Friday, Mer and I headed down to Akron to the new home of Actors’ Summit Theater, to see a play we had never heard of before, Becky’s New Car. The interesting thing about the play is that it was the sixtieth birthday present of a woman in Seattle, given to her by her husband. He walked into a theater and asked them to write a comedy, and eighteen months later, Becky’s New Car debuted. The Actors’ Summit version was the thirteenth production of the play, and as is their tradition, the couple who commissioned the play was on hand to see the opening. That was pretty cool.

We met up with our friend Nate for the play. Nate’s wife Rachel was supposed to join us, but sadly, she was ill with the flu. We chatted with Nate until the show started, which was a pleasant (and, with Nate, always amusing) way to spend thirty minutes.

The set for Becky’s was interesting – the front of the stage was divided in half, with the left part of the stage being taken up by a desk, and the right part of the stage with a couch and small table. The back of the stage was an elevated platform that looked like a deck. So, for the play, the left part of the stage was Becky’s office, the right part of the stage was Becky’s home, and the back of the stage was a beach house.

The play was very funny, for the most part (the end got a bit serious). It was interesting in that Becky broke out of the theater mold from time to time to talk to us, the audience, or to talk to her lighting technician. She had audience members help her with her paperwork at the office, and asked for the light tech to light up the “home” part of the stage when she was tired of being at work. It took a minute or two to get used to it, but then it worked well and was quite funny.

The actors did a fine job, with most of them being new to Actors’ Summit (or they had not been on stage there for a while). The actors playing Becky and the man who wants to date her were especially good.

The basic plot line revolves around a rich widower who buys some cars from Becky’s dealership. He is fond of Becky and becomes accidentally convinced that she is a widow. The play follows the developments of the entire family as Becky tries to figure out what to do. It makes for some pretty good theater.

Mer and I are on this very strict diet, so that meant not going out before or after the show, which is pretty rare for us. Then, to top it off, this was the opening night of Actors’ Summit’s one hundredth production, so they had cake after the play. Nate quite enjoyed it. Mer and I were left with just enjoying the play.

Last Tuesday, I started my first-ever real actually-mapped-out diet. A couple of weeks ago, I was waiting in my chiropractor’s office. I had some time, so I started reading Outdoor magazine. They had several articles on how to live more healthily (it was the January issue, so I suspect New Year’s resolutions played into the articles). One article was on getting more sleep, one on reducing stress, and such. One article was about a book called Clean. Clean was supposed to show you how to eat for four weeks, with the aim of flushing toxins such as pesticides from the body. The author of the article was an editor, and very skeptical. He tried it, and found it difficult for the first ten days or so, but he achieved dramatic results. Even though he was in shape and only 145 pounds, he lost about ten pounds and lowered his metabolic age from twenty-two to 1seventeen (he is thirty-five years old). He also said he felt much better, and really endorsed the diet. I was also skeptical, but I liked his results, and I liked the fact that the diet only lasts four weeks. So, I decided to give it a try.

I started at 174.0 pounds. I lost weight during the first week at a stunning rate; it was hard to believe the scale some mornings. After one week, I weighed in at 168.5, so I lost six pounds in one week (and my low weight during the week had dipped down to 167.5). I can’t claim any results yet as to feeling younger or seeing my skin look healthier, but it has only been one week. Some of the food cravings are subsiding – I am not feeling desperate for dessert now. That may change come next weekend (weekends are when Mer and I like to go out to eat, which is not really a great option on the Clean diet), but for now, everything is okay. Mer has joined me on the diet – she is a game sport.

The diet had me examine our environment, and since the book calls for drinking clean water, I had a top-of-the-line water filter installed for our drinking water, as well as a charcoal whole-house filter for our shower. Since Mer and I pretty much drink just water even when not on a diet, it seemed like a good investment. As usual, when I launch on a new thing, it costs us money. In addition to the water filter, I have been buying organic everything, which is really expensive. I plan on going back to “normal” food after February, so I think our budget can handle things for one month.

I’ll try to update on how things are going every week.

Last Saturday saw my acting debut, at the tender age of forty. I was given one of four lead parts in our church play, “Go East, Old Men,” a modern retelling of the story of the wise men who visited Jesus and his family sometime after Jesus’ birth. We did one performance on Saturday, and two during the normal service times on Sunday.

The basic storyline is that four Berkley professors are given a sign in that all of their GPS devices tell them to “Go East.” The four men (four in our story instead of the traditional three) gather up some gifts for the Messiah, and head out from Berkley with no idea of where they are going; they simply follow the GPS. Along the way they meet some heavily-adapted Biblical figures, from a rich woman who is too concerned about her upcoming horse race to go see the Messiah, to the mayor of New York City, Mayor Harold (Herod). The play was meant to be light-hearted, and it was very funny for much of the play. The play ends when the professors find the holy family in Bethlehem Trailer Park, and they leave their gifts for the family.

The play was meant to stress how easy it is for people to come up with excuses not to go and see Jesus, and I think it did that in a fun way. Several of the actors improvised lines (they were given permission to) that brought the house down. The play was followed by a short talk by one of the actors about why he follows Jesus, and it was heartfelt and open. All in all, I thought the play went very well, which was by the grace of God, especially since we did not have any really good practices before Saturday (it is very hard to coordinate so many schedules, so often people were not able to make rehearsals).

I got to play the part of Thurston, whom I took to be the department chair of the Ancient History Department. He is the one who hosts the party that welcomes a new professor, and he always drives the vehicle, even though it was not his car. So, I took him to be the elder statesman (and I was the oldest of the professors). I had some liberty in crafting the character, so I based him to a large extent on Mer’s father, Dale. Dale loves words, and very naturally uses large words in normal conversation, so I went through my lines and edited them. I kept the meaning the same, but inserted large words wherever I could. It gave me focus for the part, and it worked pretty well.

Although I have been doing improvisational comedy on stage for the last eight years, I have never actually tried acting (at least not since I was in kindergarten). I was pleased to be given a chance to act in such a welcoming and low-stress environment. The play was about forty-five or fifty minutes long, and my lines totaled about seven minutes of the dialogue. I learned my lines by recording them and then playing them over and over on my iPod while I went running or while I was doing housework. It worked quite well.

It was a moderate amount of work for me to be in the play: it involved staying late at church on Sunday for about two months, with two additional practices thrown in. Altogether, I probably made seven or eight rehearsals – I know I missed one for going to London. I felt for Janet most of all. She is the pastor’s wife, and she wrote and directed (and had a small part in) the play. She had to coordinate everything, and it is not always easy to work with volunteers. She did well, and got a good performance out of us. I am pleased with how the play went, and am also pleased I can go back to the early service now that rehearsals are over!

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, CVCA had snow days. Tuesday was essentially an anticipatory snow day – there was bad weather coming in and no one was quite sure of when it would get here. As it turned out, we could have had school on Tuesday – there were no real weather issues around here until after 4:00. Wednesday was the real deal – there was enough ice around that I had trouble walking in to school.

When we have snow days, Mer gets to stay home, but staff is expected to go to work as long as they can safely do so. Since I can (and do) walk to work, it is hard to use the bad-weather excuse. So, I went in both days to do puttery things around the school. It was quiet, and I had access to any of the rooms that I needed to get in to. It was nice. Mer stayed home, but that does not mean that she was not working. She graded all day Tuesday and Wednesday. Happily, by the time I got home on Wednesday, she had run out of grading that she actually had with her here at the house, and she decided she could spend the evening with me.

So, we had a very rare together-during-the-school-year evening. I made dinner, and then we watched the animated movie Up, which we both like very much. Up is an interesting movie in that it makes you cry after just ten minutes, but then is a very uplifting and clever movie for the rest of the way. I highly recommend it. After dinner and our movie, we played the book-based game Dark and Stormy. Mer beat me eight books to three, so I immediately wanted to play again. For my troubles, I got beaten eight books to two. I still thought it was a great evening, and a little look at how life could be if Mer only worked fifty hours/week instead of sixty-plus. But, Mer is a great teacher, and I am proud of her, so I put up with the schedule.

Meredith and I usually celebrate each others’ birthdays the weekend following them. I had not done anything too special for Mer (although we had a good time – see the previous blog entry). I had been so busy planning for London that her birthday got ignored. I tried to pull together a pretty spectacular weekend at the last minute, but the plans would not work out. So, I told her I’d surprise her some weekend and call it a combination birthday-Valentine’s Day weekend.

I was pleased that Mer had not planned anything for my actual birthday, which was Monday the 24th. I got sick Sunday, and I missed half days of work on Monday and Tuesday. I began to feel better on Wednesday, and happily, by the time Friday rolled around, I was feeling good again. This was my fortieth birthday celebration, and Mer had planned out a huge special weekend for me.

We left from school at around 4:00, and Mer stressed that there was some urgency. We drove south to Amish country, and then turned west. The area was all new to me, and was pretty desolate, and it was starting to snow. There was a stretch of road where it was about five minutes between houses and we did not see another car for about twenty minutes. It has been a long time since I have been somewhere that remote. I began to think that Mer had me just driving around to buy time for a party set-up, but we really were supposed to be out there – we finally came to a very cool and lovely bed and breakfast called The White Oak Inn. Mer had wanted to get me away from the house without an exhausting drive, and The White Oak Inn was a two-hour drive. It did not hurt that the Inn was having a chocolate weekend special. Mer’s urgency to get us there had been rooted in trying to find the place before it got dark, which was very wise.

It was a great little inn, and Meredith had booked us one of the two private cabins at the back of the property. We had a great room with a whirlpool bath, a real wood-burning stove, a bedroom, and a bathroom. The interior of the cabin had vaulted ceilings and lots of woodwork, and it was great. We put our stuff down, and then headed out to get supper. We had been worried that there was not going to be anywhere to eat this far out in the woods, but the innkeeper directed us to a gas station diner, which sounds lame, but it was great. The owners were very friendly, the menu was three full pages long, and the food was excellent (and they had about twenty desserts to choose from).

We headed back to the inn, and were greeted with our choice of hot chocolates. I went for the mint, and Mer went for the raspberry. We drank them in the inn common room, and chatted a bit with both owners. I finished my hot chocolate, and so we went back to the cabin (Mer brought the rest of her hot chocolate with her). While we had been gone, the inn staff had placed eight gourmet chocolates on our pillows. We brought those into the great room and settled in to watch While You Were Sleeping. It was a pretty great way to spend the evening,

Saturday, after a leisurely sleep until past 9:00, we got ready and headed over to the inn for breakfast. There was only one other couple at the 10:30 breakfast – a couple from Cleveland who were there to celebrate the wife getting pregnant with their fifth child. The rest of the kids were with the grandparents. I helped myself to a couple of cups of hot chocolate over breakfast. Mer and I picked out seats where we could look out over what we thought was a frozen lake, but we later discovered to be a low-lying field. The other couple sat across from us, and we were served a stunningly wonderful breakfast. We started with two hot banana-chocolate muffins, a fruit plate, and the main dish, which was Amish-style peppered bacon (which I had never had before but is amazing) with an egg dish that was essentially a personal cheese-egg casserole. What great food. We chatted pleasantly with the other couple over breakfast, and took our time – it was over an hour for the full (and I do mean full) meal.

After breakfast, we went over to the inn’s barn and fed crackers to their two sheep. We also got to see (but not get near) one of the inn’s barn cats. They have four indoor kitties and four barn cats. The cat we saw very nimbly climbed up into the barn rafters to keep an eye on us.

I then decided we should go up to Amish country, to explore the western part that we had never been to. To keep focused on our drive, we took along the inn’s suggested artisan tour, with the intent of stopping at three places to poke around. The first stop was to see a potter who had a huge wood-fired kiln. The wife of the potter was home, and showed us around the place, and she explained how wood firing (instead of gas) can make interesting patterns on the pottery because of the interaction of the ash. After a good time of conversation, we bought a vase, and moved on.

Our next stop was an artisan who liked to work in welded steel. He specialized in making bells out of old welding gas containers, but he did other welding work as well. His wife does some work in glass, but she was away at an art show in Columbus. The man was quite surprised to see us, as he rarely gets customers in late January. We poked around the shop, bought a bell that I hope will become our new door bell, and talked with the owner for a long while.

Out last stop on the trip was to see another potter. She also had a wood-fired kiln, smaller than the other we had seen. We pulled in to the house/garage/shop yard, but were not sure where the shop was. A man came out of the house with two excited dogs, and asked us if he could help us. We told him we were looking to see pots, and he was a bit surprised. He got his wife, the potter, and they let us into her small showroom. We found out the potter had been in the medical field, but then had gone back to the University of Akron when she turned fifty, to study art. Now, she made pots, and she has even won national awards for them. Mer and I found a very cool pot that we fell in love with, and we wanted to buy it, but the potter could not take credit cards, and we had no cash on us. But, the potter let us have the pot and wrote down our address. She trusts people to mail her checks, and she says she has never been burned by the policy. Mer mailed the check out last Wednesday. I am very fond of people who trust people.

We headed back to the inn, taking every little back road that we could find. We covered some pretty remote roads, but I stayed on track to get us back to the inn and resisted going down the road marked “Use at your own risk.” I must be getting old (actually, I did not want to spend my weekend trying to get my car out of a ditch). It was a very pretty drive – that part of Ohio reminds me very much of Maine, except it has few pine trees. Otherwise, there are lots of trees, lots of hills, lots of water, and small farms all over the place. It was great.

Back at the inn, we were again given the option to have hot chocolate. Mer passed, but I got another mint hot chocolate, which I took back to the cabin. I started a fire in the fireplace (it was all ready to go), and we relaxed in the jet pool (like a whirlpool) while we listened to music.

We wandered back to the inn for supper, and this time we were by ourselves. The other couple had taken supper in their cabin, so we had the entire dining room to ourselves. The innkeepers put on some romantic Italian music, and served us one of the best meals I have ever had. We had fresh hot bread, potato-herb soup, a citrus salad, carrots and sugar snap peas, rice-stuffed chicken, and rosemary roasted potatoes. It was amazing. To really push us over the edge, dessert was chocolate fondue with various things to dip, and a piece of chocolate cake. We had to take the cake back to the room with us because we were so full. What a great meal!

As if the cake were not enough, there were a new eight chocolates on the bed, which we ended up taking home with us on Sunday. We settled back on the couch and watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and managed to find room for the cake after about an hour. Mer pointed out that our movie choices had both been romantic films set in Chicago.

Sunday we had to leave, but not until after breakfast at 10:30. The Cleveland couple joined us again, and I again had hot chocolate before and during breakfast. Breakfast was more muffins, this time oat muffins with cherry filling. I was still pretty full, so I gave those to Mer. We again had a fruit plate, and then a maple-flavored sausage patty. I got the French toast filled with Nutella and a piece of white chocolate in the middle. Mer got a half-portion size of that and a half portion of herb scrambled eggs. They certainly know how to cook at the White Oak Inn. After breakfast, we checked out and drove to church so I could practice for the church play. Mer snoozed a bit along the way. But, she deserved it – she had planned a spectacular weekend for me, and I loved it (and her!).

Last Friday, Mer and I went down to Actors’ Summit Theater and saw their production Romantic Fools. The play is a set of loosely tied together scenes – if I remember correctly, there were eleven scenes in all. It is a two-person show of one man and one woman, and the whole play is tied together by exploring the theme of the differences in men and women, and the relationship issues that come of it. It is a comedy, and is meant for adult audiences because it deals with some (not explicitly shown) sex issues. I found it quite funny and enjoyed it quite a lot. My burst-out-laughing moment was when the man told us, “Women make me feel……and that’s the problem.” On the whole, Meredith thought I laughed too much.

I was impressed at the show – in my opinion it did not take cheap shots at each gender – or at least, in the places it did, it took cheap shots at both. There were scenes of a woman dating a literal caveman, a man dating an obsessed woman, a man looking for “boring sex,” a engagement dinner that goes slightly wrong, a bar scene where a simple offer of a drink leads to a long reason of why they would never work out as a couple, and more. The play was well acted by two actors I admire a lot, although it was hard to see an actress who I think is sweet and cute drop the f-bomb a few times. The set was very simple – the backdrop was of an apartment kitchen with doors on both sides, and the living space (and bar in some scenes) was set up toward the front of the stage. It was a very entertaining evening, and had the good timing to be right between Meredith’s birthday (January 18th) and mine (January 24th), so it was a mini birthday celebration as well.

Saturday, Mer was game enough to join me in helping out a former colleague named Brittian. Brittian is building a house, mostly by himself (with Nate’s help), and he had gotten to the point where he was ready to paint inside the house. He saw me in the hallway at CVCA, and asked if I could help out. Brittian has always been kind to me and lent me his roofing equipment when I needed to re-roof my house, so I was delighted to get a chance to pay him back, after a fashion. Mer and I got to the house at around 8:30, and Brittian gave us the tour. It is a very cool house; lots of thought went into how Brittian and his family want to live. So, the space on the main floor is large and open, so the family will want to spend time there together. The bedrooms are smaller than normal by today’s standards, but that is the point – the family wants to be together and so put the house spaces toward that goal. Mer and I painted for about two hours, and it was a nice time getting caught up with Brittian. We had previously made plans to see our first CVCA hockey game, so we had to leave at 11:00.

CVCA has a hockey program, and I have two of my Connections students and one of my Fools on the team. Mer has a student on the team as well, so we wanted to see a game. The games are held at Kent State University’s ice rink, and we got there at around 11:30, after having a little trouble finding it. We still were there in time to see the start of the game. Our guys have recently (in the last couple of years) gotten really good, and they were playing a really good team, so it seemed as if it should be a good game. It was, too – all tied up at 1-1 after two periods, but then the other team scored a freak goal (it went all the way around the back of the goal because it was spinning, and then went in), and that broke the game open – we lost 5-2. Still, I had a good time watching the game.

The social aspect was fun too – one of my Connections guys is a huge hockey fan and goes to every game, so I hung out with him. Jim Gaul showed up right before the game started, and Mer was able to happily spend the game chatting with our colleague Amy. I also was able to get a really good cup of hot chocolate and a bunch of mozzarella sticks.

After the game, Mer and I were hungry, so we decided to try the burger chain Five Guys Burgers and Fries. It turned out that Amy and her husband and a friend were all there, so we got to visit more. Five Guys really only makes burgers and fries (except for two items that I do not remember), but they do them really well. I’m sure we will be back.

After the late lunch, we headed home. We finished the evening later by watching the movie The Brothers Grimm, which came out a few years ago. While not a tremendously deep movie, it was entertaining, well shot with good special effects, and had some interesting twists, and it was fun to catch all the references to various folk tales.

You would think that would make for a full weekend, but on Sunday, after church, we went over to the Churchills’ house to watch the football since it was the playoffs. I love spending time with the Churchills, and I was able to bring over my homemade pizza, brownies, and a quart of Handel’s “Spouse like a House” ice cream. Londa had also made her chocolate chip cookies, which are probably the best cookies on the planet. It was a very good eating night! The games were also entertaining, and we got to visit with Zach and Londa, who were kind enough to help set Mer up with her own grading station of desk and lamp.

Not a bad little birthday weekend.

Not too surprisingly, the jet-lagged Riordans took it easy for the first few days back. We both made it to school on Thursday, which was the first day of the second semester. Three of our thirteen London students made it to school that day as well – the rest stayed home and rested. In the evening, Mer and I watched the older original film version of Twelve Angry Men, which was really excellent.

Friday evening Mer and I went to the Root Cafe, which is a cafe run by a local Methodist church. I had never been before – it is a very nice space, and they have excellent hot chocolate. We were there to see a CVCA-based concert. Our friend and fellow teacher Eric taught a J-term class called “Meaningful Music,” where he helped eighteen students start to learn how to craft songs. The concert at the Root Cafe was the product of the students’ work. The students grouped themselves into five bands (I think one band was a non-class band that one student was also a member of, so I think four of the bands were class bands). They played anywhere from one to four songs each, so the concert lasted about ninety minutes, counting changing bands out and brief sound checks.

Mer and I probably would have gone to the concert just to support Eric, but Mer had several students who were in the class, and three members of the Royal Fools were in the class as well, so we both had relationships with some of the students in the class. They really did an excellent job. The bands had a good sound, especially since they had only been together for two weeks. Some of those kids can really really play their instruments – I was especially impressed by the guitar players since I know a little about the instrument. The songs sounded good, and the singers were very talented. Oh – and the place was packed. It was standing-room only; I’m guessing there must have been about a hunderd people on hand, from students to teachers to grandparents. The evening was also used to raise funds for supplies for the Dominican Republic, so it had a ministry aspect as well. It was a good evening, and the jet-lag made me and Meredith low energy, but we were able to stay awake.

Saturday was another mellow day. We had a late brunch at Wally Waffle in Akron, and then went for massages at Massage Envy. I did not think I could handle the pain of a deep massage on my back and neck, so I went for the medium massage, full body. I had not realized how sore my arms and legs were. The massage was most welcome.  We ended the day by going to Perkins Restaurant in Hudson. We bumped into a CVCA parent and one of my Fools (and an excellent guitar player from Meaningful Music). We chatted with them briefly, and then found out when we went to leave that they had picked up the bill for us. That was a real blessing to us, and was very thoughtful.

Sunday was second service at church, so we got to sleep in. I’m in the upcoming church play, and we practice after church, so Mer and I have been going to the late service to facilitate that. After church and practice, we went over to Zach and Londa’s house. They had been kind enough to invite us over to watch the Jets-Patriots game with them, and I was pleased to be able to go. I love the Churchills, and we had a great time, which included way too much food.

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and so was a holiday for us. Mer spent the entire day grading, while I ran for the first time in two weeks, and then puttered around the house, which included falling asleep on the couch with Jackson (one of our cats) asleep on my chest. The extra day on the weekend pretty much put an end to the last of the jet-lag.

So, things are pretty much back to normal here in the Riordan household, which is still pretty great to me. Maybe not as exciting as London, but I’m fond of it anyway.

The quick summary of London is that it was great!

A few more details, though:
We had smooth sailing overall with transportation. God blessed us with our wacky route to and from London, although I did not know it at the time. Our flight to London went through Atlanta, with a long layover. Atlanta had very good weather and no delays, while the places I wanted to fly out from, New York, New Jersey, and Boston, were all still digging out from a huge snowstorm. If we had not gone through Atlanta, I’m not sure how things would have gone. Also, the long layover in Atlanta gave us all practice in being a touring group, since we all left the airport during the layover. It gave me confidence that we could manage a group of thirteen students, and it all happened in the familiar confines of the U.S. Even the flight back was a blessing in disguise – we avoided the Pittsburgh airport, which was dealing with a lot of snow, and we proved that we could go in and out of Detroit. Detroit has direct-to-Heathrow flights that would be great to use next time, and now I know we can get to Detroit from CVCA fairly easily.

We had great kids along on this trip. They never seriously complained; they occasionally rolled their eyes at my asking for group photos, but they always lined up anyway. They were enthusiastic about the trip, and no one ever complained about any of the sights we went to. The group got along well, and I never saw any bickering or fighting. The students obeyed all the rules we laid out, and they stayed in groups when they had free time. I am proud of the students, and cannot imagine having a better group along for a trip.

God blessed us all with good health. We had some sore muscles from all the walking and standing we did, and Mer had a slight cold going into the trip that cleared up, and one girl asked for some cough drops toward the end of the trip. That is amazing for fifteen people in the winter, with pushing our bodies the way we did.

We had no logistical problems, other than the first restaurant – all the other sights and shows had our reservations, and even the restaurant on the first night was able to accommodate us. I was pleased with all of our live guides, and I think the kids found them entertaining and helpful (especially Deborah and Peter).

From a personal point of view, I think God was asking me to be less fearful and, to be blunt, less ashamed of my faith. I am always afraid that a public show of my faith (like praying or telling people we were a Christian school) was going to open me to ridicule and disdain. To show me my shortcomings, God kept throwing unashamed Christians in my way, in the middle of a very secular city. At Les Mis, I sat next to a young man who plainly told me he was a Christian and his father was a pastor in England. At St. Paul’s, I heard an excellent sermon on going for Jesus, and sermons at evensong services are very rare. Finally, at Heathrow, I came back from the bathroom to find Meredith in conversation with an Englishman who now lived in San Francisco, and he was a lay-pastor of a church there, and was very open about his beliefs. God was gentle, but pretty plain – I need to worry a lot less about what people think about my faith.

On the worry front, God took great care of our group. I think I needed to relax in that. I was snippy with Mer a few times on the trip, for which I am ashamed. I think it came from the stress of the trip, which at some level shows a lack of trust in God’s provision. I still need to do the things I should do – calling for buses, headcounts on the Underground, and so on, but I need to trust God to take care of the rest. I am a focused problem-solver; it makes me good at my job as a computer nerd, and it made me a huge asset to Meredith on this trip. I do need to use those skills, but then relax in my trust of a good and loving God. I have some work to do.

So, it was a great trip. I loved our students, and I learned a lot about London and myself. J-term is a great idea, and I applaud CVCA for taking the risk to let us go on this crazy adventure. I do suppose for the next trip I need to warn the kids to get some miles in walking on the track….

Wednesday finally came, and we had to fly home. Our flight was supposed to be at 9:10, so I wanted to be at the airport at about 6:00. That is pretty cautious, but it would have been quite a task (and probably expense) to get fifteen people home on a different flight. Sadly, our faithful DLR line did not start until 5:30, and the estimated time of using the Underground to get to Heathrow would have put us there at almost 7:00. So, on Monday morning, I had arranged for a sixteen-passenger minibus to pick us up at the hotel at 5:00 and to take us to Heathrow. It only cost about $150 more than taking the Tube would have, and the peace of mind was worth that. Also, it was raining, so we would not have to deal with luggage in the rain.

Mer and I checked on the students between 4:00 and 4:15 to make sure they were all up, and by 4:45 we were all assembled in the lobby. The minibus showed up, and we were underway a little before 5:00. It was interesting to look out through the windows as we wound our way through London – we got to see many of the downtown sights all lit up. We got smoothly to Heathrow by about 6:00 a.m., and after messing around with the auto-check-in machines for a few minutes, some Delta people saw we were a group and checked us in in person. That was helpful. We got through security pretty smoothly, and we were at our gate before 7:00. Better safe than sorry. That extra time gave our kids a chance to get some food, and they also used the time to fill out the London J-term journal and evaluation forms that Meredith had prepared. The feedback the students provided was helpful to us because we hope to do the same trip again in two years.

We boarded the plane right on time, but then we had to wait while they loaded cargo. Then, the pilot had some security concerns about two passengers, so the two passengers were asked to get off the plane and their luggage was unloaded. The ground crew then did a security sweep of the plane. The captain himself came and talked to each section of the plane to reassure everyone, and it seemed to work – no one complained. It did mean that we were well over two hours late in taking off, which meant we were probably going to miss our connecting flight in Detroit that was to take us to Pittsburgh. Mer and I discussed the possibility of getting picked up in Detroit, which is a three-hour drive from CVCA.

The flight went smoothly, and we did get into Detroit late. I called CVCA to let them know that we would probably need a bus to get us at Detroit. By the time we got through customs, our flight to Pittsburgh was scheduled to leave, and we had heard that Pittsburgh was getting hit with a huge snowstorm. We did not even try to find out about our flight or try to rebook – we just called CVCA and asked if they could come and get us, which they agreed to do.

The kids were very patient, especially considering we were in a lobby that only had a snack shop, so there was not real food available. We had eaten on the plane, but we had over three hours to wait. Still, the kids called home on their cell phones (and let me borrow one since our old cell phone could not get any signal). The bus finally arrived at about 7:30, and we had a smooth ride home. We got back to CVCA at about 10:15, and after everyone was picked up, Mer and I got home, and we were thrilled to discover our cat-sitters had shoveled our driveway (we had about a foot of snow in Ohio that day). So, we were able to pull into our garage and get to bed (after checking on the kitties). We were asleep by about 11:00, so it had been about a twenty-three-hour day.

It had been a really great trip!

On Tuesday, we had the only time in our London stay where we could get to our destination with no transfers – the DLR line has a terminus at the Tower of London stop, so we were able to jump on the DLR and jump off, and  then walk to the Tower. It was a nice change of pace.

We met Deborah around 9:00 outside the Tower. This was to be the last tour Deborah would lead for us on this trip, and it was to be the longest – three hours long. As in the National Gallery (the art museum) and the British Museum, there was no way we were going to see everything in the amount of time we had. The Tower is very extensive, and three hours just gets you the highlights.

What surprises most people, me included, is that the Tower of London is not just a tower. It is a sprawling walled complex of buildings that is almost a small village. In fact, there are over one hundred people who live at the Tower to take care of it; many of these are the so-called “Beefeaters” who care for the Tower; their official title is “the Yeoman Warders.” The Tower was started in 1066 by William the Conqueror. He built a huge-for-the-time tower/fortress/palace that was almost one hundred feet tall, as a message to everyone in the area as to who was in charge. The monarchs who came after William continued to add to the structure. In its one-thousand-year history, the Tower has been a palace, a fortress, a prison, an arms depot, and even a zoo where the royal animals were kept until the London Zoo was founded. The Tower is now where the Crown Jewels are kept.

Deborah took us in by a side gate where groups enter. The group entrance is on the Thames side of the Tower, and so offers great views of the Tower Bridge (the famous bridge everyone always thinks is London Bridge). We passed the private water gate that the kings used to use to get into the keep, and that later was used to transport prisoners in to the Tower from the river.

We started our tour by touring the walls – I think it was the inner walls that we did, but I get a bit confused since you can see the Tower Bridge so easily from the walls. We got to look at the royal apartments for one of the early kings (I think it was Richard I), which were small and fairly basic. Deborah told us it would have been pretty well decorated and comfortable for the time. We then continued along the walls to another tower, where we got to see some very intricate graffiti that was carved by prisoners who were imprisoned in the Tower. Prisoners in the Tower were usually of high rank, and so while they were locked in the Tower, they were allowed access to the grounds during the day, and had fireplaces for warmth at night. Some of the highest ranking prisoners had small apartments where their families could visit or even stay. Many prisoners were locked up for years, but only twenty-three were killed in the actual Tower complex. It was more usual for executions to take place in public execution spots outside of the Tower. Anyway, some of the graffiti was of devotional aids to the Catholic priests who were locked in the Tower under Henry VIII and later Protestant monarchs.

We moved on to go see the Crown Jewels. I’m not sure if it was because it was January or because of the weather (it had rained some right at the start of our tour), but the Tower had almost no tourists in it. It was amazing to have the place more or less to ourselves. Along the way to see the Crown Jewels, we stopped briefly to see some of the Tower ravens. There are eight ravens who live at the Tower and have their wings clipped in a special way so that they can fly, but not high enough to leave the Tower complex. They have a Warder who is in charge of caring for them, and they seem to be pretty spoiled. A gilded cage, perhaps, but a huge one. There is a superstition that as long as there are ravens living at the Tower, the monarchy will not fall. So, there are always ravens living at the Tower.

The Crown Jewels are kept in the middle of the Tower in a very secure area. The corridors are long and snake around to handle the massive summer crowds; we could have walked right in. We did stop at the two small areas showing film of coronations so we could see the Crown Jewels in use, and see close-up footage of the various jewels. We then walked in to see the jewels themselves. The area also has collections of robes and swords and gold tableware and such that are used for state purposes. The jewels are very impressive, with hundreds of diamonds and precious stones and the largest diamond in the world in the scepter the monarch holds during the coronation ceremony. To me, the display of huge solid gold tableware that was after the crown jewels was just as impressive. Mer and I laughed that we cannot even put together a matching set of glasses for guests, let alone set out a solid gold punch bowl.

We finished our tour of the Tower in the White Tower, which houses a museum of arms and armor, including three sets of armor belonging to Henry VIII, including a set made when he was in his fifties and was very fat. The museum is excellent, and has several interactive areas, so it was hard to keep the group together and moving through this section. As I said, three hours is not enough to tour the Tower. The White Tower also has a small chapel in it that is one of my favorite chapels in Europe – it is very small, but seems filled with peace.

We finished our tour around 12:15 and said goodbye to Deborah. She had been a great guide, and I highly recommend her – you can reach her at http://www.tourist-guides.net/deborahcharles/ – if you are ever in London and want guide services, look her up.

We were to end our last day in London at St. Paul’s. We took the Tube to the St. Paul’s stop and let the kids have a thirty-minute break for lunch. After we had reconvened, we took a tour of St. Paul’s. St. Paul’s is a very impressive cathedral – it is huge and open-feeling and is an architectural marvel of harmony and scale. This is the fifth St. Paul’s to stand on the spot; the fourth one, which was even bigger, burned down in the Great Fire of 1066. Christopher Wren, who at the time was a forty-five-year-old math professor at Cambridge, was asked to help rebuild London, including St. Paul’s. Christopher Wren lived to an astonishing-for-the-time age of ninety, so he lived long enough to see St. Paul’s finished, and he is one of the few people actually buried in the cathedral.

Our tour was led by an older man named Peter who was utterly charming. He had a patient and thorough way of speaking, and he went out of his way to engage the students. He asked one of the students to find the center of the church, which the student was able to do as it is marked with a huge seal under the massive dome of St. Paul’s (the dome, by the way, is the second largest in the world, with only St. Peter’s in Rome being bigger). He found out we had some Latin scholars among us, and he made them translate the Latin written on the great seal under the dome – when translated, it says, in part, “If you seek his [Wren’s] memorial, look about you.” Wren knew he had built something special.

Peter took us to the Quire, where the choir sings from, and let us sit in it. From there, we could admire the elaborate and colorful murals that were installed by the Victorians. Peter also pointed out the wood carving in the Quire, which he informed us were carved by a great wood carver, and in Peter’s opinion are the greatest carvings in the world. He may be biased, but they are very impressive and ornate. Peter also told us that Wren used clear glass in the cathedral when he built it, but stained glass had been installed over time. Then, in World War II, a bomb fell through the roof over the altar and exploded. The concussion blew out all the glass of the church, most of which ended up being replaced by clear glass again. A new altar was carved from wood, based on drawings that Christopher Wren had left (Wren’s altar had never been built because of the expense).

Peter then took us behind the altar, where the British built a small chapel honoring the Americans who died defending Britain. It is a touching, quiet place. The altar rail has several dates carved in it, and Peter quizzed us on them – I forget some of them now, but they included the date the first St. Paul’s was built, the date of the Great Fire, the date the current St. Paul’s was started, the date of the founding of Jamestown, and the date of the American Revolution. Peter quipped that the British do not mind the revolution – they are pleased when their children grow up and do well. He also pointed out the elaborate carvings in the American Chapel, which are all of native birds and plants, except for one well-hidden carving, which Peter pointed out. The carvings were made in the 1950s during the Space Race, so behind one of the vines carved on the altar is an American rocket, headed to the stars.

We finished our tour with Peter by going down into the crypts, which are also very airy feeling. He showed us the graves of Wren, Lord Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington (who helped win at Waterloo). We finished next to models of the current St. Paul’s and the older St. Paul’s that had burned in the Great Fire. As I said, Peter was a great tour guide.

It was then about 3:00, and we had to be back at St. Paul’s for the evensong service at 5:00. So, we let the students have free time until 4:45. Most used it to stay and explore St. Paul’s, including climbing the stairs of the dome. I had to run our rented cell phones over to a post office, which was one Tube stop away. Having done that, I went back to St. Paul’s. I decided to try to climb the dome stairs myself. I have a fear of heights, so while I like climbing things, I often do not like the results. The first climb of 257 steps takes you to the Whispering Gallery, which overlooks the space under the dome. It is about 100 feet up, and the Whispering Gallery is mostly open – it is a circular rim around the inside of the dome, with an iron guardrail. It scares me, but to get to the next set of stairs, you have to cross the gallery to the other side. I managed this by keeping my head down, in the process walking right by Meredith and several students who felt bad for me. By the way, it is called the Whispering Gallery because you are supposed to be able to whisper something on one side of the dome and be able to hear it on the other. Our students tried it with mixed success – sometimes it worked and sometimes you could not hear over all the other people whispering.

I charged on up the next set of stairs, 376 steps total (from the ground). This took me to the Stone Gallery, about 175 feet up. I liked the Stone Gallery. It was a wide balcony around the base of the Great Dome. It had high stone guardrails, and I could stay back from them a good ten feet or more. I was able to relax and enjoy the views, such as I could see through the railings.

I eventually found the last set of stairs. These were hard. They were open spiral staircases between the inner dome (the one you can see inside) and the outer dome. It felt very exposed. I was scared and focused, so I missed a landing where you can look through a window from the top of the inner dome, all the way down to the great seal on the floor under the dome. I’m not too sad I missed that.

I got to the top of the stairs and saw what awaited me – a very tiny, unprotected circular balcony, 275 feet above the ground. I was terrified. I tried to turn around, but the people manning the door would not let me. The down stairs had to be used, and they were on the other side of the balcony. I would have to go out on the platform. I managed it because I had to and because I kept pressed up against the wall of the dome. People pretty much got out of my way – I think I looked pretty desperate. I got to the safety of the down-stairs door and fled inside. Next time, I’ll stop at the Stone Gallery.

Everyone met back up for the evensong service at 5:00. It lasted about an hour. It was very good, but I think I enjoyed Westminster’s evensong slightly better. The evensong choir at St. Paul’s was farther away than they had been at Westminster, so they were harder to hear. Also, they mostly sang in Latin, which was pretty but not intelligible to me. What was a good thing at St. Paul’s was that they had a short sermon, which is very unusual for an evensong service. It was excellent, too. It was honoring a Scottish woman, Mary Slessor, who had gone to Nigeria as a missionary in the late 1800s, where she was instrumental in promoting trade, establishing peace, and saving the lives of twins (who were believed to be cursed and were thus killed or abandoned at birth). The minister praised Mary for her willingness to go at a time when single women were not encouraged to go, and he used her as an example to all of us, as we should be willing to go and serve Jesus wherever we are and wherever we are called. It was an excellent exhortation.

The evensong service wrapped up about 6:00, and we let the kids have the last of their free time. They had to be back at the hotel by 9:00, and so they went their separate ways. Mer and I went to a burger place and ate there, then went back to the hotel. By happy luck, we ended up on the same train as three of our girls who were going back to the hotel early. So, we had company for the trip back. We got to the hotel about 7:30, but then Mer and I decided we needed dessert, so we ran back out to a store to pick up several Cadbury candy bars. We munched on those while we waited for everyone else to check in. Everyone did make it by 9:00, although several of the students seemed a bit winded. We found out later that some of them had even run. When one student asked why they were running, the others responded that they “did not want the Riordans to worry.” That was very touching to me and Meredith. What a great group. We do need to stress in the future that we would rather they not run so as to be safe, but it was still touching.

I did not get full details of what the various groups did, but I know one group went back to Trafalgar Square, and another went back to Oxford Street to go back to the huge toy store. It sounds as if they all had a good last evening in London. We encouraged the students to get to bed since we had to be up by 4:15 am to leave at 5:00. Mer and I were asleep (or at least in bed – sleep was sporadic) around 9:45.