Dinner with L

I went out to dinner at Mai Lee last night with a friend of mine from college, who moved to St. Louis in the spring. There are pictures, but I don't have them yet. Suffice it to say, though, that everything was delicious, and we got all we could eat for $25 (including tip)!

What I'm Reading Now -- The Secret Battle

When I was at school in London six years ago (whoa! Six years!), I read The Secret Battle. I was going to read it again while we were there, but I'm a little behind. Better late than never.

It's the (semi-autobiographical) story of Harry Penrose, who abandons his studies at Oxford to enlist in the British Army during World War I. It's been a while since I read it, but as I recall, the focus is on Harry's struggle with the daily grind of life in the trenches (pretty typical for WWI stuff), and his struggle with the military system.

Inkspell -- Take 2

I finished Inkspell on the plane on the way home from London, and, just like Inkheart, I loved it! It does seem rather unfinished, but it was known when it was published that it would be the second of three books, so the action had to break somewhere, I suppose. They even tempt you by putting a preview of Inkdeath at the end of the book.

Most of the second book takes place inside the story that the characters in the first book came out of. Meggie, who is now 13, reads herself into the story, and her parents and some other characters follow after her. What follows are their adventures, and misadventures, in the Inkworld.

There were two things about it I really liked about this book (other than the continuing story, obviously). First, you get some real insight into the craft of creating a story. Fenoglio is the man who wrote the story about the Inkworld where they are all now living. He keeps trying to tinker with it, by writing more and having Meggie read what he's written, but the story keeps getting away from him in ways he didn't anticipate.

Second, and related to the first, are issues of fate. As Fenoglio tinkers with the story, you start to wonder whether he really can change it, or whether the story will find its way back to its original ending, just by a different route. And then you add in the characters who are now in the Inkworld but don't belong, like Meggie and her parents. Can they change anything? Big stuff for a kids' book.

London - Day 1

Ahh, London. Lovely to be back. If only the getting there had been a little easier.

J and I left St. Louis on Monday morning, 8/10. We drove to O'Hare, and arrived there to find out that our flight was delayed due to a mechanical problem. Then it was canceled. We immediately called Virgin Vacations (through which we booked the whole trip - flights and hotel) to inform them of the problem. The woman we spoke with said it was no problem, and that she'd just call the hotel and push the reservation back by one day. We also changed our return flight to be one day later.

The next day, we went back to the airport and successfully made it across the pond, only to arrive at the hotel and find out that the lady from Virgin had not, in fact, called. Our reservation had been canceled, but luckily they still had a room available they could put us in. However, because the hotel had not received notice that we were canceling our first night, our original reservation was reinstated. That meant we had a room until the 17th, but a ticket home for the 18th. We spent the rest of the trip, off and on, figuring that one out. Bottom line: don't book with Virgin. We had to pay for an extra night at the hotel, and now have to fight with them to try to get reimbursed because it was their screw-up.

We didn't let all that ruin our first day, though. We got ourselves some Tube passes and met up with my friend M, who just happened to be in London, and leaving on the day we arrived! We had lunch with her, then headed up to Edgeware, where J used to live. We saw his old flat and favorite pub (The Victory, in the first picture above), then walked the Oxford-Regent-Picadilly path that he took when going to school. We did a quick tour through my favorite rooms at the National Gallery. The second picture was taken standing on the steps of the National Gallery. You're looking at Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, and down Whitehall towards Big Ben and Westminster.

We rested our feet on the steps in the Square, then made the long walk down Whitehall ourselves, and got the second shot of a newly-shined Big Ben. Last but not least, we went to my old house in Chelsea, which is where I'm standing in the last picture.

That was the only day it rained on us, but boy did it. We were on our way back to the Tube from my old house, and ducked into a restaurant to avoid being drenched, where we decided to stay for dinner.

London - Day 2

Lots of pictures!

Our second day took us all over the city, which was impressive, because we slept the first half of it away! We had a lunch reservation at Fifteen for 12:30, and managed to get there at about 1. Thankfully they still had a table available, and everything we ate was delicious: olives, summer vegetables (included roasted peppers and white-and-purple carrots), fresh mozzarella, blackened bream, pasta, and a brownie with cherries and real whipped cream. I'm drooling a little just thinking about it.

To aid our digestion, we took a stroll around the Imperial War Museum (picture 1). The second photo was taken outside an exhibit about WWI. No photos were allowed inside the galleries, but the exhibit was impressive. They had collected stories about and artifacts from almost 100 people who were somehow affected by the war, and set them against a backdrop of the larger story.

We headed to the Tate Modern very briefly, and walked down the Thames to the Globe Theater. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any plays while we were there, but it's still neat to see the venue (picture 3). Our walk back to the north side of the river across the Millennium Bridge provided a good shot of Tower Bridge (picture 4). Unfortunately, we were too late to go inside St. Paul's on that day, but got some good shots of it, too (pictures 5, 6, and 7).

Last but not least, we ventured out to the East End to visit my old school, Queen Mary. The last picture is of the administration building there. Because school's not in session right now, all the buildings were locked up, but walking around the campus again was fun anyway (or would have been, if I hadn't been wearing heels)!

London - Day 3

This day didn't work out quite how we planned, but it ended up being fun anyway.

We (once again) didn't get as early of a start as we would have liked, so we rushed straight to Buckingham Palace (photos 1 and 2) to see the changing of the guard. The guidebooks said it was daily spring through August, and every other day August through the next spring. Well, that doesn't help much, since it's August! Turns out, we were on an off day, which was OK in the end, because we were late anyway.

We took a loooooong walk following the Princess Diana Memorial Walkway from the Palace, along Green Park, and through Hyde Park (photo 3) and Kensington Gardens. We rather enjoyed the green space, but were disappointed to reach our lunch destination (the Swag and Tails) only to find out that it had closed earlier this year. We improvised, grabbed some sandwiches, and spent the afternoon strolling around Leicester Square and Covent Garden.

London - Day 4

Saturday took us first to Westminster Abbey (picture 1). We didn't take the tour (long lines, expensive tickets, and we'd both already been), but it put us in a good location to walk along St. James's Park on our way back to Buckingham Palace. We managed to see the changing of the guard this time, or at least I saw the first 10 minutes of it. As J and I are both so short, I saw what I could from his shoulders, until I got too heavy and he had to put me down. And he saw the pictures and video that I took while I was up there. It was a group effort :-)

We spent the afternoon at the Portobello market, where I got a dress, and we finally had the fish and chips we had been craving. Just as good as ever!

London - Day 5

We started out Sunday at Speaker's Corner, and some of the same speakers from years ago were still there! I guess it's a regular Sunday-morning engagement!


Now start the fun things I had never done before! Up to this point, we were mostly just reminiscing, scoping out the old haunts where we used to hang out, etc. First, we walked past the Animals in War memorial (picture 1), which I had no idea was even there before!

Then we headed out to Greenwich. We walked all of the National Maritime Museum, and you were even allowed to take pictures in a couple of the galleries (pictures 2 and 3). Then we climbed the big hill to stand on the Prime Meridian. Those are my feet in the fourth picture! There was a crazy long line of people waiting to have their picture taken, so we just jumped in quickly for a shot of our feet, and skipped the rest.

The view back down towards the Maritime Museum was lovely, with Canary Wharf and the Isle of Dogs in the background (picture 5).

We found ourselves near the Houses of Parliament again that evening, which looked lovely with the sun in the west (picture 6).

London - Day 6

Our last day was the only day we got outside the city, and we sure did a lot of walking.

Last time I was in London, my uncle alerted me to these footpaths that they have all over the country. They've been there forever, and go all over the place (including through towns, over fences, across pastures, through the woods, down driveways, etc.). There are some designated walks collected in a book published every few years, and when I was living in London, my dad came to visit and we took one walk starting out at Hever Castle (very cool).

This time, the plan was to walk from Gomshall to Guildford. This turned out to be a bit of a problem. To get to Gomshall, we had to change trains in Guildford. When we arrived, we learned that the next train to Gomshall didn't arrive for an hour and a half. Rather than wait it out, J and I decided to really challenge ourselves by attempting to do the walk backwards.

Most of it was not too terribly difficult, just a lot of turning the opposite way listed in the directions and turning around to make sure it looked like you were coming from the place you should have been going. There were a few places that got a little hairy, though, like where "the path emerges in a car park." But going the other way, there were three paths that "emerged" into the car park. But we managed, and it was actually really fun (though it probably wouldn't have been if we had not been such expert navigators)!

The first picture is J going over a classic stile, which were all along the walk. The second picture is a scenery shot of the lovely countryside. The last picture is of the Church of St. James, in Shere (a town we passed through on our walk). The church is almost 1000 years old! The wall inside (I didn't take any pics inside the church) has a listing of all the vicars in Shere since 1270! There are gravestones so old that the names and dates can no longer be deciphered, but they are clearly many hundreds of years old. Seeing something like that really does put the history and the meaning of "old" into perspective.

We reached our destination and caught a train from Gomshall back to London, where we spend our last night at the Prince Alfred pub and I finally got the waffle I had been wanting all week!

Our return travels were largely uneventful, save a 1-hour takeoff delay. We got back to Chicago to discover that my car was exactly where I had left it, and made the long drive home the same night.

Home, however briefly

After 10 hours and 15 minutes in the car, J and I returned home this afternoon. So far, things have been less than fantastic: the place where I get free car washes (to get all the salty ocean scum off my car) was closed for repaving; I left my glasses at my sister's house; my landlord still sucks. But some good stuff too: my own shower and apartment (even though there's no food in it)!

There are lots of things to do before leaving for London, but hopefully I can get it all done and maybe even get a head start on packing for the big move, which happens sometime in the 13 days after I get back from bonny old England.

And in other travel news, props to K for making it all the way from WDC to Durham in a super-speedy 8 hours, give or take. Too bad about the traffic and accidents, but you made it!

Repaving?

Today on the way home, J and I passed more than one "construction zone" which consisted of nothing more than a stretch of highway (interstate or otherwise) in which one lane was closed. Nothing appeared to be going on. There was no road ripped up, nothing had just been paved, no obvious reason for the closure. And of course, it's a Saturday, so there are no men out there actually working.

Why do they do that? Why just close one lane and do nothing? I would like an explanation.

Pictures

The beach at sunrise.

Fort Pickens

This morning, a bunch of us ventured out to the tip of the island. Or, what used to be the tip of the island, anyway. The Fort used to sit right on the edge of the land, but over the years the sand has built up and moved the western end of the island a little farther, well, west. Fort Pickens was originally built in 1834, and was used through World War II to guard the Pensacola base and environs. During the Civil War, the Union Army was at Fort Pickens, and the Confederates were at Fort McRee across the Sound, but the land where McRee was has since eroded away.

Pictures

Deep-Sea Fishing

Today, for the first time ever, I went deep-sea fishing! We had a great day and caught loads more fish than we can eat for dinner (mostly snapper, with some other stuff thrown in for good measure). Some are already at the restaurant being cooked, and the rest are going in the freezer. We also saw 4 whale sharks all feeding at the surface of the water (very cool) and another porpoise everywhere you looked.

Pictures

Vacation!

Remember how I said I was going to get my life back together? I still intend to do that. But it's going to have to happen later. Right now, I'm occupied by....doing nothing.

We arrived in Pensacola this afternoon, after staying the night with my friend in Columbus, MS. There's not much I can really say about Mississippi, except that we had some good food. Mexican at El Toro last night for dinner (see photo of J posing with the mascot), and plate-sized pancakes for breakfast this morning. Unfortunately, though, I didn't get a picture of the 4 trailers (no joke - trailers) that together, with some walls knocked out between them, made up the place we went for breakfast.

Now we're on the beach, doing typical beach things: eating, drinking, reading, drinking...you get the idea.

Pictures