Our Big trip...

At Andy's work Cmas party last December we won the grand prize: 160,000 air miles to use as we wish. We wished to head off to Europe sans children :) Andy and I were gone for 10 days while Gramma came to stay with the kids. We all had a fantastic time. Check out the pictures to see all the fun we had!














The fam at the airport ( do you like the cleverly placed tall guy in front of the "Seattle's Best Coffee" sign? :).



















Gramma and the kids ready to have fun without boring ole' mom and dad.












London!!

Here's Andy, Nick and Lynne walking down their street, Rutland Road, in the suburb of Wanstead. Lynne was on the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) at the same time as us, we became friends during those years and have kept in touch ever since. She's American and has since married a British guy--Nick. We stayed with them during our stay in England and had a jolly good time.














The first evening we headed on the tube to London Bridge Station. Here's us on London Bridge with the Tower Bridge in the background. This was the only time of the entire trip that we wore coats!














Tom(2), Lynne, Nick, Tom(1), me and Andy at a pub. Ahh, good times in England :) Tom(1) was also on the JET Programme at the same time as us.














Ahh, holiday! Drinking "hobo beer" (we didn't know!!) in Nick and Lynne's garden (that's "back yard" to us North Americans).














We got to spend a day with my dear friend Ruthie and her family!! Ruthie and I grew up in Nigeria together, we've known each other our whole lives. We hadn't seen each other in 5 1/2 years so it was a really incredible day getting to meet her two children. They actually live in Johannesburg but happened to be in London during the month of May.













Darren, Ruthie, Abigail and Isaac at Buckingham Palace. For some reason the Queen wasn't there when we dropped by for a spot of tea with her. Harumph! ;)














Us posing in the garden by the Palace. You'd think we were in the Netherlands with all those beautiful tulips!.














It's fun being tourists :)














Big Ben and the Parliament Buildings.














The next day Andy and I were on our own at St. Paul's Cathedral. This was an illegal photo as you're not supposed to take pictures inside the church. I had the camera in my lap and quick pointed up. What a spectacular building!!! It was really breathtaking.



















I battled my claustrophobia and we climbed up the narrow passageway with over 500 steps to get to the top of the cathedral. One of the stops along the way was the Whispering Gallery. Click on the link and you can read about the Whispering Gallery. It's cool. Andy managed to hear me whispering "Can you hear me now??" from halfway around the room...














We made it to the top! A 380 degree view of London. You can see the London Eye off to the left side. We walked right past it the day we were with Ruthie but we didn't ride it b/c it was so pricey. Glad we didn't as our view from St. Pauls was better than the view from the Eye would've been!



















Relaxing with a coffee in the courtyard by St. Pauls. Moments like this were really amazing. There we sat drinking coffee by St. Pauls Cathedral as if we do that every day. It was yet another incredibly beautiful day and the locals were all out enjoying the day with us.



















Then off we went to Westminster Abbey which is another magnificent building.














That evening we hung out with The Toms again. This picture made us laugh b/c it looks like Tom(2) has a crown thanks to the Parliament Buildings in the background :)



















The Brits are such thoughtful people! These signs were everywhere and they made me smile :)














On our last full day we split up. I went shopping in London with Lynne while Andy made a quick stop at the Tower of London (he didn't go inside, just got some photos from the outside) on his way to...













...Wimbledon. He loves tennis and really wanted to go to the museum there and see as much of the grounds as he could. He said there was a lot of construction going on around there and that's evident from this picture.














We met up later in the afternoon and stopped at Harrods. Andy went down to the pub (conveniently located in the men's department!) so I could look around the gigantic store for a little while. I came across this shrine to Diana and Dodi.



















One of our favorite things about London is the Tube--what an excellent mode of transportation!!














That last evening we had dinner at a Nigerian restaurant. Oh my goodness, it was delicious! What a treat.














JET Alum. Tom(1), Lynne, me and yet another fellow JET, Joe. It was really fun catching up with these old friends.



















Time to say goodbye! Cute little Aurelia and mummy head off to nursery (daycare) while Andy and I got ready to take the tube to Gatwick airport for the next part of our trip...














Farewell to the Wanstead Tube station...














And on to The Netherlands! We stayed with family friends from Nigeria days. Ruud and Aly Dekker were close friends with my parents and have stayed in touch ever since. I taught their (now 31 year old) son, Ruben, guitar lessons when I was in high school! We go way back.

We spent our first evening in their garden enjoying the still-lovely weather.














The next morning Andy and I took the train to Amsterdam. Such a flat country! Pretty green fields, cows and sheep grazing... Graffiti everywhere (if you click on the picture to enlarge it you'll see graffiti on the shed on the right).














Even after living in Japan (where lots of people ride bikes) we were totally shocked at the enormous amount of bikes parked all over the place. In the background right side of this picture is a four story bike parking garage!!














So many funky tiny cars in England and in The Netherlands.


















Just a reminder that Zondag (Sunday) is Mothers Day :)














We stopped for lunch (I had croquettes--I LOVE croquettes, my Oma used to make them) at De Prins Cafe. My mom's maiden name is Prins :)














The Kaas Kamer (cheese store). What a sight! Yum.














Someone I've met through my job told me that her boyfriend's cousin's family owns a pub in Amsterdam so we found our way to Cafe Pleinzicht :) The bar tender was way cool, you can't tell in this photo, but one of the lenses on his glasses is round and the other is a rectangle. Coolest glasses you ever did see. Proost (cheers)!














Of course we had to do the touristy thing and go on a canal cruise. Here's a shot of "The 10 arches" or something like that--can't quite remember, but it was neat looking down and seeing arches as far as the eye could see.














Okay seriously, check out that parking job between those two trees!!! That takes some skill.














The canals, the bridges, the tall, skinny houses... Amsterdam, baby.














Here's Andy pointing to the word "Scheveningen" which is a town in The Netherlands and a word that Dutch people like to hear non-Dutch people say :) He really tried!














Back hanging out in the garden again. Seriously, the weather was just perfect for our entire trip. You can see Ruud and Aly in the kitchen busy preparing the feast we had for supper later that evening.














Aly, Andy and I went on a bike ride (how Dutch of us!) to celebrate National Windmill Day at two of their local windmills. How cool to be in the Netherlands on "Nationale Molendag"!!














This Shanty Choir sang some songs as entertainment at one of the mills. It was honestly one of my absolute favourite moments of the entire trip. They all made me think of my dad (who also loves to sing with a big hearty voice :) and about how this is the country where my family is from. I loved every minute of it!

I'll try to share it with you via the below video clip. You definitely had to be there to get the full effect of course :)

















At the other mill we got a detailed tour about everything to do with windmills. I thought this picture was interesting--see how the country is all below sea level (the water level is there on the left)? Pretty fascinating.



















Doesn't get much more Dutch than this :)

Actually, Andy could also tell he was with "his people" (for him it's several generations back, but still!) because we saw lots and lots of tall skinny guys. In case you weren't aware, Dutch people are the tallest in the world. For real! Read here to see that I'm not making it up :) Of course we also saw lots of blondes, Asia and Ezra (remember them?! We called home a few times during our trip and they acted as if we were simply calling from down the street. We were thrilled that they were having lots of fun with gramma and really didn't miss us.) would blend right in too :)














We got quite hot after all that bike riding in the glorious sun so we stopped for some cold treats in the small downtown next to their town of Voorburg.














On the bike right outside the Dekker's house. Once again it was wonderful catching up with (or in Andy's case, meeting for the first time) friends. We were lucky to have such fabulous hosts both in England and in The Netherlands, that made the trip even better.














Sadly, all good things come to an end... We flew from Amsterdam to London to Los Angeles to Seattle. Almost 23 hours of traveling!!














But wait, more friends! No point in wasting a three hour lay over in Los Angeles! Dad Tanis came to meet us for a quick meal as did our friends Adam and Aaron. Helped pass the time--especially since at this point we were very eager to get home and to see the kids!



















Here they are sporting some of the gifts we brought back. I know, the "someone who loves me" t-shirt is totally cheesy, but it had to be done! :) Andy and I are convinced that they both grew about two feet while we were gone!

It sure was a fantastic time... and now, off to bed as the jet lag is still kicking my butt!