England and Scotland - 2012

We weren't home long before it was time to head back across the pond to England with the IPA group.
After a memorial service in our area for Jake Erlich onSunday and then a funeral in Sacramento on Monday for Frank Borgia, we headed to Santa Rosa.

  This would be October 8 and we arrived at Shelby's bearing gifts of cookies and early birthday gifts for her and Bruce.

On Tuesday we caught the early shuttle to SFO and finally got there about 2 hours later; traffic was heavy.  After checking in, we found others in our group down at the boarding area and then went in search of lunch.  Note:  United Airlines might have its faults, but we don't go hungry.  Skip the extra airline food.

Our taxi met us and took the six of us and our luggage to the Union Jack Club.  Our rooms weren't to be ready until 2:00 and it was around 9:30, so off we went by foot.  The location was great and the weather was beautiful (sunny and blue skies).  Past the London Eye, over the bridge to Westminster Abbey for a tour, then lunch at a pub down the street.  Fish and chips, what else.  Potato chips are called "crisps" here.  French fries are the chips.

Back to the hotel to check into our rooms and take naps.  At 6:00 we met the others for a walk in the opposite direction.  Jim and Claudia picked up some take-out sandwiches and we all headed back.


Thursday, October 11.  My hair straightener fried!  It proved to be the first of many such mishaps for our group.  About 3 converters are needed to make our appliances work with their electrical outlets.  At least it wasn't my In-Styler (the company might not be so happy to replace another one), but it was still a rather expensive one!  Not to mention how my hair looked!

We took a boat ferry to the Tower of London where we spent several hours.  At 12:00 we had a half-hour Beefeater tour that met in the chapel.  He was very entertaining as he regaled us with stories of some of the more famous victims of beheading.

The crown jewels were on display in another building.  The White Tower, Bloody Tower and Museum were also toured.

After we'd had enough blood and guts stories, we met Jim and Claudia at Starbucks where we waited (and waited) for Susan and Glen.  Finally they arrived and we were off to Hung, Drawn and Quartered Pub for a late lunch.  Ours was a steak, mushroom and ale pie (puff pastry) with chips.

A quick tour of a church and we headed back to the boat ferry.

Glen and Susan then joined us for a tour of Parliament, where Glen's knife was confiscated!  We listened to a bit of a session that was not at all interesting; the coatroom supervisor said he never listened in himself.

Back to the hotel in the rain.  Many of the rest of our tour group had arrived and were having dinner.