Friday, May 14, 2010

February

February found us busy as usual. We were able to enjoy some special guest who came to visit for a couple of weeks. Owen's mom and his Aunt Janice came to visit. Now since they had been here before we decided to do something a little bit different. They arrived on Thursday and did some sightseeing in London and then rode the train up to our place. The next day Owen took them to Lincoln and Boston ( a couple villages north of us). They had a great time trying to look up the Walker history. Saturday we drove to Ely and caught the train to London bright and early. We were heading to Paris for the weekend. It was a great trip. Janice was the only one who had been there and she was a great tour guide for us the whole trip. We saw some pretty wonderful sights. We were so glad they came to visit.
This is a random picture but when we saw it we couldn't help but wonder what the story was behind it. (lol)

Notre Dame Cathedral at Night

Arc de Triomphe
Louvre

view of the Eiffel Tower from Arc de Triomphe

Owen and his Mom in front of the Eiffel Tower

Owen and I with the Eiffel Tower

March

March came and went way to fast. Owen was stuck in the office at work quite a bit so he didn't get to fly as much as he would have liked. The first part of the month, the base sponsored a "Legends of Aerospace" visit. With that visit came Neil Armstrong first man to walk on the moon, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, the last man to step foot on the moon Gene Cernan, SR-71 Blackbird chief test pilot Bob Gilliland, and the first and only US Air Force pilot ace Steve Ritchie. It was an exciting night. We got to sit and listen to each one of them tell their stories. what an amazing group of men.

Later that month, we had some more wonderful people come and visit us for a few days. My sister's Shayla and Stephanie and her friend Derek were able to get away from work and school and come see life in England. We had a great time showing them all the different things around our area and London. I was so happy to have them come but really sad to see them leave.
(miss you girls).

Later in the month, Owen and I did a high ropes course with a couple of our friends, Joe and Erin. I never ever thought I would be doing something like this. I am glad I have done it but was pretty scared the whole way through. It was fun though I am not sure if I want to do it again.

Owen at a motor cycle training course
(can you tell it was mustache march)
At the training
Stephanie, Shayla, and I at Orford Castle
Oxburgh Hall- a mansion with a mote
Us in front of Oxburgh Hall
Shayla, Derek, and Stephanie at Oxburgh Hall

London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard
London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard
London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard
London- Buckingham Palace
Changing of the Guard- Band
Stephanie and Shayla eating soft serve ice cream in Ely
Shayla and I in Ely
Legends of Aerospace (l-r)
Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, Gene Cernan, Steve Ritchie, Bob GillilandGO APE- Ropes Course
Joe, Erin, Owen, and I
Owen and Erin on the bottom, I on the top
Owen trying to walk across the net.
I walking on one of the courses. This one wasn't too bad
Here are a couple of videos from Go Ape. I hope they work for you and you can enjoy a good laugh.

April

April found us doing some more traveling. A friend and her little girl and I decided to take a car ride and drive to Amsterdam, Holland for the weekend (7 hrs). We drove from our place to Dover (on the coast) and boarded the ferry to France. From there we drove all the way back up the coast line to Amsterdam. It was a great adventure as neither her or I had been there let alone drive. We toured Keukenhof Gardens- world famous gardens, full of lots and lots of tulips plus other types of flower. We took a bus tour of Amsterdam and also visited Anne Frank's house. The whole trip was amazing. We had beautiful weather the whole time and had a blast together. Thanks Melissa and Elaina for dragging me along. I will never forget this trip.

The following week/weekend was spring break for me at school, so Owen and I packed up the motorcycle and rode down to Stonehenge, Bath, and Cheddar. This was our first time riding together on a long trip. It was about 3 hours down there. The ride went pretty smooth and was actually more comfortable than I had expected. The weather was perfect. Sunny and semi-warm the whole weekend. We saw Stonehenge for a few minutes, that was about all you really needed unless you wanted a whole history lesson on it. Then we drove on down to Cheddar. Cheddar is a little village placed in a gorge. We got there a little later than we wanted to but were able to tour one of the caves there. We also bought some cheddar cheese made only in Cheddar. After leaving there we headed to the city of Bath. We had reserved a room in an old court house just outside of Bath. They had turned it into a B&B. Each room was unique. We didn't stay in these but they had taken the jail cells and converted them into guest rooms. They were very interesting. The court room itself was turned into a grand dinning room/living room. We had a wonderful time there. That night we had dinner aboard an old train. It was a cool experience with great food. The next day we headed into Bath. There we joined a walking tour of the city. It was very informative. We saw the Roman Baths and the chapel. We really enjoyed this little city. That evening we treated ourselves to a 3 hour spa session in the Thermal Spa. It was a great place to relax. They had a room with 4 different saunas and each sauna had a different aroma coming out of it. They had a roof top pool and a pool in on the lower floor. We also were served dinner there. It was wonderful relaxing trip. Plus the scenery made it worth the whole trip. It is such a beautiful area.

On the ferry heading to France
An old windmill in Holland
The oldest windmill in Amsterdam
Anne Frank's house- Amsterdam
I thought these were rather interesting.
Urinals in the middle of townKeukenhof Gardens- Holland
Keukenhof Gardens- Holland
Keukenhof Gardens- Holland
Keukenhof Gardens- Holland
Keukenhof Gardens- Holland
These tulips came up past my waist!!
Bike trip to Bath
This is where we had supper our first night
on the train for supper
The Court room of our B&B
One of the jail cell rooms
The river in Bath
The Roman Baths
Inside the Roman Baths
A view from the Spa- we weren't allowed to take any pictures of /at the spa but I was able to get this one before we left. The roof top pool had a great view of the city.This is the Jane Austin Museum Cheddar Gorge
Village of Cheddar
More of Cheddar and the gorge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Stonehenge
Oh and for our exciting news. We found out this month we are moving to Fairchild AFB, Washington. It is located in Spokane, Washington, close to the Idaho boarder. We are pretty excited to be moving back to the states. We are set to move the end of August. We will really miss England and all our great friends but can't wait to be closer to family. So if you are still wanting to visit you better get over here soon as we will be packing out our things sometime late July/August.