Bach Parties

We are a bit behind on other posts, but this weekend is Erin's brother's wedding.

Congratulations Ben & Kim!!

The boys went out and played video games for a while, and the gals went bar hopping. Eventually, we all rendezvoused and fun was had by all. Remember, what happens if Vegas stays in Vegas. And, yes - we went to Vegas.

Did that sign say "tank crossing"?!

On our return trip from the hike, we drove past a military training camp. It was pretty wild actually, because we could hear the exercises happening as we drove. The BOOMing explosions and ack-ack-ack of machine guns were kind of scary actually.

Then, we drove by a sign which read "tank crossing" with a warning that there was "danger of death". I wasn't terribly frightened, but it was a pretty sobering thing to see on the side of the road. Just past the fence, we could see tanks which didn't appear in use. They were likely being used as targets.

Hiking the Jurassic Coast

My uncle Ridwan is a big fan of hiking, and we were very interested in seeing the English countryside. Just south of of Dorchester, many dinosaur fossils have been found along the coastline, and it has been nicknamed the Jurassic Coast. There's even a dinosaur museum in Dorchester.

After our 16 hours of sleep, Ridwan took us on a very pleasant walk out to the coast. We got to see some cottages and farmhouses, and we even got to see a castle and climb over some fence stiles and "kissing gates".

At the end of our hike, we stopped off at a local pub for a soda and rest. The Scott Arms overlooked the Corfe Castle, and we had a very pleasant chat.

My English Family

When my grandfather was stationed in England, he met a woman and they had a child. Unfortunately, they didn't know about the baby until just a few days prior to him being deployed to Normandy, and he was never able to return to meet his daughter. There were a few letters, but my side of the family did not know about her until she called my dad several years ago.

Malinda had been curious about her American family, but did not make contact until recently and I am so glad that she reached out to us. It has been such a pleasure meeting our English family and getting to know them better.

Erin and I stayed with my cousin, Hamid, and his family while we were in the UK, and we had such a good time getting acquainted in real life as opposed to over e-mail. I hope that we will be able to see them again soon.

Here are a couple of photos and brief descriptions, so that my side of the family can see how everyone is doing.

Uncle Ridwan, Hamid and his two kids, Josephina and Frederick.

Hassana's husband, Hardey, and their son Albert joined us on a hike.

Unfortunately, we didn't get any good photos of everyone. Hassana and Haroon are missing, and Malinda asked that we not put her on the web. I'm respecting her wishes, and sending that photo via e-mail to the American family.

16 hours of sleep

We landed in London at 6 am local time after flying for about 13 hours. Considering that we had 4 hours of sleep the night before and our seats did not recline, we didn't really get that much sleep over 36 hours of "travel time."

We caught a bus from the airport to Bournemouth, where we were picked up by my uncle Ridwan. He drove us the rest of the way to Dorchester, and we spent the day with my extended family (more details in the next post).

Erin and I decided to stay awake for the whole day, so that we could get adjusted to UK time. However, it did have an impact on us as the day progressed. As Ridwan described, we were "shattered" which is as accurate a description as I can think of. By the end of the day, I don't even think we were speaking in complete sentences any more.

So, we turned in around 8pm, and we got up the following day at NOON. I don't think I've slept that much since college, and to be honest, I could have slept longer.

Time to go. Nope. Time to wait.

Scott and Brian dropped us off at the Seattle airport on Friday night for our flight to England, and we made it through security and passport checks with much time to spare. After a bit of waiting, we got on the plane and took our traditional "leaving another country photo" (see above). We even struck up a conversation with a very nice lady who was sharing the row with us.

After sitting for quite a while on the runway, the captain announced that there was a steering problem and we would have to return to the gate. At the gate, our names were called - which is clearly a bad sign. The Alaska Airline folks told us that because of the delay, we would miss our flight from Boston to the UK. So, they put us up in a hotel for the night, and we were rescheduled to leave on Saturday instead. I felt a bit pouty and tired as we caught the shuttle from the airport to the hotel.

After 4 hours of sleep, we returned to the airport and we actually got to fly this time. It was a fine flight, but we did spend 13 hours in the air and we were dead tired when we arrived in London.

Friday Status Report

Well, we didn't get as far along on the floor project as we had hoped. However, we have made lots of progress and the floors are ready to be varnished. The sanding stage of refinishing a floor can take a lot out of you. Erin and I have been working solid every day (we are so sore and full of splinters - not to mention sawdust), and we are proud of our work.

Unfortunately, we have to put this project on hold, because we are headed to the UK tonight. And of course, we haven't been able to do all of the other stuff that we wanted to do before we leave - like see Jeff & Lavi's new baby, Jack, again. We haven't seen Blake and Jodi's baby either (shame on us!). So, today will be full of running around and calling and seeing folks. Hopefully, we'll get it all done before it is time to go.

Final note - this is the last leg of our around the world trip, and we are both excited to get on the road again. We'll post some photos and notes from abroad when we get a chance. We are looking forward to seeing the Kennedys (my extended family), and getting to know them better.

Have a great weekend! Over and out.

Wednesday Pre-work Status

I saw the weather report this morning, and the high temperature in Seattle today is going to be 54 degrees (12 degrees C for our European readers). Yikes!!

Both Erin and I agree that this might not be the right week to have pulled the radiators out of our house. It is a bit chilly at night, and it will continue this way for the rest of the week (year).

Anyway, you may imagine that it is hard to motivate oneself to start working in the morning when one cannot feel one's fingers. Fortunately, a couple of cups of coffee gets us moving and warm.

Today, we are going to finish sanding. After a bit of cleaning the sawdust, we'll start painting.

Tuesday Photo Update

We made lots of progress on Tuesday. The office floor is completely sanded down to the hardwoods, and is ready to be painted (stained really). It will take a bit of cleaning up, because there is still sawdust EVERYWHERE!! Once we finish the bedroom, we'll do a few passes with a wet washcloth to pick up the dust.

Erin has been really good about making sure that we follow the process. I have to admit that we are a pretty good team when it comes to house projects. Let's just hope that the final product is as good as we hoped.

Monday Photo Update

Joey sanding the office, first pass.

After three passes with 36 grit.

Time to call it a night. Joey's feet are representative of what the rest of him looks like after three hours of sanding. Even with regular vacuuming, the dust gets deep.

The office needs one more pass with 36 grit and then we will move onto the finer grits. Fun stuff!