The Road Trip of Destiny

Ok, here is the second installment of our visit from the Farias', as told by Cami. With (mostly) our pictures inserted at the appropriate places.

"This is part 2 of my insanely long account of my vacation. The thumbnails are links to larger photo collages that I made in lieu of uploading a million and a half photos using blogger's stupid photo uploader.

So on the 8th we woke up early. The boys went to go pick up the rental car while Emily and I took care of shopping for food for the road. We took off around 9:30 or 10:00 and began what will forever after be known as The Roadtrip of Destiny. We drove about an hour outside of London for our first stop- Stonehenge. The first thing that impressed me about Stonehenge is how totally massive it is. You see the pictures, but until you are standing in front of the stones it's hard to gauge how gargantuan they are. I cannot believe ancient man hauled these babies hundreds of miles and then propped them on top of each other. The other thing that impressed me about Stonehenge is how many people there are milling about. Now, I know that this is peak tourism season around the world but this was my first true taste at an overcrowded tourist site. Needless to say we didn't really feel like we were going to get any better look shelling out the £7 to get in so we just took pictures through the fence. This would be a good time to explain that between Emily, Brent, Luis, and myself you probably have the 4 cheapest people on the planet, so why would we pay perfectly good money for an entrance fee that would allow us to stand literally 4 feet closer to the rocks than we could standing outside the fence. We joked about this for the rest of the trip. I don't have many pictures of Stonehenge b/c my camera battery died so I defer to Emily's blog/facebook page for the full visual.

After Stonehenge we drove out to Glastonbury, which is a silly little town that is based around an ancient Abbey which is the purported burial site of the real King Arthur. About 700 years ago they were digging around in the then 500 year old cemetery there to excavate the foundation of an expansion and came across two stone tombs engraved with the names Arthur and Guinevere. By this point the Arthurian legend was well established in Britain and roundabouts so needless to say they were pretty psyched. All of this is recorded in local parish records. They moved the bodies to a black marble vault inside their main chapel where they remained until Henry VIII and his bullies knocked the whole Abbey down in his campaign against the Catholics. No one knows for sure where the black marble vault is now, but the site where it was is marked. It's pretty cool.

There's also a tor there ("tor" being Ye Olde English for hill) with the remnants of an even ancienter chapel which is the purported site where St. Joseph of Arimathea brought the Holy Grail from Jerusalem. At the Abbey there's even an old thorn tree which is supposedly the leftovers of St. Josephs staff which he is said to have plunged into the ground to mark the spot. It's wicked awesome. The tower at the top of the Tor is also where the Rose Line crosses the St. Michael Line. It is also the legendary gate to the Underworld in Celtic mythology. Some people believe that if you drink from the well on the Tor you will be cured (b/c of Grail or Pagan nutrients or something like that). I wasn't magically cured of all that ails me, but I *was* privy to some truly inspiring wind, a spiritual experience with a meat pie that I was eating while climbing the hill, and some really poopy cows at the bottom. The whole experience was totally boss.

After Glastonbury we went to Bath, which was NOT what I was expecting. Apparently Jane Austen and her cronies trashed the place years back and now it's just like a crappy British version of Atlantic City, only with older buildings and tons of disgusting grime leftover from the Industrial Revolution. I pretty much just wanted to take soapy water to everything I saw. The Roman baths we were hoping to see there were closed, but we got a pretty good feel of the place from the grounds outside. Kitschy, dirty, and pretty much the same sort of thing we'd already seen several times that day. Needless to say, we weren't heartbroken. It WAS, however, the site of a truly hilarious statue of a bosomed rabbit and the home of the famous Sally Lunn buns- Bread buns as big as my head. We had fun making fun of the place and stuffing ourselves full of rich, bunly goodness.

From there we had to book it to Kendall, but found time to stop by the Preston temple. It was cool, and we got there just as the sun was setting which was neat. It was a great view.

June 9th: We woke up kind of late, most likely b/c the boys were up really late watching Cinderella Man on Cable, which provided the basis for several hilarious incidents throughout the day. We ate breakfast in Carlisle, a little town with a huge random castle which we discovered is basically what most small towns in the UK are- tiny villages that surround some sort of random ancient monument. I freakin' love it! Anyway, we were driving around looking for a place to eat breakfast when I eyed a sign that said "Full English Breakfast- £4.99!". I announced this and Luis actually started to bail out of the moving vehicle to get to the food, which was hilarious and awesome. "Full English Breakfast" consists of 2 eggs, 2 rashers (the British version of bacon, which is actually closer to fried ham), 2 pork/leek sausages, 2 toast, beans, and grilled tomato and mushroom. I had to dig deep to find the strength and courage to finish my plate, but thankfully I'd been really spiritually recharged by the amazing sights the day before and when things got their darkest, I was able to pull through and eat through the pain. It was DELICIOUS! From Carlisle we took the scenic route through the Lake District to get to Edinburgh, which I slept most of the way through, but am told is beautiful.

In Edinburgh we went to the castle, which we took pictures of outside but didn't feel like paying the entrance fee to see inside (do you notice some themes developing here!?). We DID however, find that the free Tartan museum and mill down the road was quite interesting if you are in fact as big of nerds as we are. We tasted Haggis at a store that advertised "Free Samples" (about the 4th or 5th such place we'd frequented in our journeys so far). It was so-so, but we bought some souvenirs for parents and then wandered around until we found the Rabbie Burns Tavern on the Royal Mile. I ordered the Haggis, Tatties, & Neeps, Luis got the Bangers & Mash, Brent had a Haggis & Beef Burger and Emily was boring and had a bagel. All was delicious beyond reason and will live on in my memory as one of the best meals of my life. This would be a good time to note that Edinburgh is like the Berkley of the UK- tons of freaks, hippies, and doobies to go around. It was hilarious. If you like sheep, ghosts, plaid, accents, doobies, or hippies, I recommend you take time to visit.

After eating we found our hotel which was flippin' sweet! It had a loft bed, a remote controlled skylight, and a really killer shower head. We cleaned up then headed out for our "Ghosthunters of Edinburgh" tour. It was cool. Apparently Edinburgh is one of the most haunted cities on the planet, probably because after every disaster instead of tearing down the condemned buildings and starting over- they just fill them in and build on top. There are like 2 or three full layers of Edinburgh, which is one of the reasons it's so hilly. In the 80's they started rooting around and discovered these really ancient buildings underneath the current ones, filled with rubbish and such. They cleaned them out so they could turn them into trendy nightclubs and stuff, but they're apparently too full of ghosts for that to work. We got to wander around in one of them, and I think they're probably right. Those vaults just don't feel right. I took a picture with a weird floating sparkly thing hovering over a lady's head, too, which was kind of creepy. We walked back to the hotel afterward and got in around midnight or so.

June 10: We woke up pretty early and headed out to Rosslyn chapel- which was built by the Sinclair family like 800 years ago. The Sinclair family were Templars, which is like my most favoritest thing in the world. If I ever get a Doctorate Degree in English I think I'd want it to be in Templar Legend. The chapel is unbelievably gorgeous, although sadly currently surrounded by a large aluminum roof and scaffolding. They're trying to restore the building before it crumbles into pieces due to water damage, so the roof is up to protect it until they can finish restorations in 2010 or 2011. It was cool, though, because we could climb up on the scaffolding and see the top of the roof. Honestly, I have never seen anything quite as beautiful as that stonework. It was beyond my ability to describe. I have tons of photos of the outside, but we couldn't take pictures inside, and sadly enough that's where the best stuff was.

After Rosslyn we drove to the coast. We ended up at St. Abbs and took a hike out on the heaths. The views were breathtaking, as was the wind. I had to tie up my hair with my scarf, which makes me kind of look like Eurotrash in some of the photos, but it was cool. The water there was SO blue and the grass SO green. It was also inspiringly beautiful and I will never forget it. For lunch we ate at a quaint seaside cafe restaurant in St. Abbs. We had smoked salmon, crab and tuna roll sandwiches and traditional Scottish scones with jam. Delish. I'd like to take this moment to mention that the British people seem to put jam on or in pretty much everything- a practice which I HIGHLY support.

After lunch we drove to Glasgow to return the car and fly home. The plane ride from Glasgow back to London's Gatwick airport was uneventful, and we took a cab back from the airport to Em's place b/c it was too late to ride any trains or tubes. We got home around 10 or 11, exhausted and happy.

It was fun and weird driving on the wrong side of the road. Thank goodness the rental car came with GPS, which we affectionately named "Donk" in honor of our niece Megan. England rocks, and it was cool to see the "real" UK in between all the touristy stuff. It was the bestest and most hilarious road trip of all history."

There will be one more post in the next few days from the Farias' visit that will include their last day here in the city and then random bits and pieces (funny signs, J Reubs, etc). Enjoy!

The Americans are coming, the Americans are coming!!

The next few posts (probably 3, spread over the next few days) are about my sister and her hubby's trip here to visit us. It was hilarious and awesome and she is a much better/funnier writer (English major) so I will just copy and paste her blog posts. You all know if the blogging of this occasion were left up to me it would take weeks, so I warned her of the impending plagiarism and she agreed (thanks, Cam!). I won't edit her much except to take out the beginning part about their travel to the UK and I'll skip her Paris post since I wasn't there. Just remember the "I" and "me" reference Cami, not myself. But we were together the whole time so we had the same experience. I will post my own pictures though, in collage form.

So without further ado:

"This is a day by day trip account for my own personal journaling records. If you are brave enough to read through to the end, props to you!

June 6: We woke up pretty early. Emily lives in a suburb called Twickenham about 30 minutes outside of London so we took public transportation to the city. I am now in love with public transportation, btw, and hate the idea of having to drive myself places. Sick. That day we wandered around the center of town and ate lunch at a pub in the insurance district with Brent (Luis had fish and chips, I had a beef & Yorkshire pudding wrap, and we all ate DELICIOUS puddings and cakes for dessert). We also toured the Tower of London, saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, toured the Winston Churchill War Rooms museum (SO cool), caught a glimpse of Westminster and Big Ben, and walked around the Tower Bridge for a while. We clocked in on my pedometer at around 7 or 8 miles walked. My back was killing me and my feet were hurting, and I was jet-lagged and a little sick to my stomach. It was drizzling rain and kind of chilly, but all in all it was an incredible day. Highlights included trying real English cuisine (which is WAY better than people make it out to be), seeing the crown jewels of England at the Tower of London as well as a really cool exhibit about Henry VIII, who is hands down my favorite European monarch. Everything in London looks like a movie set.

June 7th: We all woke up pretty early and took a train out to Windsor. We spent the day at Windsor castle, which was the bomb dot com. It was POURING rain and my pants got so soaking wet I just rolled them up and walked around like a doofus. Good thing I was in England where no one notices or cares what you're wearing most of the time anyway. The castle was super cool and I LOVED seeing the St. George Chapel, which is the HQ of the Order of the Garter and the burial place of several memorably famous people including but not limited to Henry VIII! Afterward we ate Indian food, which was one of Luis's requirements for our visit to England since we've heard it's better there. Afterward I dried my shoes off in a hand dryer at a train station because they were sloshing wet from all the rain. That sounds gross and weird, but it was truly hilarious at the time and saved me from being blistery and miserable for the rest of the day. We went back to London and visited a tiny, privately owned war museum then climbed the Tower Bridge, which was INSANELY tall (I'm guessing 300 + steps to the top). It has the best views of the city, though, and I recommend you try it if you ever go. Afterward we went and saw Romeo and Juliet at the Globe, which has literally been a dream of mine since I was like 9 years old. We were groundlings, which was also hilarious and awesome and fun. It did not disappoint, and I swear during the 3rd curtain call at the end I could feel the great Bard smiling down upon us. We probably walked close to 9 or 10 miles that day, and by the time we got home I literally could barely stand up. It was AWESOME!

June 7th we went to Emily and Brent's ward for Stake Conference. President Uchtdorf and Elder Anderson spoke which was pretty cool. The rest of the day we just napped and chilled, which was a nice break. It was also good to rest up for the insanity of the following 6 days."

Cami has already posted about our 3 day road trip to Scotland but I'll wait until tomorrow to do that. Don't want to overload us all.

**For those of you who read both the Farias and Gray blogs, I apologize that I don't have any new information for you. Hopefully a different set of pictures will do. Just think of it this way, you only have to pick one to read and then just look at the pictures on the other.**

Cairo...Finally...

So I wrote all the words for this post last week but then Firefox crashed and it didn't save right so I lost it all. This time, since I just need to get this blogged already, I won't be as long winded and there won't be a theme. The last one was pretty good, Things We Learned in Cairo. It was a funny one, but now I have no energy to be funny.

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We went to Egypt to visit my sister and her family who have been living there for the past year. Brent and I had never planned on going to Egypt and we certainly couldn't pass up seeing the Lewis' while we happen to live on the same half of the planet (they are moving back to the US next month) so 2 wins for us!

Friday: arrived and stayed up ridiculously late talking.

Saturday: Slept in. Toured Coptic Cairo, the Christian section of the city and also where (supposedly) Mary, Joseph and Jesus hid.

Coptic Museum where I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. They had some pretty cool, really old stuff (stone reliefs, tunics and book from several centuries ago, art, etc)

St. George slaying the dragon is all over the place in Coptic Cairo. Seriously, pretty much every building had a (or 5) portrayal of this scene. Maybe I should Wikipedia him...

The Hanging Church.

Then we went back to the house and chilled (literally, we had to cool down) played with the kiddos, chatted etc.

That night the adults went to a Whirling Dervish show. It was pretty awesome. According to Sara & Kevan, it was one of the best things they've seen in Cairo for reasons including, but not limited to, it started on time, it was clean (as in sanitary), it was professional (most of the stage lights worked), and best of all, it was free! Can't beat free. The show was put on by a foundation trying to make the public aware of their religion, Sufi. It was fun to watch. One guy spun for 22 minutes. In the same spot. And didn't throw up at the end.

We ate dinner at a Lebanese restaurant by the Embassy. It was super tasty. The best hummus I've ever had. Wish we would have taken a picture at the restaurant.

We walked along the river (after playing frogger to get across the road) and took some pictures of Cairo Tower.

Stayed up really late talking. Again.

Sunday: Slept in. Again. Friday is the Sabbath in Islam so we didn't have church to go to.

Went with Sara and Kevan (the kids were at school and the youngest stayed home with the housekeeper) to tour Islamic Cairo, where most of the biggest mosques are.

I think this is a good time to interject with an explanation of driving (and walking in Cairo). Picture if a city of 8 million people was being attacked by giant monsters, just for fun we'll say mummies, and needed to evacuate IMMEDIATELY. Hopefully you're picturing tons of crazy, old dusty cars all crammed onto the freeway, loaded with as much as they could fit into their car (people and stuff) some driving slowly as to not tip over due to sheer weight of vehicle, some slowly because they are old people who shouldn't be driving at all and everyone else going as fast as humanly possible whilst weaving in and out of the slow cars. Well, take out the mummy and evacuation thing and you've got it! Seriously, why they even paint lines on the road, I don't know. On most of the major motorways, there are 3-4 lanes but the cars drive 5-6 wide. Honking is constant and no one pays attention to what the other cars are doing. It's all about the Number 1 there. They have no forethought to their actions. Luckily, Kevan is a good driver. He was weaving and bobbing with the rest of them only they drive a big silver SUV with a loud engine. People move out of his way. Most of the time. It was scary for like 5 minutes, then it was just pretty amusing the rest of the time there. Walking, is much the same. No ones looks where they are going, they just walk and if that happens to be in the middle of the road, whatever. Funny stuff. I wish I would have taken pictures.

So, after driving there, we toured the mosques. They are quite beautiful in a massive, ornate, ancient culture kind of way.

The first one we saw was at the Citadel of Salah Al-Din, the Mohamed Ali mosque (no, not the boxer dude, this dude). It is really beautiful with the arches and the color and texture of the stone is gorgeous.

To go inside of these mosques, you have to be covered to a certain standard. At the Mohamed Ali mosque, the attendants thought my (past knee length) shorts were too short so I got to wear this lil' beauty, which when the wind blew, was shorter than my shorts. Awesome.

The next mosque was the Mosque of Al Rifai. It houses the tombs of the last Egyptian royal family. It also houses an awesome chandelier with blinking LED lights. Sara has asked for one when she dies, consider it done.

Then we went to the Sultan Hassan Mosque. It was originally built in the 1300's. While we were there, the prayer call was made. I probably wasn't supposed to sneak a picture but when else am I going to be able to watch a muezzin lead a call to prayer while sitting in a 14th century mosque? We did leave before the prayers were started, though.

Then it was off to one more mosque, which I don't remember the name of (or have a ticket stub to copy the name from). I think it's supposed to be the oldest mosque in Cairo? It was the only one we didn't have to pay to get in to.

We were also the only tourists there so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Kevan talked the guard into taking us to the top of the minaret. It was a bit of a climb but the view was totally worth it. If the air was clear, we could have seen the whole city. I did a panoramic series but haven't figured out how to combine them into one.

Sometime while we were in one of the mosques, the Lewis' diplomat license plate was stolen. Dumb. Maybe it was this guy, he wanted to get his horse cart into places restricted to the general public?

Then we stopped at the commissary because Sara needed to pick up a few things. I took the opportunity to ask her to get me some US products we can't find here (Crest toothpaste and Old Spice deodorant).

After dinner, we stayed up really, really late talking. It was awesome. Sara is a sibling I didn't have the pleasure to live with for most of my time at home and we've never had much of a chance to connect on an adult level. It was SO great to be able to have so many hours of uninterrupted sister bonding time.

Monday: We went to the Giza pyramids! This was one of the best parts of our trip.

We had no idea they were so close to the city. They are right at the edge of town so all those pictures you see of them being out in the desert? Well, it's all about the angle. And the pollution.

We went inside the great pyramid. There's not much to see, like I hear you can at other pyramids throughout the country but it was cool, nonetheless. It was a fantastic work out, too. The passageway to the tomb room is uphill and only half height so you walk up an incline for about 5 minutes doubled over so as not to hit your head. No pictures allowed though. Darn!

The room itself is just a big open room with an empty carcophogus. It was fun though, Kevan found the acoustic sweet spot and made some creepy echoing sounds and the attendant tried to help "enhance" our experience (in hopes of getting some money from us) by pointing to the carcophogus and stuff but we didn't need his help, thank you very much. The climb back down was harder than going in. Downhill=hard. The attendant at the door hit on me a bit saying that "you break my heart" because apparently he thought I was good looking but then asked if I was married. Too bad for him!

We walked around the great pyramid and as I took pictures, kids on camels came over and wriggled themselves into my pictures and then asked for money (a common theme in Cairo, everyone and anyone will try to figure out how to get money from you). Sorry kids, no money. Kevan also told them to go away in Arabic.

Then I saw this camel sitting so perfectly waiting for me took take his picture. I had Brent stand near it but then the owner came running up spouting something about "you want picture?" "come closer" and "no money" and started dragging Brent by the arm. Brent tried refusing but the guy kept insisting "closer" "eese ok" "no money". By this point they were next to the camel and Brent was wearing the guys headdress and the camel was yelling. Kodak moment I tell you! When all was said and done, and Brent got his hat back, the guy asks for money. Ha! Good one, guy! You thought you tricked us, but we don't carry any money! So he asked Brent for a caramel. Awesome. Sorry dude, no caramel either. You were pushy and you lied so nothing for you. I know that sounds mean but they are like birds, if one sees you giving to another one, they all flock over and want your money for doing nothing. Brent didn't even want to be that close or wear that thing. It was all just a big bonus for me!

Then we drove over to the other pyramids and took some more pictures.

Then it was off to the lookout spot where you can see all 3 and the city. We got some fun pictures. Too bad I'm not better at jumping pictures. Still fun.

Then off to the Sphinx, which is smaller than I thought it would be. Still cool, though.

Then back to the house to finish dinner and make dessert and get the kids so we could go on our faluca ride down the Nile.

We hired a boat and he took around the Nile while we ate and enjoyed the breeze and the sunset.

Brent worked his "Uncle Brent Magic" and entertained the kids.

It was another one of our favorite experiences on the trip.

Tuesday: We went to the Khan el-Khalili, the huge marketplace in Cairo.

As another example of the "wanting money for nothing" mantra, the policemen standing in front of the closest parking area said there was no parking but then Kevan gave him some money and he opened the gate. Bribing police? Oh, just add it to the list of things that would be considered illegal in the US that we did that weekend.

The market was interesting. You could probably, after hours of bartering and searching, find anything you wanted. Especially if you want something with a pyramid, scarab, or Nefertiti's head on it.

I found some pretty cool scarves. One of the shops was a bust though. We found some really great ones there and when Sara went to barter on the price, he totally tried to gyp us! Sara has bought from him before so she told him what he charged her last time and he countered with something almost 3 times a much! Not even! I liked the scarves but not that much. So we walked out.

We ate lunch at a yummy little cafe at the market. I wasn't paying attention and accidentally had some mint that was mixed into the tehini and my lip got all tingly and started swelling a little. Oops! Still VERY allergic, I guess.

After lunch, we found a set of 3 little alabaster pyramids for our souvenir. It will look good on our shelf of souvenirs from other countries (which currently only houses a mini Eiffel tower).

Then off to the airport. We got to leave from the brand new terminal, it had only opened a week before or something like that. It was so clean and new and air conditioned AND the restrooms were free and had toilet paper! It was the nicest place we'd seen in Cairo.

These pics are from throughout our trip and need to be kept together:
J. Reubes' appearances.

Funny signs and graffiti.

It's funny because it's not really a Hard Rock Cafe...

Posing like our favorite Dervish.

We had a really fabulous time in Cairo and are so glad we got to go. Especially because we got to see the Lewis' and they were able to show us the good stuff and skip the not so great stuff. It was also SO helpful to have someone speaking Arabic to be our guide. We got lots of funny looks and responses when Kevan would start speaking to them, the funniest one is documented here, on their blog.

Here is the online album with more pictures if you're interested. We took over 1,100 but don't worry, they're not all on there. I managed to keep the web album to under 300.