After a lovely breakfast, we started my big day at the Musee D' Orsay where we spent hours being in awe of such artists as Degas, Monet, Van Gough... I had a list going with my favorite works and artists whose names are not quite so famous, but we accicentally lost it in a fight with the escalator.

After at least 5 weeks of rain and clouds in London, I didn't even think to pack my sunglasses.   But I will take squinting over clouds almost any day.  

We walked past the Louvre, and promised to come back another trip when we have more time.  Enjoyed some sun and a lovely view by the Les Tuileries Gardens. 

We saw Joan of Arc at least three times.  First at this road crossing, next in the Notre Dame and at the Pantheon (where I was so busy relaxing in the still, cool air that I didn't take pictures).  She's kind of a big deal...and I adore her.

One of the most enjoyable things we did was just to walk along the river Seine.  You can see Notre Dame in the background in the middle of a cluster of lovely buildings.  Tac was an amazing tour guide, that boy knows his way around Paris!  We only lost our way once, and how bad can "the long way" be when you are hanging out with Tac, eating yummy treats and seeing the city?

On this street we got gyros and I learned to appreciate the spinning cone of meat.

We so enjoyed a little trip to the Shakespeare and Company bookstore, very glad that Tac led me in here.  And we bought some books.   I got "The Poems" by John Keats, so I don't have to search through my old college textbooks to read them anymore (although the notes I have written in the margins of some of them; especially Dr. Boyer's classes, are priceless).  Tac got another book by William Golding, since Lord of the Flies is one of his personal favorites. 

And finally the birthday dessert was very chocolately and so yummy.  I even amazed Tac with how much chocolate I can eat, and he has seen me eat it before.  But I felt obligated to all that is true and good about being the birthday girl to eat as much of it as I wanted.

 

 

 

 

Trains are fun for friends.  You don't have to wear a pesky seatbelt and you can sit at a table and just be silly together.  

Walking around Edinburgh is amazing.

We visited the Castle, and my dad got some decorating ideas for his house.

The boys and I went for a small hike outside the city.

 

 

 

 

 

Castle Tantallon is a mid- fourteenth century fortress that guards the Firth of Forth.  It was sieged a lot, hence why it is a ruin.  To date it is my favorite castle.  It was almost empty, full of sunshine and views over the cliffs of the gorgeous North Sea. 

A room with a view.

 

We climbed up so high on those walls, it made me feel a little sick when I leaned over the edge to get a picture of the inside.  It was also a wonderful place to see the Scottish countryside.

We serioulsy lucked out with the weather in Scotland!  It was really cold, but not raining.  We took a train from Edinburgh to North Berwick early Saturday morning to catch our boat to Bass Rock.  It was pure bliss to breathe in the salty sea air, and we were excited for our boat.  Then the SeaBird Centre cancelled our boat because the wind was too strong and the sea was very rough.  The only option was to take the Seafari ride on a fast pontoon kind of boat (I don't know what it really was, I just know we had to hold on and stay sitting and you couldn't ride if you were pregnant, had back problems or were under 8.  Seth is so big they let him on anyway). 

We got to put on some water proof gear over our clothes, and that was our first clue this was going to be kind of a wild ride.  The swells were really big, and we went really fast over them with water splashing into our faces and all over us.  I got so much salt water in my mouth because I could'nt keep my mouth shut from laughing and smiling.  I had so much fun.  Seth and Zave were up front, and they did a good job hanging on.  Behind me, where I did not see Emma and her Grandpa were standing up...so against the rules.

Bass Rock is the largest single rock colony of Gannetts in the world.  It was recently featured in Earth Flight, the super cool documentary narrated by David Tennant.  They make the rock look white from far away because there are so many thousands of them.  It was beautiful.  We also saw seals, cormorants, puffins and razorbills. 

From the ocean we could see the ruins of castle Tantallon. 

 

We took a little train to Greenwich, and "kept our eyes on the ball" as it dropped to see if our watched were accurate.  That is actually where the saying comes from: a large red ball that drops from the top of the observitory every day at 1:00 pm.  The sailors on the Thames had to keep their eyes on the ball, or they wouldnt be able to use their equiptment properly.  

Here we are standing right over the Prime Meridian.

There were so many places to explore here.  The kids played around in the columns and jumped into the grass, while workers busily prepared for the olympics.  This is a picture of them setting up for a horse jumping event.  We explored a palace, and had lots of fun on the spiral staircase and patterned floors.

From inside this cool church we watched while the movie Les Miserables was filmed.  We also watched outside, it was really fun.  There were mobs, guns firing, soldiers on horses, eveyone was in amazing costumes.  At one point they went running right past us.

OK, I really took a lot of pictures here.  So here are even more....

We played, we climbed, we walked.  And afterwards, we found the remains of a St. James church.  Then, after eating some fresh,hot donuts we went in a used bookstore and found lots of fun treasures.  Emma got her first Agatha Christie book.  She was featured on an episode of Dr. Who and that made her cool factor rise astronomically.   

I have been wanting to visit Dover since we got here.  Finally, my big day came and it was not the glorious sunny day I had imagined.  But, it wasn't raining (much) so we counted ourselves lucky and zipped our coats up tight.

The boys got to take a class on being a jester, Seth volunteered to blow the horn to get the class started.  He also won the best silly snoring contest. 

Dover Castle is HUGE!  We found passages and stairways to climb abundantly. From the top of the Great Tower we could see France over the ocean.  And we had a great view of the famous White Cliffs.  The boys found pieces of it and were drawing on the sidewalks while we waited in line to go in the secret WWII war tunnels. 

 

There is so much love for the Beatles here!  At any given time while there is sunlight enough you will find a crowd of people waiting for the traffic to clear long enough to get their pictures taken walking across Abbey Road right next to the Abbey Road Studios where the Beatles recorded their music. 

"Thank you all for coming, and I hope we passed the audition"

We were thinking of you Aunt Cheri!

What better thing to do on a lovely sunny day, than go to Hampstead Heath and hunt for Easter Eggs?  We were so glad it was sunny and somewhat warm so that my Dad could experience the Heath in all of its wonder. 

See below as they hunted and tried to figure out what the scrambled letters meant, so we could claim our chocolate bunnies.