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Trip videos now up on YouTube!

These may not be the best videos (or the best production) but it's us! Enjoy!

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Back in Oregon

We're back in Oregon after a full night's rest in our own beds. Our flights were mostly uneventful, but we did take advantage of a nearly 4 hour layover in Minneapolis / St. Paul to be touristy and check out the Mall of America. We went on a roller coaster in the middle of the mall and enjoyed a mall dinner (I had a pretzel with cheddar cheese and a smoothie).

So we'll probably have more videos and pictures up later, but for now we are back .. except for Rachel, who is still traveling. Lucky girl.

The Lion King

Tonight we saw The Lion King at a theatre in the West End. It was unlike anything I've seen before. The costumes were AMAZING! They were fantastically colorful and incredibly complex (for example, some of the actors were dressed as nearly-full-sized elephants and giraffes). The singing was more or less what was in the movie, with a few songs added for some additional character development. There were numerous beautiful dance sequences (though some of them dragged on a bit too long). Lastly, if you think performing on a revolve (like in Le Mis) is complex, you ain't seen nothin... the Lion King stage had about 300 million moving parts (give or take a couple). Parts of the stage were able to rise and fall; there were several tracks for pieces of set to roll by; there were wires, vines, flying characters, and a scene involving thousands of stampeding wildebeast; and of course, there was a gigantic rock promontory that spiraled up out of the stage floor on several occasions, sometimes with actors performing on it while it was rising.

All in all, it was great fun! I liked Le Mis more, overall, but it's not really fair to either show to directly compare them; suffice it to say, they were both amazing, and I'm glad I went!

Last day in London, final night of trip

And our trip has pretty much come to an end. We just finished watching The Lion King as a play. It was in another class, really ... in terms of entertainment value, I put it behind Les Miserables and A Midsummers Night's Dream, but it was still a great performance to watch.

Last night we hung out with my British friend Elinor and her boyfriend John, who just happens to be from the Chicago area. However, he has picked up enough of the English accent in the past 2 years that he was really starting to sound British.

Today we went to the Cabinet War Rooms (from WWII) and the Churchill Museum, as well as the Imperial War Museum. Now, Rick Steves said we only needed 2 hours at the Imperial War Museum, but let me tell you ... that was the best war museum I have ever been in. They had a re-creation of a WWI trench, complete with smells. Tons of exhibits and complete rockets and tanks. I didn't even get to see half of the exhibits. Rick Steves, you have failed me yet again. I think he is getting sloppy.

The weather here has been gorgeous the last few days - probably getting us prepared for the weather back home, which luckily is NOT in the 100s like it was when we left. According to Weather.com, it appears to be partly cloudy/sunny and near 75 degrees all next week. Happy Labor Day weekend, everybody.

We arrive back in Portland at around 11 PM on Sunday. We have a 3 1/2 hour layover in Minneapolis / St. Paul, so we are going to try and do something touristy like go to the Mall of America so we can say we've been to Minnesota. A stretch, but it's within the rules.

Rachel, you're still traveling, lucky girl. If you are writing stuff somewhere else, let us know. You completed our travel group; it just isn't the same without you.

I don't expect us to write another post until we return, so thanks for reading and goodbye British Isles - I will miss your accents, beautiful views and rich history. But I won't miss your rain, since I will be getting enough of that soon anyway.

the sea weed is always greener ...

Hello my wonderful boys. We are in Pisa, Italy now.
Nick I tried singing disney today and the girls didnt pick up my slack. It made me miss you more. *tear*

We are having a great time. Tomorrow, we are going shopping in the morning, then to the beach, then off to Sienna. How bad ass are we?
Ben, i want to switch pics. Maybe we should plan a reunion in a few weeks.
Hope all is well. John expect a phone call from me around the 11th. I need to hear your voice.
hugs and kisses
FANTASTIC !!!!

Still in London, on a fast Internet connection

I'm posting videos like mad, look at me go! Unfortunately some of my videos are over 100 MB, so I cannot post them yet, but I am hoping to put something together after the trip.

We went to Les Miserables last night, which was a great show that we are still talking about. The stage, the acting, the singing ... all top notch. Today we went to the British Library, and after being rudely told we were in the wrong area, decided to leave and head over to the British Museum. Since it is open late, we decided to take a break, get on the Internet, eat some lunch and then go to it. Later tonight we are hanging out with Elinor, my British friend that I met in Spain.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures:


Just chillaxing on the train.


Walking down a typical UK street


Me sitting on the stage at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, right before we saw a Midsummers Night's Dream.


And another picture of the gardens at Blenheim Palace.

Thanks for reading everybody! We are nearing the end of our trip but we aren't slowing down at all. We are very excited to have had this opportunity and we're already looking forward to our next adventure.