Saturday, August 11, 2012

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2007. I took Mattie to California to visit my parents. On our adventures, we discovered that Mattie liked this one particular restaurant. He liked the food, but what he especially liked was their lion fountain. So every time we visited the restaurant we always requested a seat by the fountain. Finally one day, I had Mattie pose in front of the fountain so he could remember it when we returned home. Ironic it seems, since now, I use the picture to remember Mattie and his love of fountains.

Fact about Southampton: The city's name is sometimes abbreviated in writing as "So'ton" or "Soton," and a resident of Southampton is called a Sotonian.

Unlike my usual postings, which include a quote of the day, over the next two weeks I will include a fact about the place we are visiting each day. Peter and I were scheduled on a 6pm flight out of Dulles to London last night. While waiting at the gate to board the plane, we realized something was wrong because NO ONE was boarding. The plane had mechanical failure and therefore the flight was closed out. We waited four hours for another plane to arrive, and by 10pm, four hours later, we were on our way to London. The flight to London is close to 7 hours long, and when you include waiting at the airport beforehand and the five hour time difference ahead of Washington, DC, it is no wonder we are exhausted. I am more like a zombie actually, and can barely keep my eyes open to write tonight's blog. This is a picture Peter snapped during our descent into Heathrow airport.

My dad's colleague, John, who lives in London, met us at the airport and drove us two hours from London to Southampton, where we are staying. Traffic was bumper to bumper, but as long as I was safely on the ground I didn't care how long the drive took!

We had a lovely lunch near the River Test in Southampton with my parents and John. Southampton serves as the gateway to the countryside  and to a wide variety of historic sites, national landmarks and charm. The United Kingdom's premier passenger ship port, Southampton was home for many years to the great transatlantic liners of yesteryear. 

The hotel we are staying at for two nights is literally right by the port where cruise ships dock. Here you can see Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Sea. This is one huge ship! However, there are several others in port, and when their ship's horn sounds, it is so loud, it can frighten you instantaneously. I am signing off for today, because I am too tired to function! Thank you for checking in and for virtually going with us on our UK adventure.