Touring London on my way to South Africa.

Well I just got back last night and the whole trip wore me down. There is so much to show you so I will make 2 posts so that you are able to enjoy the pictures. It took us 3 days to get to South Africa and on the 2nd day we had an 11 hour lay over in London. We got off the plane and took the train into the city. The train station reminded me of Harry Potter. We then had enough time to catch the tour bus. It took us 4 hours to ride the bus through the city. Well I am currently breaking out the map so that I can possibly explain some of these pictures. First one is a house where the Beatles stayed.
Then we have the Marble Arch.
This was suppose to be the entrance for the queen but she didn't like it. I am hoping to get all this right considering I had no sleep and was trying to retain all this history within 4 hours. This one is the Trafalgar Square. I loved the Lions and inside the square there were artists selling their goods.

Everyone knows Big Ben. Then there was a picture of me with the London Eye in the background.

As you can see I am skipping the history part of it. LOL This next one is also me in front of the Buckingham Palace gates.

Now we have the St. Paul Cathedral. The architecture in this city was absolutely amazing and there was so much crammed into it. Oh yes and if you couldn't tell I took all my pictures sitting at the top of a double decker bus. Coming up is the Westminster Abbey.

The Tower bridges were quite nice as well. The strange looking building in the next picture is the Swiss Tower. I know I have a picture of the London Bridge somewhere but I am unable to find it. Maybe next time. I hope you enjoyed the pictures since I lacked the knowledge to tell you any of the history. I sat freezing at the top of the bus wondering how much more I could possibly take....

On the run...

Well since our last trip we have spent the last two weekends doing some spring cleaning. Yes I know... It's not spring but that's what I call it when you go through every drawer, cabinet, closet ect... We ended up taking 3 full car loads to the salvation army. You just don't realize how much stuff you accumulate. It's not even stuff you use that often.
Well I am all packed and ready to go. I leave for South Africa on Monday. Jesse will be home for 2 weeks with the animals. I just hope they are still alive when I get back.. lolol Maybe he will post something while I am gone. don't anyone hold their breath.
We hung out last night in Hollywood. We went to a restaurant called Le Tub. It is known for their hamburgers so we had one and they were damn good. We walked on the boardwalk and listened to a live band and had drinks. We have plans for the gym tomorrow and hanging out. I will have lots of great pictures when I return. Talk to everyone then...

Last vacation day

We got up a little early. I ran for the coffee while Jesse started a fire. We drove to the other side of the park and went up into the mountains. The sights were amazing. It was a steep hike but we made.

Our next stop was Cresent Lake. We wanted to hike to the water falls before lunch. There were so many different bridges to cross and the water fall was great. Once we had all the sights and hikes out of the way we returned to the camp sight for lunch.

We made a decision to drive back to Seattle before nightfall and have dinner. We caught the ferry back to Seattle and arrived around 6:00 pm. We drove around downtown and found a great Thai place for dinner. We found a hotel near the airport and dropped off the car. The next day was all flight time. I hope everyone enjoyed all the pictures. Jesse and I will be spring cleaning again this weekend. Nadia I can't wait for you to visit!! Oh yes I almost forgot. A perfect view of Mt. Rainier.

Day 6 Vacation cont....

The cab came early for us 4:30 to be exact. He stopped at the store before dropping us off so we could get our coffee fix. We got onto the COHO and were on our way to Port Angeles. We had a campsite right out side Olympic National Park. Once we set up camp we were on our way to the HOH Rain Forest. It took about 2 hours to get to that part of the park. This is the biggest park I have ever seen.
We had some lunch and walked a little ways with the ranger before heading out on our own. The trail was awesome. There is so much moss. One of the trails was called the hall of mosses. It was hard to capture the whole essence of the rain forest in the pictures. Once we finished there we headed to Ruby Beach. I was so amazed, it took my breath away. It is so different from here. There was a little sand but most of the land was just rock. We did some exploring and Jesse skipped stones on the water.
It took us an hour and a half to get to the Sol Duc Hot Springs. We had been looking forward to a good soak after a long day of hiking. We waited for the late special of 8 dollars per person. I have to say that the views were so beautiful but the springs were very disappointing. We changed into our suits and headed into the pools that held mass amounts of people. We got in and the smell was terrible. Sulfur smells like rotten eggs. The water was hot but once I got in I looked at the top of the water. There was so much skin and hair floating on the top that I was instantly grossed out. I don't know if sulfur makes your skin slimy or not but that was another factor that I could not deal with. We were quick to get out and get showers. We drove back to the campsite and built a fire to relax and drink wine. More to come....