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I'm backtracking a bit, here... but one big entry won't do at all, so I'm going to go day-by-day! For starters, I'm 30! Can't believe it! Saturday morning, we headed to the study center to take our comprehensive exam, which was really just a transfer of knowledge from our big research papers (DIS) into active life, and also a transfer of knowledge from things we learned in the past two weeks into active teaching life as well. The two essays were to be no longer than 2 1/2 pages, but i don't think many of us did it under3! We said our good-byes to Dr. Madsen and a true life journey, headed to Eve's for a good breakfast, and then the craziness began!
I received a cute flashing "30" pin from Rasheen, and a fun pink cowboy hat from Sherry to make sure that everyone knew the day was about me!
I then made my way on the tube down to Waterloo Station, to find the Marriott County Hall and Angela! Just wait until you see the pictures of the location of this hotel. We were definitely spoiled for a couple of days. We had direct views of Big Ben
and the Thames, and Parliament! We saw the start of the Tour de France from our hotel room, slept in cushy feathered beds, took hot full-pressured showers, and delighted in our morning breakfasts!
I found Angela on the elevator as I headed up to the room! We headed straight out to explore, and had quite an afternoon. A stroll along the Thames brought us Dali sculptures, buskers (street performers), and throngs of people. We found a restaurant for dinner that evening, crossed over the Hungerford Bridge and headed to Victoria Embankment Park. It was beautiful, resplendent with flowers, roses of every color! We had a little sandwich (you can't get fresh salmon and cream cheese wedges in the U.S., you just can't, not on a little street cornere anyway). We strolled around, found one of the old walls where the river used to rise to, and a statue of Robert Burns!
Then we headed up to Trafalgar Square and watched on big screens lots of Tour de France excitement. It was bustling with activity, and we felt a part of the event. We did a quick stroll around Leicester Square and a peek at Covent Garden, and then headed back
to Gordon's Wine Bar.
My cousin Erin had shared the story of Gordon's with me, and I am so grateful she did. It's a little teeny hole of a place, hundreds of years old, filled with fun wines! Due to all the sunlight I was getting that day, I was quite all right with hunkering down in this almost cave-like place lit by candles, for a glass.
We continued on and found a 20-year-old celebrating his birthday... took a cute picture and realized how much older I am than he! They invited us to join their pub crawl, but we maturely said no, although it did look like they were having fun. They went tube-stop to tube-stop and went to a pub for a pint on each stop! We're too old for that, but oh, the days when that was amusing!
We napped and freshened up and met up with Brian, Emily, and Jason for more birthday fun! They really all treated me quite princessly... as well as my loving husband, who had left us chocolate-covered strawberries in the hotel room! When we were all gathered, we crossed back over the river, and right back to Gordon's to share our
find with more friends, and to enjoy some bubbly! Then to Las Iguanas for a lovely Spanish/Latin American dinner. Yummy paella, a pisco sour (can't wait to have those in Chile), olives, bread, and fabulous desserts! It was a truly divine evening with friends!
We headed out for more fun, but knew we weren't really in a clubby mood... we did meet another girl celebrating her birthday though. She didn't seem as excited as I to share her day, but one of her group bit off the string to a balloon and gave it to me, and it did bring me good luck over the next couple of days, so I am grateful to her, wherever she is!
One last drink in the hotel bar, which was nice and quiet... they even checked for room keys to make sure no random hoodlums from the street were in there.. and then bed! What a day, and what a memory for my 30th Birthday!
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Dad D.
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Memory!!!
When reading your blog, how do you remember all the names of the places you've been too!! I'd be so busy writing down notes, I'd miss half the sights!! Love, Dad