On Monday (after we had worked the weekend) we took the dogs to the kennel and headed to the Yakima airport. We took the 11 AM flight to Seattle and luckily they checked our bags all the way through to London or else we would have to get them from baggage claim, go through gate check and security again and then make it to our Air Canada flight.
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| Leaving Yakima |
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| Flying by Mt. Rainer with Mt. Adams in the background |
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| I-90 floating bridge and downtown Seattle |
So we had some leisure time instead and ate some lunch, Spaghetti Pomodro and chicken for me and Ivar's fish and chips for Mom, and shopped a little (why do the books at the airport always seem better than the one you brought?). We then took a short plane ride up to Vancouver, BC. The line for customs was...empty! Mom and I just walked right up and got our passports stamped and moved on into the international terminal. There we got dinner and found a Tim Hortons! Yea!! I had really been hoping to find one and I did! They were...alright. The Canadian Maple bar however was exceptional! They had a giant fishtank with coins from all over the world in it and the outbound flights board was kind of amazing. The plane we boarded there was crazy huge and the jet engines were comically large, as in three people standing on top of each other could have fit in the opening. Didn't get a picture of that unfortunately (the engine or the imaginary people).
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| Yea! Canadian donuts! |
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| Sunset at 30000 feet |
The flight from London to Vancouver was a killer. They had personal players on the backs of the headrests and after Mom and I watched the new episode of Doctor Who on the iPad and had an in-flight dinner we each watched a movie, Begin Again for me and X-Men: Days of Future Past for her. Then we tried to huncker down and sleep. Which was uncomfortable and poor. I think we each got about 3 hours of sleep for our "night". About an hour before we landed they gave us a small breakfast and since we arrived too early we were put in a holding pattern and ended up circling and circling like a spiral downwards towards London. I didn't get any cool pictures of iconic sights such as Big Ben as we flew in, but you can't win them all. Just a few of the beautiful countryside. It was 11:15 AM on Tuesday when we made it there. The line at customs to get into the UK was VERY long, but they moved us all through in about 30 minutes.
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| Holding pattern... |
We picked up our luggage and then headed to the exit to find our ride. We had booked a ticket with Heathrow Shuttle but didn't know where to find the pickup. We looked at all the names on the signs of people waiting and didn't see ours. Mom asked around, I asked around and then I checked my phone. I had missed a call about 2 minutes prior from the company and called them back (I'd bought 30 international minutes) and we found our driver. Thank goodness we didn't decide to drive because the traffic was crazy! We made it to our hotel, climbed an insane number of stairs and collapsed into our room. We stayed at Studios 2 Let, a studio flat with a little kitchenette and personal bathroom that we rent for however long we needed to stay. It is really quite nice and roomy and only a 5 minute walk to King's Cross Station. We went out after a bit of a rest and got food for breakfast and picked up a bite to eat for dinner. Mom's been dying to try traditional British fish and chips and we found a little place that had just that! I got some chicken and chips to balance it out and we shared. Mom found the fish only okay. It was one giant long half of a fish dipped in batter. Since it was a thinner slice of fish it was quite oily and the batter was underdone in places. And it was pretty tasteless. No tartar sauce either, we ended up putting some honey on it that we had picked up for toast from the market. All in all not the best introduction to British food, but at least it was edible. Now I am blogging while sitting by the open window looking out across the other bulidings and the sun comes and goes through the clouds. It's really pleasant when it does shine because it warms my back and the breeze is a bit cool. There is a church close by that rings out bells at each quarter hour and then tells the hour when it comes around. "Ding dang ding dong" it says for the first quarter, adding "ding dong ding dang" for the half hour. The three quarter hour is the hardest because it's like doing "shave and a hair cut" without the "two bits". "Ding dang ding dong, ding dong ding dang, dang dong ding dong...." We waited for the last "ding dong ding dang" the first time but it never came. Now we are trying to stay up until the sun sets this evening to turn ourselves around. We'd thought about doing a bus tour, but we are so exhausted we really need some sleep on our vacation. I think I'll go make myself a cup of tea now... :)
Fun Observations of the Day: People who are together as a couple seem to have similar noses. Bristish accents make me feel uncouth about my own accent. At work occasionally one of us will slip into a Brisith accent for fun and then the rest follow (okay, only Janelle, Tina and I), and now when I hear people talking around here I have to consciously restrain myself from responding because I'm sure they'll find it impertinent. Britian has random history facts on their bulidings; the one today was "Elizabeth Garrett Anderson - The first woman to be allowed to be a doctor lived here." The houses really do have chimney pots all crowded on top and they look like some are about to fall off making my head start singing Chim-Chiminey-Chim-Chim-Cherie and think of Peter Pan. People must be paid better in Britian because Mercedes and BMWs abound on the streets. I think that most people here find me too polite and happy.
Step Count: None today since wearing our Fitbits through security would've been bad...
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