Abigail and I had gone to Reno to pick Katie up from her London adventures!
The few days after that had been skiing, lounging around, wrapping presents and hanging out with family. Christmas eve was at Gigi's house mom, dad, us kids and jim.... the whole gang! Christmas morning we (the gang) went skiing together. Found Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynda and went tubing! We had somehow lost dad along the way but we soon found him on our way back to the car... evidently he had pushed some guy down in the lift line because he was skiing recklessly. But we hadn't seen the whole thing so on the chair ride we were thinking that he had punched someone who had allegedly keyed his car the day before. We were wrong. Abigail fell over twice, Katie got taken out by a snowboarder, I had a yucky cold, and nothing happened to Hugh. We opened presents and had delicious quiche. Analisa took her 3 kids to Piedmont Ca, to see her parents and brothers. She drove back that afternoon.
After the Christmas fiasco, I found a job at Heavenly (thanks to Uncle Mike and Aunt Lynda) and I now take surveys from customers for marketing purposes... We shall see how the minimum wage part time goes for me....
Tonight is new years and I have no idea what my plans are.
xoxo
Andrea
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Bay-Snow
After finals I need to get out of Tahoe. I chose the best day, after the biggest snow storm yet this year.
Well I had my biology final, went home and packed and the next morning I headed to the bay area. I had breakfast with Becca, lunch in Davis with Zanny and Elena, two friends since I was a youngin. I headed to Marin and stayed with my Boppa for the night, we went to Trader Jo's and the store in the morning and I then headed into the city. I had coffee with Mackenna and Ashley, two friends from high school and then stayed the night with Shannon, a close family friend who is in the San Francisco Ballet. After shopping the next day and stealing some amazing things (not literally, just great finds) I headed to Diablo to stay with the Moulthrops, some family friends. I stayed two nights and was about to head back to Tahoe but the weather kept me another day. Lunch with Analisa (stepmom) and her parents, brother and sister-in-law. Her father had beed 5 days post-op from a back surgery and was doing FANTASTIC!
The drive home was easier than I had thought too!
Now skiing, attempting to find a job, and expecting Katie and Hugh to come home!!!
Well I had my biology final, went home and packed and the next morning I headed to the bay area. I had breakfast with Becca, lunch in Davis with Zanny and Elena, two friends since I was a youngin. I headed to Marin and stayed with my Boppa for the night, we went to Trader Jo's and the store in the morning and I then headed into the city. I had coffee with Mackenna and Ashley, two friends from high school and then stayed the night with Shannon, a close family friend who is in the San Francisco Ballet. After shopping the next day and stealing some amazing things (not literally, just great finds) I headed to Diablo to stay with the Moulthrops, some family friends. I stayed two nights and was about to head back to Tahoe but the weather kept me another day. Lunch with Analisa (stepmom) and her parents, brother and sister-in-law. Her father had beed 5 days post-op from a back surgery and was doing FANTASTIC!
The drive home was easier than I had thought too!
Now skiing, attempting to find a job, and expecting Katie and Hugh to come home!!!
Sunday, December 13, 2009
London; part 2
SATURDAY we ventured over to porabello road and Abigail and I make a fabulous shopping pair! She got a crepe, we walked 'down' the road, looked at plenty of cute things, I kept trying to find a replacement puzzle ring for the one that my mom had given me, and I managed to lose it. But there was no success in that department. We did find a really cute store called Octopus and spent the majority of our money there. We also lost everyone else from the group, but went to another store called Accessorize and Abi got Christmas gifts for her friends.
Then we went back to the meeting place but no one was there, and we walked back down the street attempting to look for any signs of our family, who all managed to wear black, awesome. Then Abigail saw Katie and we said that we would meet back in the cupcake line in about 30ish minutes. The cupcakes, well not as good as Katie said they would be.
After dinner etc, I packed all of my things up and headed to bed.
MONDAY bright and early, (it was still dark) Zach and I went to catch a scheduled Taxi to take us to the train station, but it was pouring rain and we took a wrong turn to get to the cab stand, but ended up finding it! Zach and I said our goodbyes and I took a train to the airport, checked in, got coffee, went through security looked at the duty free items and only bought post cards, and spent ALL my pounds! so proud :)
The flight was not as comfortable as on the way back, due to the lack of sibling comfort :( Then I had to kill a few hours in the San Francisco air port because we didn't know how close to cut it with the timing of customs and the next flight. Well customs only took about 15 min and the 4 hours of waiting for my flight, so I slept for 3 hours of it on a bench. I later found out that Caitlin (I visited her in Oregon) had been in the SAME terminal at the SAME time, on her way back to school, but I failed to even think to call her, (I blame jet lag).
My dad picked me up at the fabulous Reno airport (my favorite airport in the world, no joke) along with Bill Brown, a family friend. My bag on the other had, went to Florida? Not sure, why or how that happened, but it got delivered to the house the next morning regardless. It did smell like cigarette smoke and the handle was broken but shit happens, no need to cry over spilt milk.
Here are the some of the black and white photos I took...
Then we went back to the meeting place but no one was there, and we walked back down the street attempting to look for any signs of our family, who all managed to wear black, awesome. Then Abigail saw Katie and we said that we would meet back in the cupcake line in about 30ish minutes. The cupcakes, well not as good as Katie said they would be.
After dinner etc, I packed all of my things up and headed to bed.
MONDAY bright and early, (it was still dark) Zach and I went to catch a scheduled Taxi to take us to the train station, but it was pouring rain and we took a wrong turn to get to the cab stand, but ended up finding it! Zach and I said our goodbyes and I took a train to the airport, checked in, got coffee, went through security looked at the duty free items and only bought post cards, and spent ALL my pounds! so proud :)
The flight was not as comfortable as on the way back, due to the lack of sibling comfort :( Then I had to kill a few hours in the San Francisco air port because we didn't know how close to cut it with the timing of customs and the next flight. Well customs only took about 15 min and the 4 hours of waiting for my flight, so I slept for 3 hours of it on a bench. I later found out that Caitlin (I visited her in Oregon) had been in the SAME terminal at the SAME time, on her way back to school, but I failed to even think to call her, (I blame jet lag).
My dad picked me up at the fabulous Reno airport (my favorite airport in the world, no joke) along with Bill Brown, a family friend. My bag on the other had, went to Florida? Not sure, why or how that happened, but it got delivered to the house the next morning regardless. It did smell like cigarette smoke and the handle was broken but shit happens, no need to cry over spilt milk.
Here are the some of the black and white photos I took...
Friday, December 4, 2009
London; part 1
OK first of all... London was super cool!!!
Kaite has already started her portion of blogging about our trip, so rather than saying basically the same thing about what we did and where we went, I will just add my own commentary...
SUNDAY the jet lag sucked! Hugh decided not to sleep on the plane so Abigail slept on the floor (between the chairs, where your feet are supposed to go, mad props) and I slept on Hugh. The apartment was really nice and we all bummed around for the rest of the night because we were pooped and I was so freaking excited about all the pies that England has, it is a problem. Abigail and I managed to stay up until 7:45.. I think Hugh went to bed around 9 or so?
MONDAY while Katie was in class, we went to Westminster Abbey, and it could have been one of my favorite places we visited. There was so much history within such a condensed area (considering how long it has been around) that I could have spend another hour in there reading all of the graves and memorials. We had lunch at another pub and more pies to go around :D Then we walked through part of St. James Park and saw the Buckingham Palace. Seeing as how it would get dark at 4:30 and most museums close at 5 and it is much too dark to do any sightseeing, we were about to head back to the apartment, when we saw the Queen's Gallery. It is located on the side of the palace and it contains art work, armor, furniture, cutlery and JEWELRY! which had all been in the Royal Family. The jewelry was the most impressive, in my opinion, however google wasn't helping me and therefor there is no picture to show my favorite diamond necklace on display...
Dinner was at a yummy at an italian restaurant near the apartment. Abi had a yummy desert, I think it looked like gonads covered in milk chocolate mouse, GROSS... the waiter was entertaining, but very hard to hear.
Sleeping over at Katie's was short-lived. I wanted to sleep all the way though the night and not wake up at 4am, so I took an ambian and tried to stay wake and talk while she was doing homework, needles to say I fell asleep mid sentence and started to drool and I fail to remember any of our conversation.
TUESDAY at the Tower of London, again I was the last one out because I was trying to read everything, so people were waiting for me at the exit. That is where the picture on Katie's blog was taken... they were waiting for me. We had lunch at St. Katherine's Dock and from all the walking around for a few hours we walked to the grocery store and then ordered a
turkey. Naps for all! Then we all headed out to greek food and Avenue Q which was so great! It was hilarious!
WEDNESDAY the bus tour sucked and it was so cold and miserable that I was so glad once we got off! Having to pay to use a restroom is stupid, especially when you don't have any money and are about to pee your pants! So not cool.
When Katie brought out her sandwich, we were ALL salivating, however Kaite's comment about how we never know when we are going to get food etc... well it depends, sometime its the ONLY priority or it isn't a priority AT ALL... no middle ground so its hard to tell. Then when Katie maneuvered us through non busy streets, she didn't mention they were the whore-house streets... and how Katie knew of these streets, we will never know...
I had heaps of fun watching everyone try and climb up, seeing all the other tourists there taking ridiculous pictures (us included) and the group of people dancing and being video taped. I also totally missed the statue that Katie was talking about but the video link is pretty cool, and after seeing it I wish I would have noticed what she had been talking about, or heard the conversation.
Now on to Covent Garden and the street performer, he made me laugh but only because he wasn't succeeding and I don't think it was on purpose. Poor fellow...
THURSDAY we went SHOPPING! But amazingly I didn't but anything but that may have to do with the fact that the pound is 1.67 to the US dollar... boo hoo And now I have to fill in this part of the day.
We left around 930 am, and took the bus and then the tube to Harrods, or the shopping area around it. And let me tell you that Harrods is HUGE! It takes up an entire block, the bottom floor is half food court, and when they say food court, don't think American shopping mall. Think elegant sit down dining of 6 different types, gourmet to the max! It was unbelievable.
Jim is not a fan of shopping so he did not join us or the Simmons for our shopping adventure and so he went to some museum instead. Then Zach and the gang went to the War Room Museum and then the Churchill museum. It was interesting but by that point in the week we were all burnt out by museums... but the coolest thing about the War Rooms, was that the day that WWII ended all the staff working there turned out the lights and it wasn't touched again until it was proposed to turn into a museum. So everything there was exactly as it was the day the war ended.
This is also Thanksgiving Day but Katie had class, as you could tell so Mat Simmons ordered Indian take-out. None of us ever had any Indian so it was an adventure, and we never had any idea what exactly we were eating... Great Adventure!
FRIDAY we took a long, long, longggg train ride to the complete opposite side of London to Hampton Court Palace. It was beautiful and magnificent, also quite cold but ho hum. We toured around the palace of how Henry the VIII lived and how the castle worked, with headphones and all! It was funny how many tours gave out head phones and a recording of what you are looking at. There was Westminster Abbey, Queen's Gallery, the tour bus War Rooms, Churchill, and Hampton Court. Impressive in my opinion.
On the train ride back I left everyone in the center of London for some alone time. I wandered along the edge of Hyde park and through random blocks of the city because I didn't really know where I was, and the streets do not run off of a grid system which was quite confusing. I went back into Harrods on my way home and purchased my Christmas present to myself, which was a fabulous wool overcoat, which I had seen the day before.
I came back to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, Robin was there along with our whole gang!
More coming up soon!
Kaite has already started her portion of blogging about our trip, so rather than saying basically the same thing about what we did and where we went, I will just add my own commentary...
SUNDAY the jet lag sucked! Hugh decided not to sleep on the plane so Abigail slept on the floor (between the chairs, where your feet are supposed to go, mad props) and I slept on Hugh. The apartment was really nice and we all bummed around for the rest of the night because we were pooped and I was so freaking excited about all the pies that England has, it is a problem. Abigail and I managed to stay up until 7:45.. I think Hugh went to bed around 9 or so?
MONDAY while Katie was in class, we went to Westminster Abbey, and it could have been one of my favorite places we visited. There was so much history within such a condensed area (considering how long it has been around) that I could have spend another hour in there reading all of the graves and memorials. We had lunch at another pub and more pies to go around :D Then we walked through part of St. James Park and saw the Buckingham Palace. Seeing as how it would get dark at 4:30 and most museums close at 5 and it is much too dark to do any sightseeing, we were about to head back to the apartment, when we saw the Queen's Gallery. It is located on the side of the palace and it contains art work, armor, furniture, cutlery and JEWELRY! which had all been in the Royal Family. The jewelry was the most impressive, in my opinion, however google wasn't helping me and therefor there is no picture to show my favorite diamond necklace on display...
Dinner was at a yummy at an italian restaurant near the apartment. Abi had a yummy desert, I think it looked like gonads covered in milk chocolate mouse, GROSS... the waiter was entertaining, but very hard to hear.
Sleeping over at Katie's was short-lived. I wanted to sleep all the way though the night and not wake up at 4am, so I took an ambian and tried to stay wake and talk while she was doing homework, needles to say I fell asleep mid sentence and started to drool and I fail to remember any of our conversation.
TUESDAY at the Tower of London, again I was the last one out because I was trying to read everything, so people were waiting for me at the exit. That is where the picture on Katie's blog was taken... they were waiting for me. We had lunch at St. Katherine's Dock and from all the walking around for a few hours we walked to the grocery store and then ordered a
turkey. Naps for all! Then we all headed out to greek food and Avenue Q which was so great! It was hilarious!
WEDNESDAY the bus tour sucked and it was so cold and miserable that I was so glad once we got off! Having to pay to use a restroom is stupid, especially when you don't have any money and are about to pee your pants! So not cool.
When Katie brought out her sandwich, we were ALL salivating, however Kaite's comment about how we never know when we are going to get food etc... well it depends, sometime its the ONLY priority or it isn't a priority AT ALL... no middle ground so its hard to tell. Then when Katie maneuvered us through non busy streets, she didn't mention they were the whore-house streets... and how Katie knew of these streets, we will never know...
I had heaps of fun watching everyone try and climb up, seeing all the other tourists there taking ridiculous pictures (us included) and the group of people dancing and being video taped. I also totally missed the statue that Katie was talking about but the video link is pretty cool, and after seeing it I wish I would have noticed what she had been talking about, or heard the conversation.
Now on to Covent Garden and the street performer, he made me laugh but only because he wasn't succeeding and I don't think it was on purpose. Poor fellow...
THURSDAY we went SHOPPING! But amazingly I didn't but anything but that may have to do with the fact that the pound is 1.67 to the US dollar... boo hoo And now I have to fill in this part of the day.
We left around 930 am, and took the bus and then the tube to Harrods, or the shopping area around it. And let me tell you that Harrods is HUGE! It takes up an entire block, the bottom floor is half food court, and when they say food court, don't think American shopping mall. Think elegant sit down dining of 6 different types, gourmet to the max! It was unbelievable.
Jim is not a fan of shopping so he did not join us or the Simmons for our shopping adventure and so he went to some museum instead. Then Zach and the gang went to the War Room Museum and then the Churchill museum. It was interesting but by that point in the week we were all burnt out by museums... but the coolest thing about the War Rooms, was that the day that WWII ended all the staff working there turned out the lights and it wasn't touched again until it was proposed to turn into a museum. So everything there was exactly as it was the day the war ended.
This is also Thanksgiving Day but Katie had class, as you could tell so Mat Simmons ordered Indian take-out. None of us ever had any Indian so it was an adventure, and we never had any idea what exactly we were eating... Great Adventure!
FRIDAY we took a long, long, longggg train ride to the complete opposite side of London to Hampton Court Palace. It was beautiful and magnificent, also quite cold but ho hum. We toured around the palace of how Henry the VIII lived and how the castle worked, with headphones and all! It was funny how many tours gave out head phones and a recording of what you are looking at. There was Westminster Abbey, Queen's Gallery, the tour bus War Rooms, Churchill, and Hampton Court. Impressive in my opinion.
On the train ride back I left everyone in the center of London for some alone time. I wandered along the edge of Hyde park and through random blocks of the city because I didn't really know where I was, and the streets do not run off of a grid system which was quite confusing. I went back into Harrods on my way home and purchased my Christmas present to myself, which was a fabulous wool overcoat, which I had seen the day before.
I came back to a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, Robin was there along with our whole gang!
More coming up soon!
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