Mo In London

Travel Blog - COMING SOON!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Wow Jet Lag Stinks!

It's 6:30am and I'm at work. Our plane got in 45 minutes early, and I got to go through the UK immigration line for the first time ever! That was seriously the quickest time I have got through the UK immigration EVER!

Ok, screen going blurry, I apologise ahead of time for misspellings or blabbing on and on. Just got off the flight and came straight to work. First of all, I was very disappointed when we got on the plane in Chicago. They had announced that the flight was oversold because of the world cup, and that anyone who wanted to delay their flight until the next day would get put up in a hotel, food vouchers, and $600 worth of travel vouchers on United. So, we volunteered. They had us sit and wait until everyone had boarded, and even assured me when I asked what was going on that we were going to get to stay the night. Then last minute they told us we had to board. And of course when we got on everyone stared at us because we were the last people to get our seats, and they all gave us that 'oh it's YOU who's delaying us taking off' look. Oh well.

Anyhow, so it was an overnight flight, and of course we had some loud excited ladies behind us who talked the WHOLE time (I admit did shush them at one point)! And I just wasn't tired and the seats were too cramped to be comfortable to sleep in, etc etc. So now I will just do some work today and try to last at least 6 hours before going home to collapse.

The trip was fantastic. So sad to leave.

The Sunday before we headed to the house boats we spent all day out on a series of connected lakes in the Brainerd area with our good friends and her parents. It was SO much fun. A gorgeous day, awesome boat, really beautiful lake. It was really sad to leave them - but a lot of fun to catch up!

One funny thing - while in Brainerd we went to get a fishing license. We got a married license because it was cheaper cause I still have my Minnesota driving license. So they had to type in all of Murray's information and the guy couldn't figure our how to use the machine properly, so now my husband is 6 foot 33 inches tall! Also while in Brainerd of COURSE we stopped and got some salad dressings, candy corn and miniature recess peanut butter cups – yummy!

The house boat was a fun experience. We left early Monday morning and drove to meet my family to then drive together the final 2 hours. We had two house boats, for 14 people in total. The lake we went on (Rainy Lake) is in WAY Northern Minnesota near International Falls, which is on the border of Canada. The lake is gigantic! My Dad put it in perspective for me by telling me that the lake my parents live by is about 20 square acres, Rainy Lake is about 200 square acres! Holy cow!

We stayed on the house boats through to Friday morning. Thankfully it didn’t live up to it’s name and it only rained one day though! Every day we'd move to another site. Because it is all national protected land there are very very few cabins, and a lot of marked sites where you can tie up. Each boat also had a little fishing boat with it, although we weren't super successful at the fishing (but not by lack of trying)! We caught about a dozen fish in total I think?? We had some nice Walleye and Northerns for dinner one night. But then when we returned the boats we heard the boat behind us caught 500 fish in their week on the house boat! They must have absolutely fished non stop to have caught that many though, and they did say they’ve been coming for 20 years – so I suppose they know where the fish are.

It was fun to catch up with everyone, and relaxing. We spent the days fishing, relaxing in the sun reading and just chatting. At night after dinner we played one of the many board games my aunt brought, and it was just a great trip!

The only downside was the bugs!!! Murray was attacked, he must have tasty blood because he has TONS of bites. I didn't have as many bites, but I did have 3 terrible deer fly bites which swelled to frightening proportions! I woke up one morning to find one had bit me on the lip while I was sleeping leaving me with a hugely swollen lip all day. Let's just say I did not pose for any pictures that day.

Anyhow, so after a nice week we drove back Friday and some more family came over Friday evening for dinner. It was nice to catch up with that group too!!!

Saturday we slept in a little then hung out at the house all morning. That afternoon we hit the Mall of America for a spot of shopping. It was a bit sickening though to see many things we have bought recently in the UK for literally half the price, oh well. Then that evening we met up for dinner with a few of my friends and that was great to catch up a bit!!!

Sunday we got up early and had a nice breakfast at a local favourite place.

Now we're back. I am SO SO exhausted. Glad to be back, but sad to leave. It's always hard to leave, I miss the people a lot. But, I treasure the time I had with them, and will look forward to our next visit:)

Ok - now I have to try to get some work done!!!

5 Comments:

At 10:08 AM, Blogger andrea said...

I think going home to visit must be bittersweet because you have so much fun and then you have to turn around and leave! But I am glad you had a good time!

 
At 10:19 AM, Blogger Kim said...

Welcome back! This is my first day back to work after holiday too. Luckily, my boss is on holiday this week. Glad to hear you had a good time!

 
At 10:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Glad you had a great time. And I can't believe you are at work today!

 
At 11:22 AM, Blogger Monique said...

Yup - the life of a contractor. I only get paid when I'm here - so I'm here!
Getting quite a bit done today though so that's good! I need to head out soon though - my eyes are starting to hurt they're so tired.

 
At 5:43 PM, Blogger A Novelist said...

Sounds like you had a fun and relaxing time during your trip. Hope the workday goes well for you...

 

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