London

London has a little something for everyone from The London Eye to everything Harry Potter.  London has it all.  It's even hosting the 2012 Olympics with the five Olympic rings hung at many locations in the city, including at the train station pictured below.

My absolute favorite part of London was seeing the musicals "Shrek" and "Wicked".

This was the set of "Wicked".

This was the set for "Shrek".

Some of the other fun things we saw and did while in London were...

Seeing Big Ben.  Big Ben only rings on the hour but other bells in the tower ring every fifteen minutes. Big Ben rang out of sequence for the first time in 60 years because of the Olympics.  The last time it rang out of sequence was at Queen Elizabeth II Coronation.

Taking a bus tour around London.

Taking a boat ride down Thames river and back.

Seeing Buckingham Palace.  The flag was up at Buckingham Palace which means the queen was there.

Watching the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace.

The Tower Bridge which also had 5 Olympic rings.

The Millennium Bridge which is in the 6th Harry Potter movie.

The London Eye.  I unfortunately didn't get to ride it because the line was to long.

Then last but not least, visiting the British Museum...where we saw.....

 This is an outdoor theatre where the Greeks would sing and dance in a performance.

 When fighting, the Romans would wear armor all over their body, including their feet.

Sarcophagus's were used to keep dead bodies in ancient Egypt.

The Rosetta Stone has the exact same words written in three different languages, including Egyptian, which is how we learned to read Hieroglyphics.

These are the 2012 London Olympic medals which happened to be in the British Museum.

At the train station there was a security guard who was just glowing with excitement to take a picture with me as I stood near Platforms 9 and 10 at King's Cross Station.

Newstead Abby

This is Newstead Abby.  Newstead Abby is a beautiful historic house with lovely gardens and places to walk.  It was once owned by the famous poet Lord Byron.

This is Byron's bedroom.  Byron slept with a gun by his bed and had two exits out of his room.  This was because he had annoyed so many husbands because he had affairs with their wives.  His bed looks very short in this photo.  This is because they said people often slept sitting part way up on their pillows.  They believed you would die in you sleep because your airways would collapse. 

This is the dinning room which had a table and a fireplace to keep him warm while he ate his dinner.

This is the entertaining room.  The entertaining room had a table that was made out of very colorful natural rocks and worth millions of dollars.  The photo below shows my dad touching this table.

Below is the room where Lord Byron would show some of the animal conquests from some of his hunting adventures.  He loved to hunt.

This is the chapel in the Abby.  It looks quit small but can actually hold 100 people.  

There are over 300 acres of lush parkland with paths that meander past lakes, ponds, and waterfalls.  We didn't have time to see everything but we had fun walking around the gardens and some of the walking paths.

York

York is a very compact town in England. Almost everything is within a few minutes walk which makes it a great place for tourists.  York has great churches, wonderful museums, very fun tours, and lots of restaurants.  I like York because it is said to be the most haunted town in England.  I even went on a Ghost tour.  This is me with our tour guide below.

This is the York Minster.  The York Minster is a very famous Gothic church in York.  It was built between 1291 and 1350.  It is the largest Gothic church in England.

This is a view from the York Minster towers.  We walked up 275 stairs to get to the top of the tower.  Imagine walking up that everyday for work.  you also couldn't be very big because the stairway is very narrow and steep.

There was some construction going on on the outside of the York Minister.  They were replacing some of the stones with new ones.  That would be hard work because the damaged stones were so detailed.  They say that there is always repair work occurring on or in the church.

This is a horse with a moustache.  I just thought it was funny.  This horse was carrying a carriage that I think was to bring people around the town.

This is the York city wall.  The first wall was a simple earth and wood stockade built by the Romans in the 2nd century to surround their early fort.  The wall you walk on today is the medieval wall, almost three miles around.  It dates from the 13th century and stands on an earth rampart built by the Anglo-Danish Kings of York, and later enlarged by the Normans.  The wall has been extensively  restored in the last two centuries.

Family Crests

All of my mom's and part af my dad's side of our family names originated from countries in the UK.  A few of these family names had what you would call a coat of arms.  A coat of arms is a heraldic design on a shield used to cover and protect armor and to identify the wearer.  In ancient times it was displayed on a coat of cloth.  The design was unique to an individual person and to his family.

Here are a few of the family crests from my mom's side of the family:

MORRISON (my maternal granddad):

JOHNSTON (my maternal grandad's mom's name):

SCOTT (my maternal grandma's dad's name):

WILSON (my maternal grandma's mom's name):

Here are a few of the family crests from my dad's side of the family:

JOHNSON (my paternal grandpa's mom's name):

McCLINTOCK (my paternal grandma's mom's name):