Home...home again again...

Yes, we're home. I'm tired.

G'night.

Home! Finally!

The airport, anyway...

Oh, so this is what being on an airplane is like!

We got on our flight finally. I'm sitting in my seat (36E) while the wife and kids sit a few rows behind (39DEF). We had to ask the guy who had 39F to move to 21A so that they could sit together. I'm in my least favorite seat, the middle seat...but oh well. What can you do?

Just get us home...please. May the baggage carousel gods smile on us and get our bags off fast.

It's 8:30pm now...

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!

Now it's an 8pm departure time. And I'm not feeling too good. :(

The state of air travel today...

Original connecting flight departs ATL: 3:00pm
We arrived ATL: 3:08pm
Got through immigration: 3:20pm
Got our bags: 4:00pm
Got through customs: 4:05pm
Got through the rebooking desk (rebooked for a 5:15pm flight): 4:40pm
Got to our gate for our 5:15pm pm flight: 4:55pm
Found out our flight was delayed until 7:15pm: 4:56pm
Time we would have originally arrived home: 5:40pm
New expected arrival time at home: 10:15pm

I woke up at 11:15pm...last night.

(All times Eastern)

Got to Atlanta...

...but how do we get home? We missed our connection. :( time to call Delta...

Back over land again...

We've passed over St. John's...but we still got four hours to go. Ugh. Watched Blades of Glory for a second time.

Yep, lots and lots of nothing...

...and we're arriving almost 90 minutes late, meaning we miss our connecting flight. Here's hoping Delta treats us well!

Goodbye Ireland!

See ya soon, I hope!

Put a Cork in that bottle!

Below is is the Irish town of Cork...and on the left side of the plane....lots o' nothi...er...water.

Goodbye England, again!

We're just flying off the English coastline now...I'll see you next time I'm this way!

Coming up, Ireland! And the...lots o' nothing.

...and we're in the air...

FINALLY!!!

Jeeeeeeez....

....we're still here. First cargo needed to be taken off to lighten the plane, now we can't take off for another 12-15 minutes because of air traffic control keeping us here for a bit longer.

Yawwwwwnnnnn....

Sigh...

...too much cargo on the plane. We've been here for 40 minutes waiting to leave. Ugh.
#2nd
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Ohn for those counting...

We're about 4715 miles from home.

The voyage home begins!

We're in our seats on the plane now, and others are still boarding. It's a 9 hour 33 minute flight to Atlanta, and then we switch flights to come back to Florida.

It's been a quick week overall...and thankfully it's over. It's nicw to be going home.

Phew. :)

Grand Place...how GRAND!

After our long day touring around Grand Place, visiting Brugge and ending with a visit with my family, I wanted to get a picture of the city hall at night, all lit up. I did not expect this.

Aaah, Brugge...

...it's good to be back!

Aaahhhh..McDonald's in Peronne, France.

Likely to be forgotten.

Diet Coke...and oranges??!

It's the taste sensation sweeping France!

Remember, you are not...

...allowed to dance on It's A Small World.

Just saw the Eiffel Tower...

...Of Terror!!!!

Just kidding; we're going to Disney tomorrow, so I have to get in the spirit.

(The tower is that thing in the middle...)

And we're out of the Chunnel...

Hellooooooooooo France!

And we're under the English Channel.

Boy is it dark. Not at all what I expected.

Almost Chunneltime!

Stopped in Ashford, and now we're about to go underwater for 24 or so miles!

Bye!

Woo woooooooo! (Imagine that with a french accent)

We're on the Eurostar from London to Paris, almost at the English Channel, and we're going 175 miles per hour!

Woohoo!

Where are the druids?!?

This place obviously wasn't built to Spinal Tarp's...er, Tap's...specifications...

The trip thus far

Okay, it was a rough night, but I digress. Let me provide a short recap first:
- Saturday: got off to a bit slower start, kids & wife were tired from all the travel, but some energy kicked in once we got going. The main things we saw were: Parliamant Square, the Clock Tower (Big Ben), Westminster Abbey (outside only), I had real fish and chips, and St. Paul's Cathedral. There's more, to be sure, but those were the main highlights, and it was rainy off and on. By the end of the day, the youngest didn't want to walk anymore, and all of our feet hurt. The kids went to bed around 8pm and they were sound asleep within moments. The wife and I soon followed and went to sleep as quickly.
- Yesterday (Sunday) we did the Tower of London (with the Crown Jewels), afternoon tea in St. James Park, and the London Eye. Great day, no rain...and all went well towards the end of the day when the youngest, while playing in a children's play area, fell on her left elbow. Ever since then it has hurt, to the point that she woke up in the middle of the night and I had to go downstairs to get some ice at 4am. She went back to sleep fine afterwards.

Today: The Stonehenge Tour. And Glastonbury. We hope the weather holds out. I hope my driving does! Just going to keep thinking "Left! Left! Left!". Wish me luck. Pray even. :)

Hotel! We have a hotel!

We've arrived. Tired. A bit hungry. But we have arrived. Now to wait for my friend Ben and his girlfriend Naomi and we'll be set.

...and we've landed!

PHEW!

Hellllooooooo England!

Well, we're flying over it now, about to land soon. We just passed over Southhampton.

Can't wait!

Wakie wakie!

They just turned the lights on in the cabin. Time for breakfast! Of course, it never did get fully dark outside...it stays daylight longer up north in the summer...so it was twilight most of the time.

The kids have been troopers thus far, both sleeping rather well. Let's see how that translates to seeing London today.

Concerts...

Okay, we're almost in the middle of our flight, and I'm listening to an 80s mix on my Ipod, and I just got done with a few Police songs, and then Prince's Purple Rain started to play. And I had a flashback.

I don't know if it is the effect of the two mixed drinks I've had (thank you, newbie flight attendant, for not knowing how to mix Delta's signature drinks!), but I started to have a vivid recollection of being at Prince's concert in the Orange Bowl during his Purple Rain tour, playing Purple Rain, and the crowd swaying, lighters in the air...just an amazing experience, especially for someone's first concert!

So I started to think about the concerts I've been to over time, and the memories I retain to this day. I figured I'd give a short list here, and maybe expand later.

My personal best concerts list:
1. David Gilmour in New York City (high point: Echoes)
2. Roger Waters, Dark Side of the Moon tour, Tinley Park, I'll (high point: The Great Gig In The Sky)
3. Bruce Springsteen, Born in the USA tour, Orange Bowl (high point: Born to Run)
4. Pink Floyd, Division Bell tour, Joe Robbie Stadium (high point: Comfortably Numb)
5. Prince (described above)
6. Elton John/Billy Joel, Joe Robbie Stadium (high point: Can You Feel The Love Tonight)
7. Police, the reunion tour, Dolphins Stadium (high point: Every Little Thing She Does (Is Magic))

I'll add more later.

Yay! We're in the air...finally!

An hour and 15 minutes behind...but a 6 hour flight...hrm...we may arrive on time anyway...

Ugh...

...it's 47 minutes past our take off time, and we're still on the ground. They have a traffic shutdown for some planes going in certain directions (not ours) due to volume, but those planes were already lined up to take off. Now they're trying to move them out of the way so that unaffected planes (like ours) can take off.

And it's slow going.

Ugh.

London, here we come!

We're on the plane to London now, and are about 20 minutes away from departure.

Guess I better start with the British euphamisms now...

"Bloody Hell!"
"Bollocks!" (?spelling)
"Cheerio!"

See y'all on the other side of the Atlant...POND! I mean pond!

Hello New York City!

We've arrived at JFK! Now to wait for our next flight...

Heights of Glory

From miles in the sky, we're over halfway to NYC and the movie is "Blades of Glory". Hadn't seen it until now...pretty damn funny.

Kids have enjoyed their MP3 players, and the wife slept through a good portion of the flight.

So far, so good!

4,411 miles to go...

Okay, now we're on the plane, and people are crowding through, going to their seats, etc. However, we're currently 4,411 miles from Gatwick Airport in London, so that's how I'm counting the miles.

Kids are settling in...this should be a quick flight...which would be good, as I need to get to the next Crown Room!

Aaaahhh....

...vacation...

Well, we made it through security. Now, the wait.

Check in was easy (thank you. Medallion status!). Security had no one at it, so that was easy. Now to wait 2.5 hours for our flight to New York...

...And helloooooo Crown Room! :)

A big thanks goes out to...

Delta Airlines for the free tickets (frequent flier miles), Jane at the US Passport Agency's information line for helping expedite the passports along, and Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart's staff (Yamel and Gladys) for helping make sure we got our passports! GREAT job everyone!

Headin' to the airport soon. Keep tuned here for updates!

(This was also a test from my BlackBerry, and it worked, so we're in good shape! See y'all back in the States soon!)

VACATION! VACATION!

It's almost time...

Happy Happy, joy joy, JACK JACK! (You don't know it!)

Yay! "You Don't Know Jack" is back! (No, this is not "24" related.)

Harvey the Wonder Rabbit

...as in, I 'wonder' why I still have this rabbit?



Well, one reason why is probably because the owner's parents took down my signs.

Anyone want a free rabbit? He's very well behaved, and litter trained!

Oh, and I'm 90% certain that it's definitely a 'he'.

A cause to get behind...

...er...that doesn't sound quite right...

Mystery Bird De Jour

Saw this bird when I was leaving work the other day...it's call was what attracted my attention...from what I recall, it was a lower in pitch call...the white chest and striped head threw me...anyone know what it is?

Almost committed...

You know...nice, beautiful end to the day...eating dinner with the family...looking out the window...and a small fluffy bunny rabbit head appears from around the corner of my fence.


"LOOK, A RABBIT!" I exclaimed...and then it bounces off out of view as my wife comes over to see...

South Florida is not a native environment for fluffy white bunny rabbits, especially my neighborhood. In an effort to make sure my wife doesn't think I'm entirely crazy, I had to go catch the fluffy white bunny rabbit to prove my sanity.


In the grand scale of things (related to animals) that I would not expect to ever see while looking out my back window at our lake, fluffy white bunny rabbits rank pretty high on that list. Now, I have seen a cow, before but that was in someone's backyard...not meandering down the street...

I chased the fluffy white bunny rabbit a bit...it was nervous...but it eventually stopped, lay down flat on it's stomach, let me pet it, and pick it up (by the scruff of its neck). So...now...we have a fluffy white bunny rabbit in our garage in a cage. We have signs up stating "RABBIT FOUND!" in our neighborhood...that went up within 15 minutes of me catching it...and no one has called.

Luckily, we had a good sized cage to put "Harvey" (get it?) in, and I went and got bedding, rabbit food and a water bottle for him (or her...please, God, don't let her be pregnant!). He (sticking with that) immediately started to drink water, and when we put food in, he started to eat.

Personally, I think someone dumped him. It rained earlier, but he was completely dry. He was clean, and apparently healthy. So, if he didn't escape, someone dumped him. I hope not...Harvey's a good rabbit. And very tired. He's had a long day.

Now THIS is neat...

I have an airline power adapter that would let me use my laptop at my seat during a flight without worrying about running out of battery. The only problem is that you can't always get a seat that has power at it.

Enter the "Inflight Power Recharger".

It lets you plug into the audio jack at your seat and use that to charge your USB-enabled device (Ipod, MP3 player, cell phone, etc.). Yes, it won't do the laptop...but heck, if I can watch my Ipod Video during an entire 10 hour international flight without worrying about its battery...I'm game!

Testin' the camera...kid style...

So we got the children digital cameras in preparation for our upcoming trip to Europe. Each of us has a digital camera now, and the neat thing is we'll be able to see the trip through their eyes.

In preparation for that, they need to learn how to use the camera. Here are samples of some skills we worked on yesterday...

...taking pictures from the car (important for while we're driving)...

...and taking macro (close up) photos (okay, not so important for the trip, really)...

And an extra Spinal Tap video from yesterday, too...

It's Stonehenge and Warmer Than Hell!

Roger Waters videos from Live Earth

It's not the entire set...but close to it!

Money

Brain Damage/Eclipse

The Happiest Day of our Lives/Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)

Roger, it was good seeing you again!

Again, thank you, Live Earth, for bringing Roger Waters back to the spotlight!


Roger had a great set tonight, albeit a short one. But atleast he didn't have Kanye West come up and ruin one of his songs (like "Message in a Bottle" during Police's set).

TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!

Thank you, Live Earth, for making Spinal Tap reunite!

I haven't been able to watch all the video yet...




...but they did have lots of guests to help them out...

So you whine that you don't have a game console...

...and can't play those awesome games like Guitar Hero...



Well, there IS an answer...Frets on Fire, which you can play on your PC with your keyboard!

And if you want more songs, read up here (although it does seem a bit tricky...but cool...).

Crappy day...then beautiful night...

I was worried earlier today...

...but had nothing to fear, 'cos the rain cleared up and left us with a night of festivities...

...I hope your 4th of July was just as nice!

If the British had still controlled the US...

...our rights to the following would have been severely impaired...



Those wacky British!

Happy Independence Day!

Make it a great day!