Chicago Trip: Wrap Up + Index

All in all, we've had a pretty touristy trip. That's okay because there's a reason such places are so popular.

Favorite Place (by far): The Art Institute of Chicago
Most Overrated: The Field Museum (The Darwin Exhibit was one of my very favorite things but it's not a part of their permanent collection.)
Biggest Convenience: really good affordable food all over the place
Thank Goodness (Kyle and Richard): we had a place to stay so we could afford the trip

Things to do when I have more money:
-Fancy restaurants
-Sporting events

Things to do when I have more time:
-Kingston Mines blues club
-Museum of Science and Industry
-Wrigley Field
-Tour Eli's Cheesecake Factory

Index of Chicago Trip Posts:
Arrival + Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
The Chair Table
Day 4
Day 5

Chicago Trip: Day 5

Today we started by visiting the University of Chicago. (The trip there was not fun, by the way, with the university located in the middle of a pretty rouch area.) It was nice to just stroll around and enjoy the beautiful buildings. Especially the gothic style buildings of the main quadrangle. In addition to the quadrangle, we checked out Bond Chapel, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (pictured below), and Regenstein Library.

Right off campus, we visited Robie House which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The amazing exterior has recently been renovated but the inside still is in pretty poor condition. Our tour guide said they're aiming to have everything finished by 2010. Interesting bit of trivia: As you may know, Wright is famous for using long horizontal lines to make his buildings appear organic. To accomplish this goal, he used pigmented mortar for all the vertical spaces between bricks.

Next we headed to the 95th floor lounge at the John Hancock building for its great view of the city.


For dinner, we went to Lou Malinati's Pizzeria. I think it wins the battle versus Giordano's. The best thing, though, is that they had Eli's Cheesecake! The original was stellar.

After dinner we planned to go to Kingston Mines, a blues club. That plan was dashed when we (Jenise) lost our keys. We never found them. A few hours later, we were able to get in but were too fatigued to go out again. Since Jenise's brother doesn't have an extra set of keys and his roommate is going to be gone during the day, we're home ridden for our last half-day here. Oh well. I think we've done plenty in a relatively short amount of time.

Chicago Trip: Day 4

Today we intended to complete the museum campus trifecta. We went to The Field Museum of Natural History on our first day and today we had The Adler Planetarium and the Shedd Aquarium on the list.

First up was The Adler Planetarium. They had a great exhibit on the history of the theory of the universe beginning with the flat Earth that was the center of everything and ending with the idea that the universe is expanding. At each stage there was a list of how the new theory improved on the previous one. It made me realize how little about this stuff that I know.

We also saw a pretty amazing show called Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity. Visually it was stunning (and you have to love watching a flick leaned back in your chair and staring at the ceiling), the sound was great (with narration by Liam Neeson), and the content fascinating. It went by a bit too fast for me so I'll have to see it again sometime. There's a link to the trailer on this page.

A neat bit of trivia: "The Earth's natural radioactive decay releases as much energy in one second as the amount of energy used by the United States in about four-and-a-half years.

There was also a nice exhibit on the history of US space travel. I think the rest of the planetarium was skippable with lots of mediocre interactive learning tools.

After taking a quick rest, we headed to the Shedd Aquarium. Interesting observation: they actually have a pretty cheap basic admission ($8) but the cheapest package they advertise is $23. Anywho, the aquarium was nice. Fish are pretty amazing creatures. They also had a newborn beluga whale. And sharks. And a komodo dragon. There were two standouts for me. First was an Australian lungfish who has been in Chicago since the 1933 (!) World's Fair. Second were the sea dragons.


In the evening we went to Twin Anchors, an old neighborhood restaurant off the beaten path (but still packed), for some delicious ribs. Falling off the bone with a nice tangy sauce, they were worth the long wait.

The Chair Table

Also known as "The Most Underappreciated Piece of Art at The Art Institute of Chicago."


Imagine the poor sap who brings this home enthusiastically seeking his wife's approval:
"Honey, I know you've been wanting a nice place for us to eat our meals together in a proper fashion."
"Yes," she responds eagerly while staring at the solitary chair in the corner.
"You'll never believe what I found! It's a chair and a table all in one! A chair table! You just fold it right here and it's a table. Fold it back and, voilà, it's a chair! Combined with the chair we already have, it'll be perfect!"
"Yes, dear, but where will you sit if I'm sitting in the old chair?"
"I'll be sitting in this chair, of course."
"Then where will we put our plates?"
"On the the table!"
"But the table is a chair. And you're sitting in it."
"Then I'll just fold it over, like so, and we have our table!"
"But, then the table is no longer a chair and...."
"I know. Blows your mind, doesn't it?"
"Yes, dear."

Chicago Trip: Day 3

Today we had an ambitious day planned: The Art Institute of Chicago, Oak Park, and and Navy Pier.

Before heading over to the art museum, we checked out Millenium Park, home of the amazing Cloud Gate (or the "The Bean") which is fully deserving of two pictures.



The Art Institute of Chicago was my favorite place so far and I doubt that anything else will surpass it. The most famous piece there is probably American Gothic or The Old Guitarist. Both exceeded expectations.

I was most pleased that they had a large number of Monet's. I'm pretty confident in saying that no other artist consistently comes close to his level. Maybe Van Gogh but I prefer Monet. Okay, now for a list of highlights:

Favorite Artist I Didn't Know Before: Kawase Hasui
Random Favorite: Road Near by Twachtman
Most Underrated: Stay tuned...this one is going to get its own post
Best Piece By An American Artist: American Gothic or Winged Figure
Favorite Renoir: Young Woman Sewing
Favorite Monet: Sandvica, Norway
The Sexiest Painting I've Ever Seen: Woman at Her Toilette

The museum took up most of the day but, with an hour and a half of daylight remaining, we headed to Oak Park which contains the world's largest collection of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright including his own home. They were pretty neat. Next time, I'd like to take a guided tour to make sure I see them all and to get the background info.


Lastly, we went to Navy Pier for a bit of touristy shopping. It was just what you would expect.

Chicago Trip: Day 2

Woke up in the morning with my back in major pain but I wouldn't let that hold me down. We spent the morning and afternoon at the (free!) Lincoln Park Zoo.


It was pretty cold out but it was worth it. Thankfully, there were a number of indoor viewing areas. My favorite was definitely the Regenstein Center for African Apes--I could have spent all day there. The other highlights included the Regenstein African Journy (starring hippos, rhinos, giraffes) and The Lion House. I didn't realize it at the time but, apparently, there was even a mini-lion that tried to jump in my coat!


After finishing at the zoo, we decided rest for the rest of the day. My back needed it. And we had lots of plans for the next day.

Chicago Trip: Arrival + Day One

What was the first thing we did after arriving in Chicago yesterday and dropping our bags off at Jenise's brother's place? Deep dish pizza from Giordano's. It was delicious. It was pretty late afterwards so that was it for our first day here.

Today we spent the day at The Field Museum. The featured exhibition was Darwin. The neatest thing I learned was that he was sitting on The Origin of Species for over 20 years. He was hesitant to publish it for various reasons but he had no little choice after finding out that a fellow scientist was going to publish his version of natural selection.


We had planned to visit the aquarium or planetarium as well but we ended up spending hours in the Darwin exhibit (I had to read everything because it was all so good) and there was lots more to see in their permanent collections. Their most famous piece is Sue, the "largest most complete T-Rex in the world."

Once the museum closed up on us, I talked Kyle and Jenise into going somewhere we could watch the Major League Soccer Eastern Conference Championship. Good food, good drinks, and a good game. Unfortunately the wrong team won as New England beat Chicago. Ah well, neither of them are going to be able to beat Houston anyways!

Mini Vacation!

Jenise and I took a quick trip to LA this weekend. We spent our first evening visiting friends. They just had a baby boy two weeks ago which made it extra fun.

The main thing on our agenda for our full day there was to see a soccer game but that wasn’t until the evening. In the morning we went to Hollywood Boulevard to check out the Kodak Theater, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and Grauman’s Chinese Theater. Stars names in the ground aren't particularly exciting to me but I was curious to see which stars drew the most attention. On the Walk of Fame, it seemed to be Bruce Lee. At Grauman's, the stars of the Harry Potter films were easily the main attraction.

Next we went to Venice Beach and walked the boardwalk. There was a bunch of "interesting" characters there. We saw at least 10 fortune tellers, a "bushman" posing with tourists as if he were attacking them with his spear, and, of course, the musclebound dudes lifting weights on the beach. I also saw Paddle Tennis for the first time. I really want to try it--it's like tennis but with the tempo of racquetball.

After playing on the beach for awhile, we were off to Home Depot Center to watch the LA Galaxy play my team, the Houston Dynamo. (Why is that my team? They were formerly the San Jose Earthquakes which was my local team. Next year I’m going to have to balance my allegiance as the San Jose Earthquakes rejoin the MLS.) The Home Depot Center is a pretty sweet place to watch soccer. Even with a smallish crowd, the atmosphere was really good. Too bad their team is terrible. (Their general manager, Alexi Lalas, traded away all their decent young talent to acquire players who "could withstand the pressure" of playing with Beckham.) The pic below gives a good look at the HDC.


The game was pretty exciting. As you probably know, Beckham is out the rest of the season due to injury but it was US international Brian Ching's first game back for the Dynamo after an injury. Once he came on, slightly before halftime, they were running circles around the Galaxy. In the end, the score was 3-1 for Houston.

London Trip Directory

We're here
Day 1
Day 2 (Ben Johnson Edition)
Day 3 (Football Chants Edition)
Announcement on the Tube
Day 4
Tragedy of the Commons in the Gallery
Day 5 Guess Who? Edition
Day 6
Day 7 (Last Day Edition)
Wrap Up

London Trip: Wrap Up

Top 3 activities:
1. Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park
2. Fulham at Brighton soccer game (probably would have been #1 if it wasn't so expensive and freezing cold)
3. National Gallery

What I wouldn't do again: Natural History Museum (pretty generic)

Where I would like to spend more time: British Museum

Best "British" food: chicken tikka masala (I'm with the masses on this one)

Biggest challenge: eating on a budget which included too many pastries for breakfast or snacks

Favorite picture I took:


Biggest surprises:
-tours were great (too bad we didn't have time at St. Paul's)
-pub food was pretty expensive by my standards
-trash cans are impossible to find on The Underground

London Trip: Day 7 (Last Day Edition)

Setting out for our last day in London, we planned a very full day to fit in the last three things we didn't want to go home without having done. We began with St. Paul's Cathedral.

The famous dome, the third largest in the world, was amazing. I didn't know this until I saw it but, within the cathedral, there is the American Memorial Chapel to commemorate the Americans based in Britain who gave their lives in WWII. Each day the page is turned in a huge book listing all their names. There are four levels of the cathedral that you can explore. The Whispering Gallery, on the second level, was neat. It was pretty impressive how far you could hear a whisper across the dome. On the third level was the Stone Gallery, which was on the outside of the dome, had a great view of the city.



What I failed to mention so far is that we had to climb narrow spiral staircases all the way up. A total of 434 steps to the Golden Gallery on the fourth level. But the trek to the fourth level from the third was by far worse than anything that preceded it. I admit that my legs were getting a bit tired at this point but that's not the main reason I started shaking. The fact that these steps were iron and I could see through them absolutely terrified me. I've never experienced anything quite like it before--I was shaking and it was actually somewhat paralyzing. I clutched the handrail on one side and the interior of the staircase on the other and moved forward, slowly. I didn't want to go on, though. If I had any choice, I wouldn't have. Here's a picture of me trying to make light of the situation.


In the end, I made it to the top. The marginal benefit of going to the fourth level was pretty small but I'm a completionist (which is something I hope to work on in the future) so I probably would have done it even if I'd have known. By the end of it, our feet were sore. Note: St. Paul's Cathedral is not a smart way to begin a day in which you plan to do lots more walking.

Next, we headed to The British Museum.


The main galleries we focused on here involved Egypt, Greece, and Mesopotamia. The Rosetta Stone, the key to unlocking the secrets of hieroglyphics, was a highlight along with mummies and lots of Greek sculptures. I fit right in with the latter....


Note 1: Yes, my right arm is strategically placed in the first picture. Gotta keep this PG-13.
Note 2: Jenise did the second picture.
Note 3: Plan to spend an entire day at the British Museum. Rushing through these galleries is about as exciting as spending time at an antique store or garage sale. You really have to do a lot of reading to have any appreciation for what you see. We were thorough with a number of the galleries but I'm sure there's a lot we missed out on that we would have enjoyed because....

We had to make our way to Tate Modern. Before moving on, I should say that I expected to hate much of what I saw at Tate Modern. Indeed, I did. In any case, there were lots of famous artists on display including Monet, Mattisse, Picasso, and Pollack.

We also saw a room full of Rothko's that looked like very much like this (which I made using Paint):


Impressive, ain't it! I thought it was amusing that there were a *ton* of paintings that looked very similar to these. I wonder why? Maybe, ummmm, because it's not that hard? All you have to do is convince a critical mass of well-to-do people to buy into your pretentiousness?

There were also heaps of metal laying around all over the place. I think the janitors didn't pick them up because they happened to fall on the "art" side of the ropes. In all seriousness, is it not commonly agreed that the best literature works on multiple levels? Why should paintings or sculpture be any different? If it's not beautiful, or at least intriguing, I'm done.

All wasn't lost, though, because (besides the fact that I got a kick out of laughing at the terrible stuff) there was a lot of neat stuff as well. The impressionist and realist works were great on the whole. And, I admit it, even some of the "weird stuff" was great. This one was probably my favorite.

To conclude our last night in London, we went to the pub for dinner. Jenise finally got to have a Shandy as was recommended by both Sarah and my mom. It was quite yummy. I knew I'd like it better than my beer!

London Trip: Day 6

Todays post is brought to you by Jenise....

Today we went to the Tower of London. This was our first look at a real castle. As we came out of the underground The Tower was right in front of us!


As Jason and I walked around The Tower we realized we needed to by tickets to go in and look around. Of course there were "loads" (one of my new British words) of people already in line! I didn't know you could purchase the tickets online and we wasted half an hour waiting just to get ours.


We walked through the Main Entrance and immediately saw the Yeomen Warders. The Yeomen, or Beefeaters, live in The Tower and serve as guards so they make wonderful guides as well. They are quite interesting characters (that's "report card talk" for loud and obnoxious). He told us about how the executionor would become friendly with the the prisoner's but not "San Francisco friendly" for us Americans. He also had lots to say about the French and gave the audience a hard time for being bloodthirsty (since we all wanted to hear about the prisoners and executions and whatnot). Like our trip to Westminster Abbey, the tour was pretty awesome.


After the tour we explored the towers, turrets and palace. Our first stop was to see the Crown Jewels in The Jewel House. Of course there were diamonds and other jewels there but the most beautiful thing was Elizabeth II's coronation robe made from spun gold.

Next, we made our way to Traitor's Gate. This is were most of the prisoners entered The Tower of London. Fun factoid: it was initially called "Trader's Gate" because it was first used as an entrance for traders.


We walked through Beauchamp Tower where many important prisoners were kept. These included Lady Jane Gray, one of Henry the VIII's wives, who was beheaded. The people who were kept here often did "graffiti" on the walls which we were able to look at. Then we went to The Bloody Tower. This tower is notorious for the disappearance of two princes in 1483. This tower has set up a sort of "who done it?" on the disappearance of the two boys. The suspects backgrounds and motives are presented and evidence is given, then you get to vote on who you think killed, or kidnapped the princes. A substantial majority holds Richard III responsible as the popular accounts by Thomas More and William Shakespeare.


We then moved on to The White Tower where the royals lived long ago. This later became an armory.

In The White Tower we were able to look at weapons the British used throughout history along with many suits of armor. This is a picture of the infamous Henry VIII. Our yeoman said to make sure we took a look at it: "It is the first use of psychological warfare in history!" You may need to enlarge the photo to understand...er maybe not!


While we were there we had to watch the ravens for a bit, which are very important to The Tower. There is a legend that says that if the ravens ever leave, the entire kingdom would fall. Those are high stakes so what do you think they did? Clip their wings!


We meant to go to St. Paul's today but ran out of time. Instead we went to Tower Bridge, the former site of the London Bridge.


Only one day left in London then its back to sunny California!

Tragedy of the Commons In the Gallery

The tragedy of the commons refers to a situation in which everyone would be better off if they would cooperate but they don't cooperate because individuals can always do better by cheating the others; since everyone knows that others will cheat them if they get the chance, agreements are never made.

What does this have to do with the Gallery? Well, there was a pretty big crowd around Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." In the abstract, it looked like this (people are o's and the painting is x):
-------x-------
-----o-o-o-----
----o-o-o-o----

Here, only 3 people can enjoy the painting. If only those front 3 would move out of the way, then 4 people could enjoy the painting. But what happens when the front 3 leave? People from the second row move forward (one of them out of luck) and, once again, only 3 people can enjoy the painting! The funny thing is that even the lucky 3 who make it to the front row lose out--they would probably enjoy the painting more if they weren't so darn close. But if they don't grab one of the close spots, someone will jump in front of them and they won't be able to see it at all!

So how can you improve this situation? The two ready solutions are to introduce a market of sorts or to have a benevolent dictator force individuals to do what's best for everyone. Coase theorem (the free market solution) would have the property rights to the space assigned to someone who would rent the space to those who value it the most. Of course, this is downright silly since it would be incredibly costly for an individual to manage all the customers who only want to see it for a short time. Instead, the gallery (benevolent dictator) should rope more area to force people further from the painting. It's so easy, isn't it?

London Trip: Day 4

Today we started with a trip to Buckingham Palace. It was an amazing building with some very nice adjacent parks.


My favorite thing about Buckingham Palace was actually the sculptures on the fountain out front which seemed to glorify the common man. The characters depicted were normal folk as evidenced by the tools they held but they were stoic, strong, and stood next to lions.


Next we walked along St. James Park to the National Gallery.


The National Gallery is separated into four sections: 1250-1500, 1500-1600, 1600-1700, and 1700-1900. In each room, we played the "if you could take any home with you which would it be?" game. We agreed maybe 25% of the time. I tend to prefer slightly simpler and darker works than Jenise. We meant to go in chronological order but we accidentally began with 1500-1600 where the stars were Da Vinci (hyperlinks go to our favorite paintings we saw), Raphael, and Michelangelo. I think I more than quadrupled my knowledge of the Bible here since nearly all of the paintings depicted scenes from it. Next was the 1250-1500 section which starred Bodicelli and a ton of frescoes. The works in this section were pretty disappointing compared to what we just saw so we went through pretty quickly. Next was the 1600-1700 section. Here, Rembrandt was the brightest star. We were getting pretty tired when we got to the 1700-1900 but that didn't last long because it was the best section of them all with Monet, Van Gogh, and Degas. I really didn't want to make a snobby statement like this but it's true. You have to see Monet and Van Gogh in person to fully appreciate them. I've always liked Van Gogh but never knew how thick he laid on the paint--the depth it created was stunning. And, to be honest, I never really liked Monet before--I think seeing them in their true scale made a big difference but the pictures online don't seem to get the colors right either, especially for this one which was my favorite.

We left the gallery on a mission to acquire Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. British editions! We got both an adult version and a kids version which don't differ in content.

Before returning to our hotel, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant. We had chicken tikka masala which has been voted England's favorite food. It was a curry dish that was a little sweet, a tiny bit tangy, with a bit of hotness. Yummy. The best meal since we got here.

That's all folks. Gotta get started on Harry Potter. Any comments having to do with Harry Potter are off limits on the blog. I also will not mention it again. For a good while anyways and if I do I'll give good warning.

Announcement on the Tube

"Ladies and Gentlemen. I just spoke to the technical staff I'm sorry to inform you that we will be delayed. Apparently the technical staff ain't that technical."

London Trip: Day 3 (Football Chants Edition)

Today, we started the day at the Natural History Museum. We got our first taste of the "rainy London" on our way there.


We learned lots about creepy crawlees, birds, dinosaurs, mammals, "Earth Today and Tomorrow," and more. Too much to describe, really, but one thing deserves noting. Dinosaurs are amazing. Apparently, lots of people agree with me because this exhibit was by far the most crowded. (Thought experiment: is it good to make a museum free even though it likely leads to overcrowding? The simple fact that I appreciate how nice it is that poor kids can enjoy this type of experience lures me from my default free-market position. But I do wonder if there isn't a better intermediate solution.)

After the museum and a little rest, it was time to make our way to Brighton for the football game. Our adventure didn't really get started until we got to the train station. We couldn't figure out how to buy tickets from the machine so we had to talk to someone at the desk. After harshly telling us that we were at the wrong station (the right one was a 2 minute walk away), he told me how stupid it is that I haven't signed the back of my credit card--he went on to explain that "see ID" doesn't mean anything in England since they don't have IDs and we're not in America anymore. Thanks, jerk. I wanted to cite Tyler Cowan's thoughts on the matter but we were a bit lost and in a hurry and I just wanted to get out of there.

After a bit over an hour on the train, we were in beautiful Brighton.


And then we made our way to Withdean Stadium.


The seats are separated into sections for the home fans and the away fans. We sat in the away section since I have to support our yanks abroad (there are 3 US players on Fulham--two of which started the game.) There was a buzz in the stands before the game began. When each Fulham player was announced, all the Fulham supporters yelled "hey!" Then yelled "ugh!" and "who are you?" for the Brighton players. As soon as the game began, the songs began across the stadium. Only 3 minutes in, Brighton scored. Didn't stop the Fulham supportors from singing their songs, though. A bit later one of the Brighton players "took a knock" and had to be helped off the pitch. The Fulham supporters responded with a nice rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You." Then they took aim at city of Brighton with "you'rrrre city is full of gaaay boys!" followed by "We can see you holding hands" to the tune of "London Bridge." They were ruthless. They even sang "fat bastard" at an overweight man as he walked across Fulham's section towards Brighton's section. And they were constantly taking aim at the stewardess. Every time she would tell people to sit down, they'd sing "Stand up if you haaate Chelsea!" And fulham fans HATE Chelsea so lots of people stood up and sang along. She can't kick out the whole section, right? Clever. They didn't have to be provoked to sing about hating Chelsea, though. It's a part of one of their most popular chants.

Oh yeah, there was a game going on as well. US international, Clint Dempsey, scored the equalizer late in the first half. Fulham scored again in the second half to win 2-1. Woo hoo!

London Trip: Day 2 (Ben Johnson Edition)

First thing this morning, we accomplished the second most important thing to do on our trip. We got tickets to Fulham's football match against Brighton and Hove Albion! The first most important thing? Getting there tomorrow.

After securing the tickets we headed for the Westminster. As soon as we got out of the station, bam! There's Big Ben.


We spent a fair amount of time just walking around the Houses of Parliament admiring its elaborate architecture, along with the adjacent buildings. Our walk took us to Victoria Tower Gardens where we got our first look at the River Thames.

Next stop, Westminster Abbey. It cost 10 pounds to get in and 5 pounds for the guided tour by one of the Abbey's vergers. (Yes, I had to look up what a verger is too--not a British word for tour guide.) I couldn't be happier about our choice to take the guided tour. Of course, I would have been amazed by beautiful architecture, memorials, and tombs regardless but the historical context our guide provided really made the experience. Plus we got to go in some areas that are restricted to the general public, mainly the tomb of Saint Edward the Confessor (who founded the Abbey) which is the centerpiece of the the Church.

************************************************************************************
Aside: this got me thinking, why doesn't everyone take guided the tour? (I'd say less than 5% of the people there took the tour.)
1. They do their research and know what they're looking for and looking at.
2. They don't know what they're missing out on.
3. Tours take over 1 1/2 hours and people don't want to spend the time or money.

Call me cynical but I think the answer is (3). We didn't plan on taking a tour but once we were inside we were both overwhelmed--there was just so much to see and we thought "it's really beautiful but what's its story?" It was pretty clear that we were missing out on something so that rules out (2), in my opinion. And I'm definitely too cynical to consider (1). So why do I think (3) is probably true? I think people probably just go because it's one of the places you *have* to go. Having gone, they can say they did and (truthfully) say they were impressed by all the sights without having to do any learning.
************************************************************************************
Some neat trivia our guide provided:
1. Rich folk could pay for memorials or burials in the Abbey. This is why there is such an enormous number of beautiful sculptures all over the church.
2. Benjamin Johnson (author of The Alchemist) really wanted to be buried in the Abbey but, despite his early success, he didn't have much money as he was making arrangements for his death. He could only afford a 2 foot by 2 foot square for his burial in the Abbey. They had to bury him standing up.
3. King Edward I, "Longshanks," tomb was the plainest and raggediest of them all but this was intended. He wanted to be moved to a grand tomb in Edinburgh once England finished taking over Scotland. He's still waiting.

Okay, this is getting long so I'll be brief in describing the rest of the day. After we left Westminster Abbey we spent a lot more time just walking around taking in the sights. We ate pasties. Cheap and British. Perfect, we thought. I got the steak and Guinness pasty while Jenise got cheese and bacon. Pretty tasty too--very similar to a Hot Pocket but heartier and more British. Refueled, we headed for Notting Hill--it was as trendy as I expected and more. Unfortunately, most of the stores were closing up already. (I really wanted to go antiquing!) A little later we hit a local pub for a pint and fish and chips.

London Trip: Day 1

Our 10-hour flight arrived at 2 PM local time (6 AM Pacific). Whereas SFO was eerily empty, Heathrow Airport seemed full of employees doing a whole lot of nothing. After going through Passport Control and collecting our bags, we were off for the Underground. Lucky for us, it stops just a 2 minute walk from our hotel in Earl's Court.

After settling in and taking a bit of a rest, we started exploring the area around our hotel to find someplace for dinner. We ended up at The Blackbird--the guy outside said it had the best pub food in the area. We shared a meat plate with chicken satay, bangers, and beef with a trio of sweet-and-spicy sauces. It was okay. We were amused by the sign that read "We now serve our draught lagers extra cold!" It was still the warmest beer I've ever been served but, to their credit, it was cool.

After dinner, we didn't have much daylight left so we took the Underground to Hyde Park. There were lots of impressive monuments there commemorating those who fought in The Great War (WWI) among other things.



It was really nice just strolling through the park. It *really* made me want to play hide and seek, though. Where's Jason?


We ended up making our way to a cafe on the Serpentine Lake and watched the sunset.


Okay, you know I can't finish on such a sweet note so here's the obligatory funny-in-a-very-immature-way sign we found in the park.