This turned out to be our first really nice day on our trip. We had, had some sun in England, but the days had been mostly cloudy and always a little chilly. It was sunny and got up to about 65 F.

We had been keeping an eye on the weather so we had planning to spend the day outside.

First we head out of the city to see some windmills. There was a little town Heather had researched a short train ride away called Zaanse Schans so we headed out there. It was touristy, but it was not very crowded and they have 6 operational windmills doing things like making flour, paint, and lumber. Also the town had a big chocolate factory in it so the whole place smelled like coca.

The day began with a song, through my morning haze it sounded familiar, Heather later told me it was “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. I was a long way from figuring that out, when the song ended a calm voice started speaking loudly in Dutch from what sounded like just a few feet above my bed. My initial thought was that we had all slept in for way too long and the “ferry people” were in our room, telling us it was time for us to leave to boat. No one was in the room, then I noticed it was still dark out side, and the voice was coming from a loud speaker in the ceiling I had not noticed before. Then the English version of he announcement came on, explaining we had an hour before it was time to disembark. I tried to get more sleep for the next 45 minutes, alas a similar message was given every 15 minutes counting down the minutes before it was time to leave. Over all my experience on the ferry was a good one (much better then flying). However I wish there was an option to opt out of the wake up announcement. I ended up wishing we had taken a longer route or a slower ferry so we could get a full night’s sleep.

After another good night sleep and kind of a slow morning we went for a walk around Eliot and Kristine’s house. They live near a sort of Park/Nature preserve thing. It is an all open area, apparently rabbits really like it. We mostly saw people with their dogs though. We also spent some time visiting Eliot and Kristine’s very quite neighbors in a cemetery, some folks had been there since the early 1800s. After a nice walk Eliot had to go into work. We said “good bye” to him and Kristine dropped us off to look around the town of Mildenhall.

At last, I got a chance to sleep in. Eliot and Kristine’s couch was very comfortable. We took our time getting started. We had done a lot of stuff the last 3 days and we were pretty tired.

We had been warned to watch out for some of the neighborhood cats. In England, Eliot and Kristine explained to us, the rules/customs about how animals are handled are a lot different. Cats can not be de-clawed and are basically given free reign. Eliot and Kristine have a cat door for Beck their main cat. They also kind of have a second cat, “Big Cat”, they pretty sure he’s leading a double life though and has another family somewhere else. “Big cat” likes to sleep in the guest bed Heather and Elysia were sleeping in, he is shy around people he doesn’t know though and if he showed up he did not wake anyone up. I might have had to deal with “Orange Cat”, apparently “he” is rarely seen by anyone, but he likes to sleep on the short couch in the living room (I was sleeping on the long one) based on the hair that is left behind. No sign of him though, if “Orange Cat” stopped by he was not loud enough to wake me up.

I was able to sleep a little bit more on Saturday morning, but I was still out of bed by 7. The three of us went down to Starbucks again to get on the Internet. Starbucks was closed. It did not open until 8am. I assumed Starbucks would have some international rule about opening early. I guess not. So we hung out in a small park until it opened.

We walked over to Buckingham Palace, and took some pictures in front of the palace. Then we walked down to a double decker bus tour. It works where you buy a ticket for a day and you can get on and off as much as you like. Heather and I had already seen a few of the things on the tour so we rode the bus all the way to Regent’s Park. It was very nice. There were a lot of flowers blooming. They had all these named plots that looked like they had rose bushes in them that were named like race horses. It was too early for the roses, but I’ll bet it is amazing with they are in bloom.

I was looking forward to a long nights sleep, which I needed. Good’ol jet lag kicked in and I was up at 5:00am. Which would have been about 11pm at home, so I have no idea what went on there. I was hoping to get caught up later that night.

I went down to a coffee shop at 6am, got on the Internet and finished up some work I had left over from the day before. Then breakfast at the hotel. Then we headed out walking.

After work I went home, threw the rest of my stuff together, I missed my bus downtown (or it just never came, who knows). Fortunately, I have a roommate who was happy to take me downtown (thanks Ben). Then I took the light rail to the international airport. I met Heather there. We said “goodbye” to our bags and headed through security. I can’t remember the last time there was no line at security. I guess I need to fly more on weeknights.

Time for another trip. This time Carol is staying home. I’m going to Europe with a couple of my friends (I’ll introduce them later).

Here’s the plan. I’m getting on a plane tomorrow night (technically later today) and flying to London England. I’ll spend a couple of days in the city, then we’re taking a train up to Mildenhall England to visit my brother and sister-in-law. We’ll spend a couple of days up there. Then a train, over night ferry and another train to Amsterdam Netherlands. We’ll spend a few days there. Then one more train to Paris France. We’ll spend a few days there. Then fly home. I’ll be gone for about 12 days.

I’ve never been a huge fan of Christmas music, some it’s OK, and there are a few songs I really like, but I usually have to be careful to avoid it until the few weeks right around Christmas or I risk getting burned out.

I’m borrowing (was inspired by) something from a blog I read pretty regularly called Planet Dan. In fact he just came out with his 2010 christmas playlist.

Me and Dan don’t exactly have the same musical tastes but there were some really good songs he found. So, between the stuff Dan has picked and a few Christmas albums/LPs I’ve collected that I like I figure I’ve got enough material to make my own Christmas music playlist this year.

I got a call from the impound lot of Sunday afternoon. I did not get it because I was at the Vikings game (great game). They found Carol. No word on her condition though.

Monday morning I planned on picking her up. Before I could call to confirm things with the impound lot a got a call from the officer in charge of my case. He explained that they had arrested the person they found driving the car (there were two people in the car when they found it, they may have arrested both of them).