a few hours in London

 

Can you believe these views from the plane above London?!  I was fortunate to have a window seat and I believe Bea was asleep next to me at this time.  Andrew and the other kids were at a different part of the plane so I got the window all to myself.  Seeing the city like this was actually a bit emotional, having been to London a few times before and recognizing some of the sites knowing it had been 4 years since our last visit, and after a long day and a half of travel. Ok that was a long sentence but yes, this was magical!

In the above photo you can see the Eye of London and House of Parliament (Big Ben).  Below you can see Tower Bridge and Tower of London, which we actually went to a few weeks later for our first time.

Our flights were Phoenix to Washington DC (a new one to me), then London Heathrow. After arriving in Heathrow airport we took the Underground to Kings Cross for luggage drop-off since we had a few hours before the train to Hull.  I researched things to see and do in walking distance to make the most of that time. Always a different experience visiting England in December because it's off season with colder/wetter weather and much shorter days.  The Christmas decorations around the cities we visited really made it special.

I do have to say because of covid we wore masks for two days straight, at the airports, on the planes, on the Underground, in London, on the train to Hull.  I've never worn a mask so long!  The kids did so good, it really wasn't a big deal.  While we were in England there was an indoor mask mandate so we got used to it.

Platform 9 3/4 is a classic we love to visit!  There are wands for props perfect for picture taking.  This was our second time taking pictures here.  It's close to the luggage drop-off, the coolest Harry Potter store, and award winning bathrooms in Kings Cross.

So much fun Harry Potter merchandise in the Platform 9 3/4 store!  We saved our money for other things but the magical chocolate and wands of every memorable character is really cool.

Our bodies were so off with jet lag and changing time zones and this Cornish Pasty shop was our first taste of England.  The sausage rolls were the best.  Later we discovered a Greggs on the floor above this shop and went back there a few times because it has similar foods for half the price.  We love Greggs.

This real tree was huge!  Like 40 feet, right in Kings Cross.  We passed this area a lot during our trip.

Outside, next to Kings Cross, is St. Pancras.  It's a really nice hotel, and an entrance to the Underground.  The architecture is just stunning.

I already posted our visit to the British Library which is amazing, I really hope to go back and again and explore more, but here's what we did next.  We crossed a bridge over the Grand Union Canal to Granary Square. You can see boats in the canal that I believe are private property.  Some people live in them and I imagine there are rides on the canal in summer months.

Ok this bookshop was so unique!  It was a two story canal boat right on the water.  We found it on our walk along the canal.  The girls and I walked through it.

^ ^ See Avery and Zara inside? ^ ^

After walking along the canal we stumbled on the Canopy Market, a Christmas market, on the way back to Granary Square.  The hanging stars were a highlight.  Just so whimsical.  We didn't get anything but it was funny walking through.

Here's Granary Square.  In the summer there're fountains right here you can run through but at Christmas this light "tree" was interesting.

Bea was so tired :)

How cool is this larger than life Christmas cracker.  There were actually two parts, as if it was broken in half, and the mirrors inside sort of felt like a kaleidoscope.

On the way back to Kings Cross we stumbled into the IFO swing.  It was actually on my list of things to see, so I'm glad we found it.  IFO stands for Identified Flying Object and you can actually sit in the swing and use it.  The kids each took a turn.

I think technically we weren't meant to be out and about after landing because once we got to Hull we had to take covid tests and isolate until we got our results (which we had to mail and it took way longer than it was supposed to) but I'm so glad we did some exploring at the beginning of our trip.  We had about 5 days of isolation after this, which was only meant to be two.  Oh, and the testing was lifted after we got back home.  Oh well!

We went to England/ London Library

I actually started this post shortly after our trip in January and it's been a draft since then.  There are just so many things to share from our trip in England it'll take a while to get to it all but I'm already starting to forget things, it already seems so long ago. Here's to getting started!

After four years we finally made it back to England! We were last there Christmas 2017 and it was overdue. It was so good to be back and spend time with family and visit new places, and old favorite places.

We flew into Gatwick Airport and took a train into London Kings Cross station via the Underground.  We had a few hours before taking a train to Hull.

The London Library was a short walk from the train station and ended up being such a cool place to visit.

The four story floors of old encased books were stunning, and the architecture of the building was impressive.

There was a fee exhibit with lots of old books and maps in history and in different languages. There was also original compositions from incredible composers! That was my favorite part.

Painting of Beethoven!  There was actually a cool exhibit with a Beethoven theme that I wish I paid extra to tour.  I've played much of his music.

The free exhibit had so many old books and maps.

There was a little coffee shop inside and tables with people drinking and eating, and it was so crazy how the people were casually sitting in this incredible library like it was no big deal.  Tourist over here. ;)

Grabbed this "viola" ornament souvenir from the gift shop in the library.

Such interesting architecture.

Really looking forward to coming back.

St. Patrick's Day

 

Not our favorite holiday of the year but Gretchen Rubin said it can be a boost of happiness to do something special or fun on those smaller holidays.  Andrew is pretty solid about not celebrating St. Patrick's day but, funny enough, his glasses frames are green so he was covered. ;)

I've collected a few green shirts over the years that are set aside for today.  There were one or two smaller ones that didn't get worn because the kids have grown so much.  Elliot opted for his green pants.  Avery and Elliot did dollars for duds at school so they didn't have to wear their uniform to Heritage on this day.  Just a little fun to add a little joy,

Maybe next year I'll make green pancakes too, or something, but if not that's ok.  We like to keep things simple over here.

First trail of the year

With it being Martin Luther King Day the kids didn’t have school. Love a good long weekend. Andrew still had work and I knew I wanted to get a hike in but had to keep it simple.

Spook Hill is as simple and easy as it comes when hiking with kids. There were a lot of kids on the hill today, not including the ones with me.

On the way Elliot invited Pete’s boys and we ended up picking up Dean and Robinson. Having them made it so much more fun! The kids really liked grabbing donuts at a favorite place of Pete’s afterwards.

 Bea is such a good hiker! She had a good attitude and really believes in herself. Hiking with her is slower but she just doesn’t give up even when she falls. Such a cute hiker. All the kids did great though.

She got really attached to that big rock that Zara found and carried it most of the way home. The older kids liked counting the pools in backyards at the top and pointing out downtown Scottsdale and phoenix in the distance. Couldn’t have asked for better weather either. Really looking forward to hiking again soon while the weather is nice.

Ragnar Trail - second time

 

A couple weeks ago I got to do my second Ragnar Trail!  Trail is different than a regular Ragnar in several ways.  First of all I've done 4 Ragnar Del Sol plus my first Ragnar was the Wasatch Back in Utah.  In those races there are 12 runners and the race has an early Friday morning start and a Saturday afternoon finish.  No one runs the same three legs as anyone else on their team.  You start in one city and wind through and finish in another city 200 miles later.

With Ragnar Trail there are 8 runners running the same three legs while camping out in the same area.  Everyone at the race runs the same three legs labeled RED, YELLOW, and GREEN and they all started and finished at the same place.

These photos are kind of all over the place but that's kind of how a Ragnar feels.  You're eating, running and sleeping at strange times.

Here's part of the team!  Our team was an Edward Jones work team.  Dan McKay works for Edward Jones and he invited me on.  Besides his cousin, Robert McKay, I didn't know anyone else on the team before race day.  It's aways fun getting to know some new awesome runners.

On the far left is James Weinmann (he's the oldest and fastest in the group and has run several marathons but this was his first Ragnar), then Kim Phair (married to Steve Phair- they both run races all the tines for fun), next is me, then Dan McKay, then Robert McKay, then Bret Seeley a dad who has biological children and an adopted son plus he has a foster girl who is like a daughter.  Really awesome group.

Just missing from the photo the team captain Julie Reid and Steve. Julie is on the left of the below photo.  The only three not working for Edward Jones was Robert, Kim, and me.  We were team "Buy Sell Hold Run" and we ran for 27 hours with a total of about 15.2 miles total each.

^ ^ James ^ ^

Everyone had a least one night run where you provide your own light by headlamps or flashlights.  I had two night runs which isn't a bad thing because it gets pretty hot in the afternoon, like my last run.

^ ^ Dan ^ ^

^ ^ Robert ^ ^

Can you see Four Peaks in the distance?  This was on my last run.

There were food trucks to grab food.  I brought some snacks but bought a pulled pork sandwich for dinner, and this sourdough bowl egg with bacon and sausage for breakfast.

Bret, Kim and Steve had to leave early so just the five of us at the end of the race.  Feels so good to finish. I was the last runner so it feels special to finish the team off in the race.

Ragnar has done this for a few years where you put all your medals together and it writes our a secret message.  "WE ARE REGNARIANS TOGETHER WE CAN...".   I got the top left "...Blaze new trails".  I like that.  If you pull the orange necklace part off you can pull out the metal survival utility tool.  It has a special name Andrew said but I don't remember.  Pretty cool though.

Here's the YELLOW leg I ran first at 7:30pm.  We had a noon start time but being runner 8 I didn't start until after dinner time.  The race said it was 4.5 but my maps said 4.62 and it was a very bumpy trail.  Definitely felt longer than four and a half and I was glad to get it done early.

Here is the GREEN leg, the race had down for 4.2 miles.  I started tracking a bit late.  Started this ru before 4:30 in the morning and I had about a 5 hour sleep before which is pretty good for a Ragnar.  Great pace.  It goes gradually uphill then gradually downhill.  I saw a snake (possibly a rattle snake) around mile 3 a few feet out from the trail but it wasn't interested in me.  Just a nice run and really quiet that third mile before joining up at the end.

Here is the RED leg.  Red and Yellow are the hardest.  Whichever one you ran last and in the heat was the hardest for that person.  Red was definitely it for me.  It is the longest distance (the race said 6.6 miles), my legs were tired, my eating and sleep were off, the first few miles were steep and very rocky, and I started the run at 1:43pm.  It took me and hour and a half.  My goal was under a 14 minute per mile mace average which I got!  I actually forgot to stop tracking after finishing since my team was there and we were done so I didn't better than it says.  Mostly it was just hot and I didn't see very many people on the run since many teams had finished and were headed home.

Now I have run 7 Ragnars!  Feels good to say that, and they won't be my last!