because of a Ped day: YAY!!! it was wonderful!!

Unfortunately, Zach caught a small virus that gave him a bit of a rash on his bum so, baths were the order of the day on Thursday night! As you can see below, they both hate being in the bath!

Please take us out of the water, It's horrible in here!!!

On Friday morning, the boys picked-up the bath toys that they played with on Thursday night. Maya did a great job of directing the boys. They can get side-tracked very easily if not supervised properly. Great Job Maya and great job boys!

Because of the virus that Zach had, he had to take an awful smelling liquid medicine, three times a day! 

"Zach, did that taste good?" - hard to tell :-)

The picture shown above is not a fake! However it gave us a great excuse to spend most of the weekend in our p.j.'s, cuddling, watching movies and playing video games. Bummer... NOT!!

We realized on Saturday that cabin fever might be starting to set in a bit so, we decided to head outside for some badly needed fresh air. Maya took care of Lexi for us, she's doing a great job at showing Lexi how to walk properly: Jump, bite, bite, bite, jump, bark, bite, jump, slip, bark, run around!

We had a great weekend and as always, it was extremely difficult to drop the boys back off at their mother's on Sunday night but we're all excited to have them over again soon! We miss them very much!

Tower of London

...and all that jazz!

On our second evening, we caught a West End show in the theatre district.  It was also the only time that we got lost in London. So we jumped into a cab and got dropped off around the block! hehe I loved the cabs! There was one big bench in the back, and lots of leg room.

We really enjoyed the show, especially the live music. 

We spent our third day at the Tower of London. The moat used to be under this skating rink.

 

Our guide was a Yeoman Warder, also known as a Beefeater. This is his casual garb. This uniform only set him back about $3,000 CDN. Their more formal wear, which you might recognize from the popular gin, Beefeater, costs approximately 10, 000 pounds. 

The Yeomans were originally created, and still serve, as the Royal Bodyguards (starting with King Henry the VII). The man above was our guide, and I think we were a lucky enough group, to get the funniest of them all. He was very well versed, and added a lot of comic relief, and also had a booming voice! He often threatened to take us back to the beginning of the tour, if we were unable to answer his questions. 

He informed us that it was very difficult to obtain a position like his. In order to even be eligible, you had to have served somewhere along the lines of about 22 years in the military. So in other words, he wasn't just any ol' tour guide. There are lots of applicants, and only a few are selected for interviews, and even less are hired. They live on the grounds, and probably make lots of money.

Traitor's Gate

I loved hearing all the tales about King Henry VII, Anne Boleyn etc...It was amazing to see all the stories come together after all the years of hearing and learning about it in school. Although there are no pics shown (not allowed), the church was by far my favorite part of the whole tour. There were beautiful tombs, rich history, and very unsettling stories about that place! At one point, they uncovered hundreds of unidentified bodies buried under the floor! They were later given proper burials.

It was once believed that if all the crows left the Tower, that would be the fall of the monarchy...The crows still reside there, and there are even a few reserved in a cage! hehe

 

Inside the Bloody Tower. Pretty clean actually.

Beyond these doors were the famous Crown Jewels. No pics beyond this point. 

Needless to say, the Jewels were incredible! 

You get on a moving sidewalk, and it takes you on a slow ride around the enclosed jewels.

I went around about three times! :) They were dazzling!

Inside the armory. My least favorite part of the trip. A favorite if you're into guns. Upstairs were the royal quarters, where they resided. Nothing in there now, except tour guides and a few fireplaces.

It was fun to see the suits of armor, and how small the people were back then. 

After lots of walking and piggy backing Rich, we decided to call it a day and headed to Wetherspoons Pub. It's like the McDonalds of Pubs. They are very popular and are everywhere. They are usually located in very old buildings (I guess that goes w/out saying!) such as an post office. They totally renovate them, and turn them into very nice eating establishments. 

Ummm, I should say....drinking, and quiz machine establishments. ;)

Check out the bathroom! This is just the sitting area.

Interestingly enough, they give out awards for cleanest and nicest bathrooms! This one was located in the Tower of London.

After our day at the Tower, we went back to the hotel, and I took a much needed snooze. We both decided to head out to a restaurant near the hotel. We weren't really in the mood for pub food, and we just happened to stumble on a very reasonably priced Mediterranean restaurant called Tas. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed eating there, and the service was impressive. The food was exploding with flavor, and the presentation was very colorful. There was live music, and the ambience was very fresh and clean. 

It's been awhile since I've been at restaurant that has knocked me off my feet like that!

You must visit the website... 

www.tasrestaurant.com

When we got back to the Hotel, I caught up on some emails while watching some tv. Then we both got incredibly freaked out by a movie called The Descent! It's about a caving adventure gone horribly wrong. It started out seeming kinda cheesy but then freaked the living poop out of us! We weren't expecting that! At one point, I ran to the bed screaming and buried myself under a pillow! 

A must see if you need a good thrill! 

www.thedescentfilm.com

More England stories to come!

 

London Day 2

We got up bright and early to take advantage of the free breakfast that is offered at the hotel, which was delish. We wanted to make it to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards which at the moment, is held every second day. We hopped on the Tube and walked over to the palace for a good spot to stand. Apparently lots of other people had the same idea.

We managed to get a decent spot at the fence behind a gigantic guy.

By the time it started, there were hundreds of people gathered around. I have to say that it was like standing around in a slightly controlled mob of people. A large amount of tourists were behaving like monkeys and climbing on the fence to get a better view, which was very irritating for the rest of us. The police would yell at them to get down but then it was always something else. So needless to say we didn't get to see much, and we left there grumbling about how rude people were.

On a lighter note, the Queen was there because the flag was waving high above the palace. 

 

That's me wayyyy back in the picture. That would be the Canada Gate.

Sniffling Officer

View from where we were standing. This was pretty much the extent of it. There was also a marching band.

The guards that are in front of the palace are not just ceremonial guards but are also active in the service. They are known to be among the most skilled and elite in the British Army.

Different Regiments trotted by, which was by far my favorite part. 

I'm not 100% sure but I think the soldiers featured in this picture are the Blues & Royals.

Among some of the others that can be seen are, The Grenadiers, Welsh, Irish, Scots, Coldstream, and Lifeguards. Some of their uniforms are so similar, making them difficult to discern. Its sometimes easiest to tell by the amount of buttons on their jackets.

Statue in front of the palace

Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to walk to the London Eye, through St-James Park. It was a really nice place with tons of gigantic birds.

We walked to Trafalgar Square, which is in central London. We didn't explore much here but it was a really cute place. The famous statue pictured above, is Nelson's Column.

We asked an officer for directions to the Eye, when we realized that it was probably still quite a ways away. He directed us nowhere but we ended up finding an Underground and found our way. 

Mind the Gap is a popular warning here. I think the locals got pretty sick of hearing it, so we only heard it a couple of times. It was replaced by a series of beeps.

The Underground is a very old place. Its one of the oldest and one of the busiest railways. Its amazing how old everything is here. Canada is such a new place! There are so many lines that criss cross each other, and they have at times, crashed into each other. Kidding! Just checking to see who's really reading.

One station that needs a little updating. They weren't all like this, there has been lots of renovations in others (zombie not shown)

How awesome was the Eye?!? Its definitely a symbol of modern London. Its an impressive wheel equipped with "capsules" which takes you on a slow, panoramic tour of London. 

We were so happy that we decided to go on such a perfectly clear day! 

Each capsule holds about 20 people

Unfortunately the sun was pretty strong on this side, which made it hard to get a decent pic of Big Ben

Rides over :-(

Pretty view from below

London Day 1

We hopped on a train and headed to London for 4 days.

We stayed at the London Bridge Hotel which was really nice.

We got around mostly on foot, and took the Underground several times, which was a little overwhelming at first but was surprisingly easy to navigate.

Nick booked our hotel in a perfect place. It was close to everything that we had wanted to see while there. Since we were so close to the Tower Bridge, we decided to take a nice walk along the "Queens Walk" (walkway along the Thames) to get there. What an impressive and beautiful bridge.

Our walk was well worth it. The view was fabulous! What a great way to start our London visit.

We went down into the depths of the bridge to see the mechanics. We couldn't get over what they were capable of back then.

Since we got there later in the afternoon, we decided to take a trek through the student district to look for some grub and head back to the hotel.

We found a cute pub and ate a gigantic curry dinner.

We headed back to our room to get some rest and to plan the next day. 

London Calling

Right after Christmas we were wisked away to England to visit with Rich's Mom and her husband Nick. In a nutshell...It was AWESOME! It was supposed to be a surprise for the ladies but we had to find a place for Lexi and Maya to stay so I was filled in early. The puppies stayed with my parents, who were more than happy (at first) to have them there. They certainly enjoyed their youthfulness but I think they were happy to hand them back over when we got back! hehe They were in very good hands the whole time!

The only person that was kept in the dark was Richard's Mom, Sue. She was told the day that we were arriving while at a soccer match. :) She was soo happy! What an awesome surprise. Hats off to Nick, I don't know how he ever kept that a secret for so long!

We flew Air Canada and had a great flight there and back. We flew direct which made it all very easy and convenient.

Caught a little off guard. Our flight attendent brought us some first class packages filled with lip balm, hand creams, eye masks, and ear plugs...This made for a very comfortable sleep on the way there. :) I even got some slippers hehe

We stayed in Stoke On Trent while in England. Its a really charming town with amazing footpaths to walk along. Many people had their dogs off leash, which made me really miss Angel Woods. Their dogs never left their side, unlike the dogs in Canada who will happily knock you over while saying hi.

The pic is fairly representative of the view from one of the footpaths but mostly of the weather! They weren't kidding when they say that England is foggy and damp. It always felt as if I was in a scene from a zombie movie!

The landscape in England was very pretty. It was still pretty green and had lots of hills that were dotted with sheep.

There was some frost but it never stayed for long. It snowed a little but didn't stay for too long either. I could definitely get used to that! We even got to see some delicate looking flowers that were in bloom!

It was a little weird to see the driver on the right side but it became familiar pretty quick. I liked the way that there were almost no street lights or stop signs anywhere. I had some trouble for the first time in a long time, I got car sick almost every time I was in the car for longer than 15 min :(

I think it was because of the winding roads and all the up and downs and roundabouts! It was constant movement...The most confusing part of the roads was crossing the street. Sometimes there weren't crosswalks and other times you didn't know which way to look. Thankfully in London it tells you which way to look :)

Things were a lot of smaller too. Washer and dryers were half the size of the ones here, and the fridges were tiny too.

Our second day there, we went on a little adventure to a giant store called Tesco. It's a supersize grocery store with housewares, electronics, clothing etc...

The above pic is apparently an ingredient in a popular snack. Cheese and pickle sandwhich anyone?

Why not roast some potatoes in some goose fat? It was actually pretty delish.

Back bacon is the typical bacon that is served here. The long strips that we have in Canada is called stringy bacon. 

Correction: Streaky Bacon

They also had some really interesting drinks. I drank J2O juice the whole time, which was pretty yummy. My soda of choice, Ginger Ale, is usually only used as a mixer. So it was with the alcohol and the bottle was much smaller than usual.

Would a trip to England be complete without stopping for Fish 'n Chips? After pulling Rich out of Tesco kicking and screaming, we stopped by the restaurant at the top of the street.

(please note the vast amounts of board games behind me)

Common, it's just food!

Chips covered in curry sauce! SO GOOD! Curry is among one of the most popular dishes, right up my alley (Hey, I just called it chips without realizing it! I've been assimilated)

Fishie!

Sue and Nick are huge boards gamers. They also own a cute shop across from a Jamaican restaurant that is grammatically challenged.

Hamster Wheel is one of the fun games that we played. You have to try to get rid of your oddly shaped pieces, without knocking all the pieces out of the wheel.

Check out the top of the wheel!

...and the winner is!

Stay tuned for more!