BEST Vacation EVER Recap (part 4, the grande finale)

After spending a day making the most of Paris, we were TI-RED!!! We had a pretty chillaxed day, just hanging out at the house, with Spencer's family. We got to make pizza. By make, I truly mean make from scratch. It is SO good! We watched a few movies and then headed off to bed before our next grand adventure the next day.

We set out a little later than we thought (when on vacation never stop, or else you might not be able to start again) but we headed off to Stratford-upon-Avon. Yes, we went to Shakespeareland. We were able to see his birthplace, his grave in the Trinity church, as well as the theatre there and some really neat shops.

It was a lovely village with really neat buildings and structures.



It was pretty funny because they ask for a donation before you can go see the actual grave, and we didn't have enough small bills/coins, SO we went to the gift shop to break a larger bill to be able to see the grave!

They say this bust is quite the likeness to the bard himself because it was sculpted while his wife and daughter were still alive and they were a part of the creation of the sculpture.


This is the theatre that is there. It is a beautiful building.

The closer we got, the more detail jumped out at us.

I did a little happy dance when I saw this shop. I immediately thought of my parents, my dad especially.

It had A LOT of ornaments and such. Spencer stayed outside while I took it all in. I am my daddy's daughter in this way :)

After we wandered around a bit, we headed off to Cambridge. We had some AMAZING fudge, I had authentic fish and chips and we were able to go to King's College Evensong. It was so beautiful and spiritual and I felt the testimony of those who sang, and I know they weren't singing for us, but singing a praise to the Heavens.

SO DELICIOUS!!!


GORGEOUS

We had a bit of an adventure getting home, in that we thought we lost the car key, and after a stressful few minutes and a phone call or two, we found the key! YAY!! Celebrate good times! We made it home in pretty good time, and were able to watch a movie with family and friends.

Now, here is the thing. I don't generally watch scary movies. There is a very good reason for that. I get scared. Freakishly so. I jumped and squealed and possibly even screamed a little. We watched "What Lies Beneath" which I have seen, but only once and it was YEARS ago. Well, I survived the movie well enough and was doing fine, until I went on the computer to check my flight information for the next day, and Spencer comes creeping up behind me and scares the living daylights out of me! You better believe I screamed. His mom was not happy with him and gave me permission to do basically anything to him for retribution. We were then talking and someone came up to the front door (the ride for some of the kids). BUT he didn't just knock on the door, but he popped his head in the window next to the door. Mini-freak out again? You betcha! I did get to sleep that night, and didn't have a scary dream, thankfully!

Spencer and I made our way to the airport the next morning, but I had to take one last picture:

This is the place I called home for the last 10 days. Let me tell you, I felt so welcome and comfortable, it just added to the awesomeness that was my best vacation ever!

The airport proved to be an adventure as I misread which terminal to go to, so we ended up taking trams and escalators, and getting through to security was an adventure too, and then in Chicago I took a million more escalators and trams, but I made it back in one piece.

I hope you have enjoyed this walk with me through vacation memory lane. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to go to England (and Paris), and for the generosity of the Bugg family. I have precious memories of the BEST Vacation EVER!

BEST Vacation EVER Recap (part 3)

Are you ready for some more of a grand adventure??
So, our next stop was to go BACK to London. Man. We got to take a train into the city, and it was beautiful. I love taking trains because you get to see parts of the country that you would not normally get to see when you travel on the road.
So, we went to London and went to Westminster Abbey. Something that made me laugh was one tourist asking where exactly the wedding took place, and the information man so patiently pointed out exactly where everything went down. I wonder how many times he has been asked that question. The different tombstones and markers are so intricate and beautiful. There are so many people there! We saw Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Chaucer, William Wilberforce (he's the man!) Winston Churchill, and of course many royals that are there. There is amazing architecture throughout, even on the outside. There are some more recent people that are honored on the outside, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

It's me! SURREAL!


Dr. King is 5th from the left.


It's SOOO big!

We then headed over to a little theater, to see a little play you may have heard of. It is called:

That's right! I have finally seen Wicked! I love it when you know music from a musical pretty well, and then you finally get to see the show and see how the storyline comes together and weaves through the music.

While we waited, I took in the granduer of the theatre.

What am I looking at?? The COOL ceiling.

Now, it isn't really this color, but this picture turned out so cool and shows the detail well.

We can't wait!!!! YAY!!!!

The show was absolutely amazing! The music, costumes, actors, chemistry! Our Elphaba had some soul to her, and had the most amazing voice! I really liked the chemistry she had with Galinda (the "Ga" is silent) as well as with Fiero.

We also wandered around Piccadilly Circus for a bit and bought a 'pocket watch' because we needed one for the next day, and neither of us had one!

Pretty sweet, right? Made us laugh.

Our next stop was a whirlwind, one day tour of Paris. Yeah. Crazy, I know! When Spencer first suggested it, it was a cool thought, but I never thought it would actually happen, but he made it happen! We got to take the train through the Chunnel over to Paris and hit all the big spots we wanted to see.

We started the day in the Louvre. I kept thinking about the book/movie The DaVinci Code while we were there.

The Louvre is HUGE. We could have been there for days and not seen everything, so we had to see a few things that we really wanted to see.


It was so cool to be there!


Apparently, I am a funny photographer. Actually, I think a random person was unaware of anything around them (including us) and had been in the way, or something like that.


SO intricate and detailed and ornate!


So many people!


Yes, that is Spencer. Yes, that is the Mona Lisa. Yes, I was there too. It was quite the battle to actually get our pictures with her!


Venus de Milo is beautiful.


I loved the paintings!


Beautiful art.

We headed out and towards our next stop, and while on our way, we passed the pont neuf and also the bridge with all the lovers' locks. There is a LOT of love!

Our next stop was historic...well, pretty much everything we saw is, but this one was so epic and historic that Disney has even invested in the story. Yep, we went to Notre Dame!

I half expected Quasimodo to come out at some point, alas, he did not. BUT I did get to see the French police with their BIG guns patrolling the area. I thought something was going down, but I was informed that they normally do that.

The next 2 places we went were absolutely beautiful. We went to the Musee D'Orsay as well as Musee L'Orangerie. Musee D'Orsay had amazing art of Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and many others. It used to be a train station and is the perfect size and not too overwhelming.

It is just a beautiful building.

Spencer is trying to become one with the art!

It was pretty funny because we got there at a good time, the line was going pretty quickly and then, just as we were going to go in, the guard stopped us, and we had to wait about 20 minutes to get into the museum because there were too many people in there!

I could have stayed in the Musee L'Orangerie forever. You want to know why? They have huge murals of Monet's Water Lilies. Take a look!

This will give you a little perspective as to the size of these murals. (plus, I love the fact that I match the paintings!)


They have benches in the middle of the room, and you can just sit there, taking them all in.

I love this one, with the sunset colors and the extra depth to it.

They all took my breath away.

Makes my heart happy!

Of course, we couldn't go to France without partaking of the deliciousness known as a crepe.


Let me tell you...these things can be so messy...but SOOO good!

Our next stop of the day was to this little known place called the Eiffel Tower. I have one word for this place. GINORMOUS!!!!! Seriously, the closer you get, the bigger it gets, but you think it can't get any bigger, but it does!

Just taking it all in. The day was beautiful and breezy. I ended up taking a little nap right here :)

I couldn't believe that I was actually there!

Spencer liked it too!

It was so neat because there were people just there on their lunch break, having a picnic by the Eiffel Tower!

We had fun with a little photo shoot. However, we were by no means the only ones. Some people were ALL sorts of into posing in all sorts of ways!

Seriously. GINORMOUS!

I could have strained my neck!

Beautiful!

Looking up...pretty cool, huh?

There was a nice lady who came up and offered to take our picture. NICE! We were able to be in a picture together that gets more than an arm's length of scenery :)

We headed to Arc de Triomphe and walked along the Champs-Élysées. While there, we saw the Abercrombie and Fitch models just hanging out...




Our last stop of the day was the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, or in English Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Paris. There are a bazilliondy steps to get to it, but it is SO worth it. The view of the city is breathtaking and the Basilica itself is gorgeous.




It was the perfect end to our one day in Paris.

Now, there are a few things that I found in the train station in London that you might enjoy. I love the statue of the military man and the details on the base:



We also found a very magical part of the train station:



Thus ends this part of the recapping joy. I do believe I can get the rest into one recap, so I am almost done. I know, I know, you will miss these grand adventures, BUT don't fret, there is still one more recap!!! See you soon!