iSherri

The NHSA Family Engagement Conference is a great opportunity to get to know some highly dedicated and passionate people who care deeply about educational issues. But everyone needs to take an occasional break so Sharlene and I joined our co-worker Ellie and our friends Manuel and Amanda for what we assumed would be a quick lunch. 

We ordered the Spuds (baked potato with various meat toppings). After about 30 minutes, our waiter (let’s call him Justin) came and told us they were out of spuds and asked us to select another dish. We consulted the menus and picked out another meal. thirty minutes later Justin came back and told us they had found some spuds after all and our first order was back on. He must have heard some of my companions very pointed comments because after that he brought the manager over who gave us a salad and some tiny plates to “tide us over” till our meals arrived. 

When the meals finally arrived, some of us (me) tried to make poor Justin feel better by gushing about how delicious the spuds were and how they were totally worth the wait. Others (Sharlene) grumbled about the delay and dropped several strong hints that the meal should be provided at no charge. Eventually the manager came back out and said he had reduced our tickets by 30% “just because”. Sharlene began repeating “Just because? Just because?” while I kindly assured him that we were ultimately delighted with our meals and though I was prohibited from tipping more than 20% on my business credit card, I really felt Justin had done an exceptional job and deserved some sort of recognition for his hard work and perserverance in ensuring we acquired a spud. While Sharlene’s eyes rolled around in her head, the manager said he would reward Justin with a gas card and thanked us again for visiting. 

With the Jingle All the Way 8K less than a week away, Sharlene and I decided to get an early start to the day by walking many Ks before we set up our exhibit booth.

We walked the perimiter of the Gaylord Texan, past Grapevine Lake and the Lazy River and all the way to the Great Wolf Lodge. 

We headed back in and set up our fancy exhibit booth. 

Afterwards, we decided to walk a few more Ks at the local Grapevine Mills. Several fancy cardigans and new bags later we headed back to open the convention exhibit. Thankfully, we were next to the First Book table and when we weren’t chatting up the PTA we were busy making new friends with people who have books, lots and lots of books!

When the excitement died down, we wandered out to attempt to cross off bucket list items. We were unsuccessful in finding any cowboys but we did pose for pictures in front of some giant boots.

Finally, Sharlene tempted Santa’s wrath before we decided to turn in early. 

I love my job! This week it took me to the National Head Start Family Engagement Conference. Upon arrival, Sharlene and I decided to make a mini bucket list and check off a few items during our stay. My list included visiting every bar in the Gaylord Texan. Sharlene wanted to get a cowboy to buy us a drink and let us take a picture with his hat.

The Gaylord Texan is all decked out for the holidays. They have a giant oil rig decorated with red and green lights in the center of the atrium, and lots of trees constructed out of Patron bottles.

Turns out the Gaylord is the official hotel of the Dallas Cowboys and many of their rabid fans were taking full advantage of that. There were drunk football fans everywhere we turned. Also, because of their fantastical holiday decorations and the movie Shrek, there were about a gazillion sugar-hyped children and exhausted parents wandering around. 

The first bar we visited was the sports bar. Oddly, the walkway passes right through it, so it doesn’t feel much like a bar, more like a hotel lobby. Since we’d missed dinner we ordered salads and wine. I’ve had better, enough said! Then we explored the hotel and walked through the grounds. Along the way, we dropped into the Cantina to have a cocktail. 

We thought we spotted some Cowboys there, but it turns out they were just super hot Head Start Directors. Since it was late, and we were tired, we called it a night and headed to our rooms.

The day began with a quick breakfast in Warwick and then an hour and a half drive to return our cute little Skoda (we’ll miss you, buddy!) We hopped on the shuttle to the airport and then took a shuttle to the hotel.

The Doubletree Heathrow is convenient to the airport, I guess, but their lack of wifi in the guest rooms stings. It’s 2012, for god’s sake!

We dropped off our luggage, caught the bus to the tube, and then picked up our London Pass. All of that was much more complicated than it sounds, so its difficult for me to impress you now with our global public transportation navigation skills.

When we left the London Pass office a super helpful tour bus operator provided a few tips and directions. He explained that most attractions close at 4 and the London Pass restricted how many you can see in a day (damn you, fine print). He also tried to convince us to return to Leicester Square later for some fun and told us to look for him (Super Mario). So helpful here!

We walked down to the river and stopped into a little cafe for fish and chips and a pint and then walked across the bridge to the London Eye.

The London Eye is the most popular attraction in England. And apparently every tourist here was queued up to visit. Not only was there a Disneyland line to board, there was a Disneyland line to buy tickets. After my experiences waiting in line for hours at the CN Tower, I begged Jenni to skip it and take a cruise on the Thames instead.

Our boat left the London Eye pier and wound its way to the Tower of London. We sat on the open air deck since the weather was lovely (that’s British for fantastic). After we arrived, we headed over to the Tower Bridge Expedition.

The Tower Bridge is the fanciest bridge in London. It was designed in 1894. We climbed to the top of the north tower and then strolled around taking photos, you can see nearly the entire city! Afterwards we descended to the steam room to look at the giant steam engines that powered the bridge. Although this part was slightly less interesting to me, the machines were shiny! It was too late in the day to see the Tower of London, so we boarded the boat to go back up the river. This was an excellent decision, since it was growing dark and the entire city was lit up as we passed. We got off in Westminster, took the stairs to the street, and arrive at the foot of Big Ben as the clock struck five.

We decided to wander the city for a while and meandered through the grounds of Westminster Abbey. There was a service in progress, so we window shopped at the gift shop (which is going to require much more studying later today!) and then stollen by St James Park, Parliament, and up to Leicester Square where we found a side walk cafe with heaters and delicious Tex Mex food. After dinner we walked to Picadilly Circus for some cheap souvenirs.

We had to catch the tube to the bus station to get back to the hotel, but now that I’m a city girl, that is no proble
m! It took an hour and when we arrived we were confronted with the lack of wifi in the guest rooms which forced us to sit in the lobby bar for another hour.

I tried to order a Bloody Mary but they weren’t sure how to make it. Isn’t this where they came from? They finally came back (after googling it apparently) and said they could make it after all. That was enough for me and I called it a night. Today we are off to the Tower and other assorted sights! Wish you were here!

Stratford Upon Avon? I’m a fan! The first thing we noticed upon entering Stratford Upon Avon was a cute little street market. We passed through on our way to our first stop, Anne Hathaway’s cottage.

After a brisk thirty minute walk through seemingly gale force winds, we found the stunning little cottage and it’s beautiful gardens. Although it was too muddy to visit the lavender maze or the woodland park, we did enjoy the garden art and touring the actual cottage.

Our next stop was the New Place, sight of Shakespeare’s granddaughter. Due to my ongoing struggles with telling time in this country, we rushed to get there before it closed. Afterwards we realized we had enough time to enjoy afternoon tea.

I would hate to bore you with what would undoubtably become an homage to afternoon tea, but I must say I have seldom had a nicer meal! Our pot of tea was perfectly brewed. The tea tray had fresh scones, still warm from the oven with a pot of clotted cream and some strawberry preserves. It also contained dainty little finger sandwiches with smoked salmon, cucumbers, and a lemon mayonnaise. Finally, the top tier contained a slice of sponge cake with the most delicious icing I have ever had. Really. Finally refreshed, we headed out to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace.

The first half of that exhibit contained a series of rooms they herd you into and then hold you in until their seemingly endless film ends and then they herd you into the next room. This is a sweet set up for studiers, but strollers and sprinters really start to fidget. Finally they let us go to the real house. We saw Shakespeare’s birth room and listened to a few reenactors discuss life back in the day.

One would think that would be enough for one vacation day. But wait, there’s more! Turns out today was the day they had the Stratford Upon Avon switched on ceremony. Those of you who have watched the Austin Powers movies are probably way off base here. The switched on ceremony was a city wide christmas lighting event, complete with an angel on stilts, fireworks, olde English dancers, and a countdown. The mayor and city council stood on a balcony at city hall and after a few speeches led the countdown to turning on the city lights. We rounded out the evening with a visit to a few shops and the street market we saw when we first arrived.

Tomorrow we are off to London. Wish you were here!

Visiting Stratford Upon Avon and Warwick may have been one of the best vacation destination decisions I have ever made. Sure, we will be in London Towne for the next three days, but it’s going to have to work pretty hard to beat this day!

Our day started with a quick trip to Twekesbury Abbey. This was the largest surviving Norman central tower in the world. Most of the church dates back to the 14th century and is still in use today.

Afterwards we detoured for an impromptu visit to Warwick Castle. At first we were confused. It appeared to be some sort of castle theme park and was swarming with bus loads of British school children. The attendant assured us it was a real castle and that it was worth the price. Boy howdy was she correct!

The castle was fabulous, and except for the bus loads of children, felt like home to me. The grounds were well tended, and the interior contained an extensive collection of knights in shining armor. The highlight of my day, however, was when we stumbled across Henry the Eighth talking to a group of very young children.

Apparently, he was in the process of explaining his relationships with each of his wives. He was on number five when we arrived. “Do you know what a cheater is?” An adorable little girl raised her hand and stammered out a response. “it’s when your wife gets another boyfriend, isn’t it. She had two boyfriends, so I killed her. I’m not sorry. When you’re king and you make a decision, that’s it, isn’t it.”

Then he turned to his last wife. He talked about how special she was, how she did things for him no other woman would do. “Every night when I came in, she got down on her knees before me. Then she lifted her hands and, with her bare hands, mind you, she scraped all of the pus from my gouty legs. How many of you would do that for me?” Honest to God, the British education system absolutely fascinates me!

We left the castle and headed into Shakespeare’s hometown, the lovely Stratford Upon Avon.

To be continued….

Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect time to implement my new life plan to travel to a different country every year for the rest of my life. It was even better when my BFF Jenni decided to join me! So after a long, hard day at work, I headed out to National Airport for the first leg of my adventure.

Jenni and I met up in Detroit and caught the same red eye to Heathrow. Clearly it was my lucky day, since the seat beside me was vacant. After a couple of Bloody Mary’s and some Tylenol PM I slept like a baby!

Once we arrived, we zipped right through passport control, retrieved our bags, exchanged some cash, and caught the bus to the Hertz lot. Although Rashan worked hard to convince us to upgrade to the Mercedes S Class, we stuck with our Skoda and while Jenni fired up the GPS machine, I practiced left handed shifting. Thankfully, there was not a lot of traffic, so the occasional “oh shit they’re coming right at us” didn’t cause any actual problems.

We decided to go off route and head into Circenster for lunch. I found a car park and we dropped random coins into the slot. Our ticket said we could stay until 14:59. Not having any sort of wifi or Internet connection, and having forgotten to change our watches at the airport, we felt pretty good about our assumption that we’d have plenty of time to grab a quick lunch. Sadly, we never anticipated the adorable rain hats they were selling at The Witches Knickers. Or how long it would take to visit a local church, do some window shopping, visit an ATM, grab a cup of tea and make our way back to the car. Apparently the parking ticked arrived only 30 minutes before we did.

I was concerned about reaching our hotel before dark, so we shoved the ticket in the glove box and moved on. As we hopped back on the motorway, we turned on the local radio just in time to hear the M5 was flooded at Junction 12 (our exit) and traffic was being cut from three lanes to one. That’s also about the time that traffic came to a complete stop. After that, we inched along and I got plenty of practice with the left handed shifting for well over an hour.

When we finally turned off of that road and onto another, we were so relieved, we blew right by the “road closed ahead signs”. In our defense, all the other cars were driving around the makeshift barricade too, which was why we were so surprised when we actually drove through the river. Luckily, the wake from the car in front of us pushed a bit of the water out of our way and we were able to make it to the other side where a bunch of other poor fools were driving around their barricade too. I’m guessing the police barricade signs are optional here.

Our hotel was the Hilton in Tewkesbury. It’s a stately old manor home with a modern wing built onto the back. My diamond status scored me a palatial room with a spacious tub and detached shower in the marble bathroom. I also really enjoyed the fruit basket and small bottles of wine and sparkling water. Jenni had a room on the slum side, which was down a really long poltergeist looking hallway and lacked my fluffy robe and slippers and stuff. We popped into the bar for a quick dinner and to plot out our next day! Stay tuned for an update from Stratford On Avon!