Travelogue: England Revisited

(Written by Janet Rogers, Dana's mom. This is the first installment of travelogues she wrote while visiting us here in the UK. I didn't want to rewrite what she already wrote, so I am going to cut/paste, and add photos)

June 29, 2010Hi Everyone,

We left SLC Monday morning and headed to JFK. The gal in the seat next to me was from NE London, so I had a chance to get my British ears tuned up. When we got to the NY area, they were socked in with massive cloud cover so we had to circle for nearly an hour before we could land. We disembarked at 6:12 p.m. and our plane to London was scheduled to take off at 6:29! Luckily our flights were in the same terminal--although about 20 gates apart. We really had to book it (which, as you know, is very difficult for me!). When I didn't think I could go any further, I heard the "beep beep" of one of the little transport carts and I flagged it down. They had two seats left on it and took us straight to our gate. There were quite a few on our SLC flight that were booked on the same flight to Heathrow (including the BYU tennis team). The plane waited for all of us (and our luggage!) so all went well.

The flight to London was a good one. Seating was really tight--even Don got a little claustrophobic! We hadn't eaten all day and were very hungry. Luckily they gave us a nice hot dinner, which wasn't even scheduled according to itinerary. We only got a couple hours of sleep so we were pretty wiped out by the time we landed. We breezed throug h passport check and baggage pick-up, and then we called Sam to let him know where we were. He picked us up in the Honda van and we both fell asleep for the two hour ride to their home--good thing Sam brought his iTunes to listen to, because we were not very talkative.

Dana fed us lunch and Don went to bed. It was Sam's birthday, so Dana and Sam went to a scheduled birthday luncheon with his work mates. The kids were playing on the Wii so I took a short nap on the couch. Don slept until about 7:00 p.m. Sam got called back to the hospital for an emergency, so Dana and Stuart went to Pack meeting without him. I stayed home with the other kids (where I showed off my Wii bowling skills to Brooke). When everyone got home, we all went out for a birthday dinner for Sam. We went to a local pub, The Chase, and had a nice dinner.

Impressions: England is so green! I feel like I've "come home". There are so many birds in their neighborhood. There are HUGE pigeons in their trees and yard. The cooing of the pigeons reminds me of the pigeons we had in our barn when I was a child. I found some white plastic lawn chairs stacked behind a shed so I scrubbed them up and put them in the yard. If we ever get a moment to relax we can sit in the yard and enjoy the music of the birds.

Dana and Sam's house is a cute little typical English home. Rooms are very small but it's homey. The back yard ("garden" in England) is good sized with a swing set and a little playhouse (cottage) for the children. Lots of room to run. Dana has quite a bit of vegetable garden going well.

To See more pictures of Day 1, click here.