Hi!
Hope everyone is doing well back home! We're really starting
to miss everyone and it will be nice to be back home again when
it's time to leave. I am still loving it tho, but city life does tend to
wear on you. People in London are not the friendliest and are
almost suspicious of you if you are!

We miss Socks so much!! Marisa and I thought about him
alot when we visited "Pet World" at Harrods the other day,
it's amazing leather couches for your dog, and a cherry
sleigh bed, seriously!

Last night Marisa and I went to see Les Miserables at Queens
Theatre, it was just wonderful. The set design was amazing,
and the actors were perfect. We both really loved it! It's been
playing here for 24 years for good reason.

Last week, Terry had some time off so we took a trip up to
Scotland, we stayed in Edinbugh a few nights and visited
Edinburgh Castle and walked along the Royal Mile.
We rented a car and drove (big mistake) up to Inverness.
Really the driving wasn't so bad once we got going,
it really was just getting out of the city, oh yay, and
the flat tire 5 minutes after we left the airport.
That was fun!! They really like round-a-bouts up
there with at least 4 different choices to exit and
cars coming at you in all directions while driving a
stick and remembering to stay on the left.
There's a reason why no other country drives on
the left!!

We drove up thru the Highlands and stopped at
a few of the quaint little towns along the way.
Once we were in Inverness, we took a tour
out to Loch Ness - just had to do it for Terry and
Marisa's sake :) and also toured Urquhart Castle.
There's a few pictures up already from that trip
and I'll get some more up in the next few days.

Scotland is very beautiful and reminded me so
much of WA state. The country side looks
very similar.

Before we left for Scotland, we went to see
Kanye West in concert at Hyde Park. They
have all day concert events on the weekends
during the summer that are kind of like
Bumbershoot with 4 different venues going
at the same time, and bands playing at each
one all day. But, really we just went to see
Kanye and even tho I'm not the biggest fan,
the show was really good. He's a great preformer.
Well, it was great except for the 5 topless women
he had dancing with him. Didn't realize that
was going to be part of the show, or we wouldn't
have gone. Things are much more lax here
than they are in the States.

Marisa's friend Kate flew in today from Seattle,
she'll be staying with us for a week. It's been
so fun having her here already and it hasn't
even been 24 hours!

Much Love to you all and Happy Birthday Dad!!
M

Hi Everyone!
We really missed being in the States yesterday for the 4th,
it just isn't the same. I wanted to make some potato salad
and go to the park for a BBQ! We did hear some fireworks
going off around 9, but it was still to light to see them.
We had dinner w/a few friends at a pub in our neighborhood
that was decorated w/American flags, and then went
for a walk around Hyde Park.

Thursday we took a tour of the British Museum and all
just loved it! There's an amazing amount to see there,
and it is all incredible! The Rosetta Stone, the granite
statue of Ramesses ll, Assyrian carvings that decorated
the palace, and hundreds of other interesting things.
Two hours just isn't long enough there!

After that we walked around Leicester Square, the
theater district and Covent Gardens, a lively area
with lots of shops and pubs and street performers.

We finally had to take a break and re-charge a little,
get some laundry done and do some grocery shopping.
Neither of which are easy tasks to accomplish here.
Most Londoners, just shop for a day or two. Without
a car, you can't do much else. And laundry, well I
could go on for hours about the washer/dryer
thing we have in our flat. It's a major topic of
conversation amongst all the Americans here.
We might all need a new wardrobe when we
get home!

Not complaining tho, we are having the time
of our lives, and I'm so thankful the Lord has
given us this great opportunity to enjoy!

Much Love,
Margaret

Hi!
It's been a busy few days! Friday we took a walking
tour thru London's east end with a resident expert
on Jack the Ripper. I had no idea how gruesome
it all was :( We saw the famous tavern the victims
frequented and some of the housing tenements
the victims lived in. One is now an upscale condo
bldg with units that sell for around 3 million
(US dollars)! Our guide was very knowledgeable
and very detailed, and I had a difficult time
listening to all the details. We went with a few
friends, and ended the night with another
wonderful dinner back in our own neighborhood.

We were able to visit the Tate Modern on Tues.
The collection is housed in what used to be an
oil power plant that was closed down in the 70's
when oil prices were sky-rocketing. We saw
part of the regular exhibit and also a show
on Futurism that was excellent. I'm hoping to
go back a few more times and catch the rest
of the exhibits. We had the cutest little English
lady lead our tour, and she was a wealth of knowledge.
After an hour, we'd only seen 3 paintings! Afterwards
we had another great dinner at a little Italian place
in South Kensington. I had the best Lasagna I've
ever had!

Today we took a boat ride along the Thames out
to Greenwich and went to the Observatory on the
prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) and the
clock that coordinates the rest of the world.
Unfortuneatly the Cutty Sark was closes
b/c of an arson fire and is being restored.
We stopped at the Trafalgar Tavern for
lunch, that Dickens wrote about and
knew well!

Much Love!