A month after the trip

I was getting some pictures off of the cards for the cameras and noticed that we never did a post on the blog for the day we got home.  Here it goes as I remember it.

Our flight left around 3:00 from Heathrow. We took our time getting out of the hotel and made our way to the tube to get to Heathrow. We had to transfer from one rail line to a tube line that would take us to Heathrow. We were trying to avoid having to carry the bags up and down stairs so we asked someone who was working on the train and he gave us the best route. We did have to go up a long steep escalator and had a little incident while we were on it. Jarret went first, then me, then Rylee and Jill was last. When Rylee got on, she had one foot on one step, the other foot on the next step and her bag partway on the third step. As the escalator was moving, she lost her balance and fell into Jill. I heard the commotion and as I looked back, I could see Jill falling on the escalator. I handed Jarret my bag and hurried to get to Jill and Rylee. As I got to Jill, her feet were facing up towards the top of the escalator and two very nice British ladies were keeping her from falling down any farther. She was able to get herself turned around so that she could sit on the steps as it was moving until she could get her balance. I'm still not sure how we got the bags without them falling all the way down the steps. It was a scary moment because the escalator was still moving as all of this was happening. All Jill could think about was to try to get turned around. Needless to say, we managed to get everyone standing before we got to the top of the escalator and we got all of the baggage off without any more problems. Jill got her knee scraped up but we're lucky that she didn't have any more serious injuries. The whole thing happened so fast, from the time I saw her fall to the time we got to the top of the escalator was probably less than 1 minute, but it seemed a lot longer than that.

We managed to get to the airport in plenty of time. I had to turn in our personal wi-fi device and was going to try to get some of our VAT tax back from some of our purchases. The line was really long and since we didn't have that much, we decided to skip it. We got through security without any problem and decided to get a little lunch since we had some time. After lunch, we hit a small gift shop and decided to buy a couple of last minute items. We started to look for our gate, I thought we were in the right area for it, but found out that we still had a ways to go. We had to follow the way to a train that would take us to our section of the airport where we could board the plane. It turns out that it took us a while to get there and by the time we got to our gate they had already started boarding. I don't like to cut things so close but we made it on the plane and on our way back home.

The flight home was smoother than the flight over until we got to Seattle. We had just started our descent and looked like we were getting ready to land when all of a sudden they hit the gas and we started to climb again. After a few minutes they came on the speaker and said there was an issue that they had to take care of and that they had figured out the problem. The plane continued banking around the area until we could get back in line in order to land. The landing was a little hard but we made it home safely. We managed to get our bags, go through customs, and get back into our Honda chariot for the drive home. 

The drive home was fine. We stopped in North Bend to get some food and then continued on our way. Once the kids finished their food, they went to sleep and slept the whole way home. I wasn't too tired until we got to about Moses Lake. We stopped for some gas and I tried one of those 5-hour energy drinks. Well it worked for about an hour and a half but it was long enough to get us safely back home. It was nice to get back and sleep in our own beds for a change.

It's been about a month since we got back and it's still hard to believe that we were there. We got to watch some of the Olympics on TV after we got home and it was really fun to see an event at a location that we had seen first hand. I've also caught things on TV where they're in England and I recognize some of the sites. I don't think I'll ever watch a show about England or Paris the same way again. I saw someone on the news that was in front of Buckingham Palace and I recognized where they were and how we had been at the same place. I also watched part of a documentary about WWII when Germany occupied France and they showed a picture of Hitler looking out over the Eiffel Tower. It looked like the vantage point was similar to the location when we first saw the Eiffel Tower. It sure gives things a different perspective, especially when you can directly relate to it in some manner.

We're so glad and fortunate to have taken this trip with our kids. They're just the right age so that they'll remember it for their entire life. Both of our kids loved London and I'll bet money on it that they'll go back there sometime. Now it's time to start planning for the next trip.....you'll have to wait to see where we end up....

Day 13 - Our last day in London

After the breakfast from the hotel, powdered scrambled eggs, sausage and some juice for me and cereal and toast for the rest of them, we started our day. I think we’re all ready for some home cooking. Rylee has had a hankering for some good ole Apple Pie. We told her she’d have to wait until we get home. We had a little time to kill before our Volleyball event at 2:45 so we decided to go back to Piccadilly Circus since Rylee really wanted to stop at one of the shops we had been to last time we were in London. We picked up some knickknacks but still hadn’t found a Christmas ornament for our tree. One of the things we try and do is to pick up an ornament for our Christmas tree when we go on a big family vacation. Every year as we’re putting up the tree, we remember where and when we got the ornament and it helps  remind us of the trips we’ve been on. We haven’t been able to find one until we walked past a Lladro, or Lardo as Jarret pronounced it, store. They did have a 2012 ornament for 65 Pounds. It was a little spendy but we figured we’re only here once…..until we got the bill in US dollars - $106……oh that darn exchange rate that is so easy to forget about. You know we can’t change our mind at this point, the only benefit that we get is that if it breaks within the next year, we can get it replaced.

We walked to the tube stop and on the way came across a little market set up in the courtyard of an old church. They had some neat little items but nothing that we couldn’t do without.

It was now time to head to the Earls Court Arena where the volleyball was going to be played. We got to see two matches, the first was Russia vs Tunisia and Russia won the match pretty easily. Russia does have a 7 foot 2 inch middle that can really hit the ball. He was fun to watch. There were quite a few empty seats for the first game.

The second game was Poland vs Argentina and this was a much more rowdy game. The fans filled the stadium and I bet ¾ of them were rooting for Poland. They were yelling, singing, and making a lot of noise. Poland won the match in 3 games but it was fun to watch, especially with the crowd. We must have been the only Americans in a raucous sea of Polska fans.  Needless to say, we quickly became Polish fans. After the game was over, the Polish fans continued with their singing as they were exiting the arena. I told Jarret he should start a USA chant but we would have been drowned out very easily.

We stopped for dinner on the way home at a place that wasn’t very good. As we got to the hotel, we figured that we’d better start repacking everything tonight.  Our suitcases will be brimming with stinky, dirty clothes as the hotels here don’t offer do-it-yourself laundry.  And we’re too close to the end of our trip to wash anything more in the bathroom sink!  Besides, with the humidity here, nothing would dry in time.  Hopefully we won’t need to purchase a new bag to bring our souvenirs home. We also did our last Skype session with Dave Cotton at KHQ.

Jill and I were talking and both of us would like to come back to London again someday. It really is a nice place to visit, even if it is a little more expensive than other towns. There is so much to do and see that you can’t begin to see it all in one trip. As much as we like London, we’re ready to come home. We’ve been on the go, non-stop, for about 2 weeks now. We pretty much figured we haven’t been more than 20 feet away from each other for any length of time in the last two weeks.  Rylee and Jarret have done well on the trip but I think they’re tired of not being able to have their own space. Tomorrow we get on the plane and head back to the states. And then we have to drive back from Seattle. I don’t think we’re going to spend the night in Seattle. If we’re that close to home, we might as well load up on coffee and junk food and make the drive home. This has been the trip of a lifetime and I’m so glad that it has gone so well. It’s been especially nice to take the trip as a family and share it with all of you.

It’s always such a rush to be at a live Olympic event and witness the dedication and years of training these athletes have endured.  When we sit in the arena and cheer for them all, there is just nothing like the spirit of it.  But we have missed watching the Americans compete and reading about it.  We’re glad there’s another week of competition so we can watch it from home.

Jill:  I need to send a big shout-out to Craig for pretty much organizing this amazing trip.  He has done the research, purchased all the tickets (Olympic, plane, tube, Metro, Eurostar), and has been our expert map-reader.  He enjoys figuring out where we are, and how to get from point A to point B, and we follow along like little puppies.  He was the keeper of the subway and light rail tickets, and always told us to go “right!” or “left!” or “straight ahead!” as we jumped off the subways and tried to find the exits.  You made our trip great, thank you!

Where are we going next??

 An outdoor market in the courtyard of an old church

 Row of apartments as we walk towards Earl's Court

 Earl's Court

 Volleyball

 Olympic Rings

 7 ft 2 in middle - He can really get up there

 Action in Russia - Tunisia game

 Another one of the big middle

 Olympic flag

 Three trouble makers

 Poland vs Argentina

 More action

 A wall

 The crowd as we're leaving volleyball

Jarret wants this for his first car  - it's a Ferrari

Day 12 - The Bad and The Good

We started the day by trying to get some tickets for an event in the Olympic Park that Jill and Rylee could attend. If you have a ticket, you can enter the Olympic park. If you don’t have a ticket, you can’t get in. It looks like the 2012 Olympic site releases tickets each day but we were unable to get any. Without two tickets, Jill and Rylee were going to have to go shopping at the big mall just outside the Olympic Park while Jarret and I went to the swimming event. I felt bad that we all couldn’t attend but we tried really hard to get some tickets and it just didn’t work out. There’s been a lot of negative press concerning the tickets and how they’re being distributed. It sounds like there are a lot of events where tickets are being unused and the arena is partially empty. Quite a few of these tickets went to sponsors and not the general public and now the public is upset. I don’t blame them. That was a bad.

Today we had time in the morning and the afternoon to kill before the swimming event in the evening. We didn’t want to go too far so we found that there was a Live London site where they have music and activities and show the games on a big screen TV. It was at a place called Victoria Park that wasn’t too far from either our hotel or the Olympic park. We took the rail and tube to get there and then started following the signs. At one point, there was a sign that said – to London Live via the Floating Market, so we decided to take this route. It was a nice little walk along a canal that eventually leads to the Limehouse Basin with the houseboats that is near our hotel. The interesting thing about the Floating Market is that in the canal are boats that sell things. Books, hats and different types of food are the ones that we saw. There wasn’t much activity. I don’t know if it was because it was a weekday or because the weather wasn’t that good. It would be a unique experience to see when everything was open.

We worked our way into the park to where the Live London site was and had to go through security. One of the questions the person asked me was do I have any deodorant? Not understanding exactly what he was asking I said “ Do I need it?” and he took a sniff as a joke. What he really meant was do we have any aerosol cans. The other thing that actually did cause us a problem was our video camera. It turns out that you can’t take a video camera into the London Live site. He was polite and asked his supervisor but they said no even though I said I wouldn’t use it and that we didn’t have any place that we could leave it. I did ask about cell phones that take video and they said those are fine. It really ticked us off. It makes no sense that a video taken by cell is fine but one taken by a video camera isn’t. That was the bad.

We did manage to see the mayor of London and I thought Jill was going to go up to him and ask him if he knew about that policy. We just decided to go on our merry way and not spend any money with them.

As we headed back, it was getting around lunch time and we had passed a restaurant called the Greedy Cow. Since Rylee’s into cows, she wanted to go there. The place was really small but it was mainly a hamburger place in the afternoon. Man they made a great burger, in fact it was probably one of the best ones I’ve had in a long time. The waiter said they were very happy to hear that Americans like their hamburgers since the hamburger was basically created in the states. If we had gotten into London Live, we probably would have never gone to this restaurant. That was a good.

After lunch we had more time to kill. We took a train to Canary Wharf. We’d heard it was famous but we weren’t sure why. I pictured something like the piers in Seattle. It was totally different. Our previous excursions in London were mainly in the older part. Big buildings, old monuments, and large bridges were what we had been accustomed to seeing. This wasn’t the case at Canary Wharf. You could get down to the water but it was mainly a big business and financial area with lots of professionals and new buildings. We walked around a little bit and caught part of a cycling event on a big screen. Bradley Wiggins won gold in his race and the crowd cheered and then slowly drifted off back to work. It was fun to watch. This was good.

We finally headed back to the Olympic Park so that Jarret and I could attend swimming. Before we headed out, we got our game plan on where to meet up after it was over. We also were going to Skype with KHQ again but it didn’t work out because I guess there was a grass fire in Spokane that they were covering. Jarret and I headed to the swimming event and Rylee and Jill were going to spend time in the mall. All four of us not being able to see the event was bad.

The Aquatics Centre has been built with temporary seating so that they can get as many people as they can in there to watch the event. We ended up sitting 4 rows from the top. We’ve been on some climbs this trip and this one was as hard as any of them. Maybe it was because I was lugging the backpack this time or because I’m just tired of going up stairs, either way I’m glad I went to the bathroom and got some food before the climb since there is nothing up there other than seats. It was a long distance between where we were and the pool but you could still see all of the lanes in the pool. Once the Olympics are over, I think I’ve heard they’ll remove the temporary seats so that it’s quite a bit smaller. One other thing that was frustrating was that the two seats next to me were empty the whole time. That’s pretty ironic that we’ve been looking for two seats for over a year and they ended up being right next to me. That was bad.

The actual event was fantastic. When one of the British swimmers took second, the crowd exploded. It was really fun to be a part of it. In the middle of one of the events, I got a Skype call from KHQ. I couldn’t hear him. I just answered the phone and turned up the volume so that they could hear the crowd roar. I think they got a kick out of it but I was able to hear that they wanted to try it again at 12:00 PM Pacific Time. He did call and we did Skype for just a minute because it got noisy again and I couldn’t hear what he was saying. In two of the races, Americans won gold and it was really fun to watch. Both the race and the reaction of the crowd were very fun. After the final race, they awarded the gold, silver and bronze medals to the winners. It’s really quite special to see the athletes from your country win a gold medal and be able to hear your national anthem. In all of the commercialism of sports, it’s heartwarming to see that playing for their country still means something to them. It also make us fans feel special too. Thanks to all the athletes for their hard work and thanks to Jill and Rylee for taking one for the team. It was also special to share that event with Jarret. This was really good.

Today the good outweighed the bad. We’ve only got a couple days left and we’re starting to get that “It’ll be good to be home” feeling. I’ll probably post some pictures tomorrow since it’s so late now. Heading to sleep and looking forward to Volleyball tomorrow.

Woke up and posted the pictures from yesterday.

 Floating Market with boats that sell foods and goods

 Check out the giant spoon

 A pretty picture along the canal

 Victoria Park

 The Mayor of London

Great Burger

 Jarret's unique way of holding on to something on the subway

 View from Canary Wharf

 The family

 View of central London from Canary Wharf

Another one

 Trying to get a picture of the kids

 Still trying.....

 Finally

 Businessmen watching Bradley Wiggins win his gold medal

 Unique taxi

 The Aquatics Centre

 Rings at the Aquatics Centre

 Proof that we were actually there

 View from the cheap seats

 It's a start

 Men's USA gold medal winner

Women relay team on the podium

 Picture of the diving boards

 Jarret at the arena

 Night picture of Olympic Stadium and the orbit bathed in Red, White and Blue just for us

 The Aquatics Centre

The Orbit

Day 11 - Canoeing and the rain

We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather on our trip and despite our little rain storm today, I’d say we’re still on a good streak. Our adventure today began in our little “Closet” as we like to call it. After we had breakfast we headed to the Lee Valley Whitewater Center to watch Canoe Slalom. We ended up having to take a train to one station, a second train and then a third train to where we got to walk. From the final train station to the event entrance, it was probably a 25 minute walk through a field along a lake. It was actually a pretty walk but it seemed longer than it should have been.  Along the way was a giant chair where we got a picture of Jarret sitting on it. Once we got to the event, we had pretty good seats. It was a little far from where they finish but you could still see all the action on one of the 2 giant TV’s. It’s pretty amazing how those guys can maneuver a kayak or canoe around a series of gates without touching them. The US participant didn’t make it out of the rounds yesterday so we had to root for Great Britain. As Great Britain’s racer came up, the crowd cheered the whole way. Unfortunately, he didn’t make the second cut and couldn’t race for a medal. The winner was from France and he has won it for the last 3 Olympics, I think.  12 men started in the first round and it was cut down to the top 8. From there it was basically a sudden death situation, the fastest one down the course wins. You get one run, winner takes it all.

Right after the race was over and before the Victory Ceremony began, the rain started. First it was just spitting a little bit and then all of a sudden it started to downpour. Up went the umbrellas and on went the raincoats. After about 10 minutes, it slowed down and then stopped. We stayed mostly dry, all except Rylee who got her pants wet and we had to listen to her wanting to go and change them at the hotel for another couple hours. You’d think with her AP bio class she’d learn that wet things eventually dry….oh well.

One of the nice things about this event was that it was a medal event. Because of this, we got to see the Gold, Silver and Bronze medals awarded after the race was over. It is always neat to see the flags raised for the three winners as the national anthem for the winner is played. Even if your country isn’t on the stand, it’s very special.

We headed back home along the long walk with the throngs of people all moving in the same direction. There was a helicopter above use hovering, I’m guessing taking some pictures. It would have made for a good picture to see a string of people probably a mile and a half long.

There have been tons of volunteers and they’re always happy, laughing and keeping the crowd in a good mood. I’m not sure they all know what’s going on however. We’ve asked a number of questions from being able to get tickets to the Olympic Park to transportation questions. The more I ask, the more I have the feeling that I should just get the information on the internet and trust what I learn. They mean well but they don’t always give you the correct answer. We did get to our event and get home with their help so it can’t be too bad.

As we were heading home, we tried to stop at a ticket office by the Olympic Park only to find out they don’t sell tickets. They just issue them from people that buy them over the internet. You can’t get into the Olympic Park unless you either have a ticket for an event there or a ticket for just the Olympic Park. Since both are hard to get now, Jill and Rylee may end up at the mall that’s just by the Olympic Park while Jarret and I go to the swimming event tomorrow. I’m not giving up hope but it’s looking more and more like that will be the plan. One thing we haven’t seen is people selling tickets at the venue. It sounds like there can be a pretty big fine if they do so they must be selling them some other way. Either way, I think it’s going to be hard for us to pick up a couple at this late date.

We headed back to the hotel with just enough time to send KHQ some pictures for a Skype session we were going to do. We found a place right by the hotel that is a dock area for boats and houseboats that is attached to the river Thames. It’s a really quaint area that is very nice even though it used to be very run down. We got a recommendation from someone telling us we should go to the Grapes Pub. Apparently Sir Ian McKellan is part owner of it.  We thought was a great idea so we walked in with the kids and all heads turned to us. It turns out this establishment doesn’t have a license to allow anyone under 18 years old. It was a little odd but we went on our way.  As we were walking back, there was an area where a couple bike paths come together. So we looked right and left and right and still almost got hit by a couple of bikes. At one other point a bicyclist had to veer off his path so he wouldn’t run into us. I just yelled “American In The Road”, I heard him laugh as he rode on so it must not have been that bad. We finished up with dinner at an Indian Italian restaurant. We just ordered some appetizers for all of us to split. When they brought finger bowls for us to use, the kids didn’t believe us. The waiter also put Rylee’s napkin on her lap for her. The look on her face was priceless. During the meal at one point in the discussion, Rylee turned to Jarret and in a half joking manner said “It makes me sad when you plug your ears when I talk to you”, and in a split instant Jarret lays out “ Well, it makes me happy when you’re sad” That’s kind of how this trip has gone. They needle each other quite a bit but in the end, they can laugh about it.

The last excitement for the night was at 11:00 PM, I’m writing the blog, Jarret is almost asleep, Jill’s almost ready for bed and Rylee is just getting out of the shower and all of a sudden the hotel alarm goes off. Rylee comes out of the shower in a towel and says let’s go! I tell Rylee she has time to put on some clothes, Jill and Jarret get dressed quick and I grab the backpack with all our info in it. The hotel can burn to the ground but I’m going to make sure we can get to our next event.  Jill poked her head out into the hallway, as did several other guests.  No one was running for the stairs.  A call to the front desk allayed our fears that no, the hotel was not burning down.  A guest accidentally pushed the alarm.  Needless to say, we’re having a good time laughing about it. Rylee said she’s never gotten ready so quickly…..maybe tomorrow we’ll have them set off a fire alarm about the time that we want to leave. Rylee might just be ready on time for once…. Oh well, it was just a false alarm. Hopefully it won’t happen again tonight as we’re sleeping.

 Awards ceremony. Winners on the podium

 View of boats in the harbor by our hotel

 Just a railing

 Picture up the Thames

 Jarret in a big chair

 Lake on our walk from the train station to the canoeing event

 Whitewater course

 Red, White and Blue