and you didn’t even know we were gone, did you?  that’s because kevin said DON’T POST ON YOUR SITE WHEN WE’LL BE GONE.  i guess because many people would be RUSHING OVER HERE TO STEAL THINGS.

instead, we came home to a sparkling clean house.  jim’s nephew TK cleaned the place right before we got back.

we left for the UK on friday, august 19th and we got back wednesday.  yesterday i was so tired that i could barely function, but this morning i’ve been busily downloading the photos and the video.

I SHOT SO MUCH VIDEO.  i had about four hours worth when we went to scotland, and i figured that there probably wouldn’t be so much to shoot this time because we weren’t going to the scenic countryside.  i was wrong.  there’s just about four hours worth of stuff.  plus kevin took about 400 photos, and i took about a hundred with the video camera.  OVER-ZEALOUS, is all i have to say.

so right before we left there was, of course a frenzied rush of activity on my part.  i decided i should write a bunch of posts and then post-date them so they’d appear throughout our trip AS THOUGH WE WEREN’T GONE AT ALL.  so our friend janice and garrick came over on friday afternoon to take us to bloomington where we’d spend the night before taking the plane in the morning, but i was still FRANTICALLY POSTING THINGS HERE.  i kept stopping to say I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE JUST LEAVING IN A MINUTE.

there’s always too many things to do right at the end.  it’s just like getting ready for a party – i always think i’m way, way ahead of the game and then suddenly there’s only ONE HOUR LEFT and i’m running around like a crazy person.

when we went to scotland two years ago, i kept posting the photos of our trip, and it took me at least a year and a half to finally post the many, many little videos of the trip.  this time i’m going to try to be more organized – i’m creating a UK page, and i’ll post the photos and video for each section.  you might not see the final days of the trip for a very long time, but i’m going to attempt to not be so anal with the editing, and i’m also going to attempt to not be so INCREDIBLY LAZY in getting the videos posted.

even though we did no biking this trip, it was exhausting anyway.  for one thing, we walked way too much on many days, and then we’d be totally worn out.  in london we finally got smart and mostly rode on the top of double-decker buses, but that was after walking somewhere around 10 miles the first day.

we also went to windsor castle, to the isle of wight, to other little towns, and we sailed home on the queen mary 2.  i ate almost everything there was.

we stayed a couple nights with our friend carol who we’d met the last time on the QM, and we got to meet her super-nice husband alan and their very good dog bob, then we met their daughter emma and her family.

we actually met quite a few english people on this trip, plus a couple of nice people from right her in the USA.

while we were gone, amy kept sending me texts, mostly of our animals who we MISSED SO MUCH.

here’s mollie, waiting by the door at amy’s house the day we were riding home.  i know mollie had a great time with amy and jim because amy spoils her and pets her a lot and takes excellent care of her.  we’re really, really lucky to have them living next door, and they took such good care of our animals.

i had been happy that winnie and les paul were eating in the basement because it’s of course very un-hygenic for them to eat on the kitchen counter.  but somehow they’re back to doing it again.  amy sent me this photo, and i thought it funny that les was eating right behind the sink.

in the detailed instructions i left, i said that in addition to cleaning, i hoped TK would spend lots of time with Les, and of course he did because les is SO ADORABLE.

here’s just one picture from our trip – this is tuesday, waiting to take the train from NYC to home.  because we were going to stay in a sleeper car, we got to go to the fancy, not-crowded deeluxe waiting room, with free giant muffins and soda.  nice.

and this is kevin, when we finally got on the train.  this wasn’t the biggest sleeper car, cause that one was INSANELY expensive.  this is the regular sleep, and right next to kevin there is our toilet.  very, very close quarters there in our sleeper.

ok, maybe i’ll start editing the video RIGHT NOW…but i haven’t moved from this seat all morning and it’s almost one…

yeah, it might be a wait for the UK stuff, but i PROMISE i’ll do it as fast as i can…

ok ok ok,

mrs. home-again hughes.