A summer long TR...with a visit to Cinderella's real castle.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

It's great you got to meet up.

Lou, I like your hat :)

I like his shirt. Lol.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Great TR report! Finally got my new glasses and I'm all caught up. :)

Straight A's for the year.....I assume parenting can now be put on autopilot. That is awesome

I too like Canada! I always think there's a chance of a pick up hockey game breaking out. Or, maybe I'm hoping to run into the Mackenzie brothers.

I also like morocco. My wife insists because a certain female Disney character used to hang out there.

How are the new glasses working?

I'm so proud of DD and thankful that DW always works with DD on her school work.

Strange Brew. That was a great movie. Lol

I think that certain female Disney character is still in morocco.

[Beckers 1,136]

Bring on Europe!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Lou is so awesome.

 

I just saw his head inflate. 

[Lou... 3,118]

I just saw his head inflate. 

 

Haven't you heard, I don't like inflatables. Just ask Santa.

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

Haven't you heard, I don't like inflatables. Just ask Santa.

 

haha Oh man that was a good one, respect!

 

WBI

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Haven't you heard, I don't like inflatables. Just ask Santa.

You really want coal in your stocking!

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Bring on Europe!

Downloaded some pix last night. Going to try and get some more downloaded tonight and hopefully an update.

[Lou... 3,118]

You really want coal in your stocking!

 

That ship has sailed. Bring on the Europe stuff.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I just saw his head inflate.

Me too. :rofl:

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

haha Oh man that was a good one, respect!

WBI

Be careful or you might get some coal also.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Ok let's get going to Europe.

We had an early flight to Chicago and then across the pond to London, England. Since we live an hour form the Oklahoma City airport we decided to stay at the hotel on the airport grounds. It's a nice hotel and we could take a ten minute walk and be in the terminal.

We checked in early and we went swimming.

Notice how patriotic my DD is?

IIRC our flight was leaving at 6:00 am so after swimming we ordered a pizza and got some sleep. The next morning we woke up and headed to Europe, via Chicago. I think Chicago is so beautiful, from the air.

Yep we are definitely in Chicago.

Before long we were on a plane and flying over Nova Scotia. I don't think I've ever seen this part of Canada.

Before I get to far let me introduce my FIL. He generously paid for all 9 of us to go on this trip. And let me give you a little back ground on this trip. As you already know we reward our DD when she gets straight A's in School. Well when we came back from our Christmas 2013 trip at Disneyworld we were at my FIL's house and we had to leave because DD had a report due on Germany. My FIL asks DD if she wants to just go to the airport and fly to Germany so she can get info for her report. Well unfortunately her report was do the next day so we couldn't go. So he tells her that if she gets an A on her report he will take her to Germany. Well guess what she got an A. When she came home a few days later with her grade she said " I need to call Papaw and ask tell him we are going to Germany." She calls him and after a few minutes she hands me the phone and asks me to check on flights this summer. So that how we got were we are now. Thanks DD!

Here he is with his daughter and my DW on our flight to London.

Well they fed us twice. The first was just a snack. The next meal was a pizza and a salad. It was ok but the free beer and wine made up for the ok pizza.

After a few more hours we were about to land in London. It was pretty good flight. Free beer and free movies. I watch the then new movie Noah. If you haven't seen it yet consider yourself lucky. Here is a shot of London at night as we are approaching Heathrow Airport.

It was late 11:00 or 11:30 pm when we finished going thru customs. It was really strange because the airport seemed very empty. But there were still taxis available to take us to our hotel.

Did anyone notice the hidden Mickey in that last picture?

We jumped in two separate cabs and headed to our hotel. It was surprising how roomy those taxis are. They held 5 of us and a bunch of luggage. From left to right. DW-Cindy, DD-Gracie, niece-Leah, and her father, BIL, David.

We quickly got to our hotel, a really nice Double Tree not to far for the airport. We checked in and had a few drinks at the hotel bar and went to bed. The next morning we had a great breakfast buffet at our hotel.

It was really good. Except the black thing next to my egg. Ok I have rarely met a food that I don't like but his stuff was dry. It the famous Blood pudding. It's a form of blood sausage that has a lot of oatmeal in it. Probably to soak up the blood. Sorry if that gross you out but sometimes Pood Form isn't all that pretty. Lol.

After breakfast we walked outside to check out the surrounding neighborhood. Remember it was night when we arrived so we didn't get to see to much. This was our hotel. In this picture you can see the old part of the hotel. This section housed the restaurant and bar.

This is the new part, you can see a little of it in the last pix, but this is a better view of it.

Here's a shot from the hotel's front door looking across the street. Those buildings across the street had businesses on the first floor and apartments above them. I told you we were close to the airport. Didn't i?

But it was only about a 20 minute subway ride to the heart of London.

As I was taking that last picture DD spots our first double decker bus. I always thought the double decker bus were just for the tourist but to my surprise they use these for mass transportation. They were pretty cool.

We decided to walk a few blocks to catch the Underground, subway, to Buckingham Palace. This picture gives you a pretty good idea of what the non tourist, residential parts of London looks like.

Look at the sign. We live in Crescent, Oklahoma.

DD was a little excited about her first ride in the Underground. Ok we were all excited about our first ride. Lol

Here's a map of where we are going. We got off of the subway at the top left hand corner of the map. Where the black and blue dotted line starts. We walked thru Wellington park and walked towards the front of Buckingham Palace. We basically followed the dotted line.

I must apologize but I'm going to end this part of the TR. I was going to post pix of Buckingham Palace tonight but Photo bucket is really messing up tonight and is running very slow. It has taken me over two hours to this update. So stick around and you'll be rewarded with some pretty nice pix of London.

Ray.

[Okieatheart 33]

Ray, on my first trip to London we left from OKC and flew to Chicago, also.  I had just finished my first year of teaching and had never flown before.  My girlfriend and I were so excited to be flying AND going to Europe all in the same trip!  

 

But as we boarded our flight to London in Chicago, a man hijacked the plane.  He wanted to go to North Viet Nam and do various things to those people.  Luckily, the negotiators got him to allow the passengers to deboard - but not before the hijacker killed one of the passengers - shot him in cold blood.  We didn't see it, but we heard the shot.  

 

I don't think I've ever had so many emotions running through my body!  

 

To make a long story sort of short, we had to spend the night in Chicago, missed our tour of London because we arrived a day late, our luggage was impounded for seven days, and we were interviewed by the FBI.  

 

So, I'm so glad your trip to London was relatively uneventful, and I'm looking forward to reading much more about this trip!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Ray, you have a seriously generous FIL!  That breakfast looked great except for the blood pudding.  I'm looking forward to more of your TR too.

 

Jean Ann, that's a really scary story.  You'll have to tell me more about it when we see you in a few weeks.

[Beckers 1,136]

Wow, ray I think you had a FFF (fort fiend first) a hijack about a real hijack. That's scary stuff jean ann!! Unlike Gwen, you don't need to give me more details, flying scares me enough lol.

Ray that "pizza" looks awful, I hope it's just a bad pic? But it sounds better than you blood pudding. Gross!!!!

That's pretty awesome what your fil did! Dd should pick somewhere tropical for her next report lol.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

That was an eventful update, Ray.  Loved every minutes of it!  And wow, what a nice gesture by your FIL.  But holy cow, that was the hijack to end all hijacks!  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

If I write a report for your daughter on Tahiti, and it gets an "A," can I go with y'all?

 

TCD

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Will your FIL adopt me?

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Ray, on my first trip to London we left from OKC and flew to Chicago, also. I had just finished my first year of teaching and had never flown before. My girlfriend and I were so excited to be flying AND going to Europe all in the same trip!

But as we boarded our flight to London in Chicago, a man hijacked the plane. He wanted to go to North Viet Nam and do various things to those people. Luckily, the negotiators got him to allow the passengers to deboard - but not before the hijacker killed one of the passengers - shot him in cold blood. We didn't see it, but we heard the shot.

I don't think I've ever had so many emotions running through my body!

To make a long story sort of short, we had to spend the night in Chicago, missed our tour of London because we arrived a day late, our luggage was impounded for seven days, and we were interviewed by the FBI.

So, I'm so glad your trip to London was relatively uneventful, and I'm looking forward to reading much more about this trip!

Wow! What a scary event! In so glad y'all were ok. I hope the test of your trip was a less exciting experience. Do you know what happened after y'all got off the plane?

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Ray, you have a seriously generous FIL! That breakfast looked great except for the blood pudding. I'm looking forward to more of your TR too.

Jean Ann, that's a really scary story. You'll have to tell me more about it when we see you in a few weeks.

Yes I do have a very generous FIL. He has taken us on several awesome trips.

We had some pretty good meals on our trip and luckily only a few things as non appetizing as blood pudding. But I have to try everything once. And I did and now I know to stay as far away from it as possible.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

Wow, ray I think you had a FFF (fort fiend first) a hijack about a real hijack. That's scary stuff jean ann!! Unlike Gwen, you don't need to give me more details, flying scares me enough lol.

Ray that "pizza" looks awful, I hope it's just a bad pic? But it sounds better than you blood pudding. Gross!!!!

That's pretty awesome what your fil did! Dd should pick somewhere tropical for her next report lol.

Yeah that was definetely a FFF. Wow! How scary would that be?

Bad pix of pizza. It was pretty good. It was a Chicago style deep dish pizza.

The blood pudding. Not so much.

Yeah he will do crazy things like that every once in a while. One time FIL was in Las Vegas and DW, DD, and myself flew in to Vegas and stayed two nights on our way to my mom's house in California. He took us to dinner and we ordered some escargot as an appetizer. FIL ask my then 4 or 5 yr old DD if she wanted to try it. She said no.

He then offered her a dollar to try it and she said no. $5? no. $20? No. He pulls out $100 and grabs one and eats it. We were all surprised and I said she's not getting $100 and he said I made the deal and a deal is a deal. And handed her the $100 bill. Which quickly went into DW purse and into her savings acct.

and yes there was adult beverages involved. Come to think of it most of these type of things, trips , crazy bets, happen when adult beverages are involved.

Maybe I should stop him when he starts making these deals when he's drinking?

No never mind. Lol

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Great start to the Europe trip!

MN you really lucked out with your FIL.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

That was an eventful update, Ray. Loved every minutes of it! And wow, what a nice gesture by your FIL. But holy cow, that was the hijack to end all hijacks!

Thanks.

I've got the best FIL around. He's also one of my best friends. DW always says him and I talk more then DW and I do.

That was definetely the best hijack ever.

[lklasing 16]

I've got the best FIL around. He's also one of my best friends.

 

That is so sweet.  How wonderful for all of you.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

If I write a report for your daughter on Tahiti, and it gets an "A," can I go with y'all?

 

TCD

I can ask but DD did her next report on Australia. And we were going to go there but DD, DW, and FIL decided we are going to Hawaii this next summer. It SMB but I'll suffer threw it and go to Hawaii.