Returning Home

We woke up (we being Keith and Katherine) around 4:45am to start getting ready for the flight. Grady was left sleeping as along as we could keep our preparations for travel quiet. The car we hired yesterday was set to arrive around 5:45 am, which was a little early, but we wanted to be absolutely sure about the arrival to the airport (we like England, but, well, yeah…). So, everything was going smoothly in our preparations. Katherine and I had showered and Adam had showered the night before. Rachael jumped in the shower last (sensible sense she didn’t need to watch a baby while getting ready) and subsequently flooded to bathroom. An issue we were dealing with throughout the stay at the flat (something was wrong with the drain). Adam saved the day with every towel in the flat. The car (not MPV, whatever that is) arrived on time and was a very nice Mercedes four door. After placing two pieces of the four pieces of luggage in the trunk it was full (completely). Well this is not what we had in mind when getting a car to bring us to the train station. After various theories about what to do it was decided that two trips would be taken to get our luggage and us to the station (not in that order). It worked and we all arrived in time to take the 7:00am Gatwick express. Everything went very smoothly from this point forward. The trip back to the states arrived in the afternoon, so we all needed to stay awake, although a nap or two for Grady would not have been a problem. No such luck. He was good, but simply didn’t sleep very well (two 30 minute naps). We arrived in Houston after a 9-hour flight, and made our way through customs very quickly (it was very impressive). Grady actually slept the whole way to Baton Rouge from Houston (had to wake him up on the landing). Of course it was only a 40 minute flight. So, back in Baton Rouge and all is well. Not so fast…Rachael’s bag (large and pink, hard to miss) did not show up on the conveyor when we arrived in Baton Rouge. Apparently, it (and another group of people’s bags on our plane) was put on the next flight out which we found out after waiting an additional 20 minutes in the baggage claim. We all went back to the house and Rachael and Adam took their own car back to the airport to hopefully pick up their luggage. Grady did not sleep in the bed with us, but he voiced his displeasure with the arrangement. He finally gave up around 7:30 pm (1:30 in the morning England time). We followed his lead very shortly thereafter (both did take long hot showers before going to sleep).

Our Last Day in London

A quick addition to our visit to Grandma’s house from yesterday. Grandma did manage to make quite an impression on Grady in their short time together. She taught him to say uh-oh. It is quite possibly the cutest thing he can do (along with clapping his hands and grinning from ear to ear). Just thought that was something we should have mentioned previously.

Grady sleep schedule update: Same as previous day’s report.

Our last day did have some packing and planning, along with a small crisis, but we made the most of our remaining hours. First things first, off to Portobello Road to see London’s most famous open street market. It is very similar to the French Market in New Orleans, but on a single road with merchants lining the sides. There were all sorts of things to buy ranging from fresh seafood stands (there was some nasty looking butcher stands as well) to tailored suit stands (starting at only £199 or $400, a little steep for on the road side). Of course they were all bargains, or so the salesperson would tell someone asking about the goods. We did buy a few little things, but nothing terribly interesting. We had brunch at a nice little bistro on Portobello Road called Electric (very good eggs royal if you like salmon, which Keith ordered thinking it was eggs with cheese). After the market, we had to settle up a major trip planning detail (the aforementioned crisis). The time of our departing flight is 9:30am, and to leave the country we have to go through the English airport security system, which is quite a bit of work (so much so that we are arriving 2 hours prior to the flight). The problem is that the tube (subway) system doesn’t start running until 7:00 am on Sundays (Katherine noticed the tube run times on a sign), and we need to take a tube and a train to reach the airport which total more than an hour when put together (things don’t add up and we already bought the train tickets). We struggled with taxicabs and such until finally we landed on hiring a car to take us to the train station (Trains start at 5:00 am so all is well). The driver will arrive at 5:45am on departure day and all is well. After getting everything sorted related to the trip to the airport it was a bit after midday. We decided to go to Trafalgar Square during the remaining hours of the day. Talk about packed, the city was absolutely brimming with people. This was the first day we were in London during Saturday, and it is quite a bit different than the rest of the week. After Trafalgar Square we made our way into St. James Park near Buckingham Palace. Since we visited Tuesday the park had begun blooming all over. The flowers were very nice. Grady even modeled for us near some flowers (which consisted of him trying to eat the shrubbery in his immediate vicinity). Afterwards we made our way back to the flat, but there was one additional thing we saw on our journey home.

Apparently, this particular day was the Waitangi Day Circle Line Pub Crawl. This is the day that all of the Kiwi’s (New Zealander’s) in the UK come together and take over the circle line (which runs around central London). Their goal is simple, drink a half a pint at each of the 27 stops on the line between 11:00am and 4:00pm making it back to the final stop (Westminster Abbey/ Houses of Parliament) to come together and do a massive drunken Haka (the pacific islander’s dance). We witnessed the poor souls (people not participating in the crawl) caught in the fray on the underground (very cramped and loud with a few Halloween style outfits is the only way to describe the scene). We also surveyed the scene at one of the circle line tube stop (this was somewhat close to the end). It is probably safe to say that not everyone was a true kiwi, but that did not seem to be a requirement for the celebration.

Last day with Great Grandma Gloria

Grady sleep schedule update: Nothing to report, except we have completely given in to him sleeping in the bed with us. Hopefully this can be undone back home…

Today we spent the day with Grandma Gloria. Our trip is coming to an end and this is the last chance she will have to spend time with her great grandson this trip, so we tried to make every effort possible to spend this day with her in its entirety. We planned to leave earlier, but our alarm (Grady) slept in and therefore, so did we (not particularly upset about this fact). Sleeping in being 7:20 in the morning, when Katherine woke up instead of Grady. There is, however, a silver lining to this detail. Grady with more sleep equals a happier Grady, and since the previous two visits were on very little sleep the hope was that he would be in a better mood at grandma’s house. So we got ready in a bit of a rush, and made our way to Grandma’s house. Adam and Rachael planned on leaving a bit later. They were going to aunt Gale’s for dinner (we could not attend due to the late start of Friday dinner, a Jewish tradition).

We were late for the second time, of course, and she was standing at the front porch looking out for our arrival. She didn’t see us walking up the street, sneaky lot we are (just love this English stuff). We went in and had tea and biscuits straight away. Afterwards the three of us spent an hour playing with Grady who was much more agreeable this time around. He even got a nice present (an new outfit and a book). Once Adam and Rachael arrived went ate lunch (even had non-meat dishes for us Catholics in the crowd). Of course we were expected to finish all of the prepared food (which after 2 helpings we politely said no too). No dessert this time, since they were having a big dinner later. After lunch went for a long walk around Sunnyside Park (the idea was to have Grady take a nap in the pram which worked beautifully). At the top of the hill in the park you can see the new English National stadium quite well, very impressive site. Grandma showed us a few things around the park. There was a church built in 1817 (not sure on the date but definitely 1800s) on the opposite end of the grounds. We made our way back to the house to meet Gale (Keith’s, Dad’s, Cousin’s, Wife, hope that makes sense). More importantly she is a very close relative and friend of Grandma Gloria. Gale arrived a bit late, but it was worth the wait. She was an absolute riot, and she completely loosens up Grandma Gloria. They were talking all sorts of nonsense, and she had some of the funniest expressions about things Gloria said. They are definitely very close friends. Of course Gale stole Grady away immediately showering him with hugs and kisses (she is very good with babies). Another gift was given to Grady (nice book and a tambourine toy he will not be able to play with on the airplane). We all talked for a bit and then said our goodbyes. Grandma Gloria, Rachael, and Adam were heading to Gale and Jonathan's for Friday dinner and we headed back to the flat for the night.
An odd thing happened on our trip back. They always have announcements on the tube during our travels, but one took us a bit by surprise on the way home. The Northern line (the one we take from Grandma’s) had an announcement that it was going to be closed over a certain section due to a person under a train (a bit much to announce). Didn’t affect anything on our route, so we had an uneventful trip home and Grady slept the entire way. We did grab Fish and Chips to go for dinner. Just cannot visit England without getting Fish and Chips.

Grady’s Day Out

Grady sleep schedule update: Would only sleep in the bed with us, but slept though the night fine. Hopefully this will not start something we cannot stop once we get back home.

Today we thought Grady should have a day of his own in England. As much as he appreciated the landmarks in London, we thought of a few things he might appreciate a little more. For today, Adam and Rachel did something on their own, and since they are not back at the time of us writing the blog it must have gone well. First up, Hamley’s Toy Shop (the best in the world according to the arch over the door). No way to know if they are in fact number one, but they are in the top ten without a doubt. There are 6 floors and a basement (7 total) full of toys. Each floor is wall to wall with every imaginable Christmas morning gotta have toy. There is staff everywhere to show (really sell you) the toys in action. The basement even had big kid toys (i.e. video games). They even decorated their stairwells with décor from recent hit movies such as The Lion, the Witch, and Wardrobe (really going the extra mile). Grady, however, was most impressed with a small rubber ball and a walker he found on the second floor (preschool aged and younger floor). We walked the entire floor at least once with Grady leading the way “swiftly” with the walker. He had many stops to check out cool toys along the way. After Grady’s walk we checked out the rest of the store. Even bought a few unique English books to read to Grady. After Hamley’s we went in search of lunch. We went through the Piccadilly Circus area, which seems to be a shopping Mecca. The area was completely packed with people. Eventually we ate and made our way to the Science Museum. On they way Grady fell asleep in the pram while riding the tube. He has gotten exceptionally good at sleeping through just about anything we do while he is in the pram (including jamming the front wheels into the cub on the sidewalk, etc.). Every tube ride he was asleep, and during various stages of walks to and from each location. It must be very strange to wake up in new places all the time. Anyway, the museum was enormous. We only managed to walk around on the first two floors. The first floor had a really interesting area called the pattern place (we think) with various naturally occurring and artificial patterns were displayed/created. The exhibit was created for children eight and under (i.e. very interactive). Grady had a lot of fun pushing buttons and turning knobs, etc. to create and see the patterns. After Grady had a bit of fun, it was Keith’s turn to enjoy the Science museum. We went to an exhibit on materials and material science. Keith read just about every one of the informational kiosks on the exhibit. After the Museum, we made our way back to the flat and let Grady play a bit. We walked from our flat to the Thames riverfront in Putney. It was much more developed than we had initially thought, with quite a few restaurants, pubs and shops along the way. It’s about a mile to the riverfront, and there are a few nice places to eat there, so we chose a little Italian café to have dinner.

And as we write this blog in our bed Grady is sleeping between us. It is the only way we have figured out how to get Grady to sleep early and still get the things done we want to do at night.

To Great Grandma’s house we go

Grady sleep schedule update: woke up at 9:00pm and stayed awake while we let him try to cry it out a bit. We gave up at 10:00pm and put him in bed with us, which seemed to calm him down, but he still played for a while until he finally fell asleep.

Onto Grandma’s house. We arrived late (as usual). It takes about an 1.5 hrs to get there is you don’t miss a stop (which we did on the bus, then its and 1.75hrs). You get on the underground in East Putney (our station) and travel 12 stops on the district line, then you change lines (trains) and get on the Northern line for another 10 stop and get off in Hendon Central (my Grandma’s stop). This is followed by a quick bus ride up the hill approximately four stops to my grandmother’s Street. All the while toting a baby, pram (stroller for the Americans), and a large backpack with cameras, baby stuff, etc. There are a lot of areas with steps (which requires two people to carry the pram). Lifts (elevators) are very hard to find. Sounds fun huh….It gets really fun at night during rush hour when Grady starts crying because he is tired and there is standing room only. Sometimes we don’t even want to get on the tube (subway).

Ok, we made it to Grandma’s house. What do we do first? We all have tea of course, and biscuits (cookies) as well. She does provide coffee since we are all tea illiterate for the most part. After tea and way too many biscuits, we went back out to Sunnyside Park. It is right around the corner from Grandma’s house (2 min walk) and it even has a café (no one is interested in coffee/tea at the moment). Grady tried out the swings and we all talked a bit. It was very nice out. We went back to have lunch, which was excellent. Poor Adam and Keith had to eat two helpings since Grandma seems to think we need to finish everything that was made for lunch. After stuffing everyone she brings out dessert (tricky bringing it out late on us), which we are all required to eat as well. It was custard with baked apples from her garden (very English she says). After completely jamming down dessert, Grady has decided he is tired, which he does frequently on this trip. We went for a walk in the pram because the crib my grandmother has borrowed for us is in the living room (where we all sit and talk), and just will not sleep in it. He fell asleep before we crossed the street to walk back to the park (we still went to give him time to fall DEEP asleep). Back to Grandma’s for (you guessed it) tea and biscuits. She did have a friend over from down the street to meet Grady. Christi (We think) from Ireland. She was very nice and was also required to eat inhuman portions for tea (which came with busuits, cake, pie, cookies, and fruit bread). Her face was priceless at one point. She even brought Grady a gift (cute outfit). After the visit, we all made our way to the London Eye (extremely large, fully enclosed, Farris wheel built over the river to view the city). It was an impromptu trip, but a good idea. We (Keith, Katherine and Adam) have been on the eye before during the day, so we thought it would be neat to see at night. It was impressive. After the eye we got some food on the Thames and went home for the night.

Just a quick update from our previous day

Just a quick update from our previous day. The first bad thing to happen on the trip occurred. We took an early stop to find a restaurant in the Fulham area. Two things occurred on this outing. The stadium for the team (Chelsea) where Keith and Adam are going to watch a football (soccer) game was on the way and it had the game time on the gates. Only the game time was on Sunday and not Saturday as it was previously scheduled. We leave on Sunday (early). First, Keith double and triple checked the schedule only to confirm that the game was in fact now on Sunday. Then he made a very sad phone call to the gentlemen with the tickets to let him know that we would be on our way home (very disappointing). And he had the tickets no problem. Said he would catch us next time we were in (as if we go to England every weekend). Oh well…. life goes on, which means shopping on Saturday for Keith and Adam (not much of a consolation prize in their eyes). To top it off, the restaurant was closed. Not just closed for the day, but completely closed down. Bad end to the day if you ask us.

Another day sightseeing in London

Grady sleep schedule update: woke up at 10:40pm and stayed awake in some way, shape, or form until 4:00 am (Oh well, all is well that ends well). Hopefully this will be uneventful enough that it will not keep making the blog.

At this point we are all experts on the public transport system in London which is why it seems to be taking more time to get everywhere (we all know how to get there). Either way, we were off for a full day of visiting some of London’s most famous Landmarks. First on the list, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. No official tours, just walking by and taking in the landmarks. The Big Ben struck while we were in the area and all we (being Keith and Adam) could think was AC/DC’s Hells Bells (makes sense after all). Just around the corner we took in Westminster Abbey (very impressive). We went on a decent walk (or so we thought) to get to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. Tried to get there for a good seat for the changing of the Guard (no luck, it was packed well before we got there). During the walk it became relatively apparent that Adam has some sort of thing for birds, especially those with only one leg, which is rampant in London (pigeons, geese, and ravens alike). After watching the changing of the Guard from some distance, we made our way to lunch. Stopped at a nice pub for some classic English food (Fish and Chips, Steak and onions, mashed peas, and a few pints of course). After lunch we made our way to the Wellington Arch (also home of a very busy traffic circle). No tour here either (closed on Tuesdays). Afterwards we went only a truly long walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to make our way to Kensington Palace. We got lost at least once and had to ask directions, but we did make it to the Palace. The walk took 40 min. and was probably a few miles. Adam managed to sit in bird droppings before we went into the palace, but they still let him in (don’t think they noticed). The Palace was nice, and they had about half the first part of the tour devoted to Princess Diana. After the Palace we made our way home to get some groceries and try and catch an early night for hopefully more sleep (fingers crossed).

Day one of Sight Seeing

The first day sight seeing around London. We started off with a trip to the Tower Bridge (very cool). Keith went all engineer on everyone during the engine room walk through. But still a very neat sight to visit. We went to the Tower of London next door afterwards. Got in quick since the London Pass thing Katherine got allows you to skip lines in some places (paid for itself right there). We went to Tower row and also saw the jewels. Always neat. After we left the Tower we went to eat. Tried this local place called Leons (British Modern, whatever that is?) We had Chicken with rice and slaw. Pretty good and quick also. After this we made our way to the St. Paul’s Cathedral. The inside of the Cathedral is just hard to believe when you see it, but you will have to take my word for it since no pictures are allowed. During the walk through we decided to take a look at some of the upper levels (that was not what we anticipated). There are 434 stairs and three levels to reach the top of the main spire on the Cathedral (oh my lord what are we doing). We made it with only a handful of breaks and handing off the baby and one poopy diaper change in the stairwell. It was quite a site (there are pictures of this one). After St. Paul’s we went to the Globe and Tate Modern. We crossed the millennium bridge to get to the Globe. Very interesting piece of architecture (apparently so interesting it was closed just after opening because it was improperly designed and wobbled while people walked across. No wobbling on our trip (much to our disappointment). The Globe was very interesting (built to match the original Globe’s architecture, thatch roof and all). Unfortunately the tour guide we got would have given Shakespeare a coronary (she was terrible). Made the tour bad enough for us to cut out early (thank you to Grady for providing an excuse “the baby needs to eat”). We went to Tate Modern next. Lots of things to see. A few Picasso’s, but again you will have to take my word for it since no pictures were aloud. There was a very interesting art presentation on the bottom floor consisting of a large crack that ran the length of the building floor, but you can take a look for yourself (see the pictures). We could not figure out how they did it. Back to the flat after some dinner in China Town (Chinese new years, very festive).

WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE!

WOW, WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Pulling into the Gatwick airport at 6:50 am London time (12:50 am Baton Rouge time) was really an unwelcome sight with basically no sleep and an entire day to stay awake through to beat the evil force of jet lag. Grady didn’t cry the whole trip, but he definitely did not sleep. Worst of all, the entire plane was basically empty allowing room for every passenger who wanted to sleep to take up a row for themselves (no such luck for us). Mostly, Grady played. The one-hour that was mentioned was spent checking to see if he was asleep and trying to arrange ourselves in a more comfortable position. Oh well, time to go through customs. Before we enter the concourse Grady is asleep (and we are very jealous). A very long line greets us at customs (wonderful day so far). To our surprise it moved quickly and we were off to get our luggage (Lucky us in this case). After standing next to the wrong baggage claim area for long enough to get courage to ask the mean looking (just kidding) Continental people were our bags were (just our luck we have lost luggage) Katherine spots it two carrousels away. After taking the Gatwick express and then the underground we arrived at the flat and “checked in”. The only bad part was lugging our entire set of luggage around the underground and getting looks from the other people like we had done something wrong. Escalators are tough with all those suitcases. Rachel and Adam helped a lot. We made our way to Grandma Gloria’s house and stayed for dinner. It was very nice and she was very excited to see everyone. We were complete zombies, but we beat the jet lag. Unfortunately, Grady clock was still a little off and we spent about 3 hours in the middle of the night trying to get him back to sleep.

Departure day:

After a very intense night of late night packing (thanks in large part to a 7:30 pm end of the work day for Keith) the morning on Saturday was spent leisurely enough pulling together a few last minute things and feeling reasonably prepared for the journey. Very excited about going to London for the week and terrified about flying with Grady for the first time is an interesting mix of feelings for a trip. Oops….On the way through traffic with people parked on the side of the interstate in Baton Rouge for a Mardi Gras parade we realize that some cash was forgotten at home. Keith freaks a little too much, but things are all right. At 1:25 pm we all boarded the miniature version of a plane continental uses to bus people back and forth between Baton Rouge and Houston. One hour later we are in Houston patting ourselves on the back and feeling pleased about Grady’s ability to handle this whole flying concept for another (albeit much longer) trip. At 3:55 pm we boarded the plane to London. Brought on board all of the needed carry on’s for a long flight (i.e. books, cards, etc.). Thought week might read a bit and nap while Grady slept.

Grady Alexander is 10 months old!

Weight: 18lbs 1oz – between the 5th & 10th percentile

Grady is now crawling very well and trying to get into everything. He loves to walk behind his walker, he can not turn it yet so he runs into the wall and then waits for us to turn it. He can now pull himself up on everything.

We are getting ready for our trip to London to see Keith’s Grandmother. We leave on Sat Feb 2 and return on Sun Feb 10. We are going with Adam & Rachel (Keith’s brother and sister-in-law). We are going to try to blog the trip to London so check out our blog for updates: http://kkghoffman.blogspot.com/

Keith and I are both playing coed soccer right now. I am having a lot of fun. My mom has been to every game so far to watch us (Stephanie is playing also) and play with Grady. Two moms from my “moms group” and there husbands are playing, so we have lots of babies on the sidelines.

Grady went to his 1st Mardi Gras Parade on Saturday in Downtown Baton Rouge. We had a good time and got a lot of beads. Continue to check out http://picasaweb.google.com/kkghoffman. Please add comments!!

Love,
Katherine, Keith & Grady