Today, Sunday started out on a sad note. We sadly said good bye to our daughters, Velynn and Rachelle, after having had them visit for a week and a half. And what a week and a half it has been!
We will continue from where we were last week. We previously mentioned our attending our Staines Ward last Sunday and our short journey and visit to Windsor Castle. Not sure that we mentioned our lovely little "loaner" car. We had gone to the temple on Friday and our car acted up, like it wasn't getting enough fuel. We took it in on Saturday and they told us it was something that would take a while. We explained our plans for Saturday and that we had our Sunday plans. They, very kindly, said that they would give us a "loaner". Little did we know that the back seat almost wasn't a back seat. Nevertheless, it served our purpose and we returned it early on Monday only to find out that they couldn't figure out why it was still acting up.
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| Loaner Car |
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| Windsor Castle with Tourists |
Monday was our preparation day and we spent the time with the girls. We spent the day in and around the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. We took in the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace and Annie went off to buy "Wicked" discount tickets for the four of us. We also had lunch with our dear friend and Staines Ward member, Helen Baden. She works right near the area that we were visiting. By the time the day was over it was nearly 11 pm. What a loaded, full day!
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| Wicked |
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| Tourists & Big Ben |
The next day we spent working at the Family History Centre while the girls braved the city themselves. We actually ended up nearly running (running as much as two oldies could run) to the car dealership. They had tried to reach us earlier, but the girls had our phone. Since we had plans to go to Paris the next day, we called to make sure they could keep the car while we were gone and they informed us it was finished and we should come to get it. This was about 15 minutes before the dealership closed. We knew that we couldn't get there quick enough by bus, so we took off walking (about a mile) and made it just as they were closing. To make a long story short, the fuel filter that had been replaced a week earlier, was again defective and so ended the saga of our car problems -- at least we hope!
Meanwhile, the girls had experienced a good, but cold day. They were waiting at home and trying to warm up when we finally got home.
One of the top things that Velynn and Rachelle had wanted to do was to go to Paris. We didn't necessarily want to go :o) and it was definitely out of our mission. However, we had emailed our mission president as well as our FamilySearch supervisor about leaving the country for a day so that we could continue to driver our car. You are not supposed to drive in this country after you have been here a year, unless you obtain a British driver's license (at over 500 pounds, each) unless you leave and re-enter the country. Bottom line -- now that our car works, we are good to drive until 2015.
Probably should mention that somehow on Monday, Paul lost his rail pass and tube pass -- probably while we were in London watching the changing of the guard. What a hassle this caused. Anyway, the tube pass has been replaced. The rail pass still needs doing. Back to the Paris venture.
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| Harry Potter's Platform on way to EuroStar |
We decided to take the train to Paris, the Eurostar. We could get there and back for less than 100 pounds each. Annie found the four of us an apartment for a night. It was very comfortable and in nice condition and in a nice area. The trip to Paris took about two and a half hours. The train traveled at 186 miles per hour, reaching a top speed of just over two hundred miles an hour. We arrived in Paris just before noon and left the next day about 9 pm.
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| Paris Train Station |
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| Sightseeing Bus |
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| Sightseers on Bus |
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| Paris Home Courtyard |
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| Paris Home Bedroom Loft |
Since we couldn't get into our room until later in the day, we each purchased a on again - off again, bus pass for two days. This enabled us to see many of the Paris sights. We saw the Eiffel Tower (especially impressive at night), the Louvre (including the Mona Lisa), the River Seine, the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame Cathedral, we walked the Avenue de Champs Elysees, and a whole lot more. We rode the open air bus and the underground (Metro). We ate French pastries, ate at a couple of French restaurants and we avoided McDonalds except we stopped for a very good fruit milk shake (and we do mean milk -- meaning it was very thin and very unlike a thick shake in America).
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| Eiffel Tower |
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| Tourists @ Tower |
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| Louvre |
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| Mona Lisa |
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| Arc de Triomphe |
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| Notre Dame Cathedral |
There were two major unimpressive parts of our Paris visit. One was that our visit coincided with the visit of the Chinese President. For the two days that we were there, everything was slowed or stopped! because of his visit. There were nightmare traffic jams, bus route delays (or complete cancellations), Metro closures, and we could go on and on.
The other bad part of our visit was our return trip to England. We thought that leaving at 9:10 pm would maximize our last day in Paris. Little did we know that a lightning strike in England would take place making a mess of our return. We got off on time. After traveling for about an hour, we suddenly stopped and they told us about the lightning and how it had effected the electrical output which drove the train. So we sat for a long time and then they told us we would have to return to Paris.
We started back to Paris and stopped about half way back. They then told us that the electricity was beginning to be restored in the east end of England. After another wait the train started back toward London. We got to the French boarder before crossing the English Channel and we stopped again. They told us we would have to wait for clearance to enter the tunnel. Apparently there were trains ahead of us that had also stopped. After waiting another half hour we moved through the tunnel and eventually made it back to London. You might think that was the end of it. Hold on!
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| Taxi Waiting Line |
By the time we got into London, most all of the public transportation had ceased for the night (actually the morning). So, they offered to pay for a taxi to take us all home. Visualize, if you can, 1500 people waiting for a taxi, at 2:30 am in the morning. We had left something on the train, so guess where we were in line -- yup, about third from the end. We got home at about 4:30 am -- having experienced quite the Paris trip and with a renewed date for our being able to drive. We can now drive in England until 27 March 2015 (that ought to be an easy date to remember since it is Becky Smart's birthday).
We didn't get up too early on Friday. In fact, the girls mostly rested that day and used our pool and hot tub. As for us, the missionaries, we had meeting at the temple grounds with members of the Crawley Stake to discuss family history goals in their stake. The meeting was productive but very long. We started about 1:30 pm and finally excused ourselves about 5:30. We headed back home with the intention of spending the girls' last night in the big city with them. We went to Covent Gardens, walked to Leicester Square and had Italian food. We saw lots of performers in the square, China town, the discount ticket vendors, M&M's store, lots of cinemas (movie theatres) and the fun looking, animated Swiss clock. Our journey continued as we walked to Piccadilly Circus and saw the famous lighted bill board and more street performers. It was another late night when we got home, but the girls had experienced a little night life on the streets of London.
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| Italian Dinner |
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| Dinner |
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| Street Entertainment - How Low Can You Go |
Since there wasn't a lot of time for shopping and since many of the actually shops we closed on Friday night, the women headed back to London on Saturday morning. Elder Smart stayed behind to work on a presentation for the Peckham Ward on Sunday. Sister Smart left lots of instructions for getting preparations underway for a dinner with the Badens. He also got some good instructions on how to do the wash in an English washing machine. In the meantime the women not only shopped but made the journey to Abbey Road of the Beatle's fame. Returning home, there was much to do to ready themselves for the last meal with the girls before they returned to America. We had invited the Badens, so there was a great evening experienced by the six of us.
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| Abbey Road - Beatle Fans |
We nearly forgot to mention one super kind act by the girls. Since the English Mothers' Day is today, Sunday, the girls decided to honor their mother by fixing a Saturday morning breakfast and by giving their mother a bouquet of flowers. Paul was somewhat included in that he was asked to keep Annie busy until the girls were ready. Paul and Annie usually start off the day reading the scriptures. So we read a little more on Saturday, waiting for the "ready" word from the girls. Annie was surprised and grateful for the love expressed to her that morning.
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| Mother's Day Celebration |
We started this issue mentioning the departure of the girls, but the day also included our attending the Peckham Ward and making a presentation to combined Relief Society and Priesthood. Peckham is somewhat unique in that most of the ward is made up of Africans and West Indies saints. Our emphasis was on using Family Tree and doing indexing. However, we also wanted these wonderful people to know that research was possible in some of the more remote areas of the world. Traveling (driving) to and from Peckham was not the easiest thing. However, with Annie's navigating and Paul's driving, we did it! We will mention that it was a beautiful afternoon to be driving -- sunny and about 72 degrees. The drawback to this is that there were many people out driving and enjoying the beautiful day.
We want to honor and pay tribute to two of the family today. First, a special happy birthday wish to Aaron Smart today on his 33rd birthday. Happy Birthday!! Second, a " well done" to Andrew on his having passed the Utah bar examination. With our lack of knowledge about what this really means, we think that that Andrew can legally practice law in Utah.
We express our love to all of you. We also want you to know that our testimonies are firm! We love the Lord and know that this is His church. We are so pleased to serve and are starting to have a sense of urgency about the work needing to be done as our mission is nearing its completion.
Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Sister and Elder Smart, Annie and Paul
