1. Finally getting there. The big storm in Philadelphia on the 16th caused us major stress and headache. We sat on a plane for 3 1/2 hours here in Phoenix, only to find out the flight was cancelled due to the storm. The airline industry cancelled over 2000 flights that day. No one could get in or out of that area, and flights to other areas filled up immediately as people made alternate plans. We stressed and freaked and after 12 hours at the airport, went home dejected. We had one last hope…to get to London from the West coast instead of the East coast. We decided to try to get on a Virgin Atlantic flight leaving out of LAX the next day. It was dicey, but we made it to LAX, only to find out the first VA flight was oversold. We waited 5 hours for the last VA flight…and we made it on the plane. We were so relieved and exhausted. Overall we spent 24 hours in airports trying to get to London.
2. Seeing King’s Lynn and Terrington again. I lived in Terrington 25 years ago. It was a thrill to be there again after all these years. I have longed to go back, and it was surreal to stand on those streets again, to see my own children standing on those streets. I don’t think I’ve quite processed it all yet.
Below: The house I used to live in and the sign of the street it is on.
Below: Post Office in Terrington and the Terrington Church. I once played my flute in that church.
Below: TKMaxx (I guess England’s version of TJMaxx, one of my favorite shopping spots…that wasn’t there when I lived there but it cracked me up and I had to photograph it) and St. Margaret’s Church in Lynn (one of Reed’s ancestor’s was christened in that church in the 1600s–so cool since we lived in that area for 3 years!!).
3. Cadbury chocolate (Star Bars, Double Deckers, etc.) and Pickled Onion Monster Munch. Need I say more?? Also ate cornish pasties and sausage rolls. And Indian food!
4. Showing my boys some of the most famous sites in the world (Roman Baths, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, National Gallery, British Museum, Stonehenge, Tower of London etc.).
5. The National Gallery was amazing to me. I got to stand mere feet away from masterworks by Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Monet, Cezanne…it truly was a thrill. I want to go back and spend a few days in that museum!!
6. Just being immersed in so much history. 300-year old buildings? They’re all over the place, walked by dozens of ’em. Even slept in one of ’em. Burial places of the most famous people on earth? Yep, stood 2 feet away from Elizabeth I’s tomb, Richard IIIs tomb, and many more. Legendary streets? Sure, stood right on Bloomsbury St., where Virginia Woolf and her fellow writers worked and supported one another. There’s so much to see and take in and appreciate there…and I love it. I’ll be back.
(P.S…lots more pics in the England album that I mentioned below.)