Scary London

We continue to fit in fun events whenever possible during our spare time.  Happy hours with co-workers, new restaurants, new museums, and new neighbourhoods.  Recently we joined Mike's team at work on a Jack the Ripper tour of London to retrace the supposed steps of the never caught serial killer.  The tour was actually run by an official British Beefeater that is stationed at the Tower of London.  While it was cold, the tour was good, and we even stopped at some famous pubs half way through for drinks and to warm up.

Next on our list is the Ghost Tour of London this evening which covers a lot of other dark legends that tie into the city's long and at times violent past.  It seems only fitting that that I use this opportunity to call out the band we saw last night (related to the band by the way), Peanut Butter Lovesicles.  It is fitting because Camden is probably the roughest London neighbourhood we've gone to in the evening so far (no issues by the way).

"We'll always have Paris"

The trip to France has finally happened.  After hearing all the stories of my trip there years ago, Jolene was very nervous that we'd have trouble even being able to find food let alone get around the city.  We took a Eurostar train through the channel tunnel from London to Paris after work and got there in no time.


While the the cafes, shops, Louvre, Notre Dame, and atmosphere were unique and fascinating it's the Eiffel Tower and French food that really captivated Jolene.  I had the hardest time peeling her away from the Dame de Fer.  She walked just about every stair in the structure and has about a hundred pictures of it.  When the trip started she actually thought it looked ridiculous ... ah, the magic of Paris.


We ended up having a great time.  Staying just steps away from the Arc de Triomphe we were easily able to wander the city and use the subway system.  Jolene's recent travels and current schedule in London have made her a professional at subway systems and isn't slowed down by signs being in the wrong language.

I got to use the few lines of French I know over and over again but I think Jolene's smile made the French even more forgiving than normal as I surely mispronounced every word.  Even as we have been back in the UK for a week now ... we still miss Paris.

Snowing in London!

I've openly said all week at work and at home that it is going to snow this weekend and I'm making a snowman.  Many of my coworkers said it would never happen and Jolene even went as far as to say that she didn't want it to snow anyway. 

After all of that, I submit to you our British Snowman.  Yes, it looks a lot like an alien but I blame the help.  She used some weird figs for the eyes or something.

Right now it's still continuing to snow and it sounds like we'll get at least a couple inches.  The locals that are outside right now trying to get home have their umbrellas out and I'm pretty sure they think that it is just white rain.  Shhhh ... don't tell them.

Don't Mess with Texas!

We've now gone full circle and vacation abroad by going back to the USA.  We took a couple days off and headed to Texas to soak up some culture and have some fun.  Jolene has a very good friend who grew up in Houston and my boss lives in Austin so we had a pretty good list of things we needed to do and places we needed to eat.

Houston was definitely a great time with the Space Center, Galleria, Tex Mex, and Wings.  We may have actually added this city onto our list of possible places to live in the future.  I'm going to definitely wait for us to vote on this one again after we are actually down there during the hot summer.

"Houston we've had a problem here" - James A. Lovell, Jr

Austin came off as a hipper town with cool places to eat but this may have been due to the people that helped us decide what we should do during our visit.  Torchy's Tacos is a must hit along with the Bob Bullock Museum (The Story of Texas) down town.  A couple margaritas made with local tequila and you'll never want to go home again.