Washington State

This summer, I was graciously invited by my Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary to visit them in Washington State. Considering I hadn't seen them in quite a while (and that I'd never been to Washington before), I immediately accepted! I spent a week with them there, exploring different parts of the state ranging from beautiful hiking trails in Twin Falls to the great city of Seattle.

In this entry, I am going to type the exact (mostly) words from the journal that I kept while on my visit.


Day One

9:19am
I actually slept decently last night. Considering I was barely packed, that was surprising! I guess that's why I woke up so early this morning. I love the anticipation of flying... acting like I'm a pro at anything "airport." I really wonder what it would be like to have to fly somewhere every week for a job. I'd feel so fancy with my leather carry-on and pantsuit and heels. Ha! The take-off wasn't too bad, although my seat is. Hopefully I can move up towards the front of the plane once some people get off at Albuquerque for the connecting flight.

I'm hoping I fall in love with Washington. I'm not really sure why... maybe Twilight has something to do with it. :) I'm thinking it's just a place I've never seen, so I want to experience something amazing! I guess we'll see...

9:12pm (Seattle time)
Wow, this place is gorgeous. I finally landed at the Seattle airport after talking to two ladies on the plane ride here for quite a while. Missy and Aunt Mary picked me up and on the way home, a drawbridge was pulled up! I didn't realize how close Seattle is to the water. I guess I need to touch up on my US geography! Missy drove us to the school where she works at and showed me her classroom where she teaches four-year-olds. It was a very contemporary looking school; apparently it was built in more of a building way. We went to lunch next at a restaurant called Anthony's Seafood. The decor was very cute and the majority of the walls were windows looking out over the water where all the boats were docked. Next up was a stop at Missy's condo to meet up with Michelle and Nathan for a quick swim. Her building was gorgeous! It was so cute to watch little Nathan show off his newly acquired swimming skills for our group. He was so enthusiastic and never seemed to stop moving!

Missy had class at 5:30pm for her graduate program, so the other four of us headed over to Aunt Mary's home. Their neighborhood reminds me a lot of Aunt Pam's in Minnesota. I unpacked and then it was time for spaghetti dinner (which also meant soda night for Nathan!). Michelle, Mary and I talked for a while after dinner while Nathan kept himself entertained with his car toys, a.k.a "the boys." Little did I know that Michelle was a psych major! After Michelle and Nathan went home, Aunt Mary and I took Sassie (Missy's dog) for a walk around the block. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Aunt Mary and I watched t.v. for a little bit but then called it quits at 9pm... although it was still bright out! Uncle Rick was at work today, but I'll see him in the morning.

Pictures:







Day Two

7:18pm
Although I was planning on trying to wake up before my relatives did, I failed! I guess I'm still not used to the time change. I went downstairs and was greeted by Aunt Mary, Uncle Rick, and a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Uncle Rick was still up from his 24hr shift that ended at 7am. Yikes! We enjoyed breakfast and so did Sassie, who got the last piece of bacon. Later in the afternoon we headed out to Twin Falls for a hike. Although the trail was marked "easy," I'd probably disagree! There were a lot of uphill climbs on the way (which made for an easy trip back, thankfully). After about an hour, we finally made it to see the falls! There were about four levels total. It was gorgeous. On our way back, a man also walking asked if we'd stopped at the "low falls" mark, which we hadn't. Apparently it was the best view! Oh well, maybe next time. We also met a lady who I ended up talking to about Baylor; she started the conversation as she'd noticed my BU sweatshirt... that's right, sweatshirt! I told you this weather was awesome. On the way home we stopped at Fins Bistro, a small restaurant near a theater that Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary had seen Elton John's "Aida." Apparently our waiter looked just like the lead from the play! I had an awesome leg of lamb and we all shared crème brûlée and apple pie for dessert. Yum!

10:24pm
Missy came over a little while after we got home. Somehow, we all ended up watching old home videos. Missy and I decided that it's definitely a Dermody thing to document our lives so intensely. We even ran across an old video with no sound from the days when Uncle Tom was still a teenager! Kate looks just like her mom. Also, I realized that Chris and Michelle are twenty years older than me! There was a shot of Missy and Shannon holding me and Colleen on grandpa's front steps. Beth and Kate were cheerleaders. Grant could almost drive a go-kart at age three, and Tom loved Uncle Rick's trampoline. It was all good fun.

Pictures:













Day Three

afternoon
Today I woke up around 6:45am so that I would have time to pack, shower, and eat before the seven of us (me, Uncle Rick, Aunt Mary, Missy, Michelle, Chad, Nathan) went to take the ferry over to the San Juan islands. It was about a 1.5hr drive to the ferry and then we had an hour wait until the ferry left. We went over to the restaurant near the ferry and I had a bowl of clam chowder (delicious). Nathan was very excited about the display which showed some mechanics of how the boat worked: steering wheels, pistons, etc. Once we were all ready to board the ferry, the car wouldn't start! A friendly family helped us out with some jumper cables and after a few minutes we were good to go. We paraded onto the ferry and got out of the car. Missy and I mostly read while the others looked around. There wasn't a cloud in the sky today; perfect weather. We found our bed and breakfast but the room wasn't ready yet. We walked over to one of the many docks, where Nathan found his way down to the rocks to try and play at the "beach," which was mostly rocks. He even brought a shovel and pail with him. Uncle Rick found a snake near the rocks, which Nathan scared away! We grabbed a bite to eat (prawns, fish and chips) outside because it was gorgeous! We all walked back to the bed and breakfast and were able to check in. The suite is absolutely gorgeous... how many times have I said the "g word" now?! Well it's true, everything here is gorgeous.

8:36pm
After settling in at the suite, Michelle, Chad, Nathan, Missy, and I drove over to Jackson beach, about a two miles from our bed and breakfast. Nathan was really excited to go. The beach was full of driftwood... I mean full. It was something I've never seen before! Michelle tested the water and told me it was bearable; I tried it and told her I'd never take her word again. It was freezing! We started picking up some of the smaller logs and noticed hundreds of tiny little "jumping bugs" emerging. Ah! So gross. I found a safe spot on the towel. Nathan and Chad kept themselves busy building a circular sand castle and then began to surround it by putting the logs in a square shape around it, sort of like Lincoln Logs. They nearly built a log cabin!
I fell for a "parent trick" today. Chad told Nathan to stay away from the jumping bugs because they bite... but they don't really. I fell for it! Missy also informed me that when they told Nathan at the pool the other day that we had to leave because there was a scheduled cleaning in fifteen minutes, there really wasn't. I guess I'll learn the tricks of the trade when I get older. Haha! We went back to the suite and Uncle Rick began to make dinner (salmon and chicken, risoto, corn, rolls, edemames (sp?), and chocolate cake for dessert). After dinner, I finished Twilight again unexpectedly, and talked to Nana on the phone for a little bit. Hopefully kayaking goes well tomorrow!

Pictures:
















Day Four

6:53pm
Today was a long day! Good, but long. Once again there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was in the 80's for most of the day. We were up and packed to go to breakfast at 9:30am (after Nathan excitedly made tea for everyone in the suite) and were treated to fruit, granola and yogurt, pancakes with strawberry sauce, delicious sausage, and tiramisu for dessert. Who eats breakfast with their dessert?! Well, we did. After breakfast, Uncle Rick, Aunt Mary, Missy and I prepared to kayak and the others came with to see us off. Unfortunately our instructor showed about thirty minutes late so the others went back to go kayak on their own at Jackson Beach and later see Wall-E. We met our instructor Aileen who was very nice! It was just the five of us as a group, so that was nice. She spoke about life jackets, spray skirts, how to use the oars, how to steer... pretty much Kayaking 101. Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary shared, while Missy and I were together. Missy and Uncle Rick had the pleasure of steering! Ha. We kayaked near the coast most of the time but didn't see much wildlife. That's okay, because I was too busy focusing on paddling and trying to not fall out of the kayak. The waves from larger passing boats created some current, which was tough at times, but we prevailed! Aileen had planned on having us cross the channel, but there was a lot of boat traffic (due to the gorgeous weather). We decided to stay near the coast for a while longer and then turn around to go back.

By the end of the trip, Missy and I decided to be lazy and coast a majority of the way back to the dock. She didn't feel like using the turning pedals because the left one had broken multiple times! We pulled into the dock like pros... no joke. It was awesome! After we all finished, we decided to stop and eat at a Chinese restaurant near the docks. We later found the others at the movie theater and then took a group trip to a lighthouse on the opposite side of the island. Supposedly it's a great place to spot orcas, but we didn't get to see any today. Apparently when Michelle and Chad came here after their wedding, they saw a huge pack of them. We hung out on the rocks for a little bit and then came back in time to park in line for the ferry back.

nighttime
We arrived back at the house to find it very warm! Since it usually doesn't get too hot during the summer, Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary didn't have an AC unit. We turned on lots of fans and opened the windows... it doesn't feel that hot to my Texas native self!

Pictures:







Day Five

8:52pm
Today was another long day! WA folks live busy lives. I woke up around 8am to share eggs, toast, and bacon with Aunt Mary, Uncle Rick, and Missy. Missy slept over last night since it was so late when we arrived home. Missy went off to church with some friends while the rest of us hit the road to Seattle. We stopped at Michelle's on the way to pick up a cooler for the fish we planned to buy later. Nathan gave me a lovely tour of the house as well (I'm pretty sure the playroom is his favorite room). We continued on to Seattle and made our first stop at the Space Needle. On the walk there, we passed the "Experience Music Project" building and part of the old fairgrounds. We went up in the elevator for 41s. It was a little shaky but not too bad. We looked around for a bit and then began following a tour guide. The most interesting thing to me was that the first high school in Seattle has now been converted into condos. All the residents have to keep everything the same way it was (chalkboards, water fountains, etc.). We ate a quick lunch high in the sky and then floated back down.

We walked over to the monorail station, which was unfortunately broken down. After waiting about 15min we were able to board. It was a quick 60s ride over to the mall, which was near Pike Market. We made our way to the market and were greeted by the yells of the famous fish market guys. It was too funny! They threw a (fake) fish into the audience. We made our way out of the crowd and passed a street performer who was singing a song that Uncle Rick knew, and Uncle Rick joined in! He sang along and played the tambourine. After the performance, I was amazed at all of the gorgeous flowers for sale. The bouquets were huge yet so cheap! We walked around the market and bought a few things for dinner and then headed back to the monorail station. We were standing in line when... wait, what?! Is that her?! I recognized my friend Gabby from Baylor. I knew she would be in WA for school this summer, but running into her in such a crowded place was crazy!

We made our way back to Michelle's for dinner, and it was delicious! While Uncle Rick and Chad played golf on the PS3, I was busy petting Nanji. What a cutie. We came home and I messed around on the piano for a long time. Uncle Rick found lots of his favorite songs for me to play and I didn't butcher them too badly!

Pictures:















Day Six

9:49pm
After we all woke up and had breakfast this morning, we drove over to Lake Washington for an afternoon lake cruise. There were about twenty others on the boat with us, which had two decks. We sat down on the upper deck outside and enjoyed the sunny weather. During the 1.5hr cruise, some of the highlights were seeing Bill Gates' house, a piece of land for sale for $22.1mil, elevators used to go down the hill to the shore, and Martha Stewart's boyfriend's house. Next we went to eat lunch at a sushi restaurant called Blue Fish, near the docks. Uncle Rick and I both love sushi, so we had to make sure to eat it for lunch while I was here! After lunch we drove to downtown Everett where Uncle Rick works. We also walked along the docks (I know, there's water everywhere!!!) and then went to see the botanical gardens as well. The gardens were free to the public. We drove home and I took a nap until dinner time, where we barbecued and ate outside. Uncle Rick asked if I wanted to take his inflatable kayak out on the small lake near their house, and I definitely said yes. I took it out on the water for a little bit, and let me tell you: kayaking is so relaxing! The water was so smooth and beautiful, I could've stayed out there forever.

Pictures:











Day Seven

5:10pm
I woke up early to pack and eat a quick breakfast before Aunt Mary, Uncle Rick, and I headed to the mall to meet Missy for lunch. Missy had to leave early so we ate afterwards at California Pizza Kitchen. We drove straight to the airport after that, and I said my thank-yous and goodbyes.

late
On the flight home, we were supposed to stop in Albuquerque again for connections but there was a storm, so we had to land in Amarillo. We proceeded to fly BACK to Albuquerque, and then to Dallas. Instead of arriving at 10:15pm Texas time, I landed at 1:30am! Yikes!

---

It was so awesome to be given the opportunity to come visit! I will be forever grateful to Uncle Rick and Aunt Mary. I definitely was able to make a week full of lifelong memories that won't be able to be replaced. I had an amazing time with them and hope to see everyone again sometime soon.

Disneyworld

Every child has always dreamed of going to Disneyworld. I went went at the age of eighteen.

Having experienced Disneyland with my family when I was much younger, I've always longed to experience the amazing Disneyworld as well. My dream finally came true this summer when my two close friends and I made it a reality. Although the trip started out as somewhat of a joke, we eventually decided that yes, we really did want to go! April, Desera and I worked our hearts out all summer at a local restaurant earning and saving up money to pay our way to Florida. We flew there and back and spent four days visiting the six different theme parks Disneyworld had to offer.

Honestly, it's been nearly a year since this trip, and I can't remember all of the dirty details. In order to have some sort of keepsake, I'll upload a few of my favorite pictures and post some of the most interesting things that happened during our stay in Florida.

After hearing about the new ride called "Expedition Everest" at the Animal Kingdom park, the three of us girls were dying to ride it... and we did. Three times. The first time was absolutely hilarious. It's a thrilling roller coaster that follows a "big foot" theme of some sorts. Upon riding it for the first time, we discovered that the ride goes backwards (after pulling up to what looks like broken tracks) and nearly runs into a life-sized big foot replica. Scary! After our third time riding it, we still could've gone again.

Another interesting ride at Animal Kingdom was "Dinosaurs." Lemme tell ya... I thought this ride was going to be a cute little ride that moved slowly. Definitely not. I sat down in our off-roading vehicle to go on to be extremely freaked out. These dinos looked way too real! All of the special effects (air blowing, dinosaurs moving, the jeep rocking) were seriously scary. Of course I was laughing hysterically the whole time, but if I ever go on it again, I'm sitting on the other side of the car! The side I sat on was the side that all of the dinosaurs jumped out on!

While still at Animal Kingdom, we decided to take a break and go on a kiddy-type ride. To our surprise, the three of us were chosen as a "Disney Family" for the ride; we were moved to the front of the line and had the privilege of riding twice in a row! It was cute.

At one of the water parks, the three of us got on a group raft ride and were accompanied by two young teenage boys. It was just a little bit awkward, but when one of the boys "fell" out of the raft halfway through the ride it was a lot-a-bit hilarious. Keep in mind that this was a rafting ride that was set in a plastic open tube with water running down it. We couldn't figure out if he threw himself out of the raft or actually fell out... or if he was trying to impress us or was just naturally an idiot (I'm sure it was the latter of those two), but I'm sure it was painful.

When at Magic Kingdom, we spent an hour watching the Beauty and the Beast musical, since it was a favorite for all of us. We sat down with our giant turkey legs and thoroughly enjoyed the show (and the shade). Before the show began, four men went onstage to supposedly adjust the mics. All of the sudden, they began to sing as a quartet rather than the regular "testing... one... two... three." It was so awesome! They even pulled up a couple from the crowd who was on their honeymoon and sang "When You Wish Upon A Star," my parent's wedding dance song.

We spent one of our evenings at Downtown Disney, a tourist hot-spot that offered places for dining, shopping, and more. After waiting forever at Planet Hollywood, we finally sat down at a table and treated ourselves. We called it a night and decided to take three seats on the Disney Bus back to the hotel. It was a bit crowded to say the least. We started talking to a little girl standing near us about what she bought, as she had a shopping bag in her hand. She began to reply but her mother, standing next to her, snapped at her to hold on so she wouldn't fall over when the bus started. Rather than asking one of us to give up our seat, she made side comments to herself about how inconsiderate teenagers are these days to adults who have children without a seat. April confronted the woman about it and proceeded to stand up in the back, leaving her seat empty. Rather than telling her child to sit in the seat, she put her shopping bags in April's now empty seat. Seriously?! Later we figured out that her husband was sitting in a seat... shouldn't it have been his responsibility to make his family comfortable? What a way to end a mostly wonderful night.

To end on a lighter experience, on our final morning, April and I woke up super early to go swimming in the pool downstairs. It was way too much fun and we woke Desera up when we came back so that we could all start packing (while jamming out to "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance, of course) to go home.

This trip was absolutely amazing. I couldn't have asked for better people to spend it with. After working so hard all summer to save up money to make our way there, it was so incredibly worth it. I'm so glad I waited until I was eighteen to go to Disneyworld for the first time - this way, I could remember every single detail... the rides, the laughs, the frowns, the jokes, everything. I'll always remember it and I would go back in a heartbeat.

Pictures:

London

If you haven't read the previous post, "Ireland", I suggest you do. It covers the first part of the trip I took over spring break, which includes both Ireland and London, London being second.

Day One
After departing from the Shannon Airport in Ireland, we made our short flight of about an hour over to Great Britain. Just my luck, I was sandwiched in between Helen and Samson so the flight was bound to be an interesting one. When the stewardess made her way down the aisle offering cokes or snacks (which on all previous flights had been free), Samson raised his hand for a Pepsi and she replied with "A Euro fifty, please." Samson, dumbstruck, searched his bag for some coins and handed them to her, receiving back a very unusually small can of Pepsi. After staring for a few seconds, he turned around to ask Kapela why we had to pay for drinks on this flight. At this point, Helen grabbed the Pepsi and hid it in her backpack, so that when Samson turned around the beloved Pepsi was gone. He looked around for a while- just under the seats and around us -before we convinced him to ask everyone else on the flight if they had seen his Pepsi. He even made a sign, and held it up to people who returned in fits of laughter (were they laughing at him or with him...?). After asking the flight attendant if she would make an announcement about it, we finally gave in and put the Pepsi back on his seat before he came to sit back down. Ha!

We landed in London and didn't have to fill out any paperwork since Great Britain and Ireland are tied together as far as those things go. Upon waiting for our bus, Kapela told our group to decide on what we were doing tonight. Megan had an idea of going on the Jack the Ripper Walking Tour, which interested everyone in the group, except me. I just wasn't keen on walking around late at night learning about the murder mystery of Jack. Eventually I gave in, not wanting to drag everyone else down. We once again quickly dropped our things off at the hotel and were off on our way to dinner and to exchange money. After George, our new tourguide, led us briskly to a shop just down the street from our hotel to get some Pounds, everyone was in shock. When you traded in one hundred US Dollars, you received fifty-six Pounds back! This was definitely an eye-opener for everyone. The Tube Station, which I was very excited about, was just a little further down and we took it all the way to dinner! Our three day passes cost us around fifteen to twenty Pounds, which meant that after paying that we could use the passes to ride the tube as often as we needed for the next few days.

Dinner was good... it was basically just salad with very real-looking leaves and hamburgers. After dinner we went to take the tour which started at the Tower of London. One woman led the whole tour, taking a group of at least fifty people all over a small area of London and educating everyone on the murders, where they took place, and the theories over Jack and why everything happened how it did. I was pretty tired so I wasn't focused the entire time or else I'd give a more in-depth explanation of where we went and what the woman told us. Lucky for me we went back to the hotel not too late and I actually got some decent sleep. For the rest of the trip I roomed with Helen and Claudia, which was nice, but our room was definitely a mess by the first night as seen below.

Pictures have been removed temporarily. They will be back up shortly.


Day Two
This was my favorite day of the entire trip. It was so packed with things to do along with tons of free time so our group got a lot of things done and had a great time overall... this part of the post will be long. With lots of pictures!

The day started off with a professionally led tour of the popular places of the city. With the first stop being St. Paul's Cathedral, I was obviously excited. I love old cathedrals from the outside to the inside; they're just so impressive! Our grop got off the charter bus and looked around the outside of the church, which was apparently all we were going to see. Although this sounds like a sad story, the experience was nothing short of interesting. The building was so massive that it took forever just to walk around it. Once we got to the front, I felt so incredibly small. Each time I tried to take a picture, my camera would only be able to fit in a tiny part of what I was actually trying to capture- it was that big. I even went all the way across the street and area in front of the church, and still couldn't fit it all in. As you can see on the picture of me on the steps (which only makes up half of the height of the building), I was just tiny. The architecture was amazing. In order to make up an excuse to go inside, I went to the bathroom and got a glimpse of one of the sanctuaries housed by the cathedral. It was just gorgeous. There was even a statue of John Wesley! Go Methodists!

Next up was the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. We arrived about forty minutes before the ceremony started, so we split off into groups to explore around the pavillion and walkway in front of the palace. In the middle there's this huge statue of Queen Victoria that's just a beautiful gold and white. A group of us also took a picture with a "bobby", or British policeman. All of the security men were very on guard and yelling at people if they walked in specific places or went anywhere near the guards. About ten minutes before the ceremony started, which took place every day, our tour guide led us to a spot that wasn't very crowded at all, so I didn't expect to get a very good view of the guards marching past. But to my surprise, this lady knew what she was doing- the guards walked right past us on their way to the building where they slept in. Throughout the whole ceremony there was a band playing, and we even heard one of the songs that our honor band played this year at UIL!

After the Changing of the Guard, we completely had the rest of the day to ourselves. I went with a big group that was planning on going to the Tower of London before lunch in order to get a group discount. Once we got off the tube stop at the Tower, a few of us were exceptionally hungry so we just kind of unofficially decided to skip out on the Tower for now and go grab some food to energize us for the rest of the day. Unfortunately this led one of the chaperones to be a bit dissappointed in us for leaving without telling her but... oh well. Claudia, Helen, Samson, Esther, Joey and I walked around for a bit before realizing that we had no idea where to find a local pub. We kept on running into businesses and no restaurants. Eventually I just asked one of the locals where we could find a cheap place to eat and luckily he just pointed us across the Tower Bridge, saying that there were a lot of pubs in that direction. The walk across the bridge was breathtaking. The river went on forever and the bridge was so tall and beautiful. For lunch we found ourselves at a pub- much different from those in Ireland I might add -where we split two plates of fish and chips. Although the fish was a bit bland, it was still fun to have the good old fish and chips in the heart of London.

Being only a bridge away from the Tower of London with our stomachs full, my group headed back to the landmark and bought our tickets. We didn't go on a guided tour, but I think that we saw enough. There were lots of buildings, most of them almost like museums, just displaying important artifacts from the history of London. My favorite room was that of the Crown Jewels. The security doors into this building were honestly at least four feet thick, which was no surprise because there were thousands of precious jewels inside. Swords, crowns, jewelry, you name it. It took a while to get through everything. Our group took a picture with a Beefeater (or guard) since most of the regular red-coat fur-hat guards were all out of reach or inside of fences. From what I saw it wasn't like the movies where you could go up to the guards and try to make them laugh unfortunately, because we were all in a goofy mood and would've loved the challenge.

Once we left the Tower, the six of us made our way back to the nearest Tube station and attempted to make our way to the London Eye- a magnificent observation wheel in the heart of London that overlooks the city. Once we got there, I realized that this was indeed not a regular ferris wheel. Instead of sitting in the open air, about twenty people climbed into a little capsule with a round bench in the center. The capsule was obviously clear so everyone was able to look outside. At the top we reached nearly 443 feet. After attempting to get in line, we figured out that you had to go inside a nearby building first to buy tickets, then get in line for the actual ride. We waited nearly thirty minutes to purchase our twelve-euro tickets and then got in the line near the observation wheel. The "flight" was amazing (British Airways was involved in the design of the wheel) and took nearly twenty-five minutes to complete. There were lots of good picture opportunites, as you'll see below.

After getting off, we started walking back across one of the bridges towards Big Ben, which all of us wanted to see (and hear!). When it started chiming for four o'clock Esther got so excited. She proposed that we "stay until five to hear it again, please!!!" She's so funny. Once we were inside the Tube station, there was a man selling paintings for around ten euros. Each one of us bought a picture as a authentic London souvenier.

Meeting up with the whole group around dinner time, we all headed to dinner before going to the Dominion Theatre to see "We Will Rock You." The musical was based entirely on Queen songs and basically just made a story line out of their greatest hits. The rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody as the finale was to die for... it was just a blast. Everyone inside the theatre was jumping around and singing along. Samson stole a pair of the mini binoculars you could rent for fifty cents and the rest of us bought t-shirts with the musical's logo on the front. I would see it again in a heartbeat!

After this long day, all of us were exhausted. Helen, Claudia, and I went right to bed once we got back to the hotel and prepared ourselves for our final full day in London.

Pictures have been removed temporarily. They will be back up shortly.


Day Three
Stonehenge! I had been looking forward to this throughout the whole trip. It's just one of those places that everyone has to see once during their lifetime. Everyone was responsible for preparing a sack lunch after buying groceries from the store across the street from our hotel. For about three euros I got a sandwich and some chips which I would eat later on the bus ride home. After the long bus ride there, our group went out into the cold and windy weather with our headsets and found ourselves at the historical site. Unfortunately after listening to the commentary for no longer than two minutes, I was bored. I think the only thing that I was excited about previously was the fact that I was going to be at Stonehenge, and not learning all of the history behind it... oh well. Our group had fun looking at the "sheepy sheep" and going to the souvenier shop afterward. Overall it wasn't as fun as I had expected it to be, but I guess in the end looking at rocks can't be all that exciting.

Once we began coming back into the main parts of London, everyone got dropped off at different places. Some left at Abbey Road, then our group from yesterday got off at some random place near a tube station. We didn't really know what we wanted to do yet, so we just began walking around. Most of us needed to use the bathroom pretty badly, so we wandered over to Piccadilly Square to a Burger King, where the bathrooms were completely made out of stainless steel, which was just awkward. The restaurant was two stories though, so that was exciting! Next up we went and looked around a CD store, then finally found ourselves in China Town. All that there was to see here was restaurants and such, so not really anything for us teenage kids. In the end, we all bought a few shirts and souveniers and called it a day. (It was hard to out-do yesterday's events.)

Tonight was the special night that everyone had been looking forward to: Discotech Night! We all got dolled up at the hotel before we went out to a nice dinner at... another hotel? Nontheless, it was a very nice buffet-style dinner that left everyone full. It was a bit of a walk to dinner from the Tube station, so all the girls (especially Claudia) were already complaining about their high-heeled shoes on their feet. We lingered at the hotel for a while after dinner since we didn't want to get to the club before ten or eleven. Once the time came, our group began the search for the club.

It sounds easy, right? Just pick out one of the many clubs in London and there you go. No. Since no one in our group besides the chaperones was eighteen, we shouldn't be allowed in any of the clubs. Kapela was a bit surprised by this since last year, London didn't have an age restriction in their clubs so everyone got in on their last trip without a problem. This year, the law had changed and the bouncers were pretty strict when it came to this one in particular: No one under eighteen allowed. We all tried the "We're American and we left our passports at the hotel, but I swear I'm eighteen!!!", but that failed miserably at three locations. By this point everyone was exhausted from all the walking and was losing faith in getting everyone into a club. Finally, one of the natives took us to a small, two-story club called Sac and success! We all got in. For fifteen or something euros it was a bit of a splurge but it was definitely worth it. We all danced, even though half of us were scared to (including me- I can't dance at all!). When this weird stalker guy started hitting on some of the girls in our group, Bon-Jovi (also known as Juan and Joey) saved the day by guarding our group away from everyone else. I'll never forget that night! Well maybe I will... because I was pretty tired. Haha. It was a great way to end the trip overall.

Pictures have been removed temporarily. They will be back up shortly.


Day Four
Today was waking up and then going straight to the airport. The airport in London was more like a mall than an airport- there were tons of stores everywhere and you had to look long and hard to find your terminal. We spent a couple of hours there and then we were on our way back home on the long flight to America. Once I got off at Atlanta I immediately called my parents and Alex to let them know that I was still alive and almost home. I slept the entirety of the flight from Atlanta to Dallas, and once we arrived in Dallas I couldn't believe it. I tiredly followed our group from the terminal right across to the baggage claim area where everyone was waiting. It was definitely a sight to see. My mom ran up to me and grabbed me before I could say anything. Next was my dad and then finally, Alex. It was so great to see everyone and that woke me up for about an hour. Alex came over afterward and explained to me that he had a massive ear infection all week long! We were both tired so he came over for a bit and then my dad (upon my request) drove him home.

This trip was something I'll never forget! My first out-of-country experience was definitely something I owe to my parents and Kapela. She was a great teacher and really prepared me for what I would be experiencing. I can't wait to travel again!

Pictures have been removed temporarily. They will be back up shortly.