Scanning Memories of England

For the past week or more my days and nights have been consumed again with scanning our family photos.  It's a tedious, rather tiring job, but it needs to be done.  I've got most of the everyday at-home type family photos done.  I'm now working on travel photos and gosh do we have a lot!  Luckily, I have them pretty organized and labeled in albums so it's a do-able task.

I just finished England.

In 1990, Art came home from work in Chicago and said, "How do you feel about going to England?"

"Ummm... Sure," I said laughing.  I figured he was joking.  We'd never traveled overseas as a family before.  I'd only had one previous overseas college trip to Japan in 1970. 

Blenheim Palace

A couple of days later, he came home and said he'd bought the tickets.  He said the prices were so amazingly reasonable that he couldn't pass it up.  I  think it was something like $350. for a round trip ticket to Heathrow.  I couldn't believe this was happening.  It absolutely floored me.

On March 31st, we were on our way.  I remember sitting at O'Hare Airport still in shock about what we were doing.

A call came out that they had overbooked and if anybody would like to give up their seats, they would be giving vouchers for the cost of our tickets.

We went right up and volunteered to go on another flight.

However, they didn't need us so they called us up again.  They said that because our seats had been given away, they would be putting us in Business Class.  Art told them we were booked for Coach and asked if the Business Class would be as good.

The agent laughed and said, "Trust me, sir. You'll love it."

We did.

Bath

Everything went well except that the kids' suitcases did not arrive with us.  We couldn't wait a day for them because we needed to be on our way to Oxfordshire and Blenheim Palace where Winston Churchill was born.

After very little sleep, Art had to get into our rental car and drive on the other side of the street and learn about Round-Abouts.

At Blenheim Palace we got to try clotted cream on scones for afternoon tea.  It was quite lovely!

The following day, we were in Bath.  After reading all of Jane Austen's novels,  it was such a thrill to actually be in Bath!

Then we were on our way to Bath.  We passed by this burning car which really freaked us out.  We could hear the emergency vehicles coming.  It exploded just as we went by and we could feel the heat. 

Caerphilly Castle

Caerphilly Castle in Wales was awesome.  I wondered how they ever kept warm in those stone rooms.

We enjoyed Wales and saw a lot there.

The  kids were having to wear our clothes and I have a feeling they weren't exactly thrilled.

Paddington Station

Art felt great to drive into London and return the car.  I'll bet his blood pressure was high from all that stressful driving.

Paddington Station was fun for the kids.

In London, we got to see Starlight Express and Cats.  We were right up front for Starlight Express so having the stars roller skate within touching distance really kept you alert.

However, Jon fell asleep before the second act of Cats.  I had to wake him up so he could hear Memories.

I was so excited to see a real life Bobby that I asked one of them if I could have them take a photo with Jon.  The officer was very kind, but poor Jon was mortified.

Big Ben

And then there was Big Ben.  It was big.

The kids' suitcases were delivered to us in London so they could be dressed in their teen-type gear for the last three days of the trip.

Queen Elizabeth in red

While we were outside Westminster Abbey a procession of cars arrived.  Someone in the crowd told us it was Queen Elizabeth.  I sure wish I had my long lens digital camera then.  The photo is blurry, but the queen stood out in red.  Prince Philip was with her too. He stood about looking at the crowds before following her in.

We went to the Tower of London, Harrods, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum and a myriad other must-see places.  I have a feeling what the kids remembered most about the trip was the FULL English Breakfast. 

For a first trip abroad, it was wonderful to be in an English speaking country, and hearing the different accents was fun.  We would love to go back again someday.

Ahhh... Memories...

OK... Back to my scanning.  Rome is next.