the weekend update: issue #2, volume I

Hola, amigos and amigettes!  Again, sorry it's been awhile since I've written, but after cranking out ten pages worth of essays in the past 24 hours I didn't feel like writing another word to, for, or about anything or anyone!  We'll start with the weekend rundown:
1. Saturday: Greenwich!
2. Sunday: St. Paul's Cathedral!
3. Sunday NIGHT: Superbowl!

Exclamation points!

Sitting here now drinking some Orange Tango (it's like a fusion of Orangina and Fanta, only better...) and listening to "bare: the musical" :) and I feel so ADD right now!  Today has been very long and I got very little sleep due to the fact that the Superbowl airs starting at nearly midnight when you are a resident of the UK like I am...blech.

1. Greenwich: Charlie, Coleen and I took a wonderful day trip to Greenwich on Saturday!  It was a gorgeous day...very sunny, very temperate, and pretty clear, which was perfect for what we were doing.  We started the day off with coffee, which was absolutely essential after the night of fun we had all had the night prior.  (I am unhealthily addicted to English coffee...the espresso is about twenty-million times stronger than it is in America, and so I've been forced to relegate myself to mochas since the coffee is just SO caffeiney and strong.  Mmmm yum.)  Coleen and I were immediately attracted to the many darling boutiques lining the main street of Greenwich's centre, but Charlie kept us under control...for the morning, anyway.

We headed down to the piers hoping to see the Cutty Sark, a famous old British Naval ship that I know absolutely nothing about, but it was undergoing renovation and we couldn't even catch a glimpse.  Instead, we continued along the piers and ended up wandering through the quads and courtyards of the Royal Naval Academy, which was ridiculously beautiful and stately and had great views right along the Thames. Charlie then led us to the National Maritime Museum, a huge tribute/museum dedicated to the history of Britain on the water!  We saw so many cool things, including Lord Nelson's uniform from when he was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar, the official gilded barges of the Royal Family from hundreds of years ago, and beautiful stained glass from the East India Company's offices back when it was the premier shipping and trading center in Europe.  We spent several hours there and continued on to Greenwich Park, the former home of the palace (which is sadly not there anymore, boo).

After wandering the gorgeous and expansive park grounds enjoying the sun, we hiked up the hill to the Greenwich Observatory, home of 0 Longitude and the Prime Meridian, as well as the biggest telescope ever (or something, I don't really know!).  The views on the way up were SO beautiful!  We could see London's entire financial district, home to some of the world's most powerful companies, and in the distance could see St. Paul's Cathedral and some of the more historic skyline.  I took so many pictures!  We then nerded out over the history of clocks, the astronomy center, and went a little nuts over the Prime Meridian.  It was really cool to think about standing in two hemispheres at once...even though it was really just standing on an arbitrarily-decided line that really demarcates nothing...sigh.

Charlie had his Frisbee so we played some very challenged Frisbee across the Prime Meridian...he is really good, but Coleen and I both had difficult shoes on, and it was muddy, and we can't throw or catch them very well.  Still, dual-hemisphere Frisbee was a life experience I am very glad I had!  WE headed back down to the central town and on the way passed a boutique called Bullfrogs that Coleen and I just could NOT pass up...we went shopping and both totally scored!! I got a super super cute black coat with bow-buttons and Coleen got two dresses!  Charlie was bored stiff but we headed back soon after making our purchases...overall, a very successful day of fun!

Blech, this is going to be a really long blog.  And I have to go put laundry in.  I think I'm going to go throw that in and take a break; Part II will follow soon!