Sweden

Here is the first blog of the trip. Its about 3 minutes long, you can find it by clicking here! Or you can try watching it here.

As of now we are in Dalarna. Its a very quiet, mostly because it is no longer tourist season this far north, lake town. I call it a mix between Tahoe and Warner Hot Springs... Tahoe's beauty and Warner's population! We went to the Dala Horse factory today. John and I were carving a horse and I slipped and gashed my thumb open. That is the most exiciting thing that has happened so far.

Tomorrow we are getting back on the train to Stockholm and going to say with some more relatives on the water, near the archipelago. A bit of relaxing before we get to Dublin.

The first part of the trip was spent with our cousin, Stina and her husband, Anders and daughter, Iris. We explored Stockholm and the part of the archipelago that was near by. Stockholm (and Sweden in general) must be the cleanest city in Europe. Even the metro is super clean! Stina took us to for visit around the palace, old town (Galma Stan) and central Stockholm. Mom, John and I went to the Wasa Ship Museum on Saturday. The Wasa Ship was once the pride of the Royal Navy but when it went for its maiden voyage it sunk a mere mile out of the Harbor. It is unknown as to why it sunk. But looking at how much stuff they had loaded on to it I think its easy to see why it sunk.

Here is one funny note about Sweden for you... A Men's restroom is labeled "HERR" while elevators are called "HISS." This was very confusing for Jayne the first day. So confusing that she went to the HERR bathroom. A truly priceless moment.

The weather has been very nice, only rain on one morning. Knock on wood for us!

This is it for now, talk to you all soon!

A Few More Days

As the trip nears I think I have gone crazy packing and re-packing 100s of times! I have made the leap and totally cleaned out my closet as well. Its crazy empty now... unlike usual.

We leave next Wednesday and fly from here to JFK then then London and then to Stockholm! We will be in Stockholm for about 7 days staying with cousins and aunts and uncles. For 3 da

ys in the middle we are going up to Lake Sijian, which looks amazing. As Samantha Brown would say, "it's quintisentially Swedish!" The Dala Horse Factory is only a few miles out of the town we are staying in, Mora.

After Sweden we head to Ireland to explore Dublin, Dingle and Cork. That is, if we make it to Cork after driving around on the wrong side of the road. We dont have much planned for this part of the trip, with the execption of the Guniess Brewery and the Blarney Stone. After five days there we will head to London.

In London we are going to be gifted with Elien's presence! Along with her cousin, they are coming over from Belguim. Like me, it will be Elien's first time in London too. We have tickets for Dirty Dancing on stage. I hope to hit one of the Tate galleries, The British Museum and the London Tower. Along with of course; a double deck bus tour, watching the changing of the guards, a ride on the London Eye and maybe even an outburst at Speaker's Corner, depending on what type of mood I am in. Finally off to Oxford to adjust to the new life in England... oh yeh, and school.

Otherwise, I have been bust with swim stuff. Summer League Championships went well and JO's are next weekend at Coronado. It will

be a fun but busy weekend with the kids. Hopefully the heat will stay away for another weekend!