12 août 2009

We've been giving ourselves one very nice luxury these past few days: sleep :-) We slept until 11 and then headed to Westminster and the Houses of Parliament. We easily spent 4 hours in Westminster. It was like nothing I'd ever seen. My favorite room in the Abbey was the Lady Chapel - it's awesome. Its high ceilings and stain glass windows are beautiful. It has two rows of wooden seats on each side of the chapel where Knights of the Order of the Bath sat and still sit to this day when others are being granted knighthood. There was a very nice robed man in the Chapel that spent a good deal of time answering all of mine and Leah's questions - we learned a lot. I loved seeing Poet's Corner. We saw the graves and memorials for practically everyone we studied in Dr. Quinn's Eng 226 - Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Lord Byron, Shakespeare, and my favorite, Tennyson. We walked to the London Eye, but decided against the long queue. Next, it was to the Tate Modern, thinking I would prefer the impressionism of the National Gallery. I surprised myself and really enjoyed the modern art. Leah and I walked out into a huge thunderstorn, got soaked, passed Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and then headed to Covent Garden for dinner and the rest of the night.

I'm such an amazing time already - I can't wait for the next few weeks. Everything seems just right, just how it should be - I don't think I should be anywhere but right here, right now. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks ago I was in Mentone, AL at Desoto. I can't imagine spending the month before this adventure in a more special place than Desoto. There is nothing that some Phil and Marsha Hurt, little girls, and the mountains can't prepare you for.