Super Tourist: Part 4

London
The above shot was actually taken my last full day in London, but it is one of my favorites from the trip. It is not often statues on buildings are painted, and I love the contrast the side of the building creates with the sky. It looks like two photos side by side, but it's not.

Anyway, so we got to London and started on a bus tour of the town to take up time until the hotel was ready. Before the bus tour though we stopped for lunch. The bus parked behind St. Paul's Cathedral and we went and bought some fruit and sandwiches at Marks and Spencers and ate them on the steps of St. Paul's. It was such a great feeling to be back in London! I was sad the bus tour never stopped to let us take pictures of the famous sites, but it was still interesting. Here is a detail picture of St. Paul's I took after lunch though.After getting into the hotel we had to do laundry so we treked off to find the laundromat. It was 3.20 pounds just to wash! That is about $6 per load, and we had three loads. Yikes! Later I did a walking tour of Kensington where we were staying. I love walking around London and just looking at all the great architecture. Here are two pictures I took on my walk. The first is of someone's front window, the second of a plaque marking the home of the author of Wind in the Willows.
The second day in London I was off to see the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, and then Kensington Palace. I had tried to see the Tower of London previously but it had such long lines that I did not have time to get in. This time though I went early and was able to walk right in--no queues and very few people there. There was a ton to see there and I enjoyed the history. Sorry I couldn't resist the standard tourist-y shots here.

Super Tourist: Part 3

Last Day in Paris

The last day in Paris I took a train out to see Versailles, then went to the Musee d'Orsay, and took a boat tour of the Seine. Versailles had a really long line and was partly under construction. I was also in a time crunch so I skipped the audio tour and just walked through on my own. The Hall of Mirrors was beautiful--I would have loved to see it without all the people that were in the room at the time, but it was still remarkable. The gardens were also lovely. I would like to go back here someday to do the tour properly and spend more time, but I am still glad I went. The shot above is from Versailles, as well as below.

At the Musee d'Orsay is a collection of impressionist artwork, including Monet, Renoir, and Degas. I enjoyed this museum more than the Louvre, partly because the size of it is more manageable, but mainly because the artwork is more to my style. It was amazing to see the original works of famous paintings I have see copies of hundreds of times--they were just there hanging on the walls with no glass over them or anything. Really cool. My mom and I ran around in there taking pictures of the famous paintings we love to use for our Art Masterpiece classes we teach in the spring.Finally, the boat tour of the Seine was at night and I was not able to get any good pictures due to the darkness. But on the way back to the hotel we were able to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up. At 11 p.m. there the lights on it start to twinkle for 15 minutes and it is a beautiful sight. I would have liked to gazed at it longer but was in desperate need of a bathroom at the time! I will just have to enjoy this picture instead. It is a bit crooked because I was on the boat at the time and had a hard time getting the angle right.The next day we took the Chunnel to London and were there by lunch time. Stay tuned for more Super Tourist adventures in London!

Super Tourist: Part 2

More of Paris

My second day in Paris I spent sightseeing with my mom while my dad was off visiting a business with his students. First we went to Saint Chappelle, a small church on the same island as Notre Dame. This was one of my favorite sites--I think because it was so colorful (love the red and blue and gold). Both the walls and all the stained glass windows were very colorful. Basically, the windows record most of the Biblical scriptures in story form in stained glass. Some of it has had to be replaced and is not original, but it was all beautiful. Here is a picture from the lower level of it.
After Saint Chappelle we wandered over to Notre Dame. My mom had been here before so she sat outside while I went in to check it out. I did not go to the bell towers, but stayed on the ground floor. Although I thought Notre Dame was okay, I was disappointed in how dusty it was. I would think they would have a better cleaning and maintenance staff. But I guess not. Notre Dame and Saint Chapelle are on an island called Isle de Cite. Next to this island is a smaller island called Isle de St. Louis, which is where we went next. There were some lovely small shops and we had lunch there. I took this snapshot of the Seine as we went over a footbridge between the two islands.
By this time my legs were killing me from all the stairs and walking. So we went back to the hotel to rest up before dinner. For dinner my parents and I went to Chartier. It had lots of French fancy-dress waiters rushing around. I ordered a salad with my chicken for dinner there, but what came was a plate of sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with some diced onion on top. Different, I admit, but it tasted good. This is a picture of a wall of mirrors inside the restaurant--I like the way it turned out.And a shot of our waiter. We told him he looked like a young Tom Hanks, but either he did not believe us or could not understand English very well:-)!

Last day in Paris to come later this evening. Hope your day is going well so far!

Super Tourist: Part 1

So I am home now and have been awake since 4:30 am this morning. I guess that is what a London to Phoenix flight will do to your sleep patterns! Any way, I had such a great time it is hard to know where to begin. I thought I would break this up into several posts-Paris and London. There is no way I could post all of my pics, so I will have to narrow it down... somehow.

Paris

I arrived at about dinner time after three flights and restless sleep. I was picked up from Charles de Gaulle Airport by a guy in a turban holding a sign with my parents' names on it. I was expecting this, so I (in very broken French) identified myself as the party for whom he was seeking and off we went. It was raining so we walked as much through the airport to the cab as possible. He had to drive me for about 45 minutes to get to the hotel, where I found my mom waiting in the lobby. It was a relief to know I had finally made it to the right place. After stowing my gear in my room (which I shared with one of the Baylor students--Janelle), we went out for Chinese food and then I crashed.

The next day was Sunday and it started with a bus tour of famous sites. The first stop was the Arc de Triomphe (please excuse any misspellings--my jet lagged brain is not functioning quite normally yet). It was beautiful--so huge and majestic. This is my favorite shot I got of it:We also stopped at Le Hotel des Invalides (hospital for those wounded in war--mostly it is a historical landmark now, but apparently they still have a few hundred patients staying there). Here is a pic of it--I never went inside, but would have liked to.
On this same bus tour we went by the hotel Princess Diana left before the car crash, and then by the tunnel too. I was surprised at how short the tunnel was--it appeared much longer to me on the media. C'est la vie (that's life). There were other great things on this tour, but the only other picture I will show is the Eiffel Tower. I never went up it during my stay--was always on the run to do other things and the line was always so long... but what's a trip without at least one regret, right?After the bus tour we went to Mountmart--which is a church up on a hill in Paris. This area is where the artists hang out and a lot of them were working and trying to sell their work that day. There were also a lot of charming shops near the curch. We had lunch here. I ordered a Monsieur Croque, which was supposed to be a grill cheese sandwich with ham in it. This is what it turned out to be--yum yum (can anyone say dinner tonight?).
After Mountmart I went with some of the students to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. It was the first Sunday of the month, so all the museums in Paris were free that day. Needless to say it was crowded and warm there, but I did find the Mona Lisa and a number of other famous art pieces. This picture shows the crowd in front of the painting. Overall I would say the Louvre is very cool. I can totally understand why they say it is overwhelming now. So huge...
Stay tuned for more Super Tourist travel info. More to come later today ;)

Scripture of the Day: D&C 121:27

Picture Perfect

About eight years ago there was a fun idea mentioned in the Ensign to use the Gospel Art Kit pictures for scripture study time with kids. I thought this was a fun idea and used it for a while. Each week I picked four new pictures. Monday through Thursday I would show the kids a new picture and read the story from the back of the picture. On Fridays I would show the kids all four of the week's pictures, briefly review the stories. Then I would quiz them to see if they could remember which story went with which picture. The pictures really help keep kids' attention.

In addition to using the pictures for scripture study time, I also made copies of the pictures (reduced to 30% of the original size). I placed a bit of glue on the left edge of the copy and stuck it down in the binding of my kids' scriptures. Make sure to place the picture where the story actually takes place. Patch and Kitty liked looking at these pictures during the sacrament at church; sometimes I whisper the stories again to them.

Scripture of the Day: Mormon 6:22

The Sound of Music

Last summer I was prompted to sing hymns with my kids as part of our morning devotional. Mainly it was a suggestion by my good friend Becky, but I also had a strong feeling I should follow her suggestion. Then at the beginning of the summer I was feeling overwhelmed by all that I wanted to accomplish and actually getting through it. I started to think maybe I had set my sights too high and thought maybe I should forget the hymn idea so I didn't overwhelm myself. A debate started in my head as to whether or not I should do it. I decided to do it, but only if a certain hymn (I've forgotten which one now) was the first song on the tape {you see, I didn't want to have to do the fast forward/rewind search of the audio tape to get to the beginning of the song that morning}. So I pulled out the tape that had the specific hymn on it, and sure enough it was the first one on that side of the tape. As a result we sang that morning and used hymns each weekday morning for our devotional.

This year I think I will use songs from the Primary songbook, particularly ones the kids will be learning for the fall program. I try to sing the same song all week long with the kids to help them learn it well. I also post the words or use the book so they can read along as they sing. With the hymns last year, I found it helpful to sing upbeat songs with a march-beat to them. Slow Sacrament hymns did not go over well (trust me, I know from experience). With Primary songs, I do not think I will have the same level of unfamiliarity, so it should be fun.

Scripture of the Day: Ether 3:14

June Scripture Theme

Time for a new month and a new theme. This month's is based on fathers in celebration of Father's Day. The theme has pictures of five different kinds of fathers: Heavenly Father, Spiritual Father (Jesus Christ), Earthly Father (dads), Ward Father (bishops), and Founding Fathers. Scriptures about these fathers are read randomly and the family members are challenged to listen and determine which father is being discussed in it. Here is what the theme looks like posted on my kitchen cabinets (please excuse the glare):
If you are interested in trying this month's scripture study out, send me an e-mail at irvinerebecca@aol.com and I will e-mail you the pictures and instructions.

Scripture of the Day: Moses 1:39