Another Visitor From Across the Pond

Last Tuesday my good friend Trey Dodd arrived in London to spend a couple of weeks. He has been the guinea pig in testing my talents as a London tour guide. Considering I hadn't seen all the hot spots myself, I appreciated his patience as we traipsed around London. I do have to say that I saw more of London last week than I have seen since I arrived. It is a fabulous city and I'm sure I still won't see all of it by the time we leave in a couple of years, either.

Highlights of our wandering around included Westminster Abbey where I saw the tombs of Queens Elizabeth and Mary (Bloody Mary)...half sisters with Henry VIII as a father (unless you believe some of the conspiracy theories); The Monument to the great fire of 1666 where we climbed 311 steps of a spiraling staircase to the top and a fabulous view of the city; and the Tate Modern-sorry to all of you modern art fans, but I don't get it; The Tower of London where I saw the exact location of Anne Boleyn's beheading as well as her final resting place; The British Museum which had some fascinating artifacts and some "acquired" Greek pieces from the Parthenon.

This weekend we all headed to Wales for a camping trip with our friends Lilly and Aron. You might have seen some news coverage about Great Britain enduring the worst flooding in 60 years....we didn't care. We headed out anyways. We figured the worst that could happen is that we may get a little wet or our roads might be flooded (in which case we would just turn back around). After touring a beautiful castle that just happened to be on our way, we found a great campsite next to a rushing river...well, not exactly next to it...up the hill a little...a safe distance away. While pretty muddy and slightly misty, we found a good plot under a tree. Surprisingly, it didn't rain on us at all until 9am the next morning. But we didn't mind...it just meant we were forced to sleep for three more hours listening to the light rain tap the top of our tents. Now THAT's a relaxing Sunday!

Lilly, Trey, and I will take a few road trips to round out his tour of the UK. I'm sure by the time all of you come ;), I will have my skills finely tuned and I'm sure you will have a great time.