Home
We're home. We've got about 1500 stills and several hours of video to go through. We even managed to get a few seconds of video of the ceiling of St. Paul's Cathedral just for Lifewish before the security guy started towards us.
It ain't much, and I did what I could to pretend I was just rooting around in the camcorder bag, but I don't think he was buying it. He just stuck really close to us for the rest of our time in there, so I couldn't sneak any more shots. Kate tried a little flirtation distraction, but apparently he was highly skilled at resisting the temptations of the flesh. It's hard to point a camcorder while it's still in the bag and a security guard is five or ten yards away. We were in the whispering gallery at the time, so we couldn't really do much planning, either. Sorry, best we could do, we ain't James Bonds you know. It really is beautiful in there.
There were a ton of security guys and priests or whatever in Westminster Abbey, so we couldn't manage anything at all in there. They don't even have postcards or anything with pictures of the graves or the effigies or the archetecture that you can buy! Respect for the dead is one thing, but that's silly. It's not like there was a service going on or anything. Are they considering that a "Graven Image"? Sorry, bad pun. I'm still tired and couldn't resist. But it bugs me that they won't allow photos in those places, or at least let you buy postcards of photos. Seems rather selfish to me.
We've got a ton to tell you all about, too. Our last night in London, we went to the reconstructed Globe Theatre to see "A Comedy of Errors". I think I can safely say that you've never seen Shakespeare until you've stood on the floor of the Globe as a plebe and watched Shakespeare. It couldn't have been any better. We even got a little rain shower, which oddly enough was wonderful.
The nightmare began about the time we made it through the BAA searches and stuff at Heathrow. BAA was efficient and thorough. After that, American Airlines took over and turned our travel home into what Kate calls "a clusterfuck". I think that's an undeservedly generous description. After they got our plane off the ground an hour and a half late, we missed the connection in Chicago (only American Airlines would route us from London to Chicago to go to Philadelphia!). They destroyed our brand new (albeit cheap, I admit) luggage, and we wound up sitting in O'Hare for about 8 hours, because the next flight to Philadelphia was booked solid. The plane we eventually got took off over an hour late and when we finally got where we were going, the luggage (or what was left of it) took another hour to make it to the baggage pickup. Next time, I'll take Dad up on the offer to spend a little extra and fly British Airways. American Airlines tried to blame it all on the terrorist crap, but they seemed to be the only airline, foreign or domestic that was experiencing difficulties. I wonder how long they'll be able to milk that excuse.
Just to top it off, the car battery was dead when we got to the parking lot. Apparently somebody managed to get the car door partially open, the alarm went off, they closed the car back up (nothing missing, we didn't leave anything in it to take and I don't think he got it all the way open), and the car alarm went off until the battery gave out. Nice. Philthadelphia, the City of Brotherly Shove. What really pisses me off is that we were parked less than 100 yards from the guard shack.
Off course, with all that time gone, we didn't get to stay and visit with family and friends there, so we just got the jump (at least the airport did that for free...I gave the guy a five pound bill as a souvenir since he wouldn't take a tip), hopped in, and drove straight back to Jacksonville. We made it back about 11 this morning, took a bath together for about an hour, and then went to sleep.
We'll catch you all up on our magical trip tomorrow sometime.
Kisses from bo'fus.
It ain't much, and I did what I could to pretend I was just rooting around in the camcorder bag, but I don't think he was buying it. He just stuck really close to us for the rest of our time in there, so I couldn't sneak any more shots. Kate tried a little flirtation distraction, but apparently he was highly skilled at resisting the temptations of the flesh. It's hard to point a camcorder while it's still in the bag and a security guard is five or ten yards away. We were in the whispering gallery at the time, so we couldn't really do much planning, either. Sorry, best we could do, we ain't James Bonds you know. It really is beautiful in there.
There were a ton of security guys and priests or whatever in Westminster Abbey, so we couldn't manage anything at all in there. They don't even have postcards or anything with pictures of the graves or the effigies or the archetecture that you can buy! Respect for the dead is one thing, but that's silly. It's not like there was a service going on or anything. Are they considering that a "Graven Image"? Sorry, bad pun. I'm still tired and couldn't resist. But it bugs me that they won't allow photos in those places, or at least let you buy postcards of photos. Seems rather selfish to me.
We've got a ton to tell you all about, too. Our last night in London, we went to the reconstructed Globe Theatre to see "A Comedy of Errors". I think I can safely say that you've never seen Shakespeare until you've stood on the floor of the Globe as a plebe and watched Shakespeare. It couldn't have been any better. We even got a little rain shower, which oddly enough was wonderful.
The nightmare began about the time we made it through the BAA searches and stuff at Heathrow. BAA was efficient and thorough. After that, American Airlines took over and turned our travel home into what Kate calls "a clusterfuck". I think that's an undeservedly generous description. After they got our plane off the ground an hour and a half late, we missed the connection in Chicago (only American Airlines would route us from London to Chicago to go to Philadelphia!). They destroyed our brand new (albeit cheap, I admit) luggage, and we wound up sitting in O'Hare for about 8 hours, because the next flight to Philadelphia was booked solid. The plane we eventually got took off over an hour late and when we finally got where we were going, the luggage (or what was left of it) took another hour to make it to the baggage pickup. Next time, I'll take Dad up on the offer to spend a little extra and fly British Airways. American Airlines tried to blame it all on the terrorist crap, but they seemed to be the only airline, foreign or domestic that was experiencing difficulties. I wonder how long they'll be able to milk that excuse.
Just to top it off, the car battery was dead when we got to the parking lot. Apparently somebody managed to get the car door partially open, the alarm went off, they closed the car back up (nothing missing, we didn't leave anything in it to take and I don't think he got it all the way open), and the car alarm went off until the battery gave out. Nice. Philthadelphia, the City of Brotherly Shove. What really pisses me off is that we were parked less than 100 yards from the guard shack.
Off course, with all that time gone, we didn't get to stay and visit with family and friends there, so we just got the jump (at least the airport did that for free...I gave the guy a five pound bill as a souvenir since he wouldn't take a tip), hopped in, and drove straight back to Jacksonville. We made it back about 11 this morning, took a bath together for about an hour, and then went to sleep.
We'll catch you all up on our magical trip tomorrow sometime.
Kisses from bo'fus.
