I am shaking my head as I type this for the SECOND time. I typed the whole thing and somehow made a monumental mistake and lost about two hours of typing. (I was so WITTY too!)  I'm not entirely sure I've got everyone's email address so if you get this pass it on to a friend, just in case. :)

I'm not feeling as "fresh" this time around so this won't be NEARLY as hysterical. No, really, I was REALLY funny in the first one.

Ok so here are the players:

ME

The heroine and all-around good girl of this story

RON

My husband.

DONNA

La la! She's the court jester in this story. :)

CATHERINE

Short, but lethal. (Just ask her employees!)

STEVE

The muscle. He flaked out on all of us by taking a position in Colorado, but we've forgiven him for the time being.

LISA

Best friend of Donna

*******************************************************

Ok now you know the players so onwards to the story:

PRE-FLIGHT:

I had to write not ONE but TWO finals on the morning of the flight, so those three hours I'd intended to use cleaning the house, doing additional laundry and oh....PACKING were used up for that. (It shows, I can't find half of my toiletries) At least I remembered to pack underpants.

Ron's mom and dad arrived as I was running around the house yelling to no one in particular, "Where in the heck is my jacket!" Apparently I'd left the door open so they had great seats for the pandemonium. Oops.  A few false starts later, we were in the Suburban driving to Rational to pick up Ron and Donna. Then off we went to San Francisco airport.

Did you know that they'd finally finished renovating the NEW airport? I didn't. So we were dropped off and in we went to the NEW and improved International check-in. But wait! Apparently ALL of the international airlines had moved over to the new building but...you guessed it...ours.

So off we go to the OLD International check-in. All I can say is:

THANK GOODNESS FOR LUGGAGE ON WHEELS.

I have learned. (Read: hauling 50 pounds of luggage alone and lost in London in 1999)  So we check in. There are no major issues to deal with except a discrepancy on our ticket vs. the computer for our return date. Donna wants to go outside to have a quick cigarette so out we all go. She finishes up and we are about to head back in when she goes,

"Oh no. Where's my boarding ticket?"

Pandemonium. I run back inside searching the floors, under people's shoes, on counters, etc. I come outside again, my efforts had been fruitless, and Donna is standing there smiling, ticket-in-hand, saying, "Oh it's ok. I'd left it on that cart over there while I was finding my smokes."

SMACK! Ok, I didn't, but I thought about it.

Dooooooooooooonaaaaaaaaa....what were you THINKING?! How lucky we were!  We went inside for a hot dog while we waited before going through Security so that Catherine could spend a bit of quality time with her main squeeze and the rest of the troops could have a quick drink. Did I mention Ron hates to fly?

Finally, we head in and load onto the plane without much ado.  Donna and Catherine are basically asleep as soon as their bums are planted in their seats. Ron and I are not quite so lucky. Two magazines and a bunch of shifting positions later, they serve dinner.  After that they put on a movie. I was under the impression it would be "August in New York" with Winona Ryder and Richard Gere but they put on "The Replacements" with Keanu Reeves. Some FOOTBALL movie. I mean JEEZ.

Ron groans and looks at me. Suddenly this flight got a heckuva lot longer for him. I'm all excited because now I get to see a "girl" movie. And Richard Gere, I mean - hey - he's old, but still a cutie right?

So on go the headphones and I spend the next 2 hours watching this piece of TRIPE! It's about a late 40-something Casanova who meets a 20-something Cancer patient. So Ron already knows he'll hate this movie. Now anyone who knows me, knows that I cry at Hallmark card commercials.  But basically at the end of this movie I was dry-eyed and annoyed. Whatever happened to the days of Hollywood when love stories had a HAPPY ending?   Sheez.

Ron kept looking at me to see if the waterworks had started. I looked at him and said, "I refuse to shed a tear over this crap. We were better off with that football movie." He agreed wholeheartedly and we settled back into discomfort as we watched "Murphy Brown" and read Dutch subtitles.  I think "brasserie" means restaurant, by the way. Not lingerie, because most lingerie shops don't sell falafels and beer. By the way, unlike in America where they offer you a zillion and two choices of beer, you're basically instinctively served - you guessed it - Heineken.

So for the next SEVERAL hours I tried to sleep, read, or just listened to some baby wailing for hours at a time. The food was good, I'll give it that, and there was lots of it.  I ended up dozing off in some kind of a recreation of my own birth, sort of a breech arm behind my head, neck juxtaposed into some unfamiliar and unhealthy position, sort of way. I woke up with the mother of all cricks in my neck. (Gee, wonder why)

So several hours later, once my bum and permanently fallen asleep, the flight ended. We deplaned and staggered towards baggage claim. Donna and Catherine, who had essentially slept the entire flight, looked spry and giggly. Ron and I looked like extras from "Night of the Living Dead". We looked at the two girls laughing excitedly and rolled our eyes.

To my credit, I only had the urge to run screaming down the aisles banging the plane door open about three times so I guess I'm calming down somewhat.  As we walked through the airport, I'd decided that 5 orange juices, 3 Sprites, 2 teas, and 4 waters had really taken their toll so I found the nearest washroom. As I was buttoning up, the door sprang open and I not only saw some woman looking at me but the entire hallway. There IS no door to the larger bathroom area so basically if little miss can't wait had opened the door 15 seconds earlier I would have provided QUITE the show for some unsuspecting airport travelers. EEEEEEK!

As we wandered to the Immigration area, I spotted several dogs wandering around. Apparently dogs are so well liked in Amsterdam that you can pretty much drag them anywhere with you - - even the airport!  The immigration process was basically saying hecko to some 19-year old kid who took my passport, stamped it, high five'd me, and said, "Have a nice time."

I am thinking to myself, "DANG...that was easy."  Steve met us at the gate. He'd arrived earlier and basically waited for us for FOUR hours. What a TROOPER! We all exchanged hecko-agains and hopped the first taxi out of Dodge towards our hotel. The Marriott Renaissance wasn't too far away, about a 20 minutes cab ride, and we all went to our separate rooms to unpack.

Well, Donna and Catherine and Steve unpacked. Ron and I unzipped the suitcase and grabbed some clothes. It works for us.  After that it's all a blur so I'm just going to give you my take on sights here and there because at this stage of the game, the word "Chronological" is no longer in my inventory.

WHEN IN ROME:

So of course after we'd unpacked and resisted the urge to sleep forEVER...we went for a quick walkabout in Amsterdam. Naturally we made a BEELINE for the Red Light District to see what all the hubbub was about.  Basically it was a bunch of women dressed in their best lingerie (or a bathing suit) standing in a window smiling and waving to prospective temporary employers. Some were attractive and some were downright scary-looking. Others, I wasn't entirely sure WHAT they were. And on we walked...

We saw a million and one "unique" shops and all I can say is that if I had to pick a "Theme" for Amsterdam is would be: Dogs, Drugs, Aliens, Sex, Slanted Buildings

DOGS:

As I said, dogs have it MADE in Amsterdam. They can essentially go anywhere that their masters do. No more being left in the car! Take them into the restaurant or shopping mall! I haven't quite figured out how they deal with the excrement issue, but I didn't trip into much of it so I guess they have some kind of system worked out.

DRUGS:

I think it's illegal to buy them, but not illegal to sell or carry them. So basically everywhere you go, there is at least one shop selling coffee, beer, and magic mushrooms, marijuana, or hashish. People smoke it like it's no big deal and it's not uncommon to see it being rolled as you sit in a pub drinking or chatting.

ALIENS:

I don't know why this is...but every other shop window has some kind of alien dummy or picture or display in it. Donna thinks there are a TON of monkeys in shop windows but I'd have to say the slant is on aliens.   Whateverrrrr!!

SEX:

Well, it's not like it's in the street, but there are a TON of little "stores" or shows or - as I mentioned earlier - the Red Light District. We conned Steve into asking one of the girls what she charged. (100 guilders) Then we conned Lisa into asking the same girl, just to see if there was any kind of change in price for men and women (like in Dry Cleaning stores), but apparently it's the same. Catherine and Ron were both mortified and embarrassed that someone was going to ask and hid behind me.  By the way, 100 Guilders is about 45 U.S. dollars.  And no, none of us took the girl up on it. (EW!)

SLANTED BUILDINGS:

There's a cafe across the street in what looks to be about a 500-year old building. This building is like the Leaning Tower of Pisa except that it's leaning so MUCH that it may well be the Damn If It Didn't Topple Over Tower of Pisa.  What shocked me more than life was that people were sitting inside EATING.   I'm halfway ready to scream, "GET OUT! Save yourselves! She's gonna go!"   I didn't. I figured, 500 hundred years and she's not tripped yet, who am I to be a messenger of doom?

CANALS:

For some reason I expected no canals so I was QUITE shocked to see them all over Amsterdam. (I keep wanting to type it as "Amsterdamn") I thought canals were only in Italy. Oh well. Holland can have them, too. I'm easy.

RESTAURANTS:

Wow, pick a cuisine, any cuisine and they serve it in Amsterdam. The streets are littered with shops and restaurants of every ethnic type. One night we went for Italian at Casa di David and I had the most inCREDible Carbonara I've ever tasted and this really WICKED spread made with olives and olive oil and something else that is put over french bread. I mean YUM!  This restaurant was amazing, with a little pulley system to drag the food up to the second floor and a dumb waiter (poor guy, just trying to do his job - do they really have to call him "dumb"?) to drag the plates down again. I nearly broke my neck going to the washroom since the stairs were on some kind of funky angle that if you're not careful or if you have uncommonly large feet, you're better off starting at the top and simply jumping to the floor below because chances are you're going to twist an ankle.  I was already tottering about on my new clogs so I had to be REAL careful.   Hands on the handrail, Mel, at ALL times!

BIKES:

I have NEVER in my 31 years seen so many bicycles in my LIFE. There are in ABUNDANCE here. Everyone and their dog rides one. So this is how the system seems to go:  You park your bike. Someone rips it off. You steal someone else's. They steal someone else's. And so on...Isn't it nice that Amsterdam recycles?  Apparently the government purchased a few thousand WHITE bikes for all the citizens of Amsterdam to use for free but they either go ripped off by out-of-towners or repainted and claimed as someone's personal property. So much for that idea.  These bikes are not your average custom made Rocky Mountain 2,000 dollar bikes. Oh no. Basically the phrase LESS IS MORE applies here. The crappier the bike, the less likely someone is going to rip it off. That's good thinking. Kind of like my old Hyundai...no one tried to steal that thing. If anything, I'd come back and there'd be a note taped to the windshield with twenty bucks stapled to it saying:

"Dear Owner,

Your car is crap. Get a real one.

Sincerely,

Joe Car Thief"

So I can see how that might work out for some people.

PEDESTRIANS:

You know that whole American/Canadian "WATCH IT BUDDY...I'm WALKIN' here.." attitude? In Amsterdam? It does not exist. You can always spot the tourists, they look pale and do triple takes before crossing the street.  It's DANGEROUS. I don't know if there's a statistic for tourists mown down by cars, bikes, or trains but they DO NOT STOP here. heck, dogs won't even slow down for you.  I've never been so freaked out crossing the street in my life.

CATS:

Apparently a cat in a restaurant is good luck. It means the food is good.   Well that's nice. I guess it also means the cat's not on the menu. A double bonus.

LANGUAGE:

Everyone here sounds like they have a fur ball caught in their throat and I destroy the language every time I attempt to speak it. So I do a lot of pointing and smiling stupidly. Luckily, most people here speak English so I'm not totally in the dark.

MONEY:

They use guilders here - I think that's how it's spelled but I've probably murdered their written language as much as I've trashed their oral language.   The 10 dollar guilder has a pretty Sunflower on it. It looks like Monopoly money but people accept it so that's nice.

TRAINS:

Lisa and I decided to take the train (the #20) to some bridal shops so she could search for a dress. We hopped on the train and the driver told us to pay at the back. So we spotted a bunch of machines along the aisle and tried unsuccessfully for about 10 minutes to cram, wedge, and squeeze different denominations of coin into these slots. Apparently they're just ticket validators. So with the invisible dunce caps strapped to our noggins, we wandered to the very back where we purchased a ticket from an actual VENDOR. It was sure nice being on the inside of the train rather than jumping out of its way.

JET LAG TO THE MAXIMUM:

I swear, I STILL have jet lag. I'm wide awake at 3:00 a.m. but dog tired at 2 in the afternoon. I figure about two weeks after I return to the States, my system will have adjusted to Amsterdam time. <groan>

SHOPPING:

I'm not much of a shopper but with an exchange rate of 2.5 guilders to every dollar we're livin' LARGE out here. But not to worry, they'll rake us over the coals when we hit London and the pound rate blows us away. (cringe)  There's a McDonalds here. So we took a picture of the menu. Steve was gracious enough to give Ron and I this INCREDIBLE digital camera that makes movies, has a Carl Zeiss lens, does telephoto and wide angle and pretty much does your laundry for you. So we're taking TONS of pictures. The camera holds about 60 before you need to download and recharge. Ron's got his laptop so we're being pretty diligent about that. I'll try and put up a page when we get back of the trip which will pretty much be this letter with pictures on my web site.

I'm seeing some weird styles here in Amsterdam. People are fond of animal products (not dog or cat) and flat edge shoes. Now I may not be a connoisseur of fashion but I know how my foot works and these shoes they're selling do not seem HUMAN. Talk about Beauty is Pain. Eesh. 

Well that's about it for now.... I've been sitting in this stinky Internet Cafe for about 2 hours now and I'm feeling a little dizzy (ahoh!) so I'm going to go back to the hotel.

I'll write more when there's something dishy to report. :)

Kevin, can you please return "Gone In 60 Seconds" for Ron and I? We ah...er...left before returning it and it's gonna accrue a WICKED late charge by the time we get back. The Hollywood Video by Carl's Jr. if you have a sec. ;) Thanks!

Tara, I TRULY wish you were here. You'd totally get a kick out of this place. Can you do me a favour and forward this to the docs and Sherry and Admitting staff? I only have three email addresses so I'm missing a bunch of people. Thanks!

Write back and say hi, people!

Love Melissa

LETTER 2

Hi all (again)!

Well not TOO much extraordinary happened since yesterday afternoon but some stuff did so I figured I'd pass that on before senility sets in early.

Here we go:

CANAL CRUISE:

This was nice of Donna - she paid for a cruise for all of us to take so that we could see the sights and eat dinner at the same time. The dinner was something to the effect of:

- smoked salmon with dill/mustard potato salad (or potatoe salad if you're Dan Quail)
- veal consommé with some onions and stuff
- Guinea fowl stuffed with spinach
...and some other foofy desserts which I can't pronounce. The alcohol as usual was flowing, of which I abstained, but it was nice of them to offer anyway.

I'm beginning to wonder what the beverage process is here:
1. breast milk
2. Heineken

Something like that.

Anyway...we learned a lot about the history of the Canals and Amsterdam and we also got a good look at the hotel where Madonna and Michael Jackson have stayed - though not together, wouldn't want to spread any rumours! Can you say 4,000 GUILDERS A NIGHT?!

Eeeeeeeeeeeek!

PIGEONS:

I do NOT know what they feed these guys but the pigeons here are SO FAT that one wonders how they get their roly poly selves off the GROUND! They are WELL fed. Donna followed one and it didn't fly away it just kind of looked up at her and you could almost hear it snarl through it's beak, "Beat it wench...I'm eatin' here."

DREADLOCKS:

I'm seeing them everywhere. Women. Men. Doesn't matter. I could get into that style. Never having to brush my hair again? I'm all for it.

CANALS PART II - SEWAGE:

Apparently 30% of the houses in Amsterdam drain their toilets directly into the canal. So even though it's "fresh water" -- really...do you seriously expect us to believe that it's all that FRESH? C'mon. HOWEVER, I'm also told that they clean it four times a week. Well that's good. No floaties.

GUILDERS:

I was wrong. It's not the 10 dollar denomination that is a sunflower. It's the 50 dollar denomination. The 10 dollar denomination is some kind of blue thing.  At least I spelled it correctly.

MADAME TUSSAUD'S:

I haven't actually GONE there yet, but the outside looked pretty cool. It's pretty expensive so I'm not sure if we're going to fork out the cash to wander around. Judging from the outside, this is no mom and pop deal - these figures really DO look like actors and actresses etc.

ANNE FRANK'S HOUSE:

We went there today. FASCINATING. DEPRESSING. FASCINATING. DEPRESSING. I bought a book from the bookstore that pretty much summed up via pictures and text what the tour consisted of. I walked the halls that Anne Frank once walked. Spooky.  Sad.

SHOPPING:

I hate shopping so I'm not the best person to discuss it. But we did it, and I bought a few trinkets for family so that was nice. We pretty much walked for 6 hours straight today so my feet are THROBBING. Even a stinky old Internet Cafe was better than walking. I knew I should have turned in these 10 year old shoes for some newer ones.   So much for SUPPORT.  By the way, every vendor in Amsterdam is a comedian, especially if you don't know the language.

CARS:

The cars here are THIN and functional. HILARIOUS! You could drive one along the sidewalk and it would FIT. By the way, the parking stalls along the canal are separated from the water by only one metal bar. If you drive your car into the canal they'll haul your car from the canal for free, provided you're still in it at the time. Judging from what else is joining you in the canal, I'd probably PAY the towing charge.   STINKKKKKKKKKKY!!!!!!!!!

HEINEKEN:

Apparently the Brouwers family (my family) have breweries and they sold the brewery to Heineken or they brew Heineken beer or SOMETHING. I don't know yet...haven't seen too many Brouwers' wandering about yet. Dad?! Help me out here!

PEDDLERS:

We do see peddlers on the streets here and there. (One guy hit us up twice, we had to remind him he'd already scored off of us) Some guy basically stood in the street tossing a pin up and down. I think he was a juggler.   I'm all, "Hey...*I* can toss a pin and drop it on the ground and you don't have to pay me a PENNY." (I didn't actually say that out LOUD, but I did think it.)

Well, that's about all I can think of for now...take care all and I'll update you when I think of something more.

P.S. I don't know what the deal is but it's been raining here like it's nobody's business. I thought I'd left that stuff in CANADA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugs to all,

LETTER #3 - LONDON

Hi all!!

As usual, pass on if you're passing on so I don't miss anyone. Thanks much. :)

Ok! So...we made it from Amsterdam to London just fine. The flight was about 45 minutes so no big deal at all. Tomorrow we fly back from London to Amsterdam then immediately hop on another plane from Amsterdam to San Francisco. (Ew)

It'll be a heckISH flight(s), but I'm sure I'll persevere.

For a time I thought we'd only be in London for a day, but as luck would have it, we got to sneak in another day. So I'll give you the play by play real quick:

FLIGHT IN:

We didn't fly in to either Gatwick OR Heathrow, but rather some airport I have NEVER heard of called Luton Airport. When we fly out tomorrow, we'll be flying out of another teensy airport where if you sneeze you'll miss it called Stansten, I think. We flew in on a plane called Easy Jet -- I've never heard of it either. I have no idea if this is one of those airlines where you get statistics reports on how many crashes they've had in the Alps at any given day of the year, but we were lucky.  Though I have to say...the landing was a BIT BUMPY!! (No tip for the pilot!)

MARRIOTT ON GEORGE STREET: (near Marble Arch)

Now that I'm a Marriott Rewards member (yawn) we stayed there again. It wasn't too bad--if you don't mind being raked across the pound coals each night for lodging. Something like 153 pounds per night, which translates roughly to oh...300 U.S. dollars a night. I'm thinking...so this must be a PALATIAL suite. Dream on, Mel. BUT...they made up for it in the buffet breakfast which we MORE THAN MADE UP FOR in swiping drinks and food for the rest of the day. (Remember THAT, Tara??)

I'm not sure Amsterdamians and Londoners have similar ideas what the term "king size bed" means. In Amsterdam we were living LARGE because you pretty much had a separate post code from one end of the bed to the other. But in LONDON, their king size bed is roughly the size of a double bed. Maybe it's just me but it SUCKED after we'd been so coddled in Holland. C'est la vie.

(neck crick)

BIG BUS TOUR:

SINCE I'd had such a positive experience with them the first time I was in London, I figured - - what the heck - - go on them again. EVEN THOUGH Marriott was pushing (no wait, CRAMMING) "The Original Bus Tour" down my throat. "No, no..." I said, "I'll be using these guys..."  So and then there were three...  Steve went back to Boulder, Catherine went back to San Jose, and Lisa went back to I'm not sure where, but it wasn't London.  Donna, Ron and I were up at the crack of dawn (for us) -- roughly 7:15 a.m. and after our gigantic breakfast and take-out, we hopped on the Marble Arch stop and hopped on.

The weather here was FREEZING, very different climate from Amsterdam which was rainy, sure, but fairly mild. London was downright COLD. I could see my breath all day (and yes...I brushed). So being the nitwits we are, we hopped on and headed straight for the roof so we could feel that chilly breeze in our faces all the way to St. Paul's Cathedral.

I've done the tour before, but Donna and Ron hadn't so we wandered in and -- of course -- walked the 530 steps to the top so we could see a fabulous view of the smog of London. Ha! Kidding. It wasn't that bad. (Ok, yes it was, but I didn't want to hurt any Londoners feelings)  We tromped back down again, proud of ourselves, that we survived the climb.

Oh! At some point in there I got yelled at by some French Nurse Ratchet type lady who didn't like me crawling on the bench at the Whispering Wall so I could talk into the holes. Hmph. Not my fault I'm short. It's not like I tumbled over the railing...

In her sharp French and oh-so snotty accent she instructed Donna the CORRECT way to use the wall. You just have to press your head to the wall, you don't necessarily NEED to scream into the little holes that you find all around it. (Who knew?)

LONDON DUNGEON:

Well this place was a gas, after we hopped on the bus and off again - - you can do that with these tickets for 24 hours -- we jumped off at the Dungeon.   It had changed a bit since last year. They added a whole Fire of 1666 theme and this funky bridge you walk through and the sides rotate and strobe around you. It kind of reminded me of the ice cave from the attraction at Universal Studios...you know the one. The Bionic Man ice cave! Am I dating myself? Eek.

Anyway, I was staggering back and forth feeling woozy until I got through it, but it was FUN!  This dungeon displayed all the creepy torture devices including the Brantz Bridle that husbands would put on their chatty or gossipy wives. It had two eye holes, a nose hold, and a round "O" mouth where a cornet shaped tube could be attached to, presumably, pour soup or water. Now that just plain SUCKS, if you ask me. They also had the thumb screws and the tongue puller if you like that sort of thing and the, oh, chastity belt very popular with Knights for their wives. Poor wives, no wonder they got so friendly with local locksmiths.

Onwards and upwards, we bought a sweatshirt and off we went.

ABSOLUTELY STARVING:

No, I wasn't. That was the name of the market/cafe/sandwich shop we wandered into. We bought some lunch and some chocolate and waited for our bus. As usual, it was FREEZING.

TOWER OF LONDON:

This was a brief tour, since it was getting late and we were running out of time, but our Yeoman Warder looked like - - I'm not kidding -- Sylvester Stallone. It was HILARIOUS. I didn't even mind that he spit a few times while he talked. He seemed taller than Sly, though. (Hey, Tara, I saw our tour guide on the way out! It was cool!)  They were actually doing some cleaning of the sides of the Tower so it wasn't fully visible but I'd seen it before. One spot we wandered through which I didn't see the first time was the prisons where Lady Jane Grey was imprisoned for a few days before her execution. There were countless carvings/inscriptions on the wall and you could get a binder explaining who carved, what they meant, and why they were imprisoned.  We waved to the ravens and wandered out to the gift shop.

BIAGI'S:

This is an Italian Restaurant just down the street from the hotel.   ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS food there. I had Gnocchi the first night and Tagliatori (or something) the next night. Who knows, maybe we'll head over there tonight, too. Really excellent food considering it was dirt cheap.

BATH:

Last year Tara and I took a tour to Stonehenge and I did again this year, but instead of going to Avebury/Glastonbury etc. we went to Bath, which is a hop skip and a jump from Bristol.  Bath was really neat city and we visited the Bath House Museum or whatever it's called. It has a natural heated spring that's roughly 40 degrees Celsius or something like that. Apparently it was very popular with the Romans and they had tons of separate rooms for bathing. Now, however, it's pretty grungy with age and the water is a charming shade of green.  BUT the museum is really fascinating.

STONEHENGE:

Stonehenge was really neat and we took a zillion pictures. It was a really REALLY foggy day so it kind of added to the mystical feel of the place.   I'll be posting those pics on my website when I get back. You'll love 'em.  A quick hot chocolate and trip to the shop later and we were off in the bus again.

BROWN'S RESTAURANT:

This was the restaurant we visited while in Bath. FANTASTIC food but we really did have to wait a while for our food. I had Scotch Sirloin with potatoes, cauliflower, and (yum!) Yorkshire pudding so it was worth the wait. Not too terribly expensive either. Really good food, but not as good as that Inn I went to last year in Glastonbury (or Avebury) I think. I have yet to repeat the excellence in dining of that little out-of-the-way place.

THE SIXTH DAY:

Ron and I had some time so we wandered down Edgeware Road to the Odeon theatre just before Oxford Street. We watched "The Sixth Day" with Arnold Schwarzenegger. It was ok. Some dork stood in the theatre while we were trying to watch the beginning of the movie. AND...get this...the movie was slated for 8:50 p.m. and people were STILL WALKING in...by the truckloads...at 9:20 p.m. The movie hadn't yet even STARTED! I could NOT figure that out.  BUT...get this: they actually assign SEATING at this movie theatre. If you buy your tickets early enough you are guaranteed a great seat. How cool is that!? They have to do that in the States and Canada. That's just too cool!

Oh! Almost forgot. I'm watching the movie and thinking, "Hmm....this place looks familiar." WELL IT SHOULD! It was filmed in Vancouver! I saw Howe Street and everything. The movie, by the way, was reasonably ok. Not great, but ok.

Well...it's getting late and I have to get up at 4:40 a.m. tomorrow so we can do the flight thing so I'm going to sign off here.  I hope everyone's doing well and having a great December.

As promised, I'll be sure to post a BUNCH of pics on my website to give you guys a better idea of the trip. It was fabulous, but altogether way too short.

Coming Soon:

Carnival Cruise to Cozumel, Carmen del Playa, and New Orleans. (Mid-May)

Until then...

Take care all!

Love Melissa