A whirlwind week in England

After a whirlwind week in England, Debbie and I are ready to hop on a plane tomorrow night and sleep all the way to Africa (all 10 hours, mind you...) - I'm quite serious, we've accomplished a lot in our 6 days! Perhaps our biggest accomplishment was making it from the airport to our lodging by way of the London underground with four 50+ pound suitcases and two heavy backpacks. This was no easy feat! But we made it - and I'm not allowing myself to dread the return trip... Anyway, once we recovered from our arduous journey, we started off our week of sightseeing with an afternoon trip to Essex to see Waltham Abbey and Queen Elizabeth's Hunting Lodge, returning to our wonderful friends' house (the Hambletons, Debbie's friends for more than 30 years) just in time for a real English meal of fish and chips. The next day, there was no time to adjust to the time change, for we had a bus to Oxford to catch! We spent the day wandering around the "City of 1000 Spires," which is very true to its name. It was lovely. I believe the highlight of our day was eating lunch at "The Eagle and Child," which is the pub that CS Lewis, JRR Tolkien, and their friends met at to discuss their books in progress - like "The Chronicles of Narnia!" The following day, we took a 7 hour bus ride to Lancaster, in the Lake District of England. We stayed with Debbie's dear friends, George and Stella, for two nights and they showed us a wonderful time. Stella cooked us loads of wonderful meals and George drove us all around the area, most notably taking us to Capernwray Hall, a Bible school where nearly Josh's entire family has studied at one time or another. It was so special to finally see this legendary Cornthwaite stomping ground! We spent the following day dozing on the 7 hour return bus trip to London (you'd think we've been getting enough sleep, but somehow sleeping on a bus doesn't leave you as well-rested as you'd desire...), and then we prepared ourselves for a crash course of London. Today, we spent the entire day touring London. We saw too much for me to mention it all, but some of the highlights were Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, The National Gallery, The National Portrait Gallery, and of course, Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Train Station. (Any true Harry Potter fan will understand that!) Now, we're tearfully drinking our last cup of real English tea (it just tastes better here!) and preparing to move on. We may have a stop at the British Museum before we catch our flight to Kenya tomorrow night - just to make sure we're sufficiently worn out and ready to sleep the flight away. And then, we'll wake up in Nairobi! I'm so excited for this opportunity, and I can hardly believe that the time is finally here. So, until Africa...cheerio!