Alton Towers

July 5 was a down day as the base celebrated Independence Day. We decided to take the opportunity to go to Alton Towers Amusement Park. The British kids were still in school, it was a lovely day,and we figured it was perfect. We left early in the morning to get there right at opening at 9. We went with our friends the Rays andmost of the Carpenter family. We rode some of the big rides first--starting with Oblivion, which basically dropped you straight into a hole--CRAZY! We rode that 3 or 4 times each. We moved our way through the best and most exciting. The lines weren't too bad, but we did have to wait a little. But, in the end, we got to ride everything we wanted to at least once. The kids had a great time and it was a fun family day.

Summer Move

Because Kent's job as an OB/GYN has so many time-sensitive components, his superiors supported our desire to move onto the base as soon as possible. This was approved by housing, and after a little negotiating with the assignments team, we were offered a beautiful Field Grade house at #2 Upper Heyford. The move went really smoothly, and the kids have all adjusted perfectly. There are multiple friends in the neighborhood, and it has been a blessing to have Kent's commute to work shrunk to practically nothing. We feel very lucky. And, as an added bonus, the kids and Kent built this awesome fort out of all the boxes!

End of the Cruise

After St. Petersburg, we sailed overnight to Tallinn, Estonia. We arranged a tour with a college student. She took us around thecity, giving us special insight into current events and the ghost stories associated with the oldcity. We started by going through the gates of the city next to the tower they call "Fat Margaret." It is a beautiful city of narrow, cobbled streets and gorgeous buildings. We got to go up bythePresidential Palace and look out over the city, with the good view of St. Nicolas and the old tower walls. We stopped at the Parliament Building ("It's NOT pink...") which was across the street from the only Russian Orthodox church in Tallinn.We stopped at ate at a Pancake Place, called Kompressor. It was so good. A definite must for our next trip to Tallinn!

After Tallinn, we had a full day of cruising on our way to Gothenberg, which was good, because we were exhausted. We had lost a total of 3 hours of sleep as we moved further east. Now was our chance to make up a couple hours and get some extra sleep. We took full advantage!

Gothenberg was another lovely Scandanavian city. There wasn't that much to see as a tourist, but it looked like a really wonderful place to live! As we got off the shuttle from the cruise ship, Kent struck his most "Gustavus Adolphus"-like pose. We took a city bus tour and

also a boat tour on the canals that run all through Gothenberg.

The boat tour was made extra exciting when the guide announced that we would be going through some low bridges and would have to sit on the ground and duck our heads. We thought she was joking at first, but then we caught sight of the bridge!

We spent some time in a museum, tracing the history of the city through Viking times and onward--pretty fascinating.

We took some time to tiptoe

through the tulips throu

gh a beautiful park in the center of the city. We stopped for Swedish Meatballs and headed back to catch the shuttle to the ship for our trip back to England. This was truly a fabulous trip and we feel so blessed to have been able to take it with good friends and to have our kids safe at home with Grandma and Grandpa.

St. Petersburg

From Helsinki, we crossed the Bay of Finland to the highlight of the trip--St. Peter

sburg! We hired a private tour guide from Shoretrips to take us around the city for two days. They picked us up at the boat at 8 am. We started with a drive around the city looking at some of the Landmarks: St. Isaacs, St. Nicholas, the Bronze Horseman, Mariinsky Palace and Theater.

We stopped at the Church of Savior on the Site ofthe Spilled Blood.

This amazing structure, decorated entirely with mosaics, is built on the site where

Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by terrorists throwing a bomb under his carriage. He was miraculously unhurt, but as

he came out of the carriage, another bomber approached him and detonated. They have preserved the stones where he fell before he was taken back to the Winter Palace where he died.

After the Church, we took a hydrofoil across the

Bay of Finland over to Peterhof, which was the Summer Palace built first by Peter the Great and then expanded by every subsequent ruler. We explored all the amazing grounds and then were met by our super driver Romer, who drove us past

all the fancy dachas of Putin

and the new ruling class on our way back to Petersburg.

We went to "Stolle,"a restaurant which specializes in amazing pirog pies--both sweet and savory. But, they also had pelmenni on the menu, and I couldn't resist those!

Everything we had was delicious.

Our last stop for the day was at the Hermitage--the largest museum in the world. We had to move fast-we only had a couple hours before closing.

Ksenia, our guide, was amazing. She was very knowledgeable, not only about Russian History, but about all the art held in this amazing

building. We got to see Peter's throne room,

w

ith its astonishing inlaid floors, mirrored by the engravings on

the ceiling. We had such a

wonderful day and went back to the ship completely exhausted!

On Day 2 of our grand St. Petersburg adventure, we headed out first to Tsarskoye Tselo, which was the summer getaway of many of the Tsars. It is also called Pushkin, because it was in this city that he went to school. We put on booties to protect the beautiful inlaid floors and tours this palace

while the rain poured outside. There was an

interesting display of photos from after the bombings during WWII. They are still doing restorations. The highlight was the amber room, which was dismantled and stolen by the Nazis and then taken out of the country. It was never returned, but was recreated completely from photographs and eyewitness

accounts. We then walked around the grounds, stopping at

Catherine's coffee house, near a lake where she would take tea.

There were 5 men singing Russian folk songs. The acoustics were so incredible, the 5 sounded like 50. It was an amazing treat.

in front of Catherine's palace.We took a photo of the three women

After Pushkin, we drove to a

nearby restaurant, Pod Dvore, which is supposedly Putin's favorite. There were folk singers there performing, and we sampled multiple Russian specialities (the borscht was good). And, of course, there was a vodka-toting bear!

After lunch, we headed back to Petersburg through terrible traffic. Romer did a fabulous job of getting us to Peter and Paul Fortress so we could see the burial places of all the Tsars. We had to hurry in order to get back to the ship before it departed. But, we did get to see where the remains of Tsar Nicholas II and his family were laid to rest in the Cathedral on July 17, 1998, the 80th anniversary of their murders.

It was so good to share with Kent this beautiful city that I loved so much. I had such good memories of my times there, and now I have some new memories with Kent!

Northern European Cruise May 19-31

I finally talked Kent into taking a cruise! This cruise was perfect for us--two stops in Sweden and two days in St. Petersburg. We flew Kent's parents out to stay with the kids and our friends Trent and Katrina Listello came with us. It was so fabulous. We sailed with Royal Caribbean leaving out of Harwich, England. We just drove about1.5hoursto the port, parked, and walked on the ship!The first night was a formal dinner--Kentdidn't like being told what to wear for dinner--but he sure looks handsome! We had a full day of cruising on our way to Copenhagen. We got to workout at the gym, play bridge with some lovely older couples, and enjoy the shows.

Copenhagen was alovely city. We enjoyed walking through along the port where the Little Mermaid used to be. She is currently on loan to China, and they had a live feed of people admiring her. We walked through the government buildings, including the palaces where the current and future Kings of Denmark live. There was a fairly extensive exhibit about Queen Margrethe II, and her son,Frederick

who will become King. We took our picture with Hans Christian

Anderson, whose influence is seen everywhere. We enjoyed some of the tastiest Wienerbrod (pastries) EVER and a yummy Danish hot dog. Then, it was time to head back to the sh

ip for our next port--Stockholm.

Stockholm is another lovely

Scandanavian city. We enjoyed walking around the old parts of thetown, with the town hall and government palaces. We got to go into the treasury, where they keep some of the old weaponry, cavalry pieces, clothing, and carriages. Some of them were pretty elaborate.

The port of Stockholm was far from the center, so we had to take a shuttle.

We had another day of cruising on our way to Helsinki, Finland. We were assigned

to late dinner--8:30, so then we had to go to the late show. Then, we would chat or play games, so every night was for night owls. We slept in as much as we could, and got to read, relax, and gear up for our next day of touring.

Helsinki was full of interesting churches. We visited the "Rock Church," carved out of roc

k with an amazing copper wire ceiling, a Finnish/Russian Orthodox Church, and a Protestant church near the president's palace.

Roma

We found out this spring that Kent was supposed to be deployed from June-December. We promptly scheduled several trips. Then, a coupleweeks later, it was arranged that Kent would not be going--Halleluja! So, this trip to Rome was celebratory instead of a going-away. We found an apartment on laterooms.com and flew on Ryanair, leaving on Thursday evening after school. On Friday, we wenton a VaticanTour wehad arranged. Our tour guide was, umm,interesting. Thetour which was supposed to be 3 hours, turned into 5 and 1/2. The kids were so fabulousand patient. They are really a pleasure to travel with. We got to see some of my favorite things, including the Pieta, which Madeleine had studied in school.Itwas really fun to show the kids St.Peter's andthe fabulous Bernini Colonnade. After a delicious lunch (mozerella di bufalo and penne, mmmm), we went for gelato at the best place in the world, Giolitti. Their strawberry is the best we had anywhere. We wentback a couple times!!!

That afternoon, we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and threw our coins in, guaranteeing at least one more trip to Rome.Then we walkedover to the Spanish Steps where everyone was enjoying the beautiful weather.

The next day, we headed over to the ancient stuff--firstthe Coloseum, where we walked the walk of the gladiators and listened to the audioguide. After the Coloseum, we walked up Palatine Hill and then down into the old RomanForum.

After another stop for lunch and gelato :), we went over to the Pantheon, where we got to see the dome which inspired so many others, including St. Peter's and the Florence Duomo. The next morning, we headed out to the Borghese Gardens, where we rented a pedal car. It was fun--and tiring-- to bike all over the gardens. We only noticed later as we were pushing our way up a very long, steep hill that we had one of the only cars with no engine. At least we worked offsome of that gelato! We then headed down to Piazza del Popolo where we stumbled onto a DaVinci Exhibit. They had built some of his creations out of wood and the kids were allowed to touch and explore them. It was fascinating to see how some of the things he had sketched could be brought to life and worked just as he hadenvisioned. We made one more stop back at Trevi Fountain, where Colin went in for a closer look--maybe a little too close! It was a fabulous trip, made even better by the fact that Kent doesn't have to go to the sandbox and can stay and take lots more trips with us!

London with the Johnsons

Our dear friends, Craig and Lisa Johnson, came to visit, so we spent a couple days in London with them. We met them at our downtown hotel and headed over to Westminster Abbey. It was so cool to see where the Kings and Queens of England have been coronated and see the graves and monuments to the cultural greats of the country. That nightwe went to a yummy Italian restuarant, "Bucca de lupo," in Covent Garden and then went to see "39 Steps."

On Saturday, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. We took a tour with a very knowledgeable guide who showed us all the ins and outs. We heard the history of the bucket brigade during WWII, where the cathedral was saved from bombings and fires. We made the long climb to the tower where we were treated to fabulous views of the city. It was so fun to spend time with our great friends in our adopted hometown!

Portobello Road

Our Officers and Cilivilian Spouse Club took a trip to Portobello Road and Notting Hill one lovely Saturday in April. We spent the morning shopping at the legendary Portobello Market and taking a London Walks tour through Notting Hill. It was fun to see "how the other half lives," including houses owned by Madonna and others. I loved this garden in Notting Hill--they really do have these private enclosed gardens. And, of course we stopped by the travel book shop. No Hugh Grant, though--bummer.

Ireland, Day 5, 6, 7

Day 5: We headed off on a beautiful drive through Killarney National Forest. There was some incredible scenery.Wecontinued ourdrive along theRing of Kerry. Each corner brought a view more breathtaking than the last. We stoppedat some ring forts (large circular rock walls that the kids never tired of climbing.And, at St. Finan's Bay, we pulled over to a beach with a cool castle. The kidsloved exploring the rocks and wading in the water (even though it was FREEZING!).

We paid too many euros to stop at the "Best View in Kerry County."It was pretty amazing with fabulous views of the Skellig Islands. We also stopped at the Skellig chocolate factory,which hadhomemade and very yummy truffles.

We drove on to Dingle and stayed at Castlewood House, one of the most beautiful Bed andBreakfasts we had the pleasure tovisit.

Day 6: We explored the Dingle Peninsula, stopping for ice cream at Murphy's--a definite don't miss. The kids took a photo with Fungie, Dingle's hometown dolphin. After leaving Dingle, wedrove on. We took the Ferry over to County Clare, and drove up to the Cliffs ofMoher--Amazing.

We stopped at the Burren to see the unique rocky landscape and cool passage tomb on our way to our hotel in Galway.

Day 7: We drove from Galway to Dublin, stopping at Clonmacnoise. I loved the Celtic crosses and Kent enjoyed playing King for a bit. It was our last day in this beautiful country. We were sad to leave, but grateful that we could go home. This was the time of the ash cloud over Europe, and people were stranded everywhere! Because had already scheduled our Ferry, we were free and clear. Surprisingly, the weather in Ireland was sunny and beautiful all week--they said they had never had such a lovely week.