Family Visits

With just a few weeks before our departure from London we got some very welcome family visits. First, our youngest daughter, Jill came to visit from May 22nd to 29th. For part of that time we also enjoyed the visit of Debbie Peoples, Jill's aunt. They arrived together after some time in Germany and a few days in Paris -- Debbie left to return to Germany after a couple of days, but Jill remained with us for a week until she left for the US and home.

It was great to have them both here -- they did what we usually recommend for all our visitors -- toured London on the open-top, get off-and-on bus. It's a great way to get oriented to the city and to see what sights to return to.

Jill and Kathi went to see "Mary Poppins" on stage -- the second time for Kathi, but she said it was as great as it was the first time. Jill really enjoyed it, too -- of course it's one of the best shows we've seen since our arrival in London, so we really did expect her to like it a lot. To continue with our now traditional affiliation with West End theater, we also took Jill with us to see a newly opened musical comedy called "The Drowsy Chaperone" at the Novello Theater. (Chuck has a soft spot for that theater, as he had (and has) several cousins named Novello.)

After some difficulties with Continental Airlines at Gatwick Airport (they cancelled her ticket to return to the US -- for some reason they decided she hadn't made her flight to Europe a couple of weeks earlier) she did finally return home safely to San Diego.

Lisa Caldwell, Kathi's cousin, and Lisa's uncle David Wood (who is not related to Kathi) were our next guests, arriving on 10 June and departing on the 20th. David is a committed Anglophile and has, for years, imagined visiting England and the UK. For most of the 10 days he was here he was on cloud nine. He's active in several aviation-oriented on-line groups where there are a number of other participants from the UK. David had arranged to visit several of these "internet friends" while here, so in the midst of the visit he took a couple of days to visit some of these friends in Southampton and other places. Lisa went with David for some of the outside-London visits, but returned to us a day sooner than David did.

Lisa, too, found London and the UK equally enjoyable. Once again we recommended that she and David take the open-top bus tour of the city to get the "lay of the land" and to see what sites they would want to return to. Among their activities were visits to the British Museum, the British Library, the aviation museum at Duxford (outside London) and others. Lisa and Kathi visited Windsor Castle and had high tea while David was visiting some of his friends outside the city.

While here they attended "Phantom of the Opera" at the Queen's Theater. They were also kind enough to take Kathi and Chuck to dinner and a play. Since we had enjoyed "The Drowsy Chaperone" so much (and because there were not many plays available at the half-price booth on that day) we went with them to a second viewing (for us) of "The Drowsy Chaperone". David and Lisa both found this madcap, but highly original show very enjoyable.