London and Scotland!

After spending 15 hours on airplanes (not to mention about 6 in airports from delayed flights) Anna and I arrived in London running. We went to Regents Park the first day. It was beautiful (as everything in London and Scotland were).

We went to the British Museum after Regent's Park and by then we were getting kind of goofy (no sleep not to mention the Underground was on strike-rude-so we were having to walk everywhere!)

We decided a quick trip to the Ministry of Magic would be a fun way to spend an hour. Going down!!

This a cool door leading into Westminster Abbey.

Anna and I on the battlement of the Tower of London. Tower Bridge is behind us.

Once a year the Queen inspects the troops and then they do a parade from the inspection grounds to Buckingham Palace. That Saturday happened to be the day. It was cool!

Our first day in Scotland it POURED rain big time. I was soaking wet as was everything in my backpack. FUN! This is Holyrood Palace-the Queen's castle in Scotland.

This is a really cool ruined abbey off of Holyrood Palace.

"Please don't cook me!!!" Talk about a BIG kitchen fireplace! This is Linlithingow Castle.

We didn't get to go into the Highlands (no time-sad) but we took a really cool hike where we could see the boarders where they started. Beautiful!!

The forest is very mystical fairy-like (think JRR Tolkien). Not your average USA shrubbery!

RAIN again-two out of three days in Scotland! We had to take a boat to get to Lock Leven castle. Mary Queen of Scots was a prisoner here for 8 months-fun for her!

I'm Backcckkkkkk!!!

I'm back from the UK!! It was a great trip but I'm happy to be home. I'll post photos as soon as I get them developed (yes, I'm still in the dark ages of cameras-but I like it!). I took 10 rolls of film so hopefully there will be some winners!

Two weeks ago a fellow drama teacher said, "Any desire to go to New York of London?" I said, "New York, heck no! But London...SURE!!!" So, on June 9th I'm hopping on a plane and heading to London! I'll be there for 5 days and then we're going to Scotland for 3 days! The trip should be fun! Look for photos at the end of June!

Ellis and Mark

Mark, Ellis, and Hannah (Ellis's girl!) came to dinner on Sunday. Mark had just returned from a humanitarian trip in Guatemala (doing teeth. Here's some photos of us looking at his photos and playing with jade knifes. Both Ellis and Mark have been GREAT friends over the past years (we all met doing Pirates of Penzance back in 2004). I'm lucky to have them around!!

Ballroom

The past 2 months I've been teaching a ballroom class Tuesday and Thursday mornings. This past Saturday I took 22 couples to a Jr. High Ballroom competition. I was apprehensive because my students would be competing against kids who took ballroom as an actual class for a year or semester and were competing for a grade. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. There were about 30 couples who competed in Cha-Cha. When it got down to the final 6 couples 1/2 of them were mine!!! We ended up with 6th, 4th, and 2nd in that dance! WOW!! In Fox Trot there were about 15 couples competing. We took 8th and 6th. I was proud of the kids! It's been a fun experience (though I am glad I get to sleep in an extra 1/2 hour again!!!).