![[Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492661514_c6d9157810.jpg)
![[Family, Stirling Castle, Stirling, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491830757_1be79bffd9.jpg)
![[Monument to Wiliam Wallace, Stirling, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492655752_574563b4fd.jpg)
![[Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491811141_551228ae1f.jpg)
![[Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491806487_c7040d4628.jpg)
![[Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492622698_e34185733d.jpg)
![[Sir Walter Scott Monument, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492603124_7185e856f2.jpg)
![[Canongate Kirk, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491788203_6b0870ee4a.jpg)
![[Views of Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491821719_84fafe6417.jpg)
![[Old Town, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492639368_c8dac61289.jpg)
this was partly because the schedule was a little too packed for much writing time, partly because I’d just fallen out of the habit of blogging daily due to the baby-talking-embargo, but mostly because the whole not-sleeping-through-the-night thing means I now spend all my sparetime asleep.
as a result, instead of my witty commentary, you are just stuck looking at the pretty pictures. suffice to say, the trip was beautiful, spectacular, and perfect in every way.
UPDATE: this turned out to not exactly be true — i’ve finally gone back and jotted down most of my thoughts about the trip, and uploaded them (along with the pictures) to the site. I’m sure i’ve missed some things, but i’ll update them as the come up in family “do you remember when” conversations.
it’s hard to explain what it means to follow Tottenham Hotspur Football Club … but i should start at the beginning.
before 2005, it doesn’t matter how much of a soccer fan you were, because it was pretty hard to follow the English Premier League from the States. media coverage was absolutely non-existent, and the matches themselves relegated to premium channel (Fox Sports World) that practically zero cable systems carried.
but by 2005, i had moved to a more benevolent cable monopoly, was able to start following the Premier League, and set about finding a team to follow.
there were ground-rules in my search:
… and said ground-rules led to Tottenham.
at the time, they were good (finish in the top 10 more often than not), but not too good (no major championships since 1991). they have great players (at the time, more members of the England national squad than any other), a storied history (first team to win two championships in one year, and first Brit team to win Europe), great fans (loyal through decades of mediocrity), etc.
fortunately they are still good (won a league championship in 2008 while we were in Australia) but not too good (were in deep, deep danger of relegation as late as February this year) and my healthy interest in Spurs has grown into an obsession.
and, of course, at the center of this obsession is Tottenham Hotspur’s 109 year-old stadium: White Hart Lane.
… and we got tickets.
ever since we found out we were going to Scotland (or more importantly, London) the one place at the top of my list has been White Hart Lane. unfortunately, it’s a bit out of the way … and seats a ridiculously small 36,000 fans each match day.
the weekend we are in London (may 2nd) there is a home match against West Bromich Albion, but it sold out even before tickets made it to general sale. turns out West Brom sucks, and everybody wants to see Tottenham beat up on the sucky team.
as for me, i’d love to see them play a sucky team, but i really needed to see them play in the next year, because they are getting ready to rip beautiful, historic white hart lane and replace it with a new, oval monstrosity that we can only hope will have more character than Fed Ex Field.
so, it took about two weeks and more than a dozen visits to Spurs ticket site, but a couple seats finally came open on their ticket exchange (from people selling tickets they bought but can’t use).
of course, the two seat aren’t together, so i gave the lady sparkler the option to drop out — and spend the day at the spa — but she’s become sufficiently fascinated by Spurs (including steamy Robbie Keane and young/virile Gareth Bale) that she wanted to see what all the fuss was about in person.
such a good wife.
she did mention that she didn’t want to be seated with a bunch of drunk hooligan Brits, so I am giving her the fancy pants ticket, in the new (west) stand with completely unobstructed views, and its cucumber sandwich crowd.
i, however, will be in the east stand … with it’s obstructed views (two large posts hold up the roof over the stand) and it’s (hopefully) drunk, merry and singing Tottenham fans. apparently, it’s the east and south stands that have all the “character” and my wife is married to enough of a character to not seek out more in the English capital.
so, if you happen to subscribe to a channel that carries it, look for us. we will be in section 30, row 1, seat 189 and section 10, row 9, seat 37. i have no idea where they are, but sure am (incredibly) excited to be there.
UPDATE: and here’s what happened.
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the jonas brothers, a musical about evangelical Christians, and an inter-city bus trip … oh, where to begin?
well, work sent me up to new york city for a mobile marketing conference and, while i was only a day-long seminar, i had to go up the day before because the sessions started so early.
needless-to-say, i don’t do 4 1/2 hour trips before arriving at 8am … so, i decided to get up there Wednesday, take the afternoon off to take in some somethings, and be fresh and ready for the next day.
getting there
now, funding is a little tight at the office … so i decided to be creative and take one of those fancy-pants DC/NYC buses i keep hearing about. you can only book online (which limits the demographic), there are electrical outlets at every seat, and most lines offer free wi-fi as well.
i took the bolt bus (so can’t speak for the rest) but the whole experience was actually exactly as advertised. the bus was full, but not uncomfortable, filled with young urban metro-sexuals bouncing between the cities. i was easily the oldest (and least cool) person on the bus.
and it cost $18. i can totally handle ignoring the “cool-lier than thou” crowd for an $18 ride to nyc.
dead people who took pictures
once i got settled into the hotel (on 44th, near times square) i realized that i was about three blocks away from the international center of photography which is *the* only museum i try to visit each time i’m in the city.
the museum had a suite of exhibitions around fashion photography, including an entire floor dedicated to the work of 1920s and 30s Vanity Fair photo Edward Steichen, including many of his photos of America’s first star model (and a personal favorite) Marion Morehouse.
there was also a small wing that featured some of Louisiana-native (and a personal favorite) Clarence John Laughlin, whose black and white work depicting the American south is stunning.
so, that’s two bites at the “lucky” apple (three, if you count the museum being so close to my hotel) … it was a pretty good afternoon.
my name is jonas
after fawning all-over Ms. Morehouse and Mr. Laughlin, i headed towards union square to meet up with a great friend of mine for dinner, a musical about evangelical Christians, and drinks to follow.
the show (this beautiful city) is worth its own blog post, but in between dinner and the show i had to kill an hour while i waited for the house to open. that’s when the Disney magic happened.
i wandered out of the theater (the vineyard, on 15th) and around union square when i passed by the Virgin Megastore. there was a line out the door and around the block, which is a little odd for a Wednesday.
i looked through the window and thought i saw three shaggy-haired, Jonas-brother looking kids. and then i looked at the line of twenty something girls. and then Jonasus. and the line, which (again) lacked anybody under the age 21. and then the Jonasi. and then a guy squirming in line who looked like a bouncer at an irish bar. and one squirrelly guy who looked like bobcat goldthwait from Scrooged.
and then i was confused. these people were way too old to like the (disney channel product) jonas brothers. there were no elementary school kids. there were no 40-somethings who got dragged along by their children.
they were all normal, even though there was probably more visual diversity in salt lake city than in that particular line …
An hour later (as I was walking back from the strand, NYC’s best bookstore) everyone was gone and three NFL linebackers were blocking the entrance, but they were “kind” enough to leave the doors open to share their brand of saccharine-rock with the rest of the rest of the city.
to be continued…
seriously, though … this is turning into the world’s longest post, and I don’t want the musical about evangelical Christian to get short shrift.
ever since we got back from our honeymoon, the lady sparkler has been planning her next trip. then australia fell into our laps, and (once she got back) she began planning her next trip.
to be fair, she was actually more monitoring the currency markets than planning, per say. screw civil liberties, what really got my beloved’s blood boiling was when bush pushed the dollar sink into the commode.
so, when the bottom fell out of the european currencies last summer, the joy on her face was palpable. london. paris. wherever.
now, conveniently, my parents have always wanted to go to scotland (my grandmother was a clan donald lass) and with their 45th anniversary coming up this year and the exchange rate going our way for once, it’s was looking like this could be the year.
never one to pass up a chance to leverage synergies, the lady sparkler suggested that the two should become one. (never argue with a wife who *wants* to travel with her in-laws…)
and so it will be, the last week of this coming April.
we’ll start out with a couple days in Edinburgh (The Castle, Holyrood Park) before renting a car — more wrong side of the road driving! — and heading into the hills. we’ll do a driving tour of Glen Coe (where the noble Donalds were massacred by the dastardly Campbells while they slept).
we’ll take a drive west passing by Loch Ness (Expedition Center, Urquhart Castle) which has fascinated my father and I ever since our first trip to Busch Gardens Europe. finally, we’ll swing through the Isle of Sky — including Armadale Castle, the ancestral home of Clan Donald — before heading back in London for the trip home.
now, London is where things get interesting. we have just about 48 hours to do the whole city, including St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, London Bridge, Kensington Palace, Hyde Park, Buckingham Gates, the Sherlock Holmes Museum and Parliment. and a partridge in a Pear tree.
oh, and I want to see White Hart Lane (home of Tottenham Hotspur) before the 100+ year old stadium gets torn down next year, and replaced by a 60,000-seat monstrosity.
so, my mother gets the isle of sky, my father gets loch ness, i get london, and my beloved gets … Paris?
as if the british isles weren’t enough, my beloved and I “gave each other” two days in Paris for Christmas this past year (and then gave it to ourselves again for Valentine’s Day once we realized how much it cost).
so, besides the *VERY* palpable guilt of traveling in such horrid economic climates, life is feeling pretty good.
two signs of the coming apocalypse: it’s snowing at the beach, and i’ve learned how to knit.
the weather down this way has been crazy. in the last month, we’ve had just as many days above 60 as we had below freezing. it’s rained, it’s typhooned, it’s snowed, it’s blizzard-ed.
i wouldn’t be surprised to see dennis quaid snowshoe by, murmuring about having to save Jake Gyllenhaal (tho, to be frank, i would toss Jake back and focus my attention on saving Emmy Rossum).
i digress.
the lady sparkler and i are spending the long weekend on the coast of Delaware with Lighting Chick Knits, whose sister happens to have a house out here with a spectacular view of the sound (pictures of the view on facebook).
much as her blog would suggest, Lighting Chick Knits, well, knits. and, being the Renaissance man that i am, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add another tick to my “wide, not deep” resume of skills, probably best symbolized by my musical skills (guitar, bass, piano, violin, and harmonica) or my interest in foreign languages (russian, arabic, spanish) — all of which i can “do,” just none particularly well.
and so it is with knitting … i am neither exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. knitting fits nicely into my need for immediate gratification, but my skills are no where near the point they’d need to overcome my internal demand for perfection.
we’ll see. so far, i’ve made it through 20 rows of a scarf, which is just enough to make smallishly-sized bookmark … which seems like a just reward for annihilating the last remaining shred of my masculinity.
 airport security, originally uploaded by d5o3 |
so, a funny thing happened on the way to the airport …
we had a rental car for the first half of thanksgiving week, so that we could drive down to eugene, and so that i could spend a day hiking around central oregon.
unfortunately, at one of those trailheads, i stuffed my wallet in the glove compartment … and then never bothered to pull it back out again. and then i returned the car. and then Enterprise re-rented the car.
obviously, much madness ensued — calls with Enterprise, arrangements with the sparklers-in-law to forward a photocopy of my passport, and discussions with TSA and United.
long story short: i got to go through security at the airport without a government-issued ID.
we weren’t able to get much out of TSA or United before we got to the airport, but pretty much everybody said to get there early. our flight was at 7:45 am, so we got to the airport when it opened at 5:30.
the aforementioned photocopy of my passport was more than enough to convince United to give me a boarding pass … though, in retrospect, I could have side-stepped their ID check completely had i thought to check-in online.
the TSA-manned security checkpoint weren’t quite so ready to accept copied documents that (admittedly) had no security value what-so-ever.
after meekly presenting by situation to the ID checker, i was waived out of line (expected), but the lady sparkler was sent on without me (not so much).
now, i would have thought that TSA would want to use her (or at least her ID) as some sort of corroborating identification, but they were just as uninterested in her as they were in the photocopies i had of my passport, social security card and birth certificate.
i was let off to a secure, undisclosed location.
now, when i get nervous, i get chatty … so i started talking up the nice young lady who was escorting me. turns out, people try and fly all the time without identification … and most don’t even have a good excuse.
she guessed that she sees 15 or so people try and go through security each day without an ID, and only one or two of them have had their identification lost or stolen. most just left it at home, and didn’t have the time or inclination to go back and get it.
we arrived on the admin floor of the terminal building, and i was ushered into the one small room that functioned as TSA headquarters for the airport.
It had a faux-command center feel: plasma screen televisions were showing security cameras and CNN, and a military-style bank of clocks allowed them to monitor the passage of time in such disparate locales as Tokyo, Portland, Washington, London and Riyadh.
I sat down with two very nice TSA security ladies, who absolutely had the “Cagney and Lacy” flavour of retired police officers. After introductions, they dialed up Homeland Security central for a teleconference, and asked me an quick series of questions.
Three minutes later — and one amusing retelling of my rental car experience — I was on my way.
Back at the metal detectors, I was taken to my very own security line where I got to go through a puffer and my baggage got hand searched and sniffed for explosives before they sent me through.
couple of thoughts if you decide to lose your wallet, too:
Get there early — the first thing the TSA officer said to me was “what time is your flight” and “good, you’ll still make your plane.” they had no doubt i was getting through, so long as i had enough time.
Ace the interview — TSA didn’t (seem to) care about anything except the interview. They didn’t care that I was on a round trip fare (so I obviously made it through security once), they ignored my wife (who had ID, and shared my last name, and my home address), and wasn’t interested in any cooroberating evidence that I was me (I had a bank statement addressed to me, and photocopies of my passport, social security card, and birth certificate).
Be friendly — I took every moment I could to chat up those escorting me and interviewing me, and it was a surpisingly posative experience. They seemed very interested in getting me on my plane, so I was very interested in not being an @$%&.
The whole event took less than 20 minutes, on the busiest travel day of the season. I’m not sure I could have expected a better ending.
UPDATE: I got my wallet back. Enterprise (who was great through this all) tracked down the people who had the car, while the new renters were unable/unwilling to find the wallet … it was there in the glove compartment when they returned the car.
![[Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492609750_fc30d8c96c.jpg)
![[Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491792631_412a724544.jpg)
![[Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492611426_d150e83f7b.jpg)
![[Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3492618948_56ca958d64.jpg)
![[Holyrood Palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.]](https://theparkerfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/3491811141_551228ae1f1.jpg)