London, in the beginning

Our first weeks in London we shared a flat with some friends from my architecture program.  I spent my days doing research for a professor, who happened to be doing research in London (hence, letting a flat with our friends from home), and Dan spent every waking hour looking for an apartment.

The apartment we stayed was just a stone's throw from the Tower Bridge. Here is the view from our balcony. I love love the building to the right. I think it's the blue and white contrasting with the brick that I love so much.

While staying in that flat we had some nice barefoot (well actually we were wearing Vibrams) runs along the Thames and across the bridge.

p.s. what do you think about the ginormous photos? vote on the left...

miss me!?

Hello readers,

I am back after a long hiatus. We haven't had internet in our flat (that's right we have already made the move to London), but now that we are online I will try to update more frequently.

Here's a brief recap of what happened since you last visited...

We left Coronado

 

 

 

And headed to Las Vegas, where Dan bachelor-partied it up with his new brother-in-law and I visited with my family. My parents are now members of the Las Vegas Country Club, so my pa gave me a little tour, and the architecture is amazing! 

Then we headed to Salt Lake City for Dan's sister's wedding. It was an amazing affair, and Dan had the honour of marrying them.

 

 

 

all photos stolen from Philip's aunt

Then we headed to NYC for another brief visit with my sister and then from there we hopped across the Atlantic and landed in London.

 

There were other happenings in there, like visiting my besties in Utah, visa drama, etc., but that's everything in a nutshell. Stay tuned for more.

p.s. I am trying out the giant picture thing, do you prefer it or is it annoying?

p.p.s. Did you catch my little taste of Britain in there with honor, spelled "honour"?

sketches

a few sketches I did while in Coronado. I am really trying to get better- while I may be creative, I have never been an artist.

lifeguard tower

la casa

hotel del

Disneyland!

We spent yesterday at the "happiest place on earth", the magic kingdom, Disneyland! We went ahead and got a pass to California adventure as well, which was wayyy better than I thought it would be. I know I am 26 years old, but Disneyland is still magical and wonderful.

Tower of Terrrrrrooorrr

cute ma and pa

 

dan having soooo much fun

sleepy and wearing zero makeup-flattering combination

tower of terrroorrr part deux

Notice, we are the only people in the car? We were the very last people on the ride, they closed the gates behind us and we rode all by our lonesome (minus the ghosts of course- bah da bum, ching).

I am really excited to move to London, but I don't want summer to end. I haven't had this much of a break in a really long time; it has been wonderful.

a day at the races

Today we spent a day at the Del Mar race tracks, betting on horses and taking names.

Dan sizing up the horses

I had some good wins, but all in all I only came home $2 ahead. I should mention though, I bet a trifecta (guessing the first, second, third place in exact order) but at the last minute I went against my instinct and changed one of my horses. Well let me tell you, I should have trusted my instinct because my instinct won, and my $6 bet would have paid out $220! Still lots of fun though.

a visit to the USS Midway

The USS Midway was the first aircraft carrier commissioned after WWII, and later rescued thousands of refugees during the evacuation Saigon.

Now it rests in the San Diego harbor and functions as a museum. Despite all our years in San Diego I had never been- so we went...

shoved the little kid out of line so I could get a turn

if they turned on the engine, dan would get sucked right in-seriously

update 6- the now

We are technically homeless, so thank to the generosity of my parents, we are now living at their house in Coronado, Ca until the move overseas- life is rough. We spend our days sleeping in, running [barefoot!] on the beach, doing the NYT crossword, and kayaking. This past weekend we also enjoyed a little family reunion of my Dad's side of the family- all that competitive Greek blood made for some lively games! More photos on that later. Until then, check out our awesome bike-kayak-trailer.

P.S. Our visas were approved! yay yay yay!

Update 5- DC

Our final leg of the trip was D.C. We forwent the Philly trip because the Barnes' exhibit is temporarily unavailable and that was our whole reason for visiting PA. We were really hoping to see the Barnes before it made its move to the PA museum, but all is well, it meant more time with friends. 

Tim and Ali were fantastic hosts

Finland Consolate- of course it's LEED certified, and check out that facade

saw lots of sights, and a special shout out to Hannah, for giving us VIP access to the archives and sharing all her vast DC knowledge

We also got to meet up with Kris and Kimberly, our friends from Eugene

and they brought baby Maebel!!

lots of Calder

one of my favorite Picasso's

this is the Building Museum- THE MOST HIDEOUS BUILDING I HAVE EVER SEEN

They had a great exhibit on World's Fairs of the 1930's, but the whole time I was in that building I could not stop thinking of this SNL skit

And that, very quickly, sums up our east coast adventure. We had a wonderful time, but it's nice to be able to finally relax.