Travel

Leaving for England

On-board Miss Sunshine, our Airbus 330-300

On-board Miss Sunshine, our Airbus 330-300

As many of you know, we went to England for two weeks this summer. Since I’m posting these after we got back, I can say with some confidence that we had a wonderful time, saw some amazing sights, and are very glad we went. We traveled with another family, Stuart and Donna and their three beautiful daughters, Hannah, Ellen, and Katie.

If it had been possible to go any time other than the month of August that would have been nice but it simply wasn’t going to happen any other time. Still, we had fabulous weather for most of the trip (and the rainy day was pretty awesome, as well). Many places we went were crowded but we managed to squeeze a wide variety of things into a relatively short time and had a good time doing it.

This trip was a long time coming. The idea for it actually came up more than a year ago and we even talked about going last summer but with the Olympics, that didn’t seem like a good idea. Last fall, though, we started talking in earnest and early this year we began making firm plans, buying tickets, booking rooms in hotels, and renting two cars for most of the time (but not London).

The date of departure finally arrived. This is one of only a few pictures I took as we left on Miss Sunshine, a Virgin Atlantic Airbus. Don’t worry, I took a few more pictures once we got there.

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Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

I went on a field trip with Dorothy’s class today, visiting Ford’s Theatre and the Lincoln Memorial. The class posed for a group picture as we left Lincoln.

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Cabela’s

Cabela's

Cabela’s

We stopped in Cabela’s in Wheeling on the way home from Cincinnati. It’s part sporting goods store, part natural history museum, filled with stuffed animals of every description.

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BWI Airport

BWI Airport

BWI Airport

Well, Dot and Donna returned from three and a half weeks in southern Africa this evening. What a wonderful trip they had. I had to satisfy myself with pictures of blurred people at BWI Airport.

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BWI Airport

BWI Airport

BWI Airport

It’s not exactly an Eero Saarinen but I’ve always liked BWI airport. Also, dropping people off there is a good excuse to stop take a short detour to G&M to buy some of the best crab cakes anywhere. They aren’t particularly cheap but at a half pound each and almost all crab meat, they’re worth it.

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Hot Dog Bun People

Hot Dog Bun People

Hot Dog Bun People

OK, this is a little obscure. On the way to the beach back on July 30, while waiting in traffic on I95 south of Woodbridge, Virginia, we noticed an SUV with two bins and two coolers on the back. In one bin were games and in the other were lots of hot dog buns and a couple (clear) containers of Fruit Loops. They were going faster than we were so naturally we lost track of them.

About 220 miles further along on our trip, we stopped, as we always do, for barbecue at Parkers in Wilson, North Carolina. I dropped mom off and went to park in the only shady spot in the parking lot and guess who was right next to us? The Hot Dog Bun People. I even took a picture showing the back of their car.

Fast forward to today, seven days later. We’re driving west on I-40 out of Wilmington, North Carolina. We are about a hundred miles from Parkers, heading back home. The girls are quiet in the back seat, zoning out, when all of a sudden Dorothy had some sort of seizure. I actually saw the van about the time she did but the rest of the car had no idea what was going on. She was pointing out the window and babbling incoherently in a loud (very) voice.

As you can see from the picture (which matches the picture from last Saturday exactly except one cooler and one bin are gone) we had just been overtaken by… The Hot Dog Bun People.

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Beach Umbrella

Beach Umbrella

Beach Umbrella

This is a beach umbrella reflected in a thin film of water on the sand. I like it as an abstract image.

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Ocean Isle Pier

Ocean Isle Pier

Ocean Isle Pier

It’s been pretty hot but this is the beach. I like this nearly monochromatic image of the ocean and the pier to the east of our house.

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Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Horseshoe Falls

On the way home from Toronto we stopped at Niagara Falls. It’s right on the way and we figured it would be worth the time. We paid to go on the “Journey Behind the Falls” tour (which is really just access, not a tour). For anyone interested, the actual “behind the falls” portion is fairly anti-climactic. The observation deck right beside the falls, however, may be worth the price by itself. Plan to be wet by the time you are done, though, unless there is no wind at all. I had my camera in a plastic bag and pulled it out for a couple shots, of which I think this is the best. There are similar viewing areas on the US side and it would be interesting to compare them to this.

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Gooderham Building

Gooderham Building

Gooderham Building

Located between Wellington and Front Streets at Church Street in Toronto, the Gooderham Building, completed in 1892, is a good example of a flatiron building, similar to its more famous cousin, the Fuller Building in New York City. I had to edit this picture a bit to take out a half dozen pesky girls standing in the foreground, but I don’t think that’s too noticeable unless you look closely. I couldn’t just wait for them to move because I was sitting in the van at a traffic light and by the time they moved, I’d have been gone. I love buildings from this period. Classic.

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Toronto at Night

Toronto at Night

Toronto at Night

I arrived in Toronto at about 5:00 PM today with ten youth and two other parents from church. We’ll be spending the week working in a soup kitchen for about four hours each day and then at various sites in the afternoons.

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