Posts by ChelsieRae

First Class, the Northern Lights, and the Olympic Rings

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 12, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 6 comments

We made it! What a great flight. It might be the only chance we get to fly first class so we definitely enjoyed it while it lasted. We watched movies, we ate our dinner off of real plates with real silverware, and we slept in a lay-flat bed. All that was great, but the best part of the flight actually had nothing to do with our first class seats. About 4 hours in Andrew started noticing faint white streaks of light outside the plane window. Over several minutes, the lights became brighter and brighter and started taking on a green hue. We couldn’t believe what we were seeing…it was the Northern Lights! For those of you that don’t know, we had originally planned for our trip this year to take place in October and include Iceland and Scandinavia. One of the main highlights was to be seeing the Northern Lights which is a bucket list item for Andrew and I. Unfortunately, because of Andrew’s school schedule and my work schedule, we weren’t able to take that trip. We decided to take this trip instead knowing that we would have to put off our dream to see the Northern Lights for at least one more year. Well it looks like Mother Nature was smiling down on us because we got to check that bucket item off after all. We were so amazed that we strained our necks trying to take everything in until slowly but surely the lights faded away. Andrew was able to get some really cool photographs out the window.

Getting through customs, picking up our luggage, and and finding our driver was a breeze. Our flight landed at Noon and by 1:30 p.m. we were already checking into our small boutique hotel on Eccleston Square. On our first trip to London we stayed with my cousin Mickey in his flat just a few doors down. Since we know the area really well and our favorite coffee shop Tom Tom is right around the corner, we thought this would be an ideal place to stay. The hotel is great. The rooms are a little on the smaller size, but what is lacking in size is definitely made up for in technological advancement. We have a 3D TV, an in-room iPad, heated bathroom floors, a bed that has a built-in foot massager, and clear shower doors that fog up for privacy at the touch of a button. Andrew is in heaven. :)

After a quick nap and a shower, we headed to Tower Bridge to take pictures of the iconic Olympic Rings. It is so strange seeing them on TV one day and then being here in person, half a world away, the next. There were relatively big crowds as we expected, but nothing too bad so far. The tube was pretty crowded too. At one point we walked across the bridge to see all the commotion going on on the other side of the Thames. The city had setup a huge projector showing live Olympics events and there was a noisy mob of people watching. It got particularly rowdy when Tom Daley of the UK was fighting the US and China for a gold medal in 10m platform diving. We saw lots of people sporting national pride including a guy wearing full Leprechaun getup with an Irish flag tied to his shoulders like a cape. There was also a guy in a gorilla suit playing an electric guitar. We ate a delicious dinner at a tasty Indian restaurant on that side of town and then did some more walking and nighttime photography…or “night shots” as Andrew and Mickey like to call it.

We landed back at the hotel at around 11:00 p.m., watched some Olympics recaps on BBC, and are headed for bed. So far its been a great start to our trip. We hope everything is going well at home and that the heatwave is almost over by now. We will post more tomorrow.

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew

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LAX and the First Class Lounge

Posted by Chelsie on Aug 10, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 9 comments

After a little bit of an unusual morning (some fire alarm issues at work), we are finally ready for our trip. We got to the airport really early so we have plenty of time to enjoy the first class lounge that came with our first class tickets. We are so excited!!! This place is awesome. Free food, free drinks, free wi-fi. I think I might move in here. We also can’t wait to see what first class on an international flight is like. Yay for frequent flyer miles! Our flight leaves at 5:30 p.m. so after that you won’t hear from us for a while. I will try to post something as soon as we get to London as I’m sure everyone will want to hear how first class was.

Thanks to Mom for taking us to the airport and to Michelle for bringing us to work this morning. It’s going to be a great trip!

Cheers,

Chelsie & Andrew

Andrew in the first class lounge.

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We’re off again!

Posted by Chelsie on Jul 27, 2012 in Europe 2012 | 3 comments

Today is an great day as it is the Opening Ceremony in London this evening. This means that our trip is exactly two weeks away and we couldn’t be more excited. We will be in London for the last few days of the Olympics, Amsterdam, Munich and Fussen Germany, Salzburg Austria, and hopefully Zurich Switzerland. As usual, we will attempt to post every day if possible. We look forward to sharing our vacation with you and hope you will leave us comments along the way.

Also, thanks to Andrew for updating the look and feel of our website in time for our upcoming trip. We hope you like it!

 

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The Pheasant Incident, Alloway, Ruined Castles, and Falconry

Posted by Chelsie on Mar 18, 2011 in Alloway, Turnberry | 1 comment

When we woke up this morning it was a little rainy, but not too bad. We took to the car and drove North to Alloway to visit the birthplace of Scottish poet Robert Burns. About a mile from town, we decided to hunt some Pheasant…with our car! (Accidental hunting Mom, don’t worry. We didn’t do it on purpose.) The poor guy ran across the road like a roadrunner, took flight way too late and ended up hitting our bumper on the driver’s (right) side of the car, flying up into the side-view mirror (thud!) and ending up somewhere in the bushes. These birds weigh about 3 pounds so it was quite the ordeal. We felt really bad, but there wasn’t really anything we could do about it. We were driving on a two-lane undivided highway with no shoulder and there was no place to go but straight into Mr. Pheasant. Apparently this is pretty common as we saw a few dead Pheasants on the road today and witnessed a truck get really close to hitting another one. When we finally got in town, we parked near the Burns Museum to check things out.

The whole town of Alloway is chock full of monuments dedicated to Robert Burns. All the sights were beautiful, but the Doon River was my favorite part. The stone bridges provide stark contrast to the lush green banks and gushing water. It was so incredibly peaceful. The museum and cottage Burns grew up in were nice as was the monument erected in his honor. By the time we finished wandering around it was about Noon. We headed back along the road and ate at a little inn we found off the road. It had pretty good food for being in a town with a population of about 25. And another great bonus…the inn was a quick walk from a ruined seaside castle. After taking some pictures at the castle we hurried back to our hotel so we could make it to falconry in time.

I’m not really sure how to set up the description of falconry for you to do it justice. All I can say us that is in the top 10 things I have ever experienced. The falconry expert Jamie was amazing. He explained to us what it takes to raise these birds and what motivates them to fly to your arm instead of just flying away. We practiced feeding them in the barn and then it was off to see the real stuff. We met falcons, owls big and small, 2 kinds of hawks, and a raven-type bird that I can’t remember the name of right now. Jamie let us handle almost all of them. They flew from the perch to our arms and back again. It was such a personal experience as we were the only ones there for the lesson. We even laid down so one of the owls could fly within inches of us. One of the most exciting parts was when Jamie let the Peregrin Falcon take flight. These birds are the fastest on earth, flying 200 mph plus all while darting through trees and trying to catch some chicken tied to a tether that Jamie was swinging. Even though it was cold, it was totally worth it. An amazing experience. I think the pictures help tell the story better than I can.

For dinner we had some great Scottish food at one of the hotel restaurants. We split small portions of lamb pot roast, beef carpaccio, chicken pie with bacon, and mushroom risotto. To close the night out we did some stargazing. The night sky here is really beautiful. Since we are kind of in the middle of nowhere, we can see tons of stars and many constellations. I even saw a shooting star, although Andrew missed it. Tomorrow we are heading back to London, but it’s a 5 hour train ride, not including the 2-1/2 hour drive to the train station so I may not do a posting unless something exciting happens. Cheers, Chelsie and Andrew

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