Cheryl in London

Hi All,

Cheryl has made it to London for the start of our European Holiday. Well it took some doing, had to pay a few bribes, but I was able to really do it up for Cheryl's arrival. I had these guys escort Cheryl and I from the airport to the small cottage that we are staying in this week. Somehow our photographer left us out of the pictures, go figure.

Of course that was just the beginning. Next came the fireworks over the River Thames.

So all in all it was quite a nice start to Cheryl's visit. Sunday we went for a drive in Surrey and Sussex, that's where the castle pictured above (Arundel Castle, home of the Duke of Norfolk) is (it was sure nice of him to let us stay there for the week).

On Monday I got the city to stop time for a bit so that we could explore London a little more leisurely than most tourists.

Tower Bridge

London City Hall

The Swiss Re Tower (also known as the Gherkin, really I didn't make that up) and the Tower of London.

White pelicans in London.

Cheryl and I took the tour at the Tower of London. This is Yeoman Warder Mitch giving the tour. If you come to London, take this tour. He somehow made all the executions and imprisonment sound entertaining while giving a lot of information about the prisoners, murders, and the torture that took place. Check out the links above to get more history.

After the tower Cheryl and I decided to head for the Savage Gardens. Enough said!

Not the savage gardens but close. This is the back of St. Paul's Cathedral.
We had dinner at a Gorden Ramsey's pub called The Narrow. Very good food, I had the Hereford Beef in Beer Pie and Mash. That and a beer or two and you can't go wrong.

Tuesday I went back to work while Cheryl explored the Tate Modern. We met up for dinner at the Rock and Sole Plaice. If you ever want fish and chips in London, this is the place. I have had a lot of fish and chips while I've been here, nothing else even compares.

After dinner we went to see Avenue Q at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End. It was a fantastic show and another don't miss whether you are in New York or London. Oh yeah, Thanks Mel for recommending this so long ago on our last visit to New York. Don't let the muppets fool you, this is not a show for the kids.

Anyway, that's all for now. Cheryl and I are off to Paris on Friday, Amsterdam on the next Thursday, and then Munich the Thursday after that. Should be fun.

(There really were fireworks that first night but they were for the Lord Mayor's celebration, Cheryl's arrival might have been a coincidence. The fireworks pictures from above were actually taken the week before at one of the many Guy Fawkes celebrations that took place all over the city. Guy Fawkes day is a little like Independence Day in the US just without the Independence bit getting in the way. Great fireworks all over London all weekend.)

Cheryl's Marathon

!!!!!!!Way to go Cheryl!!!!!!!!

Hi All,
Well you probably have all heard by now that Cheryl finished the running of the 32nd Marine Corp Marathon.

This is Cheryl around mile 12 looking great.

Approximately 30,000 runners signed up to take part in the Marine Corp Marathon. There were 20,677 finishers of the marathon and 2692 finishers of the 10k option. Cheryl's times are below. As you can see she did a fantastic job.

For those interested the link below shows Cheryl's time compared to other runners.
http://www.runpix4.com/mcm07/42/finord.php?LastName=4765&lan=&aset=0

One more link from the Washington Post video coverage of the finish. Look for the clock to say 4:40:22 to see Cheryl cross the line.

By the way this is Cheryl's second marathon. She ran the Chicago Marathon way back in October of 2001. She says only one more marathon is in her future and that would be the London Marathon in April, that is if she gets in through the lottery drawing.
So now it's picture time. First of all there were an awful lot of people there cheering for the runners.

Cheryl is pretty much dead center in this photo behind the person in the light blue top and cap. Click on the picture and you can see her a little better.

Amongst this mass of humanity were a few special cheerleaders. We refer to them as Cheryl's Cheering Squad, boy can they make some noise. These are the nieces, Maddy, Betty, and Nan.

Great signs!!!!

Betty

Nan

Maddy

They even arranged for a band to play for Cheryl when she ran past. They probably played for some of the other runners as well since they were there and had a little time on their hands.

Cheryl might be in this picture. Let me know if you can spot her. I haven't been able to pick her out.

Ok, we don't know anyone in this picture but I was amazed at how fast the runner in dark blue appeared to be going.

Apparently all the runners were suppose to get one of these in their post race sponsor bags. I'm not sure what happened to Cheryl's.

This is Cheryl after the run looking pretty good. Finally a picture with me in it, sort of. I'm the one on the other end of the phone.

This is most of the rest of the family cheering squad that followed Cheryl around the course. That is my brother Joe in the back and my Mom and Dad amongst the nieces. Sister-in-Law Debi is taking the picture.
Special thanks to Debi and Joe for taking all the pics. My mom's pictures are still to come. I'll post them when I get them.
Everybody feel free to post your comments to Cheryl on this page.

Congratulations Cheryl!!!!!!!

Huge Day, I Mean Really Big

Hi All,

As many of you know, Sunday the 28th of October, 2007 is a huge day in and around Washington, DC. The 32nd Marine Corps Marathon is taking place and Cheryl is running.

That's 26.2 miles or 42.195 km.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Go Cheryl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I thought this would be the perfect time to let her know how proud I am of her for doing this. The training and dedication she has shown in preparing for this event was monumental. Working full time, managing all of our bills and finances, taking care of two sometimes wonderful dogs, and putting up with a husband that is off working somewhere in London for months at a time is pretty remarkable. She also manages to swim 3 to 4 days a week and bike to work the majority of the time. So in my own simple way, I just want to let her know how much I appreciate all of her hard work, dedication, and love. I miss her and really wish I could be there at the finish line.


So since I can't actually be there in person I will stalk her over the internet. I mean keep track of her running times as she passes certain points in the run. Everybody who wants to can do the same by going to this site and filling out a small form. Free updates will be sent to your cell phone and/or your email address. More information on the run can be found at this website.

Hopefully, friends and family that are in D.C. will take a lot of pictures and email them to me so I can post them here next week.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Go Cheryl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

South Side

I thought I should start this blog out with a sign that Cheryl and I saw while we were wondering around town back in July. I'm surprised you don't see this sign posted on all the government buildings. Maybe it was supposed to be on the inside of the door as a warning of some sort but I can't really imagine why one would need a sign.

Today's blog focuses (ok focus is probably too strong of a word) on the south bank of the River Thames starting near the Albert Embankment and ending near the Tate Modern. Of course a lot of the pics below are of the north side of the Thames but they were taken from the south side.
Anyway, these poor cycle (bike refers to a motorcycle or scooter over here) blokes were caught in typical London traffic and seemed to have taken root.

If you click on the picture below you can actually see a cyclist through the wheels of the bike, oops I mean cycle. I'm not quite sure how I managed that but unfortunately the person didn't stick around for the other photos.

So in the background of the picture above are the Houses of Parliament (also called the Palace of Westminster) and you can just see Big Ben hiding behind the tree on the right. The tall tower on the left is the Victoria Tower.

The present day Houses of Parliament were built between 1834 and 1864 after a fire had destroyed most of the original structure. Apparently this site has been in use since the early 1000's and was the royal residence of Canute the Great (reigned 1016 - 1035). You just don't see that many people named Canute these days, go figure. Anyway more "interesting" facts can be found here or if you would like to see real time web cam photos go here. It's actually a cool web cam although not much action so don't waste too much time visiting that site. A few more touristy pics below.

You can just see Westminster Abbey (the two whitish towers way in the back) in the background. Ok not the best picture of the Abbey but you'll see those in one of the next blogs.
Now back to the south side. Stormtroopers were called in today to save the public from a giant spider. Really, I'm not kidding. It was a close call for large groups of tourists, just check out the pictures below.

Sorry, couldn't get close enough to see the actual fighting and apparently the government denied that the battle actually took place. But they should at least admit that something pretty strange was happening that day. This alien captured below would have violent pedaling actions when children dropped money nearby.

This picture (below) is of a bunch of kids on skateboards that were totally unaware of the spider and alien invasion. Ok I promised Karen (sister) a picture of the skateboard area near Southbank Centre for Hayden (nephew).

Back to the strange happenings in London. Near the aquarium and the London Eye, I saw this poor man being attacked by an out of control backhoe. If this happened in New York, most people probably wouldn't have noticed. But here it was a big deal. A crowd soon formed and someone started playing an opera sung by Maria Callas through speakers located nearby. No one actually stepped in to help so I thought I should just take pictures like everyone else.

As it turned out, this wasn't an attack either. Apparently the Tate Modern and the Southbank Centre decided to showcase this exotic dance as a publicity stunt. (I will update this section with the performers name and the sponsors name. I left the brochure at the house). By the way, it was well done and very enjoyable to watch. I thought the backhoe was the better performer of the two but maybe thats just me.
Oh, maybe I should clear up some other things while I'm at it. The stormtroopers are part of Star Wars the Exhibition being held at the Westminster County hall which is located above the London Aquarium. It is adjacent to the London Eye and both are across the river from the Houses of Parliament. The web cam is on top of the Aquarium. However the giant spider is in front of the Tate Modern which is a bit under a mile and a half walk from the Aquarium.

The spider is part of the Louise Bourgeois exhibit at the Tate Modern which is on exhibit until 20th of January 2008. That is St. Paul's Cathedral under the legs and across the river.

Last picture is of St. Paul's Cathedral (present building designed by Wren and finished in 1708) from beneath the Millennium Bridge (which opened in 2000 for a few days, was closed to fix the wobble, and reopened in 2002).
That's all for now. Take Care and Beware of the Public.