Here are a few worthy people. And here are some more.
I have a hard time understanding how Obama won. His nomination was submitted after he was in office only 12 days.
Oh, and in 2007, when Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize, this woman did not. This sickens me.
Merry and Aragorn bought a used Ford Focus last week. It needed some work but Aragorn negotiated a lower price and then had the repairs done. Clankeeper is very happy to have his van back so he doesn't have to drive the behemoth 15 passenger van to work anymore!
As this 1961 audio clip shows, the Gipper was more on-the-ball than any politician since and lightyears better than any we have now!
I sure do miss having him as president! I don't foresee another one like him in my lifetime. So sad :(
Apparently, they were able to keep socialized medicine from passing back in 1961, but they're still trying to push it through. Let's hope that we can keep it from happening again!
Please keep the European travelers in your prayers. They are leaving London at 6pm London time (which is 1 PM Eastern/ 10 AM Pacific) and will arrive home almost 10 hours later. It will certainly take them some time to adjust. Please pray for their safety.
Hello everyone,
This will be my last update from Europe. Sad yes, but we are all ready to go home. :)
Yesterday we went to tour inside Westminster Abbey. We saw the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Handel. There were also many memorials including one for Shakespeare. Yes, dad did go over and stand on Darwin's grave too. Haha.
One more cool fact is that they have Britain's oldest door there too. That was neat too see.
We also walked around on. The HMS Bellfast. The boys really enjoyed this one.
Our next stop was the British Library. To be honest, this was the place I was waiting to visit during the whole trip. We saw the Magna Carta, works by Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. Alice In Wonderland, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Arnstein Bible, and Codex Sinaiticus.
I took my time looking at what I came for. Music written in some great composer's own hand. The Messiah by Handel and pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and Hayden.
They also had some pages from Da Vinci's notebook. It was amazing!!
Sadly, we had to miss out on the Gutenberg Bible because of the way the trains worked out. We had to leave right away to catch our train to get to the movie theatre on time to see Star Trek. Sigh. Oh well.
Today:
We were extremely lazy today. We slept in really late and then headed out to Greenwich to see the prime meridian. It was lots of fun to stand in two time zones at the same time, jump back and forth between the two AND stand on the line in between time. Haha. To much fun.
Sidenote: About the Gutenberg Bible...just kidding! We would never skip out on that just for a movie. Not even Star Trek. We saw it and it was amazing! (Did we give you a heart attack?)
Ok, so after the prime meridian us girls headed back to the hotel while the boys went to the Army Museum. Everyone had a good time doing their separate activities.
We are now mostly all packed up and waiting to watch Chuck in an hour.
Hopefully we will have a good trip back home and we cannot wait until we get there.
Sending lots of love,
Ladybug
Hello everyone,
It looks like I am the only one sending back updates. Mitchell does not want
to, dad probably thinks the same, Doodle not sure why and MerryK is just too
tired of it. I am getting a little tired of it too, but I can type it over
the whole day so it is not that bad. One good thing about having a phone
that can send emails.
Anyways, I will give you a quick summary of our day and then get on to some
funny random facts from the trip.
We went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. It started
to rain, everyone put up their umbrellas and we couldn't see a thing. We
decided to ditch that and go on a double decker bus tour. It rained there
too and we got soaked up on top of the bus. At the St. Paul's stop we saw
the church and then headed back to the hotel. In the evening we watched the
show Wicked and it was fabulous!!!!! Perfect seats, awesome show and....wow.
Odd facts that we have discovered over the last few weeks:
Europe is famous for stairs. They are everywhere and we have probably walked
up and down a million or so. Not kidding about the number.
Us girls have had a contagious hiccup problem between the three of us. One
person will have them and then a day later someone else gets them. Somehow
the boys are immune to this odd infection. I have had them at least five
times, but I believe Doodle was the last to have them. Who is next?!
Doodle has another weird quirk that MerryK noticed. Each morning after
breakfast when we are about ready to go she burps. MerryK will often respond
with a simple, "Well, good morning to you too." Yet, today we were joking
about someone should burp her before we leave. We are weird as a whole I
guess.
I haven't heard much complaint on this from other people, but I am
personally ready for the money belt to die. Doodle agrees. Whenever I can
take it off it goes flying down on top of my bag. I am waiting anxiously to
remove it when we get back home. Maybe even burn it.
Dad mentioned that we are having too much fun with the "theatre" side of
London. We have seen Harry Potter and Wicked. We will be seeing The
Mousetrap play by Agatha Christie tomorrow. But wait...there's more. All of
us are also going to try and see Star Trek again on Monday. Yes, we do love
the theatre...both kinds.
Tah tah.
Ladybug
Hello all!
We left Paris around 1pm and took a 2.5 hour train to London. As soon as we
started out to find our hotel we got lost. Yep, we were not even a minute
out and we were lost. Luckily we found our hotel, though, and we all have
our own beds! Since we had nothing planned we decided to go down to
Leicester Square to see Harry Potter.
The underground (the tube) was packed. Imagine the greater Seattle area
stuck in the tube. That is what it felt like. Never have I been in such a
place so packed. Yuck!
We arrived safely to the square and it took us a few trips back and forth on
a street to find the cinema. Sigh. We had to ask where it was, but we found
it in the end! This was the first time that I have ever watched a movie in a
huge theatre that looks like a Broadway theatre. It was enormous! You will
see when I post the pictures when we get back home. No way to post pictures
now. :(
Harry Potter was amazing!! I think that was the best one so far. What was
even cooler was the fact that we arrived in St. Pancras station which is
connected to King's Cross station. Yep, we saw platform 9 3/4 the same day
we saw the new movie. They have a little sign setup between the platforms.
Pretty neat.
At the hotel all us girls were happy to have a TV with English speaking
people and some American shows.
23rd:
We went to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. Those were beautiful
and all the fancy tableware was made of gold. Wow, there were some big
jewels there on those crowns.
At one point they had this interactive portion where some people in costume
showed us how a small trebuchet and a ballista (shot arrows at 2000 pound
force) worked. That was really cool. The trebuchet threw some pretty awesome
water balloons. Haha
Next we headed over to Starbucks and Subway for lunch. Yes, we wanted a
taste of home. I am now feeling a little homesick. Mostly I just want my own
bed!
In the afternoon we took a river cruise down the Thames river and ended up
down by Parliament, Big Ben, London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We looked
around for a while and then went to the Aquarium for something a little
different than a museum. :) We also took a ride on the London Eye. Way cool!
Something that we were not planning on doing here in London was going to a
Broadway show. Last night we saw Harry Potter and on Saturday we will see
The Mousetrap play. Yet, we saw that the show Wicked was here and got
tickets to see it tomorrow night. After discussing it we decided to splurge
and get really good seats. We will be up on the balcony about six rows back.
Sweet! All of us are really excited and can't wait.
This evening we have been having fun watching some Star Trek: Next
Generation, Rush Hour, and bizarre British shows. We also found out that
surfing the channels can be dangerous. You really never know what you will
find. Yuck and a little disturbing. : (
Cheers,
Ladybug
Hello everyone,
Today was an extremely lazy one. We were given the privilege to sleep in.
Most of us got up around 10am and the rest closer to 11am (Cough....can you
guess who was last? Yep, Doodle).
Dad had to go get more food supplies for breakfast when everyone finally got
up. He brought back some nice yummy cereal. :)
It wasn't until around 1:30pm when we all went out to the post office and
the grocery store for lunch. We have saved a lot of money by eating at the
apartment. Tons of money!
It is now 6:30pm and we are sitting on top of the Arc de Triomphe. We never
left our place until 5pm. Like I said: a lazy day!
We will be having dinner soon and then attempt to head on up to the Eiffel
Tower when it gets dark.
11:51pm
Paris is absolutely gorgeous in the evening! The Eiffel Tower was all lit up
and even had some white lights that made it sparkle. Beautiful!
Unfortunately, the line was still huge so we decided not to go up to the
top. Everyone except MerryK was disappointed. :( she was not feeling up to
it today. Mitchell was very upset and says he will come back again just to
go up to the top.
Tomorrow we are heading off to London and will hopefully see the new Harry
Potter movie if time permits.
Hugs to all!
Ladybug
Hey All,
Today we got up really early at 6am to be able leave at 7am to catch the
metro by 8am and hop on our train at 9am. Of course we got to the train
station at 7:30am and had to wait around until 8:45am. Sigh. Dad always
likes to have LOTS of spare time.
We had lots of fun during the tour of Normandy Beach. We saw the Pointe du
Hoc Monument and bunkers, Omaha Beach, US cemetery, and a little fishing
town near there. All of us also touched water from the Atlantic Ocean. So we
have now touched the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Sweet!
I wish I could say that my knee is doing better today, but alas no. It was
fine this morning, but NOT now. It is stiff, a little swollen and somewhat
sore. That fact that there are stairs everywhere (monuments, museums, train
station, metro station, and of course the apartment) does not help. We are
taking it easy tomorrow so that should be nice. :)
We will attempt to go up on top the Arc de Triomphe and then go on a short
night walk near the Eiffel Tower. Then we will see how long the line FOR THE
ELEVATOR is to go up. We really want to see Paris at night with all the
lights. We shall see.
A funny fact: we spend our first half of the day busily touring the cities
and then come back to the hotel or apartment and fight over who gets to read
what book next. Haha. MerryK and Dad were both wanting to read my book that
I just finished ( Angels and Demons) and Mitchell and I were fighting over
who got to read Doodle's book when she was done ( Ender's Game). Ah, too
much fun. FYI: Dad and Mitchell won the first round. Boys: 1, Girls: 0
Tah tah.
Ladybug
Hello all,
Today we ventured off to the Eiffel Tower to look out at Paris. When we got
there we saw an enormous line that was not moving and only a few elevators
going up and down. The top was also temporarily closed. Sigh. Not what we
wanted to see.
We decided to bite the bullet and walk up to the 1st and 2nd levels since
there was practically no line for those. We walked up 650 (approx) stairs.
Way too many for me because we had to walk back down too. So it ended up
being around 1300. Yuck.
Some of you know this already, but I have a bad knee from an injury several
years back. Man, did it come back to haunt me. My knee is killing me now.
MerryK's knee is acting up too. I will most definitely be taking some Advil
tonight to help with the aching pain.
While we were getting hot dogs for lunch, we saw one of the street vendors
get arrested for apparently not having a license. Whenever you see a cop
walking around those vendors run and hide. After a minute or two they come
back out with their rings of Eiffel Tower key chains and little gadgets.
Today dad got hit in the head with one of their flying bird toys. That was
pretty funny. Dad got a kick out of it, too.
In the afternoon we headed over to the Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb. It
was okay. Dad and Mitchell seemed to have the most fun. Towards the end, us
girls were walking fast through the exhibits to find a seat. We would then
sit down and read our books until dad and Mitchell caught up. :)
The last thing we did museum wise was the Rodin Museum. We just popped in to
see the Thinker statue and also The Kiss statue and then left. The nice
thing is that we have Paris museum passes. With these we paid a one time fee
and now we get in to almost all the major sights for free AND we get to skip
the lines. So just going in the Rodin Museum for two things was no problem.
Yay!
Now we are back at the apartment reading our books, emailing, or checking
the blogs that we follow (MerryK).
Tomorrow is Normandy Beach. Sweet!
TTFN! Tah tah for now!
Ladybug
______________________________________
Mitchell lay dead on the floor, with what looked like a stab wound in his
chest. We have a motive, we have a weapon, but can we be sure? Ahem, so
maybe Ladybug's murder mystery that she's reading affected us all a little
too much... ( Mitchell's fine, see later for the explanation of the joke)
Today we finally made it to the Eiffel Tower. Not the highlight of our trip,
given that the top level was closed, and we decided to skip the 3 hour lines
and walk up the 650 steps to the next-to-top level. *wheeze wheeze* Ladybug
and I both have iffy knees, and they were trembling by the time we got down.
That being said, it's an amazing structure and the view was worth it. Though
the elevator mechanism sounds exactly like the TARDIS powering up, which was
rather disconcerting.
We then went to Napoleon's tomb, and after that, the Army Museum nearby.
That was a bit of a boy's museum. ;) Though, I did purchase a very cool
pistol replica, and Doodle got a dagger letter opener. While walking out,
though, we commented on how our weapons couldn't go in our carry-on baggage
at the airport, and someone made a joking comment about having weapons and
"knowing who to blame if we find Mitchell dead. Doodle, in the apartment,
with the letter opener." This joke makes more sense if you know that those
two have been getting on each others' nerves, but especially the last few
days. It's fun to laugh it off in good humor, though.
After that, we made a quick stop at the Rodin Museum to see "The Thinker"
and "The Kiss", but then skipped the rest. By this time, we've figured out
that all European museums and famous buildings have 1 exit and 1 entrance.
To get to that 1 exit, the only way is by walking through every single room
and corridor in the maze they've set up to make security details easy.
Sadly, there are never any maps of how far you've gone, so you never have a
clue when you'll find the end and the exit, especially since there are
dozens of exit signs along the way. We went into the Louvre, for example,
wanting to see two things...we ended up having to go through two whole
floors to reach the exit after we saw what we wanted. Not because we got
lost, but because there was only 1 exit and no shortcuts, and all we could
do was follow the exit signs through room after room. We will certainly
enjoy getting back to America and "You are here" type building maps when
this trip is done.
Now we are back at our apartment, reading before it's dinner time.
MerryK
Hello everyone,
Sorry I have been out of touch. We only have Merry K's IPOD to write emails, but I just remembered that I have my phone, too. I can write a lot faster on my phone. More practice I guess. ;)
Anyways, yesterday we all headed out to the Arc de Triomphe and waited in line for an hour. We finally realized that it was closed that day due to a celebration. Sigh. Oh, well we at least got to see the outside.
Next we headed on down to the Louvre. Wow, what a huge building!! At least four floors of great things to look at. Of course we only ended up looking at two floors, but still walked about 3 1/2 miles in the building. We decided to see two things: the Egyptian exhibits and the Mona Lisa. It took us at least three hours to see just that. :) Yes, we only spent three hours at the Louvre, looked at two floors and then left. I know some of you would spend days in there, but not me.
On the way back to the metro I decided to play Marilyn Monroe on the sidewalk. Actually I was minding my own business and just happened to walk over a pretty strong gust of wind coming from the vent on the ground. Up went my skirt...oh dear. At least I was wearing a pair of shorts underneath and was still decent. All of us girls were laughing quite hard after this. Yet, the boys missed the whole thing. Not that I am complaining. Haha
Today we took a day trip to Versailles to see a beautiful palace. The weather here has been wonderful. It reminds me of home. :) Today was cool and a little windy. We enjoyed looking in all the colorful rooms and walking along the green gardens. We had lunch that we had packed in the gardens while listening to some classical music being played on some speakers for all to enjoy.
Later for dinner we went to the Hard Rock Cafe. This is number three on our list. The first HRC was in Rome, second in Venice, third just now in Paris and the fourth will be in London.
One thing that has been annoying here are all the posters for the new Harry Potter movie. They are everywhere, especially in the subway. We have to wait till next week to see it. Only a week away!
My fingers are getting tired from typing this all on a Blackberry, so goodnight all!
Ladybug
________________________
Today we took the train up to Versailles and spent a few hours there. You can definitely tell what kind of group we are when we're all sitting on the train with our nose in a fat book. The palace itself was certainly lovely, especially the Hall of Mirrors, but it was Marie Antoinette's chateau that made the biggest impression. Unlike the palace, it was light and big without being overwhelming, and the pink and green marble and white stone was much nicer than the dark fold and heavy fabrics of Versailles. The gardens were huge but not noteworthy.
That was all we did today. As the trip goes on, we're taking our days more and more easily.
It's quite a challenge to cook in this apartment. We did finally find a grocery store with food other than rice and beans and milk and canned veggies, but our supplies are a bit limited. No sugar or honey for the tea, but teacups, and I had to use the bottom of one to crush the egg salad. We also can't have pancakes because none of us can figure out what "baking soda" is in French. Oh, the things they don't mention in guidebooks.
For a couple days now, there have been an extraordinary amount of street musicians...but in the subways. They are surprisingly talented, though, even if it's not the most fun for one's ears when they're performing in your subway car. We've also noticed that almost all the beggars here are handicapped, instead of just poor. We'll definitely enjoy being able to walk down most streets unsolicited when we get home.
(Oh, and last note: we did end up watching Twilight in French on TV. It's at least a little less cheesy when dubbed, but we were laughing at it anyway, for some of the intonation of the dubbing, but mostly the translation. Edward calling Bella "parfait" was cute enough, but at one point it sounded like he called her his "croissant" and we were chortling madly over that.)
Love to all,
Merry K
Life in Paris is pretty good. Despite the thunderstorm last night, which
counteracted the nice quiet homemade dinner at our apartment. We had
breakfast here this morning, and may learn more French from early morning
cartoons than the actual French populace. After that, we went and waited
outside the Arc di Triomphe, only to be told 45 minutes later that it was
closed for holiday. So instead we went down the Rue de Champs Elysses, which
was almost like an outdoor mall.
The other big thing today was the Louvre, but I don't have actual gushing
over it. ;) I'm not an art person, so even seeing Mona Lisa and Venus de
Milo and Victoire de Samothrace didn't have me in awe. The Egyptian exhibit
had some remarkable things, and I got shivers looking at the Code of
Hammurabi, but I enjoyed the outside gardens most.
We bought more groceries in the afternoon, and Ladybug was Marilyn Monroed
by a street vent, which was rather funny. Tonight we're going to make a nice
homemade dinner (baked fish and grilled vegetables) and hopefully watch
Twilight in French. The weather has been exactly like weather at home:
partly cloudy and windy. Not bad, though I kind of wanted to escape home on
my vacation. ;)
Love to all,
Merry K
________________________________
Hey y'all
Well, it is our second full day in Paris. Yesterday, we had to figure out
the metro system, but today we mastered it. Mostly. <_< >_> (shifty look).
And trying to figure out how to use the washing machine here...what fun. Arc
di Troimphe was a hoot. We wait in line for an hour just to find out it was
closed for a celebration. Hehe. From someone who had translated what another
guy said. See what I mean by "a hoot". The Louvre was another story. We
spent 3 hours in there most of the time looking for the exit. Though I could
have spent all of today there and most of the trip for that matter, if it
wasn't for my feet hurting. We also lost Mitchell there. Or rather he lost
us. ^_^. And Ladybug, so inspired by the French, decided to have a Marilyn
Monroe moment. Well, that is all for now.
Hugs to all,
Doodle
While I don't agree with everything in this video, he definitely has some good ideas and I thought that it was good enough to pass on to others. H/T to Ace of Spades HQ.
If you give a man time to post to his blog, you never know what you're going to get ;)
I saw this funny video on Ace of Spades HQ. Preview of things to come via Obamacare?
