The Turner Family World Tour 2007-2008...

Paris, Rome and LONDON!

Travel days can be sort of fun...

We had to wake up at 5:00 am to catch our flight at 8:30 am. But it was a two and a half hour non-stop flight meaning we didn't have to make a connection in Rome. We got our bags, bought a train ticket and were in London in about 45 minutes. Found our way to the tube and rode to our hostel, the Lord Baden Powell House about two blocks south of Hyde Park.

After getting our room settled, we rode the tube to Piccadilly Circus to pick up our London City Pass at the Visitor's Center. It's good for all kinds of sights such as the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey to name a few.

Then we walked by way of Horse Guards Road which runs by the Horse Guards Building...

...stopped to feed some squirrels in St. James Park...

....continued around a corner to catch our first glimpse of Big Ben...

...past the Westminster Abbey...

...with it's cool sundial (it was about 3:00 pm)...

...stopped for a photo in the shadow of Big Ben before heading...

...across to the River Thames and onto the London Eye.

We took the ceremonial Lego Storm Trooper photo and Tom added his Sponge Bob Lego.

Nick took our picture from the capsule. The view of London was awesome!

Stopped for a snack (candy bars and water...not a good snack) and walked over to Waterloo Station to catch the RV1 bus which took us over the Tower Bridge and past the London Tower. We changed to the #15 Bus and took it to Piccadilly Circus where we had dinner at....

...wait for it....

....wait.....

Pizza Express!! The boys had the Margherita Pizza and I had the Americana (pepperoni.) Heather chose the salad and swiped a couple of slices of pizza from the boys.

Back to our room by 10:00 pm where the boys took showers and we all passed out from our 18 hour day!

United Kingdom Tour 2008!

I've been super busy with homeschooling and playing travel agent. Some of you may remember us planning a trip for London back in June? Well, tickets bought, plans made...Bud was unable to take vacation due to an important inspection at work (we were told it was going to be at a different time.) ; - (

Then the boys and I went to New Hampshire for the month of July. Yes, I know I still need to blog about our trip and post pictures. We flew Space-A into Dover, Del. via Rota, Spain and saved a ton of money. However, I spent a ton of money on a rental car and shopping!

We have finally recovered from the summer and purchasing school work. I was wanting to plan a fall trip, maybe northern Italy, but was still really wanting to visit England. After about three weeks of work we are finally set ; - ) We are sooooo excited!!!

We depart Catania on Thursday, Oct. 9 in the morning. Arrive in London by 11. We will be staying at the Lord Baden Powell Hotel for 4 nights tooling around London. I purchased the 3 day London Pass and tickets to the London Eye. We have some friends, another homeschooling family, that will be visiting England at the same time and we may meet them in Windsor for dinner. They are visiting Legoland for a few days. We decided to see Windsor Castle instead.

On Monday, Oct. 13, we head to Ireland. We are flying into Shannon Airport, pick up our car and head up the Travelodge in Galway for the night. Along the way we will be stopping at the Cliffs of Moher.

On Tuesday, Oct. 14, we'll be driving up to Northern Ireland to visit the Giants Causeway. I'm sure the boys will play a quick game of Heroscape. Do you see the resemblance? That night we'll be staying at the Sunbeam House B&B in Londonderry.

Wednesday, Oct. 15, we'll spend the morning driving south to Dublin. We'll be at the Abbey Apartments for the night and in the morning heading to the Dublin Airport. We arrive in London Luton by 9:30. Pick up our car and head north to RAF Lakenheath Lodge for the next 4 nights.

From Lakenheath we would like to explore Hadrian's Wall and maybe drive up to Dumfries, Scotland? South to Stonehedge and Avebury and drive thru the Cotswolds.

We head home on Monday, Oct. 20. Ready to get back to school and work. ; - )

I know Bud will have lots of great photos to share.

Ciao,

Heather

Look What We Found!

We went for a drive today looking for new bike rides and found a Canadian WWII Cemetery in Sicily! It's about an hour away in the town of Agira. Nice drive...a bit of a climb so I'm not sure that we'll do it on the bikes (not yet, anyway.) Agira is the town on top of this hill. We stopped for a cappuccino and some gelato.

The drive home took us through a windmill farm. Those things are huge! There's a little white car on the bottom of the picture to give you an idea of how honkin' they are!

We did 43 miles on the bikes yesterday. We're still beginners with our hill training...one was 760' elevation gain. A handful of others before that. Nothing to brag about...but the scenery! Some of the roads are in pretty bad shape, so you really have to watch your descents.

Later that evening we went to a big sporting goods store about an hour south near Siracusa. You would think you can never get used to getting stuck in traffic because of geep (sheep that look like goats) but you do...yes, that's geep poop all over the road.

Ciao...

Bud

Back to School

The boys are back to school and doing great. They are enrolled in the A-Beka DVD Academy. It's an accredited school out of Pensacola, FL. We get all the curriculum for 5th and 7th grade as well as DVD's mailed to us every couple months. The boys watch the DVD for whichever lesson they're on while Heather gets all their lesson plans in notebooks prepared each day. They enjoy it so far and seem to be doing much better in all subjects.

We were supposed to start Sep 2nd, but we started a week early. We're taking a trip to London in October and wanted to be a bit ahead of schedule before we put school on hold for a week or two.

Soccer season has started and only Nick signed up this year. He's just about done with the Italian baseball team until spring. He also has a "job" during the week. Every day he goes down the street to a neighbor's house and checks on their dog. They pay weekly ($25 week) to check the dog's food and water and let him out of the house for a few minutes. Not a bad gig. He's already started shopping for all the coins he plans to buy for his collection.

Tom is Tom. Playing video games, terrorizing the playgrounds, catching frogs and Cub Scouting.

Heather has been appointed an Ombudsman for the Navy base. She just went through three days of refresher training and had an appreciation luncheon today. She also did her first 50 mile ride (all by herself) last week.

I'm trying to survive another year of Cub Scouting (which starts this month.) I have more adult leaders signed up and plan to putting them all to good use!

Gotta go...we just put in "Batman" (the 1989 movie with Michael Keaton.) I need to go make some popcorn...

Ciao,
Bud

New Videos

A video from the expedition up Mt. Etna to watch the lava. It's about 7:00 minutes long and mostly just crazy driving up the mountain.



This is a throw-back to early 90's when Heather was still active duty. It's her re-enlistment ceremony at NAS Brunswick, Maine.

Hiking Mt. Etna

A friend of mine from work, Dax, has been telling me about this great trail on the Mt. Etna. The views are awesome and there's a great spot to see the lava coming down the east side. It didn't disappoint.

The drive up was a road I had never taken before. It was 45 minutes straight up the hill from Dax's house in Nicolosi. The trail head was at an intersection and there were about half a dozen cars parked when we got there.

We took a break a few times, the altitude really sucks the air out of your lungs! The pictures:

First is a break on the trail and some hikers were on their way down with flashlights. Next is me, Dax and another friend who went with us, Ryan. Third is the city of Catania with Jupiter up in the top left corner. Catania is the second largest city on Sicily. Finally, another shot of the lava. Enjoy....ciao!

Never Argue with the Data!

Sunday morning ride....Greg, Trisha, Shane, Erin, Eric, Ray, Mo and Me. This was taken at the bar where we stopped for a cappuccino - at the half-way point. Luigi (one of the Italians Heather and I usually meet every Sunday morning) took the photo.

I set my new Garmin 305 to auto-pause, auto-lap, auto-everything...but it was in running mode. I didn't even think to check when I switched to bike mode this morning so my data is totally skewed. I hung with the EOD crowd at about 19-20 mph, average cadence 90 rpm, total calories 1,695. We went 22.89 miles - not long, but fast!

It was eventful...Trisha got cut off by a car at an intersection and laid her bike down. Her knee is all tore up but her thank heaven her bike and riding outfit are ok. It is a fashion show, after all.

Eric got a flat. We had all these cool gadgets - canisters, adapters, etc - but in the end nothing fit. So luckily Greg broke it down old-school for us with the collapsible pump.

MWR is having a family fun bike event in a couple hours. They're riding perimeter road all the way around the airfield and then playing in the pool and BBQ-ing some burgers. I told the lady who's in charge that I would go early and help out. It's in my best interest - last time they did this we had half-dozen riders take a wrong turn and rode across the runways!

Happy Birthday to Nick and Tom! Hope you guys had a great birthday...you better call me tell me what you got....

Ciao,

Bud