This is America!

Tuesday (9/14/15), our first official day to spend in the United Kingdom! I named the blog Two Fangirls and the men who love them, and this day was the absolute definition of that statement. First official stop of our international trip…Starbucks silly! After caffeination and a disappointing [for Matt} Bacon Buddie, we head for Euston train station. 

We check the boards for departure to Watford Junction, and decide to go with Platform 9. The train that shows up however does not have the Green London Midland logo on it, but the blue and orange Overground logo. Do we take it?  Let me tell you, trains in England are confusing. Well, it’s got to be the right one, we are going to Watford Junction. For the next 15 minutes or so, we go between being completely satisfied we are on the right train to complete doubt this will get us to where we need to go by the time we need to get there. We are again deciding weather or not to be concerned with the fact that the digital overhead readings keep displaying that if you don’t have a valid ticket, you’ll be charged a penalty fine. Matt mentions a sign saying penalties are £80. Hmmm. Matt had a saying while we were on vacation, he’d say “This is America, we can do what we want!” Mostly just shortening it to “This is America!”. Which at first I didn’t fully appreciate the humor in it, but by the end of the trip I came to love it. We recalled a modified version of this saying almost every day. It was just our way of saying, yeah, this isn’t america, and we’re clueless, but dang it, we’re gonna power through anyway. Just do it with confidence and know one will know the difference, a truly american attribute. This confidence booster came in handy many times. We invoked "This is America!" on this train ride. 

The moment of truth comes and the ticket takers come through the cabin, our tickets pass! We do get to Watford Junction…however by this time we’ve discovered that the Overground is definitely one way of getting to Watford Junction. A 40 minute way.  According to my London Midland train time table (you know, the train line we weren’t on) at most the trip should have taken between 15-20 minutes. No worries, we got there. We pick up the pace and see the Harry Potter Tour double decker right across the road and book it over. We make it onto the bus just in time, we didn’t have much time to afford to wait for the next one. 

We arrive at Warner Brothers Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter. We opted for the audio guide and get in line to be let in, we’re already snapping dozens of pictures just in the main atrium, which houses portraits of all the characters that are at least 10 feet high, and beautiful! After a brief intro video montage of all eight films, we were lead into a small movie theater for a longer video hosted by Dan, Emma and Rupert of course, which featured their ten years growing up on this very set.  The film ended with a scene of them standing in front of the doors to the Great Hall, telling us how when they first stepped through those doors, it felt like they were going to Hogwarts for the first time. The lights then came up and the movie screen rolled up into the ceiling revealing the REAL entrance doors to the Great Hall! When I say real, I mean the actual doors used on the movie set, everything on this tour is what the crew and filmmakers used to film the movies. We then all lead up towards the doors, which have beautiful amazing sculptures of suits of armor all around…….and then the doors opened.

They explained that the tiling on the floor is real floor tile, to withstand the 400+ feet that sometimes would tramp across it during shooting. Everything was there just as we’ve seen it on film. The great fireplace with the Hogwarts crest, the gargoyles holding the fire lit sconces. The house tables with plates and goblets. Costumes worn by the students. At the head table, costumes of the teachers and Headmaster. A few steps in, Kelly and I pose for a photo, and honest to goodness [but not a surprise for either of us] we are holding back the tears. This is just too cool. 

There are displays of everything: Gryffindor common room (did you know the portrait of the witch hanging next to the stairwell is a young McGonagall?), Gryffindor boys dormitory, Dumbledore’s office, Malfoy Manor, ministry of magic atrium, Umbridge’s office, Hagrid’s hut, on and on…..and then there’s the new Platform 9 3/4 exhibit with the steam engine and carriages. Then even more outside! The triple decker Knight bus, the Ford Anglia, and the Potter’s destroyed cottage in Godric’s Hollow. Then on to the creature shop for special effects and models….and the last stop, as I rounded the corner and had NO idea what was coming, was the stunning 50 foot wide, 1:24 scale of the ENTIRE castle, complete. Maybe 1:24 sounds small, but think about 1:24th of a real life castle. It was huge! Again, brought tears to my eyes (It didn’t help they were playing beautiful instrumental Harry Potter music in this room, gah!) Really amazing. Look for me in one of the pictures off to the right and you can get a clue as to the scale of this thing. The room’s lights would dim and you’d see flickers of “candlelight” inside the castle. Wow. I’ve seen a lot of Harry Potter things, so it takes a lot to wow me, and this did it. 

The boys teased us a little for spending nearly 5 and 1/2 hours there! (That’s where the part of  “and the men who love them” in our blog title comes from….they really do love us) I guess we’re super fans?

We headed back to London, this time taking the proper train which only takes 20 minutes! Next order of business in London? Find a pub! Now happy with a proper pint of ale and some fish and chips, we decide to go into central London. It’s now time to finally ride the London Underground, and these silly Americans are really excited about this.  The locals probably think we’re nuts. It’s a dead give away who we are, the only ones joking and giggling too much, probably too loudly! We don’t care, we love this.  We navigated the tube like pros and were right proud of ourselves for getting where we needed to be and not wandering around like clueless idiots! 

We decide it’s a lovely night to ride the London Eye, but as usual we are nearly too late. Let me emphasize nearly though, because like everything else….we’ve taken too long to get there…but somehow manage to seize the exact last moment that’s allowed to do or see that thing…so on par we are quite literally the last people ushered onto the Eye! 

We wandered around the city some more and then headed back to our apartments, exhausted! First day, nailed it. 

Enjoy a few hundred photos or so at your leisure by clicking the link below (make sure to pronounce that in your head with a British accent please):

This is England!

https://www.flickr.com/gp/126338660@N08/jt2KXp

So Many Cities, So Little Time to Post!

So, I know I haven't been posting, but there just isn't much time. One of these days I will catch up and post more. For the time being we've seen SO many amazing things:

Tuesday: Warner Brothers London The Making of Harry Potter, The London Eye
Wednesday: Buckingham Palace, changing of the Horseguards, Westminster Abbey, Hamlet (starring Benedict Cumberbatch himself!) at the Barbican, followed by an autograph from him after the play!
Thursday: Train to Durham and local sightseeing of Durham/Newcastle area. Me learning to drive UK style (we're still alive!), and staying at beautiful Lumley Castle overnight.
Friday: Drive to Durham cathedral, and then on to Alnwick Castle (so AMAZING!) and then crossing the border into Scotland (me still, driving.....us still all alive!) and now we're in Edinburgh, planning on walking the Royal Mile Tomorrow!

When we've got some more spare time (....unlikely soon) and reliable wi-fi....will fill in all our adventure in more detail! 

The REAL Knight Bus, also We can be Canadian!

Day One (Part Two)

Yes, it's Thursday morning, but I've just got to go back to Monday night for a brief bit. The flight here once we took off was great. I barely noticed it was a 7 hour flight. They fed us and kept us happy, and intermittently we had some mild entertainment from a nearby passenger who was overly dramatic and very high maintenance for the flight crew! 
We landed at 11:15pm, slightly past the curfew I think, but they got us there!  We were so excited. England, finally! I can tell you I was very happy to get that stamp in my passport!! We're feeling great and decide we that despite it almost going on 12:30am,  we feel like taking on London public transit like a boss. After a short FaceTime session with all our kiddos, we head to the Piccadilly line with purpose, but they have closed for the evening. We were told to take the bus. After four of us waited in front of some elevators that said "0 service" above them for longer than four adults should take to realize elevators were shut down for the night, we did somehow make it above ground. 

After googling our bus route and determining that the estimated route time would take 1 hour 40 minutes, and noting the time of 12:30am....we thought....ok, let's do this! Trying to ignore how suddenly we didn't feel so awake anymore. 

We're a little nervous that this is our Plan C for travel, noting plan C was not planned out ahead of time, meaning we could potentially end up anywhere is this large strange city. The bus finally arrives and it's PACKED. But cool, it's the standard double decker of course!! We get on, carrying entirely too much luggage to not be completely clumsy getting on this crowded bus. Kelly and Matt get on before me and head to the upper deck, I get on behind another lady and Geno is behind me. The lady in front of me however is trying to get to the back of the bus with her suitcase, and nobody is moving out of her way fast enough. With ZERO warning, the bus driver takes off, SERIOUSLY like Ernie Prang on a mission. I lurch completely forward over my suitcase (didn't fall thank god) and I'm only 30% sure my husband is also on this bus before it took off, that's how fast this all happened. I'm right near the SMALL staircase not designed for luggage and turn left into the stairwell, if nothing more than to use it as a shelter for my body not flying everywhere with my bags! I hear Matt's voice down the stairwell asking if I"m there. A beacon of hope! He rescued my bags from the stairwell and directed me to the back of the upper deck where Kelly was sitting. We both had this look on each other's faces like we'd just survived something harrowing. Slowly....not even sure how long (too long) Geno made it up the staircase and then into the back of the bus, Matt had a seat way in front with most of our bags. 

As the near two hour bus ride progressed, and we got nearer the city centre, one of the men sitting behind us notices our accents and says "Oh, Canadians!" We say, "Almost......we're close to Canada" Then he says "Oh, agh you're American"...with a slight tinge of distaste. Kelly and I decide that from here on out, if the mood in the room seems to be leaning a little anti-American.....we're Canadian, all the way. We could pull it off no problem, eh? 
So far this is what we had come up with for our Canadian cover story: 

1) We sound Canadian. 


Sounds good, right? He was quite drunk however and then proceeded to mimic an American accent, which was a mangled version of Texan and I'm not sure what, the girl with him laughed embarrassed and told him to cut it out, we though it was hilarious. We ended up chatting with him and his lady friend for quite a while and they gave us lots of good ideas for Scotland and were very friendly and hilarious. 

We were dropped off then at the end of the line, a lot too much to our surprise.  Meanwhile Kelly and I grabbing a 2am photo nearest the first red telephone box we spot! Finally, finally we make it to the hotel after we figure out a 2nd bus and then drag our luggage through completely foreign streets but nonetheless find our way.  By the time we got into bed it was past 3am....with a 7am wake up call! 

We've got this!

Welcome Home

Obviously, I watch too much British television (telly) because in many ways I feel like I've come home. Sure, we're totally lost for a few minutes until Maps (a.k.a. Steph) tells us which way to go. And, yeah...maybe there has been a bit of language divide at times (even though it's all English). And, okay, it's possible that we talk too loud everywhere we go (although, I blame Matt for that one). Still, I think we feel a sort of comraderie with this the Sherlock/Harry Potter/Downtown Abbey/Pride & Prejudice/Hamlet-creating Country. Don't we belong here?!

And now for a series of silly selfies. 

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

The London Eye at night. 

And some other fun photos:

We've just arrived:

Yup, I totally geeked out and dueled this guy. (It was part of the tour.)

Keep Calm and Carry On.....Literally

Day One

No one really cares for a boring story, do they? Well, dear friends, you will not be disappointed today! (Warning, it’s a long one….but a tale worth telling is a tale worth telling!) 

Last night we stayed with my brother and sister-in-law’s at their home which is closer to O’Hare. THANK YOU MARILLA AND MIKE, WE LOVE YOU AND APPRECIATE YOUR HOSPITALITY! *HUGS* [Most of] our alarms went off as scheduled. We were out the door within about 15 minutes of when we thought we should be gone….pretty good for this group (at least the Bondioli’s…we’re hardly on time….better brush up on that this week).  Marilla very graciously drove us to O’Hare, we made good time, no traffic, told her we need Terminal 3, international flights. We pull up to Terminal 3, unload all the luggage…and said a very heartfelt thank you to her with lots of hugs………however something just didn’t seem right. There was next to no one lining up on the curb of this terminal. Kelly thought maybe we should double check that Terminal number. Sure enough….. We needed Terminal 5! So, quick as a flash we loaded the van back up. We tried to make it light hearted by pretending Marilla was picking us up from the end of our trip by “talking” about all  the amazing things we’d seen in London….and how the trip seemed to go by in the “blink of an eye”….“Seemed like just moments ago you we’re dropping us off to leave!” Laughing aside, we were all thinking….”ok this is fixable….but let’s be better on top of things….you know, ‘cause that will just work out better in the end probably”. I mean, I do remember Terminal 5 from sometime earlier this week, do you think I remembered that now? Nope. 

The road exiting Terminal 3 appeared to be a never-ending street of “ha-ha you’re NEVER gonna be able to make that U-turn you so desperately need to!” But, we managed and made it to Terminal 5. This was the right place people, how did we know? TONS of people everywhere. Ok, no worries, we made it to the curb, whew. Inside we checked our bags with the loveliest of American Airlines employees, seriously she was extremely helpful and very nice. But seriously, why can’t the four of us college educated adults figure out which way to swipe our passports? Only god knows I think. Ok, checked luggage…check. Move on to security line. Another very helpful AA employee tells Geno his roll on carry on is too wide. Without going into detail we played a suitcase version of clown car/swap….except with clothes instead of clowns….and let me tell you the first attempt at “moving” clowns failed, now this suitcase was too wide….In the end, let’s just say that one person’s (we’re going anonymous here all the way) luggage pack of underwear (yes, underwear because that’s what was on top and easy to grab) was carried onto the plane graciously in one of the other couple’s carry-ons. The Bondioli’s and the Kons’ have now reached a new level of friendship : “I will carry your underwear, whatever it takes!”

Ok, get through security no sweat. Find a Starbucks, because, you just have to, period. Get some caffeine and food, make a few last minute texts, calls and head to the gate. By now it’s 8:15 and our 8:55am flight is probably boarding so Kelly and I hoof it to the bathroom pronto! We’re NOT missing this flight! Ok, we’re good, they actually haven’t started boarding yet! We casually fall into conversation, we can breathe easy…we made it to the gate!!! Oh, how silly we were…….It’s getting close to 8:45…and nothing. Ok….board just changed flight to 9:15am. Alright, that explains why were not boarding. But then, you see, it’s now 9:15 and nothing. Well, let’s sit down, because Murphy’s Law states if you sit down, you will then immediately be then asked to board your plane. Yeah, for some reason, Murphy’s Law was as broken as an airplane engine this morning. Was our engine broken?….well I think technically no…but there were now some announcements coming from the AA staff that the “engine has now finally checked out ok” UM WHAT? I love how this is all said extremely no big deal, which, how do i know? Maybe it is, but maybe it isn’t, right?  Still nothing is happening and now there is a significant line of people standing at the check in gate desk, all looking not very cheery. Matt decides to check it out. Immediately Kelly notices the woman sitting behind her is FULL ON SOBBING. Ok, now I’m ignoring that part of me that’s been saying “you know it’ll be fine, it’s not worth worrying yet when you don’t know what’s going on really” and starting to pay attention to the part of me saying “Uh, is what I think happening going to really happen? Cause yeah, that can’t happen. We’re due at Warner brothers London studios tomorrow at 10am…I’m going to be sitting at a Hogwarts table in THE great hall……don’t you people know that?????”

Meanwhile another lady walks back from the desk area and is near us and we hear her casually tell some other passengers that apparently they just put some “sealant” on the wing that they weren’t completely satisfied with….and they have heat lamps on the sealant now. [All of this story is true, seriously] Kelly and I look at each other like, ok don’t panic…….yet. Or……should we? IDK? Panicking is not on the itinerary…so let’s stick to that..

Matt comes back to tell us, they are desperately trying to get us on this plane and out of here…because guess what? London Heathrow exacts a flying curfew. That’s right. If we can’t make it to London by 11pm, no deal. WHAT? Still, we are all cool as cucumbers, good job us! Plan B is that they will get us a new plane that will take off at 4pm, because it will then land after the curfew is over, in other words…Tuesday morning. Ok. well, thats not horrible. It’s certainly not what we want to do, but we could sleep on the overnight flight, and get there Tuesday morning early. Alright. Maybe. We have some wiggle room with the tour if it maybe needed to be later Tuesday. 

Then the announcement finally comes: “Ok, we need everyone to listen carefully: (you could hear a pin drop) we want to get you on THIS flight. Everything is fixed, it’s 100% good, but we can’t take off until all the sign offs are legit, all the T’s crossed. Which hasn’t occurred yet. To make this go, we have to be wheels up by 10:15am or it’s a no go with the curfew. We are going to board you now, because if we don’t, you won’t make it. BUT, if the sign off doesn’t happen or the boarding takes too long…..no dice. She literally said we have a 50:50 chance…..so…….GO! 

No one panicked, everyone was calm, orderly, quiet….quickly we all got on the plane…..all of us saying mentally…please work!!! They’re loading the baggage…. we’re buckling in….no word yet…….then the wheels start moving back! We’re going. Wheels were up at no kidding you…..10:13am. 

And yep, we Kept Calm and Carried On….the whole time. 

Would anyone care for a side trip to Niagra Falls perhaps?

So, as I predicted, my proverbial "Oven caught on fire" this week. See, didn't I foreshadow that nicely? In my first post, things hadn't run amok quite enough yet for me to be officially going on the trip of my lifetime.  I knew it was too suspicious that  nothing major had gone wrong yet.  Indeed, earlier this week, we discovered a curious and very large (sopping wet) water spot on the carpet of the basement.  Our very own Niagra Falls in the basement! Practically on TOP of our TV that's down there. So, five days before we depart the country, a plumber was called. Really, we got off quite easy...there was no major remodeling required or bathtub shopping to do this weekend. A minor fix and all was well. Whew! Now we can officially be ready for vacation!

In four days we will cross the pond and start our adventure! It still seems unreal. So, signing off for today until crunch time is over!

In other news, I decided to put my geek cards out on the table and did this today! If you're gonna Fangirl it, do it all the way!

Making It Happen

Ummm...are we really leaving our kids and going to a whole 'nother country for two entire weeks?!  Is that really happening?! 

I am so excited to do this thing, to go to a place I have been wanting to go for a long time now.  It seems to me that the UK has been calling and I have been a bit too busy to answer.  But sometimes you just have to make the time, make a way, make it happen, and this needed to happen.

As most of you know, they told me that if my cancer were to come back it would more than likely come back within the next five years.  This has left me feeling like I have five years to fit as much as I can into my life.  To do some of the things we have put off doing.  To cross off some numbers on the "bucket list".  When the five years are over, maybe I will relax.  But, until then, I would like to get in some of the really big things that I have wanted to do, but previously felt like had to wait.  They will wait no more.

So, before we leave (T-minus five days and counting), I want to make sure to say a huge whopping big immense "Thank you" to the people who have helped me to achieve this goal (of sorts) in my life.

To Matthew, of course, for always saying "Yes" to my crazy hair-brained ideas.  You are the best...
To Linda, for taking on four kids for a week.  That's no small feat and you are always willing to jump in and make it work...
To Jeannie (Mom), despite the fact that your knees and ankles hurt you still tell me that you can and want to take on these crazy kids (and a dog!) for a week yourself.  You must be crazy.  I have always said that...
To Bill, thank you for helping to get the kids to myriad soccer games...
To Stephanie, I am SO excited that you agreed to do this with us.  It's going to be amazing...
To Geno, for saying "yes" to your wife!...
To my kids for putting up with this.  I know they don't understand right now.  Maybe someday they will.  I love them so much and I hope they know that I am not trying to escape from them so much as see a place that has inspired so many things that inspire me.  I hope it will make me a better mom...
To Tim and Rose, for taking on Watson (our horse-dog) for a week...
To Shelley Botchek, thank you for lending us your daughter as a babysitter and your dad as a tour guide...
To the Reddin and Zuniga-Meyer families, for their generosity with rides to soccer practices...
To our extended families for putting up with us...
To my book club for being the people who did all of the things with me that led to me having to go to the UK...

...To all of these people, thank you so much for helping us out and letting us go, and allowing me to make this happen.

Look out England/Scotland: It's happening!

Has our oven caught fire yet?

First post here, at T-minus 15 days to the trip. Navigating the unknown territory of blogging. Hopefully this endeavor will turn out to be a great memory saving piece to record our crazy adventures across the pond. 

My life is in list-mode right now. Frantically trying to figure out which list I need to either create, or check off. Many of these lists are in varying states of composition and completion. All of which are the current bane of my existence right now, albeit necessary. 

To any of the people in my life that have to deal with me in person these next 15 days, I sincerely apologize if you don't recognize the frantic possessed person in front of you, I promise she'll be back at some point to normal. The scary thing is that everything  seems to not be going so badly. Where is the utter chaos at work? Where is the oven that starts on fire four days before leaving for Antigua without the kids? Where is the world changing immunization conundrum at work for this year's flu season? Where is the last minute appointment change that does NOT fit into my schedule? Wait, that one did happen to me...and the new time delay safe at work hates me, and only me apparently.  OK things are their normal pre-vacation chaos...I was worried there for a minute.

I take heart knowing that no matter what happens, this trip WILL happen, as unbelievable as it still is to me, even this close. I still cannot believe I will be in London in 15 days, for the trip of a lifetime, with the love of my life, my best friend, and her amazing husband. 

Bring it England. Here we come.