Thanksgiving and London

We officially had a wonderful Thanksgiving, in a land that doesn't celebrate the holiday. One wonders if you can find all the ingredients you need for such a special event, but where we came short we made do. Everything turned out great! Our friends hosted the event, and borrowed a neighbors dinning room table so that we would have enough seating. I guess they hoisted it in parts over the back fence and in through the sliding glass doors in the living room.

Here is Kevin the turkey chef for the day. He got a fresh bird from a turkey farm and soaked it in brine for 24 hours then did his own special array of spices for the baking itself.

My little man getting ready to eat real Thanksgiving food this year. He did a great job and even took a long nap at their house on a real bed - that was a first for him. He slept so well we had to go wake him up!

We also all got a little taste of duck thanks to another great chef Kody! I think this was my first time eating duck.

Alyas holding Cormac. He is quite gentle with babies and loves to give them hugs! Way to go soon-to-be big brother!


And now...on to our trip to London. Monday, Kevin took Brandon and I to London (Alyas stayed home with Jill for the day), mostly so we could see St. Paul's advent service that night. We made a whole day out of it traveling all over the city. We had a great time, with only a little rain in the morning - but man did our feet hurt at the end of the day!

First stop was St. Paul's to climb the 500+ stairs to the top of the dome. St. Paul's has the second largest dome in the world, after St. Peter's in Rome. You can't see the dome in this picture or any thing inside since cameras are off limits. It was amazing but words don't even come close to the beauty of the place. You can view a few glimpses at this website http://www.stpauls.co.uk/ But if you are really interested you really have to see it for yourself!


The last set of stairs up the cathedral dome!

A few of London from the top!

We traveled by train to get to London (my first), and by subway (again a first for me) and boat to get around the city. The boys where embarrassed by the way I thought you had to catch a subway tube...what can I say we don't have subways in the mid-west!


Second stop, the Royal Observatory to see and learn about the discovery of longitude. I guess explorers back in the day had figured out latitude but keeping track of longitudinal lines is much harder when it requires a clock, but not just any clock, a clock that can still keep accurate time when you are on a rocking boat at sea.

Here we are at the great Prime Meridian - our bodies standing on both the eastern and western sides of the globe. Since longitude was discovered in this section of London, known as Greenwich, they became the zero marker....thus "GMT" = "Greenwich Median Time". All time calculations are based here. This way also, we can keep track of the real time every time "the white man messes with the sun", as my father would say, at daylight savings time.



From there we bored this boat for a little trip down the river.


The guys enjoyed their pipes after lunch on top the boat. The sun came out for the celebration as well!

A spectacular London Bridge.


Next stop was the Tower of London seen here. This was once a prison but had many other functions as well. Now it houses all sorts of historical artifacts including the crown jewels. We didn't go inside as there was a steep 17 pound charge person (about $28)! It was still beautiful to walk around and admire.


Onto another boat, this time with a nice tour guide who told us all about the river front buildings. We arrived lastly in Westminster.

Here is the clock tower attached to the parliament building...better known as "Big Ben", although we learned that is really just the name of the bell inside.


A famous red double-decker bus. I have a goal to ride one some day!

Parliament building.


Westminster Abbey.

The famous round-a-bout that Chevy Chase and family got stuck in in National Lampoon European Vacation, and spoke the hilariously famous words, "Look kids, Big Ben...Parliament"!

The gates over the street leading to Buckingham Palace.

Buckingham Palace.

Our second to last stop was the advent service back at Saint Paul's, but again no pictures. The choir was beautiful with much of the service all being sung. The choir was all male with the deep, booming voices of the men contrasting the angelic, pure tones of the young boys. It was great to marvel at their talent in such a beautiful place, but all the more important a way to begin to prepare our hearts and minds to remember the significance of Christmas once again.

And our final resting spot, Kevin's favorite pub in London "Ye Old Cheshire Cheese." It's been around since 1538 and is in it's own right a historic landmark. The famous people who have drank in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese include Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, Charles Dickens, Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, Oliver Goldsmith, Alfred Tennyson, James Boswell and William Wallace, not the Scottish freedom fighter but the Scottish blogger and many more.

There is so much to see in London you can't imagine seeing but only a small part in a day, but we had a great time and got to see a good portion of the city.