European Vacation

Well it took us 3 days to get there, and that was by airplane! We had a 22 hour layover in New York so we got a hotel and then did some site-seeing. What better way to see the sites of NY than from the Empire state building. It was a rainy day and they weren't letting anyone out on the deck so we opted to have lunch at a place next door. It was good that we were close by because as soon as the clouds lifted a little we were one of the first ones to go up and out on the deck. Even still there was a fairly long line to board the elevator, so Craig, being the stud that he is, opted to climb like 20 flights of stairs. I rode the elevator, and he still beat me to the top, but oh well, I could still use my legs!!!

Our flight to London went through Edinburgh, Scotland. It was such an amazing sight to fly over Scotland, it was like a patchwork quilt.

Upon arrriving in London we quickly had to figure out how to use the train and subway systems. Living in LA, we don't have anything that would compare. When we got off at our stop on the subway we had to walk up a steep hill to get to our Marriott Hotel (Maida Valle). We spent our time in London sightseeing using the Hop on Hop off bus tours. We saw the Parliament building with Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (where Charles and Di were married), the River Thames (we road on a boat down to the Tower of London) and of course the Buckingham Palace and Tower of London.

We had fun touring London with Ann Wright (Craig's Aunt), Rachelle and Klayton Kolb (Craig's cousins), and Dee and Sherilyn Rowley (another cousin). It was nice to have company to laugh and joke with. We went to the Apollo Theatre and saw the play Wicked. It was fabulous! We loved it so much. Afterwards we went to the Hard Rock Cafe just so that we could finally have ice in our drinks and free refills! We had the best waiter, he even brought us a pitcher of soda and another one of water (with ice). Of course, all of this was done using the subway system to get around...an a lot of walking!!!!!

The last morning in London we had to do one final thing...Craig, Dee and I got up early and walked down Abbey Road! It was probably about one mile from our hotel to the Beatles recording studio. We just had to take a picture like the Beatles cover as they crossed the road in front of the studio. As we crossed the guy in the van that stopped for us yelled "Ah, you're Beatle's now"! It was way funny. After that we packed up and headed on to Manchester by train.