We spotted this heading out to work this morning. Some clever spookster tied a red balloon to the sewer grate outside our house.
In case you don't get It.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
It's A Balloon
We spotted this heading out to work this morning. Some clever spookster tied a red balloon to the sewer grate outside our house.
In case you don't get It.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
A Retaste Of Tuscany
While we were at the villa in Tuscany having dinner you could order some of their wines at a deep discount with cheap shipping. My folks did so, including the bubbly blue kind, and it arrived today. I'm sure we'll enjoy sampling them all.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
8 Out Of 25
JIS turned 25 today. They served a nice breakfast from Monell's and then played a retrospective slide show. After that was a "how can we make JIS even better" discussion. This is the longest I've worked anywhere and I don't see me leaving anytime soon, but you never know what fate has in store.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
2017 European Dream
This is probably not the best picture to represent our trip, but as I have said in the past it's my blog so I'll put up the dream picture I want.
Anyway, you might have noticed the sidebar of my blog only shows the last 100 posts for a given month. This is normally not a problem since I rarely post more than 100 times in a month, but this little jaunt clearly went way over that. Therefore for ease of reference I am putting up a link list here:
I. The Start
II. Rome
III. Florence
IV. Venice
V. Lucerne
VI. Paris
VII. London
VIII. Outside London
IX. Us In Europe
Monday, October 16, 2017
Us In Europe 10
Mom and Dad having a cute moment just outside Royal Albert Hall with the Prince Albert Memorial in the background.
Us In Europe
Anyone who follows my blog (you have my sympathies) knows I tend to avoid showing people and then only when I know they are OK with the picture. Unless of course it's some public crowd shot. Well prepare to be shocked, here's proof we actually went to Europe.
This is a shot of our Trafalgar tour group in front of the Colosseum in Rome. Apparently I was wearing a little blue umbrella hat that day.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Not A Home Until They're Home
There was just one more thing to do. We got back too late to pick the dogs up from the kennel that day. So we had to wait until Sunday. After two weeks we missed our fuzzy kids badly, it was good to see them. They promptly did what they do best. Went to sleep.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Nowork
We landed at Newark Liberty International Airport. Back on American soil. We had about a two hour layover. Then we boarded our plane. Then we sat there for forty minutes. Then they told us the plane was busted and to get off. At which point we had another two hour delay before a replacement plane came and we were able to leave. It wasn't fun, but in the grand scheme two extra hours isn't bad. I was afraid we'd be stuck overnight or something.
Cheers
The last two weeks had been a whirlwind. Every day going so many places, seeing so many things. For a first trip we wouldn't have changed a thing, but we probably wouldn't do it again either. I can't think of a single bad memory, even poor Madeline is more a fun story than annoying now. The four of us were in pretty intense quarters and all got along great as well. All in all, a fantastic trip of a life time.
Like Clockwork
We ate breakfast at the airport, which normally wouldn't warrant the post but it was a place called the Perfectionist's Cafe. A quirky little joint with strange art that I liked. Their symbol is also a chef's knife with a clockwork key, which appealed to my steampunk sensibilities.
Royal Service
The trip was over, and it was time to fly out of Heathrow Airport. Of course we got to use the Queen's personal terminal.
Friday, October 13, 2017
London, Fortnum & Mason 8
All the various little finger sandwiches and sweet treats come on tiered stands. They were all excellent, and Fortnum and Mason also had a very good gluten free high tea option. The entire experience was great, we savored and relaxed, and enjoyed every bit of it thoroughly.
London, Fortnum & Mason 7
The teas were all delicious. If you finished a pot you could ask for more, and in a different flavor if you wanted. The pots were nice too, everything in that Fortnum & Mason blue. You can really tell the difference in high quality tea served at just the right temperature in just the right way.
London, Fortnum & Mason 6
The menus. One containing options for the various versions of high tea, and the other full of the many flavors of tea to choose from.
London, Fortnum & Mason 4
It's supposed to be one of the best in all of London. You get a little live musical accompaniment with your tea so that's a good start.
London, Fortnum & Mason 3
We did some shopping here as well, but the main event was on the top floor. That's where Fortnum and Mason's High Tea room is, and we happened to have a reservation for four.
London, Fortnum & Mason 2
Fortnum and Mason isn't quite as high end as Harrod's but they do compete with lavish displays and spendy goods. They're much more old school though and there's a certain charm in that. At 310 years old they should be. Their signature blue is also nice, very close if not the same as Tiffany.
London, Fortnum & Mason
Then it was time for Fortnum and Mason, who really know how to make an entrance.
London, Harrod's 4
The elevators are all in the middle, zig-zagging up the multiple floors. All of them have various Egyptian themes. We really didn't take many pictures here, either because we were tired or because as fancy as Harrod's is, a department store is a department store.
London, Harrod's 3
This was the food section of Harrod's with candy, coffee and other treats. Everything in the store was like this, overflowing with high end touches and decorations.
London, Harrod's 2
I like Ferrari's and my favorite one is the GTC4Lusso. What's the first thing we see when we walk into Harrod's? Not only a Ferrari, but my favorite one. Is that kismet or what? Unfortunately I could not convince my family that this was fate and I was meant to go home with it.
London, Harrod's
Our last day. Today was a cool down day, no tours, no hurry. Just shopping and high tea. We started at Harrod's. Opened in 1824, by Charles Henry Harrod a 25 year old entrepreneur it's now one of the most famous and ritzy stores in the world. It has a dress code just to shop at it.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Stonehenge 9
Pictures can't capture what it's like to be there.
By the way as you circle the stones the trail you walk on veers way out from them for reasons I'm not aware of, which is why some of the next pictures are distant.
Stonehenge 7
The first construction of Stonehenge started in 3100 BC with a small bluestone circle. Over the next few thousand years different tribes of people edited and added to the site, until about 1600 BC when scientists think the last major changes were made and we got Stonehenge as we know it now.
Stonehenge 6
This unique, stand alone rock is called the Heel Stone. It wasn't carved in any way but I think it definitely has a face. It's 16 feet tall and leans inwards towards the circle. At summer solstice the sun rises directly over the Heel Stone in relation to the circle.
Stonehenge 5
We really enjoy looking at lumps of dirt. But seriously that mound is a barrow, a burial site. Barrows are far from unique to Stonehenge, but the density of them here is. They are scattered around everywhere from single graves to tombs holding 45 people and some of them are as old as 4,000 BC. It's hard to wrap your mind around the timeline of 6,017 years of history.
Stonehenge 4
We'll get to that, first a little side business. There were ravens everywhere, which made us recall the Tower of London and enjoy that small weaving together of our trip.
Stonehenge 3
Then you get off the shuttle and in the distance you see this. Now YMMV folks, but we were enthralled from that moment on.
Stonehenge 2
You hop on a shuttle bus from the Visitor's Center and take a ride through a wide open swath of sheep fields.
Stonehenge
We arrived at the Stickhenge, I mean Stonehenge Visitor's Center just before it closed and were the last group to get tickets. We had tempered our expectations and prepared to be underwhelmed, even Dominic had joked about going out into a field and seeing a bunch of rocks.
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