Home with family end of June and July 4th

This is out of sequence but I wanted Jane to see Erica, our son Dave's wife with the necklace she made her. It looks lovely on her and it's the one Jane thought would suite her well.

Our daughter, Suzanne, and her husband came up to spend the day and see our pictures. This is a picture of Suz wearing the necklace Jane made her. Jane was right she picked the one she thought she would.

Our good friends Renee and Ted. Had a lovely dinner and lots of fun catching up one the last couple of months.

This is the outfit I wore to church and the pastor commented," you're looking very English".

Donna Perry is my next door neighbor and she is the one who took such wonderful care of Nicky while we were gone. This is Donna and I at the coffee shop. I gave her one of the sweaters I bought in England.


Our daughter, Michelle was over with her boyfriend Darrell and we had lunch and looked at pictures and talked about the trip. I have a picture of Michelle with the necklace on that Jane mad her but at the moment I cannot locate it. Will post it later.


The next to visit were our son, Dave, and his family who live in Pittsburgh, PA. We had a great week-end they were here over the 4th of July. Above are Nicky and Friday on a hike together.

Okay!!!! I think I've had enough of the hiking, I'm just a pup remember!!!

Dave and Dad returning from a hike.

Friday, that's the dog's name by the way, watching the kids.

Nicky is busy chasing the dragon flies around the pond.

In they go!!! Isabella and Garrett going in for a cool down.

We've just finished breakfast and are busy planning our next move.

Nicky taught Friday how to play tug or war.

Isabella and Garrett watching the fish.

This is all of us putting off some firecracker's on July 4th. We are celebrating Independence therefore you can no longer call me a colonist, JIM!!!!!
It's good to see most of the children again. Brandon called and promised to come visit soon and our daughter from California and family will be in August. Life is good.

This is Friday swimming. He just discovered he could do this and we had a very difficult time getting him out. He loves it!!

Got to start scheduling our winter in FL -- we're not doing another one in PA.

Everyone enjoy the summer.

Windsor Castle and Brighton

Windsor Castle
Walking up to the castle from the town of Windsor. The queen is in the castle today so some areas will be restricted from visiting.

This is looking down on the town from the walkway up.

Here comes the changing of the guards at the castle.

It's not the Queen but who?

After touring the castle and looking around town a little we stopped for a coffee. After our coffee we were back in the car and off to Brighton.

We have been blessed with such beautiful weather. During the 6 weeks we were gone we only had 2 days of all day rain. Look at those blue skies--who says it rains all the time in England???

Let that girl of mine anywhere near the water and she just has to go mucking around. I believe Jim now has some more rocks for his house. I admit I picked up some too, they were very colorful. They are now sitting on top my desk and the site of them brings back such wonderful memories.

Love this saying

Aren't theses houses neat?

Once again these beautiful rounded buildings.

After Brighton we headed back to Sulihull. Driving through the gorgeous countryside you see above. Once home we had Wednesday and Thursday to say our good byes to Genette and family, Georgina and family, Val, and Mum and Jack.

We left Jim and Jane's about 4:00 AM on Friday morning and drove to Manchester, England to get our flight.

All I can say is that staying with Jim and Jane was like staying with family. Lee enjoys Jim's company as much as I enjoy Jane's.

During our stay with Jim and Jane they put 2,000 miles on the car, so you can see Jim really did show us England.

We feel like we will never be able to repay Jim and Jane for making this the trip of a lifetime. We do so hope that their family will make use of our home for their future travels in the USA.

Hopefully Jim and Jane will be able to join us in Florida in 2012.

Until then Jane and I will continue to talk every Sunday and pretend that we are not oceans apart.

I love you both so much, Judy

We flew to Dublin, Ireland and then went through passport inspection and then left for Kennedy airport, New York. The flight went fine and faster than I thought it would be. Once in New York we got a shuttle to the train station (Grand Central) only to find out we needed to be in Penn Station to take the train home to Harrisburg. We had to take 2 subways to get to Penn Station. Once there, we finally got tickets--went down to the platform and the train had just pulled out. Lee had to wait in line and exchange the tickets and we left about an hour later. The train ride was 3 hours and by the time my brother picked us up we had been up for 23 hours. We were exhausted.

WAS IT WORTH IT? YOU BET IT WAS, WE HAVE HAD THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME!!

Picture from the plan as we left Dublin.

Goodbye Europe

London

We stayed at this lovely B&B in the Sussex Downs. Nice rooms, fantastic 3 course dinner and full English breakfast all included in the price. We checked in early, took the train into London and then ran our tails off to make to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards.

This was a week day and the crowd was huge.

Can you imagine pulling this duty? No moving, no expression, just stand there.

Here's Buckingham Palace and that famous balcony.

Here's Jim and Jane having their balcony kiss.

Downing Street

Oops!!!

Big Ben and Westminster
The cue to get into the church was several blocks so we decided to spend our time touring the rest of the city rather than spending the day in line. If you go on a Sunday you can get in for free.

Pictures taken in the park.

That famous roadway leading to the palace.

This is like the Times Square of London.

I just love these buildings that take on the same contour as the road. Why straighten the road just curve the building.

Once again we had another full day. We spent about 6 hours touring London and then we crashed at the B&B for about an hour and then had a lovely 3 course meal and of course excellent company. We were all so tired and Jane had swollen ankles from so much walking.

Tomorrow it is off the Windsor Castle and Brighton on the coast.