London

It has been over 10 years since I've been to London.  We were able to spend the better part of today seeing some sights in London.  I was impressed by the history and depressed by the prices.  Even traveling on a corporate expense report, you feel guilty paying $10 for two small scoops of ice cream, $50 for a basic dinner, $12 to ride the subway, $300 for a hotel, etc.  To take a cab to the airport tomorrow would be $100 (I'm going to give the Tube a try).  We were treated to a traditional gloomy day in the morning.  It rained steady for several hours before giving way to some sunshine in the afternoon.

Here are some pictures from our afternoon.

View of the Tower Bridge from on our water taxi ride up the Thames.

US Flag flying over the embassy.  There was more security at the embassy than any other place we saw.  You get the impression that some people don't like us.

Harrod's - I was more impressed with Harrod's than any other site we saw.  I couldn't afford to shop there (with the exception of the $10 scoop of gelato), but they had almost anything you could conceive of purchasing right down to a $10,000 bottle of wine and a $3,000 toy Lamborghini.

Flag flying of the US embessay - my second favorite tourist site.

Buckingham palace in the rain.  Neither Will nor Kate would come to the door when we knocked.

I've never seen more Rolls Royce, Bentleys  and Mazerattis in my life.  There is no shortage of luxury vehicles in London, including this nice vehicle that I purchased and will carry on the plane with me so that Tyson has something to drive when he turns 16.

The London Eye and the old County Hall. If you have really good eyesite you can see a McDonalds at the base of the County Hall building.  We ate lunch there because our conscious wouldn't allow us to have another $50 meal.

Big Ben and Parliament.

York, England

Its fun to be back in England visting our office in York.  We arrived on Sunday and have been there through today.  With familiarity I'm beginning to enjoy the culture and history much more.  My comfort still doesn't extend to driving on the left side of the roads so I stick to cabs. 

Some pictures from my first few days here.

This is the view from my hotel room.

Walking back to our hotel after dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant in York.

I looked for Matt in the race, but didn't see him. 

More Pictures from Lake Powell

Rainbow Bridge

The last two days have been more like the Lake Powell we've come to love.  The sun returned bringing with it near 100 degree temperatures.  We've kept busy:

• Wakeboarding - Taylors friend Jayden came along and wakeboarded for her first time.
• Tubing - Tyson, Camryn and Jayden had the longest tube ride in family history riding the tube all the way from beyond the San Juan Arm of Lake Powell to warm creek - about 45 miles.
• Swimming - If our bodies could become water-logged, ours would be.  You've got to keep cool.
• Touring - we've seen some great areas of the lake, some which have opened up now that the water level is about 25 feet higher than last year.  We visited our favorite canyon - Cathedral, and explored a new one - Twilight.  
• Relaxing - we always find some good shade to relax under mid-day while we have lunch and take a break from the other fun.






•  

Lake Powell 2011

We arrived in Page, AZ for our annual trip to Lake Powell.  Boat - check.  Hotel room - check.  Beach towels - check.  Sun screen - check.  Lake full of water - check.  Sun - oops, forgot to bring that along.  In all of our previous trips to Lake Powell, we've never had a day without sunshine.  There is a first for everything I guess.  We were able to get out on the lake today, see some sights and do some tubing, but in the early afternoon the clouds were joined by their friends heavy rain and lightning and we were forced off the lake.  The storms were pretty intimidating, but we were able to avoid them for the most part, hiding in a canyon for the worst of it to pass through.

Scout Camp

The weekly pilgrimage to the mountains for our scouts week long camp started today.  Taylor and I volunteered for delivery duties which meant meeting at the church at 6 a.m.  The trip was filled with unbelievable stories told by the scouts and every sentence starting with the word "dude".  It took two and a half hours to get to Camp Evergreen which is in the high Uintas.  There was still snow on the ground in some areas and word quickly spread that the water temperature of the swim / canoeing lake was 35 degrees. 

Taylor and I stayed long enough help put together Tyson's "Tajmatent" and make sure everyone was situated.  Tyson and another scout are staying in an eight man tent with cots, pads and all of the comforts of home (almost).

Stadium of Fire - Paragliders

I quit filming just before the last paraglider came in and crashed into the barricade - bummer for both of us.