Favorite Band Almost EVER!!

So last night, we made the trek down to Atlanta to see one of my favorite bands, The New Pornographers.  Let me just say that was one of the most amazing live shows I have ever been to!!!  And I've been to a LOT!  They played a great variety of songs from all of their albums.  The end of the set was The Bleeding Heart Show, which gave me chill bumps and nearly moved me to tears.

I don't think there is anything better than amazing music.  :)

Ugh...

I have my moments.  I have really good weeks sometimes for so long that I forget what it is like to have a bad week, and then sometimes I just have a few bad days that compound upon each other.

For whatever reason, sleep has not been easy for me.  I have been SO tired, but I will fall asleep for about 30 minutes or an hour, wake up, and then not be able to return to sleep for a few more hours if at all!!

The last time felt this way is when I was stressed and worried about my sister, so I know stress is the underlying cause.

Anyway...  I hope it gets better soon.  Lack of sleep becomes depression for me.  I'm hoping that I can catch up a bit this weekend.

I'm crazy..

I know it sounds crazy, but my heart still races when I start thinking about that storm on Saturday!  I wish I hadn't gotten scared, but you know.... it happens!  Lightning everywhere, a tree snapping.. I'm not going to be too hard on myself.  Plus, the rain blowing in the doorway was crazy! 

One of my favorite days ever.... :)

WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!!!

Amazing day, everyone!!!  I can't explain enough how awesome the storm was that just blew through here!  I was at the grocery store and I had an email that said an MD was issued for our area.  As soon as the groceries were put away, then I heard thunder and saw it was growing very dark to the NW of me.

Again.. another shelf cloud that didn't translate into pictures.  The rain started pouring down and I headed to a butter place to video the storm.  The lightning was insane!  So instead of standing outside, I stood in the doorway!  Anyway.. No reason to keep talking.. here's the video! 

Disclaimer:  I'm REALLY excited!  And I do get scared at one point, because I heard a tree snap!

Interruption!!

I'm going to interrupt my travel stories with news of the THIRD chase that occurred yesterday afternoon!!!  It was an epic technology fail for me though!  When the severe storms crossed over into Catoosa county, it was REALLY windy.  In Walker County, golf ball sized hail had been reported!  I was ecstatic!  The wind was crazy, and I was filming.  Small limbs flew around, and then I looked at my camera and I forgot to hit record.  :( 

So then I came back inside and loaded up GRL3.  I noticed a slight kidney bean shape to the storm just to the north around Ooltewah, TN and suddenly a TVS appeared for just a minute!  I checked out and there was some very weak rotation!  I couldn't find my flip flops, so that cost me a little time.  I hopped in the car with my cameras and hit the road.  I drove as quick as I could toward where the little amount of rotation was occurring, not really anticipating seeing anything too much but it was still fun!!

I realized about half way to my storm that I had very little gas, and by that point the storm had weakened a bit and would have been much more difficult to reach.  So once again I retain my title as Jenny the Rain Shower Chaser.

Oh well.. it was all in good fun!  I'm hoping to see a few more of those kinds of storms today.  It is the only positive thing about summer in the South!!

Day 4--Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor

I'd like to apologize, because blogging has become increasingly difficult for me.  I am loving my job, but it is getting harder and harder for me to come home and sit in front of a computer screen!!!

Anyway...  Day 4, we got up early and made our way to Victoria Station to catch the bus to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath.  Riding the tube....  That is an experience.  We rode the Metro in Washington DC and Marta in Atlanta.  The Metro could be stressful, but the Tube was very stressful during rush hour!  Lot's of running and trying to get out of everyone's way!  Poor Stacey.  He was feeling so terrible at this point.

We made it to the bus station and waited patiently for our tour bus to arrive.  Our first stop was Windsor Castle, the weekend home for the Queen.  We kept missing the Queen.  When we were at Buckingham Palace, she was at Windsor.  When we were at Windsor, she was somewhere else preparing for the Derby that was going to be held that weekend.  Windsor Castle was gorgeous.  Too bad, you can't take any pictures inside these places.  I was much more impressed with it than I was with Buckingham.  Henry the VIII built the castle and he was also buried there.  I got chill bumps as I stood beside his grave, where he was buried with Jane Seymour who was his favorite wife since she provided his only male child.  Here's a picture of Windsor Castle:

Changing of the guard at Windsor Castle:

The little town of Windsor was really neat, too.  So quaint.  One thing we learned from this trip is that getting OUT of London is a must!!!  We would have taken more trips outside the city if we would have realized this!! 

We were now on the road to Bath.  I am a Literature nerd.  I've read the Canterbury Tales, as well as TONS of historical fiction.  I know all about Bath!  It used to be a summer place for the gentry and it is also home to the Roman baths, discovered by the Romans over a thousand (!!!!!) years ago!  So many of these places are so hard to explain...  You just have to SEE it!  Bath was filled with street performers of all kinds.  I absolutely loved this place.  It's one of those places that I could see myself living.  I felt a very strong connection to this city.  After our tour of the Roman baths and walking around the city, we sat down and enjoyed the comedy of a street performer who was also a magician!  He was so funny!  :)

The Abbey in Bath:

 

Stonehenge....  Our tour guide got it all wrong on this one.  He said, basically it was just a pile of rocks so we wouldn't be staying for more than 30 minutes.  When we got to Stonehenge, I was completely moved. It is something to see, really.  I wouldn't trade our experience there for the entire world!!!  It was much more than a pile of rocks to me and Stacey.  Stacey had done an extensive research project on Stonehenge, so he was able to give me a lot of insight.  We took tons of pictures.  These are my favorites:

London Day 3.. The Sickness Intensifies!

Poor Stacey...  We both weren't feeling great by the end of Day 2, but I got a good night sleep and felt much better on Day 3.  When Stacey got up... it was really bad.  He had a full on sinus infection complete with tons of coughing.  By the time we made it to Edinburgh, he couldn't walk to far without stopping and coughing.

So this day was an easy day.  Not to mention, it was raining very hard, and we were dumb enough to forget our umbrellas!  We took it easy for awhile, found a Starbuck's and ate a cheap gross sandwich.  Then, we hopped on the tube and headed toward Trafalgar Square to take some photos to see how long Stacey could handle it.  We knew that the next day was Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle, so I wanted Stacey to feel good for that.

Interesting nerdy note, the UK has a LOT different drugs approved for OTC use.  There were NO nighttime cough and cold formulas!  Very odd.  The rules are different everywhere.  I don't know if you had to get a prescription for them or ask specially for them, but anyway.. enough of my boring rambling!  haha

We hung out in Trafalgar Square for quite a bit and took pics.  Then we headed into the museum in the square, where they had TONS of Rembrandt stuff!  I LOVED IT!!!

After the museum, we just kind of wandered around and headed up to Piccadilly Circus.  We had a good laugh, because of the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum.  Seriously?  In London?  We were surprised that there wasn't that much different between Gatlinburg and London!  HA!

Day 2-London Marathon Tour

Well, our time in London was limited.  Since we had other places we wanted to visit, we technically only had three days in London.  We made the decision to do a full day tour of London, and, if there were any sights we wanted to go back to, we would make notes and head back to them on one of our free days.

We boarded the bus at Victoria Station at 8am and didn't get back until 5pm.  We saw EVERYTHING!  Stacey and I dubbed it the marathon tour.  It was really intense!  We began our day at the Tower of London!!!!  So exciting! I'm a lover of historical novels, and I have read so many books the ended or began in the Tower!  I love stories about Henry the VIII.

We had our own tour lead by a Beefeater (or Yeoman Warder).  Tower of London was a powerful place.  There is something about being somewhere that you have spent a good part of your life reading about! 

After the Tower of London, we took a tour of the Thames on a boat.  I had read the best views of Big Ben and Parliament are from the river.  That was so true!!!

We then headed over to Buckingham Palace and to Covent Garden to eat lunch!  We had  lunch in an Italian cafe and discovered it was rude to ask for your check.  We had no idea, but they were really put off with the fact that we were in a hurry.  Someone needs to write a book of rules for traveling to foreign countries!  This was the second time we had to do this, and after the second time we realized this was a huge faux pas!  Americans eat too fast, I suppose! 

We hopped back on the bus, and headed over to Saint Paul's Cathedral!  Many people are buried here!  Honestly, I was planning on journaling the entire trip, and I didn't!  NOW I WISH I HAD!  It's so easy to do, but you forget stuff so fast!  Especially when you are ADD like me! 

So my recommendation for anyone out there is to JOURNAL every detail if you want to remember everything about your trip!!!

We were exhausted by the time the bus dropped us off at the London Eye.  Stacey's illness was beginning to really ramp up, and the line for the Eye was really long.  We decided to skip it.  We wandered around the area for a bit before hopping the Tube back home.

More to come...  ;)

London Vacation-May 29-June 5 2010

Well, it's good to be back in the good ole USA!!!  I loved every minute of our UK vacation, minus the STUPID plane trips and going through customs!  Ugh.. Flying...  Didn't it used to be glamorous or fun?  Now, it is horribly uncomfortable, rude, noisy... shall I go on?

Regardless of our traveling chaos, we had an absolute blast!  :D  I can't say enough about London.  I can't put it into words!  If you love history, architecture, art, please go.  It is incredibly worth it!  Even if we are horribly jet lagged and broke!

I am going to break up my blog posts into days.  I hope I don't bore everyone to tears with my stories, but it's the only way to do it justice!

Let's start with May 29-30 2010, since that was pretty much just one day.

We left Chattanooga for Atlanta around noon on the shuttle bus.  Note to self:  Next time pay the extra money for a flight out of Chattanooga.  More on that to come later.

We arrived at the Atlanta airport, and I noticed there were some storms around.  I hate flying.. You have to understand.  I have done a great deal of flying in my life and every time I think I am not scared or used to it, well... I'm wrong!  You guys KNOW I love storms, but not when I'm in the air.  So we headed to the bar.  I had a few beers and felt better until we got the tab!  $6 for a beer!!!!  Are you kidding me??  Oh and we also saw Justin Bieber in airport security.  If you don't know who he is, then really... it doesn't matter, but we saw him anway!  Anyway, we boarded the plane, and Stacey took some fun shots of the clouds, including this little fun anvil!!

So, many hours of flying and crying babies later, we arrive in Heathrow.  Of course, something dumb has to happen to Stacey and I on every vacation.  Those two dumb things were our airport transfer not arriving and Stacey being deathly ill for most of the trip.  We caught a cab to our hotel, and took a quick nap.  We then headed out to explore our neighborhood, Maida Vale.  Our hotel was in a residential area located just outside of central London.  It took us about 10 minutes to reach downtown by the tube.  A couple of blocks down from our hotel was Abbey Road Studios and Abbey Road.  I am a HUGE Beatles fan!!!  On our way to Abbey Road, we encountered the first of MANY churches that would just blow me away!

Gorgeous churches EVERYWHERE!!!!  Anyway, we were off to Abbey Road.  When we got there, we got a good laugh watching people trying to get "the picture" without getting killed!!  That provided TONS of entertainment!  Here is the REAL LIVE Abbey Road!! 

More to follow tomorrow!  :D