An email to America.

today:  Windsor Castle. largest in Europe (not that England is Europe). i just can't tell you in a few short sentences, the amount of history associated with this place!?! it has, and is the royal  home outside of Buckingham in London for 900 years running!!! william the conqueror started building it in 1060! (wtf.)  you wouldn't believe it. a storied abbey (of course on site). all the knights, of which there are only 24 at any one point, are knighted at this site. surrounded by walls thick as your little vw. :)

anyway. hour ride on train, out to the countryside. just gorgeous. i hope you have a chance to experience it too someday! i can't imagine the impact your sea travels must have had on you.   i'm soo impressed by your reactions from that experience.

dad, peter, and i had many beers tonight. we pub'd it. little 'bars' allowing you food and drink on the side walk. beer is basement temp, pumped up via large handles the tender pulls forward slowly filling your glass. english blokes bought us a round at a place called the Red Lion. they were 'ok'. had sons in iraq. not happy with us. (US)  interesting convo. peter and i were edgy in a relaxed way. the english are soo polite, even when they don't like you. yada yada yada... good to hear i guess.

peter and i just had sausage dogs in piccadilly circus under the big lights. (think time square), then walked home.

i'm the last to leave tomorrow. mom and dad leave at 8, peter at 10, then me at 12. when gramp left i felt sad. miss him. london feels bigger all of a sudden. amazing what a sense of 'group' can do for you. it's a little like loosing pieces of something, as people leave. oh well. i guess we'll just have to come back again, as a big group!  this has been wonderful. but i can not understand how it went so quickly. seriously. the days are blurs. all we did at our place was get in, talk for a second, sleep, shower, change, and sleep. we are in what must be the nicest part of town too. all of town!  i feel so lucky.

i arrive in dallas around 6:30... i'm going to try not to sleep on the plane so i can get up for work on mon.  call you from dallas.

see attached pics :)  this 1st pic is the 'upper ward' of Windsor Castle. the grounds are broken up into 3 wards. upper, middle, and lower. the rooms behind us are those of the royal quarters and make up litterally very little of this place. the 2nd picture is none other than??? ME!  with Sir Winston offering his unquestioning and full support as a grand background setting. mom took this in a bar called The Horse and Stone, in Windsor at the base of the castle outside the walls... first beer poured in 1468. yeah.  we had fish and chips :)