Minding the Gap

Although we were only in London for 3 days,

those days were jam-packed.  

Here is the highlight reel.

We stayed in the South Kensington area, and 

this was our tube station (pronounced "Gloss-ter")

We picked our hotel after reading 

several reviews which said that it was a 

good place to stay, so long as you are

not claustrophobic or have an aversion

to the color orange.

The reviews were accurate on both accounts.

This was our "room" (good thing I had

training in those cruise ship rooms!):

And our "tiny loo."

 But it was just enough space for us.

Our first night in London, we met up

with our DC friend Katie Younger to

see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theater.

In the morning, the first place we visited 

was the London Eye.  Jake likes to look out over 

each city he visits from its highest point.

The sky was clear and we got some great views.

Including the best view (I think) of Big Ben

and the Houses of Parliament.

 The next way we saw the city was 

from a double-decker bus.  Our ticket was

good for 24 hours, and we made good

use of that time!

We saw Buckingham Palace...

And went inside Westminster Abbey

(one of my favorite parts of the trip):

This is the entry that the new Duchess

of Cambridge used for the Royal Wedding.

But this is the closest we got to Will and Kate.

The Tower Bridge:

And St. Paul's Cathedral:

JK Rowling's apartment!

(the white one with the dog-shaped 

plant on the balcony)

The British Museum,

one of our only activities that was FREE!

We spent several hours inside, but easily

could have spent several days.

The Rosetta Stone:

Real mummies!

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather

and hopped on bikes to explore Hyde Park.

And Kensington Palace.

On our last night in London, we met up

with our Poulter family friend, Hazel.

We had a lovely dinner in Covent Garden.

Cheerio London.  

Hope to return again someday!

The great temples in Great Britain

Jake and I had a stroke of good fortune

last Christmas and were able to accumulate

a generous amount of Delta dollars (due to

overbooked flights to Orlando after the holidays).

Our second break happened when Delta

started flying nonstop from Miami

to London-Heathrow. They advertised

with some amazing deals.

So what did we do? We booked two flights

to London for the first week of April.

It was a quick trip, but an amazing one.

The first thing we did upon arriving

was rent a car and hit the road:

Ask Jake how he liked driving a

stick shift on the opposite side of the

car and the opposite side of the road:

We drove straight from the airport up to
Preston, England (about a 4 hour drive).
What a beautiful temple:

We had some extra time to enjoy the grounds,
since the clock in our car was an hour slow
(thanks to UK daylight savings time) and we got
to the temple too late to do a session.

But we went back the next morning, and
were able to do some work inside.
Then we explored the grounds a bit more.

And then we were off to explore some
church history in Preston.  First stop was
this corner building:

 Anybody know what it is?

Nobody?

Okay, I'll tell you.  :)

This is the site where the first LDS missionaries

in England stayed, on the corner of 

Wilfrid St. and Fox St.

Next up, this little house is 15 Wadham Road:

 This is where President Gordon B. Hinckley
stayed as a young missionary when he wrote
that famous letter home to his father saying that
he was wasting his time and his dad's money.
His father responded,

"Forget yourself and go to work."

This was a turning point in President Hinckley's life,

who went on to become a prophet in our church.

(Young Gordon B. Hinkley)

Just a short walk away from Wadham Road

was the river Ribble:

This is the site where the first saints in
England were baptized,
including my ancestor, Henry Clegg.
According to family legend, Henry Clegg was in
a footrace with George D. Watt to see
who would be baptized first.  Henry was not
quite as young and spry as George,
and came in second.

We found this lovely park commemorating the
members and missionaries of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England.

We walked around a bit, and then we
were back on the road.

Next stop, the London Temple:

We stayed at the temple accommodations,
and this was the view from our window:

 Jealous?  Permission granted.

We enjoyed going into the London temple

as well to do some work.  

The main reason we went to England was to
see the temples (a long time dream of Jake's),
so these first two days were pretty special.
Mission accomplished.

A tale of Easter kindness

When I was working for Norwegian

Cruise Line, I spent about 4 months 

sailing in and out of New Orleans.

I was able to attend church regularly

at a singles branch in the city, as my ship

docked on Sundays.

I met some great people in that branch,

including two young ladies named Autumn 

and Thaidra.  A week before Easter,

they invited me over to their house the

following Sunday for Easter dinner.

Unfortunately, I always had to be back

on the ship at 4 pm, and so I explained I wouldn't

have time to go home with them after church.

Well, the next week when I showed up for

church (on Easter Sunday), these two

sweet sisters had prepared for me

an Easter picnic to take back to the ship.

The meal was delicious, and consisted

of a chicken salad sandwich (on a croissant),

deviled eggs, and poppyseed cake.  I'll 

never forget sitting outside the ship on a 

bench and quietly enjoying that meal,

which was prepared with love.

I was very touched

by their thoughtfulness and grateful

that I could celebrate Easter in some way.

I've thought of this experience every

year on Easter since it happened, in 2008.

I've always wanted to recreate that meal

and that special memory.

So that was our dinner this year on Easter

(Autumn and Thaidra were kind enough

to share with me the recipes).

Hope everyone had a great Easter Sunday!

As my mom reminded me via a text this morning,

Easter is truly the most hopeful day of the year.

Dollar Store Pity

Meet my new sock purse.

Here is the story about how she came to be:

The day that Jake and I left for London
(more on that trip later), we ran
to Dollar Tree to pick up
some supplies.  I specifically
wanted some sort of change purse,
and the only kind I could find
were of the sock purse variety.
At the checkout line,
we realized that we didn't have
our wallets (they were packed in
separate bags for our trip).
So Jake ran out to the car
and found some change (literally, nickels
and dimes) to pay for our few items.

Because we were low on coinage, I decided
the sock purse wasn't really a need,
so I put it back on the shelf and went outside.

Jake lingered in the store for a minute
more, and the cashier slipped him
this sock purse (for free) to give to me,
which was so sweet.

Now, Jake and I are really blessed and
are financially stable (well, as long as you don't
mention "student loans").  But you know we must
have come across as real ragamuffins when
the dollar store cashier thought we were
too poor for a sock purse!

I must say though, the purse sure did the trick
in London holding our pounds and pence
(also known as quids and p's).

Happy Valenbirthaversary

Yes, I have finally jumped onto the Modern Family bandwagon.

Anyway, due to Jake's work schedule and a string

of visitors, we celebrated Valentine's Day
a week late, on February 21st.
This also happened to be our six-month anniversary
(when you haven't hit a year mark yet,
you have to celebrate by months).  

And last but not least, this day was special because

Jake's cousin Tiff and her husband Albert were

blessed with a baby boy, Quentin.

So it was a big day!

Jake planned a lovely evening out.  Here is a picture of us

eating at the romantic Antonio's Italian Restaurant:

Meet the In Laws

In February, we hosted Jake's mom, Claudia,

and her fiancé, Karry, for 10 days.

As Jake was working during the majority
of their stay, I got to spend some
quality time with them!

They were even kind enough to take me
out on Valentine's Day, since my
"Valentine" spent the holiday at the hospital.

I also worked during part of their visit,
but luckily Claudia and Karry are very self-sufficient
and found plenty of ways to stay entertained.

In fact, I think they saw Florida at its finest!

Here are some picture highlights of their stay.

Visiting Disney's Epcot Center:

Disney's Hollywood Studios, where Claudia

was able to go on her favorite ride, 

Aerosmith's Rock 'N' Roller Coaster":

Disney's Animal Kingdom

On Jake's afternoon off, we all went to
Universal Studios, where Hogwarts
was definitely a highlight:

 This picture really sums up our time together.

Claudia collects smashed pennies,
and Jake helped her find just about every
smashed penny machine in the greater Orlando area.
I think we're keeping the smashed
penny industry in business.

 On their own, Claudia and Karry went golfing

(that's a gator in the lake)...

...made it out to the Kennedy Space Center...

...the beach...

...and even the Daytona 500 Race!

 This is the only picture we managed to snap

with all 4 of us.  Jake is appropriately
in his scrubs standing outside of
Winnie Palmer Hospital.

Thanks Claudia and Karry for a great visit!