Ok today we actually went to the Tower of London and we ended up spending he entire day there. We took a Warder tour, I got to try my hand at operating a siege weapon, we saw the crown jewels (twice the line got really short just before closing time so we ran back in and got a much better view), toured the White Tower (built by William the  Conquerer in 1100ad), and walked the walls. All of which took all day. One problem we’ve had the whole time is that almost everything touristy is only open 9 to 5. We could pretty easily keep going for another couple of hours if stuff was still open.

 

Today was a busy day. We started off with a 9am tour of he houses of Parliament   The picture is from us waiting to get in. He tour was very interesting but they didn’t allow any pictures and made you turn off you phone. Our tour guide was very good and he two hour tour went by very fast.

After the tour we headed over to he Churchill war rooms. A bunker complex were they ran he government during the blitz. They complex itself was interesting but hey have tacked on a giant Churchill museum which went into great detail of every moment of his entire life. We finally ducked out of that as even I was getting bored.

After the war rooms we walked over to Buckingham palace and checked it out then headed around back to tour the Mewes  which is where the Queen keeps her carriages you see on tv and he horses to pull them. The carriages were very nice though hey did cause Gavin to observe that the Queen must be really rich.

 

Eating breakfast at a little place wedged between the Tower of London and a 1000 year old church.  Heading into see the tower after.

Well we picked up our Tower tickets but decided to go to the Tower on Sunday as it seemed like there was a lot to do there.

We toured the church we ate breakfast next too. Ends up it is the oldes church in London and had a quite extensive museum under the church which we all found very interesting down in the old catacombs.

After our church tour we heading over to the recreated Globe theater where we had tickets to see Julius Ceaser that afternoon. The play was very nicely put on and even he boys enjoyed it.

After the play we walked across the millennium bridge across e Thames to St Paul’s Cathedral but didn’t get to go inside as it was closed for the day.

We ended up heading just wandering around along he river checking out london and got some Itallian gelato before heading back to the hotel.

Today we went a long way to the north end of the island to go on a horse trail ride.  Tristan is a horse nut, so we have to try and work a ride into our vacations as well as trains for Gavin (train is tomorrow).  They put me on a percheron-cross who was gigantic, and had a bit of an attitude which made the ride interesting.  The scenery was spectacular and the boys had a lot of fun, so it made for a good day.  One of the ranch hands who was with us said that Tristan had one of the best seats that he’s seen.  For us normal, it means that Tristan is a really good rider.  The train was a little scary as it went down a steep part of the island toward the beach, but it made for really good views.

This day started out early for us.  We took a snorkel trip out to Molokini on a company named Trinity.  Except the morning we went was too windy (it had been extra windy the whole week) and we couldn’t go out to Molokini as the conditions were too rough for snorkeling.  They took us to a second site off shore of Maui that was in the lee of the wind so it was calm there.  We were a bit disappointed not to see Molokini, but the place they took us was very nice as well.  We saw a lot of different fish and turtles.  We rented an underwater camera and all took turns taking pictures.  They served us a nice lunch and the boys had fun going down a slide on the back of the catamaran into the ocean.  On the way back we stopped at a bay that was known for having a lot of turtles around in it, but none of them showed up for us.

That night, Nana took us all to a Luau at the Sheraton Resort.  It was right on the beach so we got another wonderful view of the sunset that evening, followed up by traditional hula dancing from all around the pacific.  Gavin went up to learn a hula again, which ended up being the same one he learned last year on Kauai. He put his own spin on it though, and had a lot of fun showing off for everyone.

Today we started off by heading off to the Maui Aquarium in Wailuku.  The kids enjoyed running around seeing all the fish, though the highlight for them was seeing the turtles.  They also had a really cool tube that went though a giant aquarium that you could walk though and see fish swimming all around you.  They got to see the turtle feeding and fish feeding in the giant tank.

Later on, we headed to Lahania to explore the town.  We saw the giant Banyan tree there, which is one of the biggest in the world and has it’s own park taking up an entire city block.  We also saw the old courthouse there and the remains of an old fort.

That evening we met up with Nana and all the cousins who had flown in the night before.  They got in the night before but it was about midnight their time so they went right to bed after checking in.  Nana took us all out to dinner at a hamburger place called Cheese burger in Paradise, which was right on the beach and we got to watch the sun set over the ocean.  Afterward we got shaved ice and Gavin ran around and bought souvenirs.

I forgot to include pictures from the Needle when I did the last post.