The United Kingdom

We did it! My only regret was that I didn't add more days to spend at the Mission Discovery camps with the students. I'm just used to going to these events for work, doing my presentations, and then heading home as quickly as possible. But it would have been really useful for me to stay another day at each camp I think. Plus I'd have enjoyed it too and I already had Paul and Anna there with me! I gave my space station presentations to students at camps in London and Paisley, Scotland and hung around for 2 days to help answer questions pertaining to the space station experiments they were competing to design. Some smart students for sure. This is a non-profit organization that's for the most part in its first year of full-out camps across the UK and the US. I was so happy to be asked to be a part of it, to contribute, and watch the dreams of the creators -and the students- come true. People do such awesome things, and I'm so grateful to participate!!! In the downtime between events, Paul, Anna, and I got some sights in.

Trying to stay awake for the first day of arrival, we toured the Tower of London. I'd done VERY minimal research on London to prepare for this trip, figuring I'd just get overwhelmed by too many choices. So we just kinda decided to roll with it (with the exception of booking 1 specific day trip in Scotland and England). The two rookies did OK, sleep-wise on the 26 hour stretch they stayed awake from Houston wake-up to London pass-out. Anna slept only about 2 hours on the plane and I think Paul may have slept 30. Otherwise he tried to nap in the hotel room mid-day, to which I greatly protested, and made his butt head to the Tower of London, right next door to our hotel. The pictures that follow don't accurately reflect our exhaustion :) In fact, we were so exhausted we didn't stand in line to see the crown jewels or explore fully the entire tower. Figure we'd leave some things for next time, right?

 

 

Come to think of it, I don't think I got pics of me and Paul here. Foggy...haze...of sleep. But we did have some great fish and chips, went back to the hotel, and those two passed out around 5:30pm, before I did, while I was busy getting ready to work the next day. Rookies! Anna woke once during the night and went right back to sleep, for a grand total of 13 hours. I had wondered how she'd do. This kid's always been able to fight sleep unless you put her right into a bed with lights out. So with only a few instances of short temper (from me included!), I'd say she did really, really great. That was a 9 hour plane ride "overnight" (4:30pm Houston, land 7:30am London. There's a 6 hour advance of time in London). The Tower was amazing, and so much wild history!!!

Day 2 was Paul and I at work while Anna hung out with us. It was fun to watch Paul present on exercise countermeasures for spaceflight again. I hadn't seen him speak on this topic in around 10 years! Just like the old days of when we were students :) He's still got it, NICE JOB PAUL!!! Loved it. It was pretty surreal.

That evening we went with our coworkers/friends to the musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Of all the musicals I've ever seen, this one takes the cake, HANDS DOWN. The young talent, the visuals, the story. AMAZEMENT! Totally unexpected and just so much fun. Can't even describe it!

We didn't get a golden ticket but that was one AWESOMELY YUMMY Wonka bar! :)

We snuck more sights in around work since the daylight was much longer here...including a visit up to the top of the Tower bridge (which was also RIGHT AT OUR HOTEL FRONT DOOR).

 

After a few short days in London, we took the train to Glasgow,  Scotland...

 

We didn't know it, but the Commonwealth 2014 Glasgow games were in prep, with athletes staying at our hotel! We didn't really know what those games were, but it seemed like a pretty big deal!

We booked a day trip in Scotland to the Highlands, including Glencoe, Loch Ness, and a coffee at a 300 year old Haunted Inn (Drovers Inn). So amazing and awesome! We searched for Nessie at Loch Ness. Anna is such a skeptical believer. I love the skeptic tone in her voice, while she's asking probing questions. It's like she wants to believe, but doesn't, and then looks to us to see what we are thinking. A haunted inn! A Loch Ness monster! Love!!!

Castle Urqhuart (or something...) on Loch Ness (above). Never would have ever guessed I'd have had the opportunity to be on LOCH NESS, where the legends abound. And to have my two favorite travelers with me: priceless!

Our view from our hotel room in Paisely, Scotland at the Ashtree House Hotel:

Freaked Anna out a little since she said she was worried that ghosts and zombies are known to come out of graveyards! To which I replied: there are no such things as zombies and as for ghosts, if YOU were a ghost, would YOU hang out in a graveyard? She answered NO so that seemed to do the trick. She was fine for the duration of the stay :)

More around Paisely, a neat little town known for its development of the paisley pattern (THE PAISLEY PATTERN!). The Renfrewshire council went all out to welcome the Mission Discovery camps. Everything, even the venue, was amazing. They were excited for the week's events!

 

 

 

 

 

The Roman Baths ("Bath") near London:

 

 

 

 

 

THE STONEHENGE!!!! Right there outside of London! How lucky are we to sneak this into the trip?! Never in my life would I have thought we'd get to see this, and all three of us together, at that! SO. COOL.

Headed home...a 10 hour flight to Houston. She stayed awake the WHOLE FLIGHT and passed out on the car ride from the airport to the house :)

 

 

 

 

Anna's picture over Greenland:

Some take-home goodies (scotch and Mead)!

All-in-all we were gone around 10 days but it wasn't enough time when you consider the stolen days of just traveling. Too much sights to see, too much awesome work to be done with the students at the camp. We are so very grateful. Once again, a fulfilling career -a dream job- allows me to do my work in unique places, and this time include my family. There's nothing better. I'm grateful for all of the opportunities that have come as a result of our hard work and a career that is a perfect fit for me (astronaut thing aside, and that's not over just yet)...

And now I'm home until at least September! It'll be nice to settle into some kind of routine. And my DVR misses me, I can tell!