Eric’s Journal

We are now in France, but the following is a excerpt I wrote on the train in England.

Where are those sheep? I was looking forward to viewing sheep close up.

When we arrived in Moreton-In-Marsh, it was raining, again. It happened to be Market Day, so I figured there would be flowers, meat, veggies, seafood…however, there were also socks, batteries, sweaters, old cds, and a Meat Machine. What’s a “Meat Machine”? We didn’t get close enough to find out! The market was much like a mall, but on a smaller level. Still… no sheep, just saw them from afar on the train.

We decided to visit Stow-In-the-Wold, sounds like someplace sheep would be, right? Well, it was a quaint town with shops and it was still pouring. Eric had a chance to try out the stocks in the town square, but he got a little wet. No sheep.

The next morning, the sun was sort of breaking through, so we went off on a hike or a walk to examine the English countryside. The puddles were virtually impassable, but we trudged on. I can’t remember the last time I was that muddy. Guess what? We didn’t see ANY sheep, but we sure got a good look at some cows! The couple in front of us meandered through the herd without a hitch, not us! When walked by a couple cows turned their backs and took care of business before we could turn away. Boy, it smelled bad and Eric couldn’t stop laughing through the entire field. I think that just encouraged the behavior. Due to this experience, that afternoon, I had to muster up some courage to eat cheese . The walk was enjoyable, we ruined a couple of white hotel towels, but it was fantastic to be outside.

Chippen Camden was a town to the North and it had a beautiful Catholic Church. The altar coverings were supposedly the only ones to survive the English Civil War. The bus ride was a little scary due to the narrow roads and how they drive on the other side of the road.

The Cotswolds were definitely quite a bit slower than London. Too bad we didn’t get to see the animal that creates the famous Cotswold wool, I guess we were in the wrong area. I can’t believe there weren’t ANY sheep. The hotel was fantastic and we had an amazing meal one night, all in all, it was a welcome reprieve from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Next up: D-Day and the beaches of Normandy, France.

Update: view photos of the Cotswolds.

Filed by LeAnn at 12:32 pm under Europe 2007
No Comments

It’s not London Bridge, but Eric and LeAnn that are falling down. 3 full days is not enough time to see all of the major sites, but we tried! We’ve managed to squeeze in trips to Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, the Royal Botanical Garden, the Chocolate Bar at Harrods, and more.

Today, we made it in the nick of time to the British Library to see some amazing manuscripts. Eric spent much of his time staring at the first edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. This morning, I was more fascinated with bypassing the ropes at the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels . We happened to be some of the first people inside and didn’t even have to get up that early!!

We’ve really felt like we are still at home, since it has been raining off and on. We even got caught in a torrential downpour walking home because the tube was busted. Fortunately, the sun came out yesterday afternoon and we were able to ride the GIANT ferris wheel, the London Eye.

We’ve taken the most pictures of Big Ben or maybe the London Eye or maybe even the Tower of London. At Westminster Abbey we definitely walked on the most bodies, considering how the graves are stacked on top of each other.

The food has been better than home! Tonight we had Indian food in Piccadilly Circus.

Tomorrow we leave for Moreton-In-Marsh in the Cotswolds. Hopefully the sheep won’t be too wet!

Update: view photos from London.

Filed by LeAnn at 11:56 am under Europe 2007
5 Comments

We can’t believe that it’s almost time to leave!

Hopefully we won’t have as many follies as the Griswold family. 

Here is the link to a Google Map so that you can see our overall plan. We will start in London and fly out of Rome.

Filed by LeAnn at 9:29 pm under Europe 2007
No Comments

…in with the new. After owning my house for just over two years, I finally had the back door replaced. I remember telling my friend Anne that the old plywood-clad door wouldn’t last long, but despite offers from my friend Dave to help install a new one, I never got around to doing it. Finally, I decided to throw some money at the problem and have one professionally installed. It was far more expensive than I expected to pay, but I’m happy with the purchase.

Filed by Eric at 8:09 pm under Life in General
2 Comments

On May 18 while my Grandpa was in town, we took a trip to the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. This privately owned, quiet refuge is only a half-hour ferry ride from Seattle. A reservation is required before visiting, and more information is available at the Bloedel Reserve web site. Visit my gallery for more photos.

Filed by Eric at 11:26 am under Photography, Travelling
No Comments

After a lengthy, extensive remodel, the Seattle Art Museum reopened with a 35 hour long celebration with free admission. I thought that by going at night I’d be able to avoid some crowds, so LeAnn and I went at 11:30pm. However, I overlooked that it was Cinco de Mayo and underestimated the crowds. The whole neighborhood was crowded and it took us over an hour to get in.

The remodel is certainly impressive. The building itself was expanded to fill a city block and comprises the first four floors of the new Washington Mutual building. The original gallery space on the South end of the block hasn’t reopened yet and will soon feature special exhibits. The new Brotman Forum housed a brightly lit hanging Ford exhibit (see photo above) and served as a dance floor for an all night rave hosted by local djs.

The expansion of the galleries now gives the museum a more majestic feel, but it lost some of it’s intimate atmosphere. The techno beats and alcohol-soaked smell of humanity rising from the dance floor created an unusual ambiance for viewing art, but it was certainly an experience to be had. We had to leave by 2am to get the car out of the lot, leaving several galleries unexplored, so I look forward to a calmer return visit.

Filed by Eric at 11:32 am under Arts and Entertainment
No Comments

Yesterday, LeAnn and I adjusted a setting on her firewall that opened up some features on her TiVo that we previously had not been able to access. This includes a few games, movie previews, and a built in podcast player. Of course, the first thing I did was tap in the feed url of my blog on the remote, and it found my one and only podcast post. There is also a directory of feeds similar to ones that top the charts at the iTunes Store.

I think this is cool feature heading in the right direction, but the usability still has a long way to go. First, typing in a long feed url letter by letter into the remote is a pain, and once the url ran off the screen so we could not read what LeAnn was typing. Second, and surprisingly, playback lacks the ability to pause and bloop-bloop (rewind/fast-forward) that you would expect to be the same as watching TV recordings. Third, I couldn’t get it to access this video podcast, but I’m not sure if this is due to the fact that the site uses Feedburner.

Still, I think this is great step in bringing web 2.0 into the living room, and from what I’ve heard the Comcast DVR doesn’t yet have anything like this.

Filed by Eric at 5:54 pm under Arts and Entertainment, Life in General, Technology
No Comments