A Wicked Ride

AHHHH!  So much to write, so little time.  Where was I...

Sunday didn't really start until 2:30pm for us because Justin wasn't feeling the best.  He went back upstairs to rest after we shoved some free breakfast down our throats a few minutes before they stopped serving it, and I hopped online until he joined me again at 1:45.  Then the two of us, starved for internet access and missing family, continued to chat with my mom and Patrick for a little while.

Patrick thinks we went to Jupiter and are now in Mars.  We did see a picture of Jupiter later that day... Close enough.

Natural History Museum

Justin seemed much better at this point, so we headed out.  Our first stop was a health & beauty supply store where we picked up some tylenol, sudafed (trip saver), and diet Pepsi.  And I never thought I would choose a side, but I can't play Switzerland on this subject any longer...

I prefer diet Coke over diet Pepsi.  I am so tired of Pepsi.

The Science Museum was our only planned attraction for the day.  Outside the museum we caught a glimpse of an LDS church and felt a little guilty about not attending church. 

The first floor of the Science Museum was the  most interesting.  Space, inventions, transportation. 

Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors were geared toward children and also didn't have much going on.  There was a replica of a penis, a clown mask in a jar, and stuffed, leaping cat on display.

It was on the boring floors that Justin realized that the museum he actually wanted to see was called The Natural History Museum... and I realized I am Pogonophopic.

Fear the beard.

Natural History Museum

So we left boring-ville and went to the Natural History Museum.

This museum was much more impressive, but extremely crowded.  And since it was close to closing, we used our speed.  We saw dinosaur bones, mammals, critters, birds, and sea life... all in fast forward.



Pliosaur.  I lay my eggs on earth but live at sea.

At this point our stomachs were hungry enough to eat a whale.

whale.

We wanted Hard Rock Cafe, but seeing the mass of people waiting outside, we decided to save that for another time, and ended up eating a Meat Feast Italian pizza at the Pizza Hut next to our hotel with... OH MY WORD... UNLIMITED REFILLS ON DRINKS. 

I forgive them for only having Pepsi products.

---------------------------

Monday was much more eventful and started pretty early.  We were so thirsty that morning that we were ready for breakfast the second it opened at 6:30am.  JUICE!!!!! 

Then we took the Tube to the British Museum. 

Hurray!!

This is my favorite museum of the ones we visited.  I love seeing and reading about the artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece!  I especiallllly like Greek statues.

After that we took a stroll down Drury Lane trying to find the muffin man.  Back and forth, down and up the street we went.. looking for a muffin.  While we searched for blueberry goodness, we came across Great Queen Street which I recognized as the location of one of the three geocaches I had looked up with our hotel Wifi that morning.   

With nothing but a screen shot of the geocache description and clue, Justin and I stood across from the Free Mason's building.  We have never actually geocached before, well... I've found one, but I had major help...so yeah, that was an added complication.

The clue said something like: eve level, Rain behind black and blue

"Eve.. what has that got to do with... OH!  I guess it was probably meant to say EYE level..." I figured, feeling silly for not realizing it was a typo sooner.

"And rain could be referring to storm drains.." Justin added.

"How about the storm drains on that black and blue building?!"  I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was thinking that... there is a hole... it is right by that man's head though."

Sure enough, there was the perfect hiding place that fit all the descriptions... but it was blocked by a muggle eating on the black and blue restaurant's patio.
/
"Let's go find that muffin and come back.  Maybe he'll leave," suggested Justin, and we picked back up on that search. 

We eventually found a muffin in this small cafe that I am pretty sure is the same cafe where I got a blueberry muffin last time I was in London.  The muffin man might not have been the same though.  I should have asked if he knew the real muffin man...

The real muffin man?

The real muffin man?

Who works on Drury Lane?

Well... she's married to the real muffin man?

The real muffin man?

THE REAL MUFFIN MAN!

I don't know that the conversation would have been that true to the gingerbread man quote from Shrek... but I can dream.

Anyway, so we ate the darn muffin and hurried back to Great Queen Street. 

He was STILL there...

"Come on, Honey, let's just move on... he's never gonna finish that beer," Justin reasoned.  "Wait.. where you goin'?"

I had handed him my backpack and started walking toward the hole in the gutter.  I wasn't going to get this close and give up that easy.  "I'll just ask him to move."

"And then stick your hand in the wall?!"

"Yes."

Unfortunately, when I reached my hand in the hole, not only did I get a lot of funny looks... but I did it all for a cut and a handful of dirt.  There was nothing in the hole. 

Justin dragged me away from there while he could and brought me to the London Library to cheer me up.  We went inside as far as we could and grabbed a bunch of free bookmarks.  The librarian didn't seem to want to know that I worked in a library in Willard, Missouri.  She was nice enough though.

The day was starting to look up again as we found our way to Big Ben and Parliament. 

We wanted a better view, so we walked across a near-by bridge, and that's when we found one...

OUR FIRST INTERNATIONAL GEOCACHE!

Yesss!

I was so excited that I pretty much skipped all the way across the next bridge to get back to Westminster Station.  Plus, the weather was marvelous... and the sun was out... and I was with my lovely JJ.  It was a beautiful moment.

We did finally get to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was very scrump-diddle-y-umptious, but holy crap expensive.

Burgers with 20 dollor bills instead of lettuce were followed by a Buckingham Palace walk-by. 

Hey, sup, Queen?

 Then we set out to find the Apollo Victoria theater for the 7:30 showing of WICKED!  Being a bit concerned that we would get lost along the way, we ended up getting there two hours early.  We passed by this cute, little clock on the way.

Aww, dat's cute.

What to do for two hours?  Hmmm... how about GEOCACHE?!  I looked at the screen shot of the 3rd geocache I had quickly picked earlier.  I chose it because it was right by the theater AND the station that would take us back to our hotel. 

Now I took a better look at what the cache was called: Big Ben's Little Brother.  Whoa.  Wait just one clock tick... remember this?



Aww, dat's cute.

That's right, it was the X on our pirate map!

But, finding the cache was a little more difficult than finding the clock.

The hint was to look behind the white and black arrows pointing down Vauxhall Street... well I found those arrows and felt all over the back of them for a magnetic box.  It had to be there!  Those were the only white and black arrows near the clock...

"It was probably just stolen or something, Steph," Justin told me as we walked, dragging our feet, into the nearest McDonald's for a soda.

"Or maybe... it wasn't on the arrows... maybe it was on the metal boxes behind the arrows!!  Can we go back, PLEASE PLEASE PWEEEEASE?!?!"

"Okay."

With his approval, I bolted out the door, pulling him along behind me.

Back in the little island with Little Brother of Ben, I searched all over the metal boxes... lifting things that probably weren't supposed to be lifted and most likely showing a little crack to those behind me.  I was definitely more determined this time but still didn't find anything.

Noticing that my behavior might look suspicious, and that my husband might kill me if I stayed much longer, I gave up and agreed to go wait for our show at the theater.

"Shoot, they still aren't letting people in... Wanna go get an ice cream?"

"Sure," I responded less than enthusiastically. 

We walked back to McDonald's and got a crunchie-something McFlurry to share.

"Let me see your phone," I said throwing out my hand demandingly.  Then I tapped into McDonald's WiFi.  "It shows someone found it yesterday."

"Are you still on about that geocache?  It's not there.  And even if it is, we aren't going back."

I could understand his attitude, but I had this feeling like I was missing something and just needed another try.  Like in my old Nancy Drew computer games.. I would get stuck and have myself convinced that there was a glitch in the game preventing me from going any further, but then I would figure it out and have the most rewarding sense of accomplishment. 

But I hushed up and ate the ice cream.

"Steph... what's wrong?" Justin asked slightly annoyed.  Then he sighed and said, "Ok, let's go.. but you are carrying this heavy bag."

I hugged him and we raced across the street.  My last chance. 

It was darker so I ran around feeling everything, without the embarrassment of drawing attention to myself.  There was this old man standing there watching me... but I didn't care. 

Finally, I was back around to the first place I checked... the black and white arrows.  And there, on the rail that was holding the arrows up, my hand slid across something that was not suppose to be there...

a magnetic black box!

AND THEN WE SAW WICKED!

And I'm pretty sure one of the flying monkeys picked his nose during my favorite song- For Good.

ANDANDAND now we're in ROME!!  AND it's really late so I have to go to sleep.  And tomorrow's my birthday!  And I electricuted myself tonight, but I'm ok!!  AND Rome smells like a giant carwash.

All right. Buona Notte! 

LONDON-Day One

JJ and I are in London!  YAY!  What a lot of sitting that took.  Goodness me.

My mum took us to the airport on Friday morning.  Her advice?

1. Be equal amounts of fun and safe.
2. Don't be afraid to shit on a plane.

Poetic, I know.

I did NOT poop on the plane... in case you are wondering.  I don't have the balls :D

All of the airport business (luggage, security, customs, ect) was certainly easier than I figured it would be... of
course, the lay-over and the 9 hr flight were not as fun as I thought they could be either.  I guess it evened out.

Our first flight, from Springfield to Dallas was short and sweet.  Justin and I spent the time flipping aimlessly through the supplied magazines.  Highlights: Alec Baldwin, Meekrats, and....

Dr. Life

Then we had some overly priced airport food: Fuddruckers.  While we ate we had to listen to the cashier shout "David!!" a hundred times.  I'm not so sure David ever picked up his burger.

Nothing special happened during the other FOUR hours that we sat in the Dallas Ft Worth airport.  I did count all of
the people I saw wearing the same shoes as me (3) and dozed off once.

"We will now begin seating group 2 at terminal D30 (flight 50 to London Heathrow)."  WOOOOOOOOOOOP!

9 hours is a long time.

30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sherlock, and Avatar the Last Airbender made the first 4 hours go by... but trying to sleep was the worst.  I got 2 hours MAX.

Anyway, you don't want to hear about the boring airport stuff anymore than I wanted to sit through it.  So.. let's skip ahead to the Tube.  (Skip to the Tube, my darling).

Conveniently, there is an underground running from the airport straight to our stop, Hammersmith station.  The Tube actually kept going all the way to a station called Cockfosters.  Which sounds funny to me, like something hateful you might yell at a bunch of kids that threw rocks at your head.  Anyway, I am immature and I giggle every time the intercom lady says "Piccadilly service to Cockfosters."  But then, I also giggle when she says "mind the gap."  Maybe there is giggle gas on the Tube?

It was on the Tube that I started realizing: WE ARE IN LONDON!!  And I'm one of those annoying people who gets super excited every time they hear someone speaking in a different accent or language and in my fascination, I start staring.

But like I said, riding the Tube helped me snap out of my "Ugh, I was just on a neverending airplane ride" mode... slightly harder to turn off than the "airplane mode" on an iPhone.

I liked when the train occasionally popped out into the overground world.  Most of what you could see were backyards, and I found myself trying to gaze into every little backyard I could just to soak it in.  The houses all reminded me of the book "The Magician's Nephew," by C.S. Lewis (not to be confused with Lewis Carroll!), but I was a little turned off by how trashy everyone's backyard was.

OH!  Also, the Tube, to me, smells like the faint smell of a Sunday roast mixed with the musty scent of an old suitcase you might find in the attic filled with clothes and a bike rusting in a cave.  But that's just me.

Statue outside Hammersmith Station

When we made it to Hammersmith station we really had no idea which direction to go next.  My husband's method of dealing with such a situation is to make a guess and start walking.  This led us down two wrong roads and back to where we started.

Third time was a charm though and we made it to our hotel room!

Justin doesn't feel good. NOT AT ALL.  When we first arrived in our little hotel room, he took a nap until 1pm on one of the twin beds.

I stayed awake because I knew we'd never get up if I fell asleep too.  I used my time to organize all of our things and to take a few pictures:

Getting Justin to wake up was a challenge, but soon we were out on the sunny... yet chilly, streets of London.  Our first stop was McDonald's.

Fast food places in London have been frustrating because the workers usually don't speak very good English (a language barrier we weren't expecting at this point in our trip), every one FREAKS when you want to alter the condiments on your burger, the food is 2 times the price it would be in Missouri, and you DON'T GET FREE REFILLS ON DRINKS.  As an avid soda guzzler... this is problematic.

After lunch, we hopped back on the Piccadilly line hoping to switch over at Jubilee to get to the London Bridge station.  This was a crowded trip.

"Due to construction, there will be no stops at the Jubilee station today.  Please find an alternative route."

"Shoot!  How about Bakerloo to Waterloo Station?  Then we will walk to the London Bridge."

Plan B worked out just fine, but with a bit of a walk.  We walked along the Thames River,

saw a skaters' hang-out,

sat on this bench,

walked by the Globe Theater,

...veered away from the river and nearly lost it, saw a bunch of people dressed in scary clothes for the London Dungeon, found our way back and got confused by the signs that showed the London Bridge as being in the opposite direction, pushed ahead anyway because we could now see the bridge, nearly tripped on all of the pigeons, saw a man juggling flaming sticks, and eventually we walked across the London Bridge.

  
We then made the journey back to St. Paul's Cathedral on the other side of the river, arriving just in time for the 5 o'clock Evensong.

St. Paul's station was hard to find, but when we did, we took it to Piccadilly Circus.  Then we walked down the crowded Regent Street until we found Hamley's... a 6 story high toy store.

The coolest part of Hamley's was located on the fifth floor in locked glass display cases.  You know the part of the SkyMall magazine that always has the movie related merchandise?  That's where I always flip.  Well, that is what was in these display cases... every Harry Potter character's wand, an actual size firebolt broom stick, gryffindor scarves, ties, the sword of gryffindor, a marauder's map... then things from Batman, Superman, DaVinci code, Lord of the Rings... IT WAS AWESOME.  I want it all.

After that, one of my maps ACTUALLY CAME IN HANDY-MANNY!  We would have NEVER found the Golden Hind without it.

And not only did the Golden Hind have very yummy fish, but it also had....  FREE WIFI!

Hi mom!  Hi Dad!

---------

It is now 2:30 pm.  Breakfast was a madhouse and nothing was very tasty EXCEPT the hot chocolate.  How I love that little hot chocolate machine!!!!

Justin was resting because he is burning up, with a headache, terrible cough, and a stuffy nose... and both of us are still adjusting to the time change.  But now we are ready to head out to the Science Museum!

Well, I better go.  Tah-tah for now!

The Other End of that Spectrum

I am SO ready for this trip!  Nervous?  Incredibly... but I feel safe traveling with my JJ!   This will be a great experience... even if nothing goes as planned.  :)  I will remain calm... with discretely sweaty palms.  And I will not put an Airborne tablet directly in mouth.  That is never a good plan.

I've almost got everything packed... including my favorite stuffed monkey in all his glorious humble brickness!

And we've got our monopoly money.

I should probably keep the 80 pounds in my carry-on... as to not get charged extra for going over the 50 pound check-in luggage limit.  BAHAHAHA.

Okay, so I make bad puns.  Maybe if I said them in an angry tone they would be more impressive...like what you hear in Eminem's music.  He gets away with the most terrible puns I have ever heard just because he says it hateful and really fast.  For example:

Taken from "I Love the Way You Lie."

Now you get to watch her leave
Out the window
Guess that's why they call it window pane

Really?  Well, I find your music pane-ful to listen to.  Sorry, Justin.  I tried.

Now HERE'S some good lyrics:

There are...

1,2,3,4

Monkeys at the door.

There are 1,2,3,4

Monkeys at the door.

And the little, red bunny says,

"Hello!"

And the big, brown bear says,

"I want to shovel snow."

There are 1,2,3,4

Monkeys at the door.

Hey!

Did you buy your mother a quilt?

Did you find another kilt?

Do you drink soda on Wednesdays?

Do you own some cheese that sprays?



There are...

1,2,3,4

Monkeys at the door.

There are 1,2,3,4

Monkeys at the door.

And the little, red bunny says,

"Hello!"

And the big, brown bear says,

"I want to shovel snow."

Quality music.  That's what that is.  I made it up while I was rocking Brayden to sleep.  But you have to sing it in a Johnny Cash voice to get the full effect. 

All right, hopefully I will be able to share our travel experiences while in Europe... but I'm not making any promises!!  There will eventually be pics and such.  STAY TUNED :D

SOTD

We have 2 again.

One, because my running app got stuck on repeat for 30 minutes and I heard this song over and over and over:

Black Eyed Peas- Feel It

And two, because it was shared by a friend!  I <3 TMBG!

They Might Be Giants- The Mesopotamians

What's a Plain Bird to Do?

He was born in Springfield, M....assachusetts on March 2, 1904.  His Cat wears a hat and his Horton hears a Who and his Mr. Brown can mooo.  Can you?  Today we celebrated the birthday of Dr. Seuss, one of the most talented and widely known children's authors & illustrators EVER!! 

As a HUGE fan of children's books, I too am an admirer of the many, many picture books Theodore Geisel published in his lifetime.  I've admired them for... a few years now... I might even still have the mangled, torn, oil-stained Dr. Seuss books from my kidhood.  

Aw... I'm such an artist.

My 5 most memorable Dr. Seuss stories are:

1. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
2. Cat in the Hat
3. There's a Wocket in my Pocket
4. Hop on Pop
5. ABC

There's a Wocket in my Pocket is a memorable story to me because it has a page that frightened me...

I don't like him.  Not at all.

I will forever live in fear of the Quimney up the chimney and the Zall down the hall. 

As for the Cat in the Hat.. I really liked the story, and even believed the little girl and boy were me and Keith... 

SEE!

...but the Cat and his Things REALLY bothered me.  They just made mess after mess after mess... and they never listened... grrrrrr!  It still frustrates me.  THAT POOR FISH!!!  

Although!  I do love the Thing 1.. I'm With Thing 1.. Thing 2, 3, and 4 shirts my parent's got me, Justin, Keith, Riley, and Patrick.  I'll have to take a picture sometime.  Keith kinda ruined that by being all the way in Alaska right now.. sheesh :-D

Unfortunately, there are a lot of Dr. Seuss books that I have not read.  In fact, I just recently read Fox in Sox for the first time.  Don't know what rock I was living under...   and my first introduction to Horton Hears a Who was actually in high school when I went to see Mark Halle play  General Genghis Khan Schmitz in Seussical the Musical!  This was the day I decided that Marisa Adams (Compton) was my hero.  YOU.  WERE. AMAZING, Mayzie.  And the entire show WAS MAGNIFICENT.  After seeing it, I memorized all of the songs and...

NOT-SO-SERIOUS CONFESSIONS:

...I used to act it out on my front porch with my CD player.  People driving by often gave me funny looks.  And I'm sure my neighbors were scared.  

OH!!!  And the part in the MOVIE Horton Hears a Who where Horton goes all anime on those Wickershams.. made my mom, Keith, and me about wet ourselves in the theater.

I will make monkeys of these monkeys.

We got a little festive about Dr. Seuss at the Willard Library today: 

Banner of Fanciful Creatures



Nice signage, Brandon ;)




"Why do you sit there like that?"



Good times.  And guess who gets to clean it all up at 7 tomorrow morning... hee heeeeeeeee.  Me.  

I will now transition from Dr. Seuss day to another critical library matter... but it will be related to Dr. Seuss because of the hats:

Meh.

Mmm-ow.

MIKE CARROLL.  Hey, Cuz.  NOW you can see it.  HAHAHA.  Tomorrow is our last day working together... 30 whole minutes.  Waaaaah!   I can't even believe it!!  One sec.

*cries like Pam the Blam did when she found out we were making fun of her*

PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER Pammy.  Jeez.  Anywayz, as I was saying... I am so happy for you!  This is a perfect opportunity for you, and I know you will ROCK IT!

I'm super cereal!!!

I am gonna miss working with ya though.
I'll never forget the flying squirrel sneak attacks that went down in the old building (that was NUTS) 

RrrrAr!

and the NAME CALLING (Mike-rophone...Step-on-me... Christmas Carroll... Steph Acne), and drawing the coolest ever design-a-bookmarks that we couldn't even submit but that would totally win if we could.

Books are a BLAST

  All right, you'll be a facebook message/gmail chat away.  So, I'm not gonna fall apart.  Good luck at your big boy job ;0)  And, uh, you WILL be receiving a beverage tomorrow, and don't even TRY to throw it back in my face :-D



QOTD

and

haha, very funny.

SOTD
Sometimes I get excited and can't just pick one song.

• Our first song of the day is a song that I heard today on 99.9 (The Music of Your Life).  I had just stopped to fuel up my car and there was my BEAUTIFUL Grandma Flynn!  Streaming from her car was the most lovely music, so's I asked what she was listening to. 

 "99.9," she told me, "ALWAYS!  These are the songs I grew up listening to."  So.. when I left Casey's, I tuned in to 99.9 and this is what I heard:

You've Got Possibilities-Matt Monro  

• And the second song of the day is one of my favorites from Seussical The Musical: AMAZING MAYZIE!  But I can't find a good recording of it :(  Sorry.

Some more awesome shoes that I really could use:

They look a little small tho.