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I have been spending time in Utah with family. It is so different here. They live in a small area; you can’t really call it a town. There are no businesses but a few houses. It is nice but I must admit a little frustrating when you want to purchase something.
The view from anywhere is beautiful. Beautiful, snow covered mountains surround the whole area. Driving down the road you can see deer and elk. There are no close neighbors to cause noise or complain if you cause noise.
I have to say I would not trade if for my own area. I live out of town also but it is a short drive to buy almost anything I want. I had to drive several miles just to find a cup of coffee. I am surrounded by coffee establishments at home.
Of course it is all worth it to be with family. And it is a great place to visit. I hope to come back many times in the future.

Last year a nine year old boy made headlines nationwide. He had apparently been ingenious enough to sneak on two flights to try to get to Texas to be with his grandfather. While it was reported that he had stolen a neighbors car just before this incident it was not as widely publicized that he had stolen nine cars in five weeks. What probably bothered me the most from the whole incident was his mother leaving the county with him against a court order. She took him to California for the two of them to apprear on the Dr. Phil Show.

Recently the news reported the case of a 14 year old girl being involved in a car accident. She had been drinking and was driving the vehicle. Where was her mother? She was in the passenger seat of the car apparently passed out. The police say she was so intoxicated she said she was the sister and then the cousin of the driver.

I know things can quickly get out of control when you have children and a busy life. But how can a parent explain willfully breaking the law by not following a court order or by letting  anyone (let alone a child) drive a car while drunk? What were they thinking?

So I understand it now costs almost 1.7 cents to produce a penny here in the U.S. But I also understand there are no plans to quit making those eight billion pennies each year. Why? I am not sure. Maybe it is just for sentimental value. The penny was the first American coin to use the likeness of a president on the side of the coin. And next year a new penny is being minted in celebration of the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. I cannot think of anything that could be bought with a penny. There used to be a row of penny candy at the grocery store but no more. Even penny gum ball machines now usually cost a quarter.

Not to be outdone, the nickel now costs almost a dime to produce.

I read today that during an interview with a media representative President Bush was asked about the price of gas going over $4.00 per gallon. He wondered why the news people were reporting such a high number. When told that the government (his administration) were the ones predicting the high figure he seemed genuinely surprised. How could a president who has prided himself on being “one of the people” be so far off base? Does he really have no idea how the rest of us live? What would he do if he had to live from pay check to pay check like so many Americans do?

On another note I understand jelly shoes (yes, jelly shoes!) are back. I remember them as a cute thing little girls wore but I guess they have grown up. They are now being produced by the big names in shoes. Givenchy has a pair for $165.00 and if you really want to make a statement Chanel is making a pair with a rhinestone for a mere $295.

I cannot afford to spend that kind of money on shoes but even if I could I cannot imagine it would be for jelly shoes. I looked at shoes when I was recently in Target and saw they also had jelly shoes. Theirs were in black, red, and clear. They were cute for the price of $8.99. That seems more in line with a jelly shoe.

Here at home the presidential race is taking up most of the news. John McCain has sewn up the republican nomination. That doesn’t really matter becuase surely the American people won’t choose another republican president this soon.

What is important to me is the democrates choice. I have been a supporter of Hilary Clinton from the beginning. It seems to be very close as to who will have enough delegates to carry them through. I think Ms. Clinton is best suited to run the country at this time. And I must admit the idea of a female president is pretty exciting.I believe Barack Obama could do the country some good too but I also think maybe he needs a little bit more experience first. However I also think a president just a little short in experience is better than a president who will just keep the whole country on the same path as it has been for the last two election cycles.

We got up at 5:00 AM to get ready to go. We pulled our luggage (two bags each plus carry ons and purses) about four blocks to the underground. We made it and bought ONE WAY tickets to Heathrow Terminal 1-2-3. We managed to get us and everythng on by working together. We arrived to find we had to use an escalator or call for help to use the lift. Trista thought we could use the escalator. The plan was for Trista to go to the top of the escalator and we would send the bags up to her. NOT a good plan. Some bags turned over and slid back down. It was really a mess. I was the last one up and a bag previously sent up began to slide toward me. It hit me and I dropped my new watch. Chloe hopped on at the top of this up escalator to try to help and the bag (which I was keeping from sliding down) crashed into her because she had fallen. I had nowhere to step off and was yelling at Trista to “drag her out of the way!”. Two security men came running from around the corner and when they saw us with all our bags a mess and Chloe laying on the floor they did not see the humor in the situation. They just told us to “use a trolley”. We did.

We had lots of time and did some last London shopping in the airport. They are so particular about the size of everyones carry ons and even stopped people to measure them. But they did not care about anything we had bought in the airport shops. Seems sort of silly.

The flight was good but, of course, long. The movie channel worked this time which was helpful. Also, a very young gentelman and his two little children sat by me. His wife had suddenly and unexpectedly died in their home in England. The military was sending him to a base close to family so he could have help and support. It was very sad. The children wanted to know if I was moving because I had known their mother.

We had a long delay at Chicago but made it home safely. My husband and Chloe’s Mom were waiting for us and they were such a nice sight. It has been such a good trip and I really enjoyed traveling with Trista and Chloe.

We started the day fairly early and went to Leicester Square to purchase discount tickets to “The Lion King” at the Lyceum Theatre. We got seats in the “circle” section.

We then went to Victoria Station and caught a train to Dorking Deepdene. Trista wanted to visit there. She had never been but heard the name announced on the train all the time “calling at Dorking Deepdene”. We thought it sounded funny and we were hoping to get mugs or t-shirts or something funny with the name on it. We traveled to Dorking and found Dorking Deepdene was really just he name of the train station. The town itself was just Dorking which is funny enough. But apparently they don’t see the humor in their name because we could not find any memorabilia with the name on it, not even serious ones. The town was nice and we ate a pasty at a little shop there for lunch. I had never had a pasty before coming to England and really like them. We also saw a restaurant called Wimpys which apparently is quite common but struck us as funny.

We then went to Merstham to retrieve the rest of our luggage from Alice’s flat. She was home but it was hard leaving because she could not hear hardly at all and we were having a very difficult time making her understand we were not staying but WERE leaving Trista’s food for her. Then we headed for the hotel in London with all our luggage. We may not have planned too well as it was rush hour. The train was fine to Victoria Station but the underground was packed! It took about three passing trains before we worked out way close enough for Chloe and I to get on. We left Trista on the platform and she took the next train. Luckily Chloe and I had learned how to use the system and were able to go on.

We then took the underground to Embankment and walked to the theater. The play was really good but everything is catching up with me. I am tired and had to fight dozing off. There were several people sleeping which surprised me. After the show we retraced our steps and stayed up at the hotel until about 2:00 AM getting packed and organized for tomorrow.

We ate the breakfast provided by the hotel. It consisted of apple juice, corn flakes, milk, tea or coffee and toast we had to make ourselves served in a too small room. I figured out the old fashioned toaster (no help from the hotel staff) and made us each some toast.

We then left for the Camden Market. We used the Earls Court station of the underground. I love the underground. It is so easy; you can get almost anywhere in the city. We just rode the Picadilly Line to Leicester Square and changed to the Northern Line to Camden Town. So easy! We shopped for several hours. There are dozens of small places selling almost anything. We mostly purchased gifts for those at home but of course some for ourselves as well.

We got caught in a downpour. We were soaked and Chloe and Trista stepped into some puddles and had cold, wet feet all day. We ducked into a small restaurant and it was nicer soon and turned into a great day.

We also went to Leicester Square. We did some more shopping and checked on discount tickets to see “Lion King”. We hope to go tomorrow night. We ate dinner at an Italian Restaurant there in the square and then returned to the hotel.

After a little rest we gathered our clothes and went in search of a lauderette. The hotel clerk was of no help. She said it was somewhere off the high street. End of directions. After much searching and asking we found one a few blocks away. It took a lot of money but we finally had clean clothes. Trista exploded a soda there and we had no way to clean it up. We felt bad leaving it but we didn’t know what else to do.

We had spent the night at the Dublin Airport and flew out at 8:15. We landed in London, Gatwick at 9:15. We thought there was a direct shuttle to Heathrow but it was a very expensive bus ride on the National Bus Service. We found out there are four terminals at Heathrow and we did not know where we should get off. We stopped first at terminal 4. We decided to stay on the bus. The next stop (several miles away) was for terminals 1,2, and 3.

We tried calling our hotel to find out about their shuttle from the outside telephone but could not make it work.  We went inside and were able to reach the hotel and learned there is not a shuttle. The clerk said she could send a cheap “cop”. I suggested we could go out to the taxi stand but she insisted I should use her driver who would arrive within 30 minutes. We waited TWO(!) hours and Trista called her many times. She would not tell Trista which underground station. Eventually a young man did show up to get us. He was not a tazi driver but we went with him. It was about an hours drive to our hotel.

We learned from the clerk that were was no booking for us. It took me getting quite angry but we were given a room. It is an awful hotel. It is very old and stinky! The room is so hot and they could not turn the heat down. The room is very small for three beds. The bedspeads are stained. The bathtub is broken. There are holes in the wall in the bathroom stuffed with stainless steel which I believe is used to keep rodents from coming through. It smells of urine and natural gas throughout. It is really our worst accomadations on the whole trip.

We were glad to go out to eat and explore the area. It is a nice quiet neighborhood very close to the high street and the underground station. That will be helpful.