Eric's Thoughts from London

I am going to keep this post fairly short, but it has been fascinating to be in the country where I spent six and a half years of my childhood. I remember somethings that we are seeing. Others were not even around, and somethings seem like new even though they may not be.

I think the thing that I enjoy, other than being here with my best friend, is being in a walking city again. We are staying in a hotel with many restaurants within just a few blocks. It is nice to be able to walk to dinner and take a leisurely stroll back to the hotel.

I will end with the hope that we are able to adjust to the time change quickly. We took a few naps, and we are hoping that we are able to sleep through the night and wake up at a reasonable time.

Take care everyone who might be reading this. We will try to post some pictures tomorrow.

Good Day from London

Hi Everyone,

Sorry, but we are unable to post pictures at the moment. For now, our tales of travel will have to suffice.

First off, I'd like to give a plug to Continental Airlines. In this day and age of airlines skimping and charging for every little thing, Continental appears to be one of the last hold outs. Not only did we not have to pay for our checked luggage, but we were served dinner (lasagna with green salad, dinner roll, and a package of Pepperage Farm Milano cookies), and a small breakfast as well.

OK - on to the good stuff... we arrived at Heathrow airport on time, to a sunny clear day. We took two trains to the neighborhood we are staying in (which is really cute and we like it - close to everything) and dropped off our luggage. It was only 9 a.m. and check in wasn't until 2 p.m. We were exhausted from not being able to sleep on the plane, but we still wanted to get out and explore...

We started off by walking to Buckingham Palace. I have to admit that I felt a bit cheated because the iconic guards in the red uniforms and big black hats were not there. It was still neat to see the palace and walk around the park. This is one very cool thing I've noticed about London - there are lots of beautiful parks everywhere. From the palace, we walked to Big Ben, West Minster Abby and all of the sights in between. I am awed by the beautiful architecture everywhere!

Around 11:30 we were hungry, so we stopped at this quaint looking pub called The Albert. Apparently, royalty eat there (or so the pub claims.) The food was...interesting...I don't know how else to explain. We both got burgers - Eric had some weird burger with a fried egg on top. Both of our burgers had salad on the bun with the burger. Very different, but the "chips" (fries) were good.

From lunch we wandered back to Buckingham Palace to see what type of guards had come out since the changing of the guard had taken place at 11:30. This time, they had the black puffy hats, but grey coats instead of red. I was just happy to see the puffy hats. We then wandered to Hyde park, which is this beautiful, huge park, which reminded us of Central Park in New York. The weather was so gorgeous that we decided to sit down on the grass...where we fell asleep for about an hour! Thankfully there were tons of people around and lots of little children too.

Refreshed from our nap, we headed back to the hotel. We stopped at a little corner market and picked up the same Lipton Peach Ice Tea that we enjoyed so much in Paris. We also bought chocolate bars. Rick Steve's said that the Kit Kat bars were different here - and he was right. Much richer. I could only eat one piece. Eric got some gooey caramel Cadbury bar. Very tasty.

Now we are off for our greatest adventure - looking at our eyelids for a couple of hours. Hope you are all well. More adventures to come...

Adios to Cozumel...Back in Houston

We have made it safely back home. We'll be working on adding our stories to this blog, for now here are some of our favorite pictures:

This is our hotel room. There were fresh flowers on the bed, vanity and in the bathroom when we first arrived. A towel in the shape of a swan was on the bed. At night, our bed was turned down and chocolates were on the pillows.

This is the view from our balcony. You can see the coral reefs in the water, close to shore.

Sunset on our first night.

This is the spot where Eric suggested we snorkel on the second day. Just kidding - he didn't say that. Aren't those waves crazy? This is the eastern side of the island, the non-snorkeling side. Reminded me of Asilomar in P.G.

Dolphins swimming near our boat on our third day. You can see Eric's foot as he stood at the bow to take pictures.

Gearing up for snorkeling in deeper water. That's me in a swarm of fish.

Eric discovered a new love for free diving.

Some pictures from town