I’m frightfully tired this evening, so this update may be even a bit less lucid than usual. (Fair warning!)

Today’s adventures started at 7:40am, when Chris came by to get me so that we could go pick up rental cars. Five things made the driving throughout the day particularly interesting for me:

1. I haven’t been driving with any regularity since starting work at the University
2. I haven’t driven a car with a manual transmission for several years now
3. Traffic Circles (or roundabouts, as they’re called here) give me the heebies. They’re abundant in England.
4. I’ve never driven on the left side of the road
5. By American standards, both cars and lanes are extraordinarily narrow, which provides a pretty constant harrowing “just missed” feel whenever driving anywhere.

We did, however, make it back from the rental place without incident, other than a few scraped sidewalls on the tires as I misjudged the distance to the curb. After picking up the rest of the family, we proceeded on to Topsham, where we caught an excursion boat out to Exmouth. Once again, the guide exhibited a good deal of wit in his presentation as he explained the history of the area, discussed specific castles and other structures we passed, and generally made the trip a delight.

At Exmouth, we went down to the beach, gobbled up the delicious sandwiches Becky’s mum Betty had provided for our lunch, and played along the water’s edge for a good while. The water was too cold for much serious bathing, but the kids enjoyed playing among the dunes and making sand castles. We were very impressed with the number and variety of shells that had washed up on the shore — far more and nicer specimens than we generally find on the gulf coast. (Pictures constructed from the shells were a common sight along the water’s edge.) As the afternoon wore on, the wind picked up dramatically. Chris and I played a game where we’d toss his hat straight up into the air, wait for the wind to take it, and then see if the person 75 feet down the beach could catch it before it landed. The kids were finally getting sandblasted enough with the dry sand and wind that we decided to retire from the lovely coast setting, take a train back to Topsham, and retire to a nearby pub.

While the process of getting to The Double Locks Pub was a ridiculous and frustrating comedy of errors, we all eventually arrived and enjoyed a few pints and some dinner. Dad ordered The Ploughman’s Lunch, a standard working man’s meal, which included chutney, salad, various cheeses, some meats, and a pickled onion, and which I’d been keen to try. The pub itself was beautiful, situated on a canal, with only a very small road with a harrowing bridge providing automotive access, but with easy availability to pedestrians, bikes, and boats. (It even catered to swans and dogs!) We enjoyed our time there a great deal, and hope to get back again before our time in Exeter is done.

Note: you can see all of our posted England photos so far right here.

Today is the day that travel ate. After yesterday’s hard-charging schedule, we took a while to wake up, cook up some quesadillas with the tortillas we’d been surprised to find in the cabinet, and loiter around the house for a bit. While Kathy, Lana, and Meara went to get some genuine English fish & chips for lunch, we were delighted to find the Delta baggage delivery man at our door — the last of the luggage had finally arrived!

And none to soon, either. As soon as we finished scarfing down the fish & chips , we made a hasty exit, leaving the house about 1:00 to try wrangle our luggage through the Underground in time to meet a 2:05 train for Exeter. This, in retrospect, was a singularly silly thing to do. It would have been difficult enough if the only obstacle had been manhandling the bags on and off the trains, but we also managed to get pretty confused by the various connections, and ended up transferring from one train to another about 5 times. We finally arrived at Paddington Station at about 2:30, missing both the train we’d been shooting for and the one after it. Fortunately, there was a 3:05, which while it wouldn’t get us to Exeter in time to pick up our rental cars, was at least an express, which meant the trip would take only two hours, instead of the 3.5 the locals require.

So we voyaged through the verdure of the English countryside, my enchantment with the views out the window alternating with attempts to contain the rambunctious junior set. For someone used to the sere beauty of the Texas Hill Country, England is a revelation. The canals that used to be a vital part of the nation’s transportation infrastructure now create a wonderful venue for a boater’s holiday. (We saw many lovely canal boats with which I was quite taken.) The hedgerows, often cultivated over hundreds of years, seem a singularly civilized alternative to barbed wire. We caught glimpses of the famous Wiltshire White Horses, which were until today completely unknown to all of us. It’s quite surprising to suddenly catch a glimpse of one of these huge chalk horses on the side of a mountain. The farmhouses and towns are every bit as lovely and charming as one’s mental image.

We finally made it to Exeter and were warmly greeted by Chris, Becky’s mom Betty, and her Uncle Frank. Betty had been kind enough to arrange a place for us to stay and provided our first taste of the pasty, an English staple which most of us quite enjoyed. We then took a walk around the block, spotting another of the ubiquitous lovely churches not a block from the house and stumbling across Abbey Road. (While not the actual famous one, the kids had been excited about seeing Abbey Road in England, so we decided to take photos here, since we were far less likely to be run over in the suburbs of Exeter than in the heart of London.) We visited with Chris for a while longer, discussed plans for the remainder of the week, and finally said goodnight.

Today, we were tourists. We rode the Underground to the Tower of London which, in spite of its name, is really more like a small city itself — an impression reinforced by the fact that it closes up its walls completely at night, cutting itself off from the rest of London. (There’s even a physician on staff in case any of the overnighters is taken ill.) It’s a spectacular place, having grown in various stages over the better part of a thousand years — a startling thing for those of us who have grown up in a country that is itself barely a fifth that span in age.

We enjoyed lunch at Southern Fried Chicken near the Tower, which aside from the inexplicably small beverages and the vague sense of guilt caused by having travelled a fourth of the way around the world to eat fried chicken, was pretty palatable. After getting chased out of the Tower at closing time, we proceeded to ride the top deck of the #15 bus — a worthy adventure, though not the one we had intended, since we chose the bus going the wrong direction and ended up at the end of the line before we quite knew what was going on. We then rode the Underground back to the house, and enjoyed grilled cheese, cereal, and other assorted comestibles for dinner. Notable among these was ginger beer, which has a much stronger ginger taste than does American ginger ale. It reminds me of ginger Altoids; I like it very much. The bets surprise during dinner came when two of our three renegade bags came home to roost, courtesy of the man from the airport.

A few observations about London so far: it’s very entertaining just people-watching here. Since the culture is several steps removed from that of the US, it’s amusing to try to figure out who seems eccentric simply because one isn’t used to the way things are done here, and who actually is eccentric. While the young man who looks like an escapee from a failed 70’s band with a severe soap allergy probably falls into the former category, I’m pretty sure the man on the subway who kept trying to drink from his water bottle through his cheek, rather than the more common mouth-based method, landed squarely in the latter.

London is also, at least to this Texan, surprisingly vertical. The buildings nearly all seem to go up at least three stories, layering apartments above the street level stores to make the most of the meagre square footage the building has been able to eke out. Towering above those are a startling mixture of classical and modern buildings, ranging from delightfully rococo to smooth shimmery glass eggs that dwarf everything around them. Then the Underground extends many stories below ground, and there are innumerable pedestrian underpasses to make traversing busy streets more manageable. Even a passing dump truck seemed like it was compressed, like a movie shown with the wrong aspect ratio, to accommodate the narrow lanes. Speaking of vehicles, it’s an interesting change of pace to be constantly dealing with traffic, but to see no pickup trucks or SUV’s.

Tomorrow we take to the rails again and ride to Exeter to meet up with some of the extended family and start the official pre-wedding merry-making. Hopefully our remaining vagaband suitcase will follow the example of Abigail’s passport and show up in the nick of time.

I’ll replace this with a more complete update once I work out some technical issues. Here, however, is the short version:

Today we were tourists, saw the Tower of London, rode the Double Decker Bus and the Underground, and generally wore ourselves out. Two of our three bags have now arrived, so I’ve just had my first shower in days. Aaaahhh…

Hello all! We’ve made it to London safely, met up with with Mom McMains, and are waiting for the rest of the extended family to show up! London’s overwhelming…more to come once we’re settled a bit more.

Today we traveled from San Antonio to London by way of Atlanta. This was the first time several of the kids had been on a plane, so the fear and nerves quickly gave way to novel excitement, which kept the young ones entertained for the first leg of our flight. The trip to Atlanta took about two hours, the trip from their to London about eight. Unfortunately, none of us did a particularly good job sleeping on the plane, the effects of which we felt rather strongly the next day.

We arrived about 6:00am GMT, loitered around the terminal for a few minutes until Mom McMains arrived, and then made our way through customs, etc. (The big bit of drama at this point was that of our three checked bags, exactly none of them had made it to the airport.) We loaded into the Gatwick Express — our first genuine English rail trip! The kids weren’t as immediately impressed with the mode of travel as I’d hoped, but enjoyed peering out the window, seeing some farmland, factories, other trains, and lots of row houses. We took a few short naps, went to a nearby park, the notable feature of which was one of the longest slides I’ve ever laid eyes on, met up with Dad McMains, Lana, and Meara a few hours later, rummaged through the stuff that Gordon had kindly left us in the fridge, and rustled up some dinner.

By the end of our meal, I was fading quickly due to the fact that I hadn’t napped earlier nor slept on the plane, and ended up drifting off in my chair a few times, much to the amusement of the assembled audience. I later moved to the couch in front of Monty Python’s Meaning of Life, nearly all of which I missed, to continue my snooze.

Abigail’s passport arrived on schedule yesterday, so we’re all going to England together today. We’ll be leaving the house in about an hour, and should arrive in London at about 6:00am tomorrow morning (what would be midnight for our biological set-to-San-Marcos clocks).

Kathy has done a tremendous job getting the kids ready and packed, and Christina and Linda, her visiting mom, have been an enormous help with various organizational, cooking, and chauffering chores. Thanks tremendously, ladies!

Our next update should be from London!

We’re engulfed in a pile of stressful last minute stuff as we finalize our preparations to leave for England this Saturday. Most interesting bits:

• We still don’t have Abigail’s passport. The Passport Agency said that Kathy hadn’t signed one of the documents, but didn’t bother to tell us until several days after everybody else’s passports had been delivered. Kathy signed and FedExed the document back as soon as she got it, and the Passport Agency signed for it on Monday, where it has evidently sat in their mail room since. Today they finally decided to process it, but only after extorting another $60 for expedited service, even though we’re now outside of the six week window we were supposed to allow for their regular service. (We submitted Abigail’s application on May 27.) We should have it tomorrow if all goes well, at which point we’ll rest secure in the knowledge that the State Department is protecting the world from virulent eight-year-old-girl terror cells.
• Saskatchewan, our injured dove, seems fairly happy munching birdseed in the cage we’ve set aside for him. Unfortunately, his wing doesn’t seem to be improving. There’s an animal rescue organization in Austin that one of our friends tipped us off to, but there’s no way we’re going to have a chance to deliver the critter up there before we leave. Anybody want to act as a bird chauffer?
• Our front door was falling off the house, and several other outside doors had cracks that went all the way through — not the most energy efficient portal in 100 degree Texas summers. Kathy put her amazing bargain-shopping skills to use, and found some lovely doors with nice big glass elements, priced amazingly cheaply, at the Habitat for Humanity store in Austin. Our friend RJ came up from San Antonio yesterday to give us a hand installing them, and was amazed to see once he pulled off all the trim that the front door frame had only been secured with a single nail. “All I can figure is that somebody had put it in place temporarily, stabilized it with the nail, and forgot about it.” Thanks to Kathy and RJ’s efforts, the new doors are now in place, secured with many more nails than their predecessors, and look great. (The back door has such a big pane of glass in it that I keep walking into the living room and thinking someone’s left the door standing open.)

After all this, I’m rather looking forward to being on the plane, and not being able to do a dang thing about my to-do list for eight hours straight. We’ll be dragging an iBook along on the journey, so I’ll be updating the weblog whenever we have connectivity and can squeeze in the time.

Many thanks to Christina, Lori, and the other folks who have been extremely helpful as we’re getting these last things squared away!

Ok, Windows users, I’ve reencoded Laser Boy & Dog Girl vs. The Tooth Fairy for your viewing pleasure. While I was at it, I fixed the aspect ratio so that our children are no longer squished into oddly emaciated versions of themselves.

So, if you missed it the first time, you can grab the kids Magnum Opus right here.

The kids and I decided on Sunday night that we were going to make a movie. It started out as an Indiana Jones thing, but for lack of props morphed into something else entirely. After about 3 hours of filming and 5 hours of post-production work, we have more-or-less finished our premiere production:

Enjoy, and be sure to send fan mail to the actors.

Update: It would appear that the Windows version of Quicktime doesn’t yet support the codec I used to encode this. Sorry, Windows guys. I’ll see if I can’t get an updated file online before we split town this weekend.

Update 2: This should now work for Windows users as well.