Let's Get Wicked...

Years ago I read the book Wicked. While I liked the concept of learning the back story of the Wicked Witch of the West, I thought the novel bogged down with confusing politics. When it was made into a musical for Broadway, I didn’t think much about it. However, after Veronica learned a few of its songs in the school choir and we all learned the songs on the CD, we started talking about trying to see it in London. I had no luck buying tickets on our last trip, but this time I managed to get third row seats. It was truly a fantastic show and we all loved it!

We had no plans for Sunday, so when we heard that some of the cast of Wicked would be attending a special family event in honor of “Wicked Day,” we went along. Here the girls are with costumes from the show.

Those Funny British Signs...

Here’s some proof that it doesn’t take much to make us laugh. Frankly, we were afraid to ask what the top item was on the menu at the National Coal Museum in Wales.

We were impressed with the giant pink bra in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month on the side of building along the Thames in London. And Jimmy took this photo in the restrooms at the Science Museum to remind folks not to drink water out of the toilets.

Geocaching in London...

We found several unusual geocaches in London. This first one was a microcache (in a 35mm film canister) alongside a bank.

This was another microcache (you might be able to see the black canister just below where the tree touches the fence in the center of the photo) in the median of a busy road.

We also found a cache next to the Golden Hinde, a reconstruction of Sir Francis Drake’s ship. The most interesting location was the Cross Bones burial ground. This unconsecrated graveyard, where it is believed 15,000 people were buried, was originally for prostitutes in the 17th century and for the poor in the 18th century. The gates are decorated with tokens and notes as a modern day memorial.

Free Entertainment in London...

We spent Saturday morning doing one of our favorite activities in London: mudrucking (also known as mudlarking) along the shores of the Thames during low tide.

This year we searched along both shores for the first time. Jimmy and Ashlynn had especially good fortune along the northern shore where they found a lot of pipes with intact bowls and at least partial stems.

Here are the girls displaying the stash of pipes, broken pottery bits (some possibly as old as the 17th century) and glass that we found. While we’ve never found anything of monetary value, these bits are worth a lot to us as a family.

Fun Day with Friends...

On Friday, we met up with Camilla, Tristram, Freya and Beatrix at the Science Museum, where we spent many hours wandering around the exhibits. The lines were long for the one real restaurant, but was worth the wait as it was surprisingly good. We were just thrilled that Tristram was able to play hooky from work and that the girls came into the city to see us. Afterwards, we walked over to see the Albert Memorial and the Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain. Veronica took this cool reflection photo as we walked through Hyde Park. We bid farewell, then met back up with Phil for dinner. We had tickets to see War Horse and luckily he was able to buy a last minute single. Ashlynn had read this book in Year 5 (4th grade) and loved it so much she suggested that the rest of us read it. We managed to book front row center seats for this amazing show about the love of a boy and his horse during the horrors of World War I. The horse was a life-size wooden puppet that took three men to operate. We all loved it!

Back to London...

We really appreciated Jane and Mike hosting us for five fun-filled days in the countryside. It was now time to head to London. Our route was a bit convoluted because we had to drive back to Luton Airport to return the car, then take a bus to the train station, then a train to St. Pancras, and finally the Tube to Waterloo. We checked into the Union Jack Club, then headed to Chinatown to meet Phil, Jimmy’s best buddy from college, who just happened to be in town for business.

After a delicious dinner, including Peking duck, we roamed around and happened upon M&M World, the world’s largest candy store. Granted, I love M&Ms, but it’s a bit extreme to have a 35,000 square foot store selling a bunch of overpriced merchandise with pictures of candy. We didn’t buy anything, but must admit we were entertained by taking photos with the giant candies.

Reflections on our 6th Year - Part 2...

We’re happy that our list of highs is once again considerably longer than our lows:

• Family Travel: Bonaire - scuba diving, donkey sanctuary, night dive, underwater egg hunt, windsurfing, kayaking, caving; Curacao - Royal Sea Aquarium Resort, Queen’s Day, scootering to ostrich farm, UrbEx, seeing dolphins from underwater while snorkeling, dancing at beach café on Koninginnenacht;  Disneyland Paris: car stunt show, Tower of Terror, juggling in line, restaurant along Pirates of the Caribbean; England - staying at Jane and Mike’s cottage, Cadbury World, cycling in Forest of Dean, performance by Royal Shakespeare Company; Kent - seeing Camilla and family, panto; London - Wicked, War Horse, dinners with Phil, mudrucking; Scotland - hiking to castle, seeing Naomi and family, orienteering, exploring Edinborough; US - best home leave yet, staying at good friends’ (Darlene,  Erika, Jim, Lisa, and Vivynne) white water rafting, whale watching, hiking in Carmel Valley, iPad from Grandpa, family reunion in Jacksonville, 30th high school reunion, Crocodile Crossing at Alligator Farm, kayaking trip, NASA tour; Wales - Big Pit
• Solo Trips:  Ardennes, Belgium (Ashlynn) - mountain biking, trekking, kayaking; Israel (Melissa) -  Old Jerusalem, floating in Dead Sea; Poole, England (Veronica) - sailing, water park; South of France (Jimmy) - thrilled to learn to paraglide, klettersteig, skiing, seeing Curt and Vero
• Sports: girls getting Open Water dive certifications, tubing during White Christmas, Jimmy and Ashlynn running Amsterdam Marathon’s 8K together
• Visitors: Steve’s visit included one wild night in Amsterdam,  awesome having Buddy help with photos during Bye Bye Blue
• Dogsitting Max and Hannah
• Eurohash was awesome: perfect weather, dancing to Madly, Jimmy haring in Valkenburg for 500 hashers, laser tag in a cave
• Our geocache: awarded 34 favorites as of today
• Performances: YMCA and song from Oliver during school International Festival, Veronica sings a Disney medley during BSN on Broadway, Jimmy getting a part in the Panto (last time on stage was 6th grade)
• Awards: Veronica - 2nd prize in Anybook writing competition,Year 9 (8th grade) Creative Award; Ashlynn - Year 6 (5th grade) French Award
• Good Deeds: Ashlynn “adopted” Comet the orca, Veronica and Melissa donated their hair for wigs for cancer patients, Jimmy organized getting 24 computers installed in two schools in Sandland
• Jimmy: watching Veronica diving with a sea turtle, Go Pro camera, solar heating design worked, being several 1,000 feet in the air supported by only 8 kilos of gear
• Melissa: like-minded small tour group in Israel, Going Dutch magazine, surprising the girls with cool hotel in Curacao
• Veronica:  13.5 scuba diving birthday party, NESDA training
• Ashlynn: kissed by a seal, making movie at Ellie’s cottage, being a Zwarte Piet