London Day 4

(Royal Albert Hall)

On Monday, we went for a bike tour of the city. Such an awesome way to see the city, and your feet don't hurt at the end of the day!

Our tour took us through all of the gorgeous royal parks. Fun fact: Did you know it is illegal to kill a swan in England? They are all owned by the queen!

I could spend so much time just walking around those parks! Can't wait to go back and have a picnic!(Hyde Park Corner)

While riding over to Buckingham Palace, we saw a motorcade approaching. We got a look at the car right next to us and it was actually the queen!! How cool is that? I was pretty excited about it. If you blow up the picture below and zoom in you can see her silhouette. It's a little like digging for buried treasure, so you'd better give it a shot.
We were a little disappointed that they didn't have the traditional palace guards in front of Buckingham. They just had soldiers there in normal uniforms.... sigh...

We saw pretty much everything there was to see in London on our bikes including (but not limited to) Hyde Park Corner, Westminster Abbey, Parliament (and heard some DISGUSTING torture stories here), Princess Di Memorial, Trafalgar Square, and The National Gallery. Such an exhausting, but fun day!!(Princess Di's Memorial)

(Westminster Abbey)

London Day 3

(right outside the Church)

Sunday in London!!

We had so much fun going to church in London! We went to the Hyde Park Ward, which is actually my sister-in-law Maria's old ward! Pretty fun! There was a seriously cute little boy in the pew in front of us! He reminded me of one of the little hobbit children from Lord of the Rings--from the smile, down to the curly locks! hehe. So fun!

The V&A is basically next door to the church, and we had high hopes of going, but we were both so tired. So, we went back to our hotel and took a nap!

We went to the restaurant in our hotel for dinner that night called Chino Latino. It was quite good! We had ribs, so they brought this cool bowl of lemon water for us to cleanse our hands in. Luckily, the server instructed us what it was for, because neither of us had a clue why it was put there on the table. That said, it worked brilliantly. I think we need to start doing that at my dad's house when he makes his amazing (and messy!) beef ribs.

London Day 2

I was so excited for this day to come! Sam planned most of the trip, but this was one thing I was insistent on--antiquing at Portobello Road! I know that probably sounds weird, but man, I was excited! Portobello Road is just past Notting Hill Gate. For those of you who have seen the movie "Notting Hill" (and who hasn't?), that is the street just in front of his book shop and the market he walks by all the time.

We saw soo many beautiful things! Gorgeous chandeliers, candelabra (...are you a candle-a-bra?? Think Amazing Race.), amazing vintage costume jewelry, silver tea sets... oh man, I was in heaven! After a few hours of walking down the amazing stretch of the market, we finally settled on an amazing silver candelabra! It is a smaller version of one my parents got from England that I have always been in love with!


After walking along Portobello Road, we headed over to Oxford Street for some more shopping! It was so overwhelming!! We had no idea where to start. We of course headed over to H&M, as well as Top Shop, Selfridges, and Accessorize... all stores I am now in love with! Then we headed over to Harrod's. We so wish we had more time to spend in Harrod's, but we got some cool Christmas decorations!

After finishing up at Harrod's we had to rush over to the Prince Edward Theater in the West End to see Jersey Boys! We got turned around a few times after getting off the tube, and got a few conflicting sets of directions, but finally got to the theater about 5 minutes late. We thought we'd be ok, but they said they couldn't find our tickets! We were so upset! Sam pulled out his phone to show the email confirmation of the ticket purchase, and they pointed out that the tickets were for the night before! We couldn't believe it! We were both so exhausted and frustrated, Sam just collapsed from mental exhaustion in the middle of the lobby! The people who worked there felt so bad for us they offered us AMAZING seats for the Tuesday showing for a really good price! So off we went feeling a bit better about ourselves.

Next we had plans to go to the Franz Ferdinand concert later that night at the O2 Academy in Brixton. Sam had already purchased tickets for that, as well. Unfortunately, when we got there we were met with even more frustration. The clerk at Will Call was being very difficult, and wouldn't even talk to us half the time. Finally, we figured out that our credit card company cancelled our tickets without telling us! (Apparently lightning DOES strike twice.) They thought someone had stolen our credit card! How ridiculous is that?! But this time we were still able to get tickets for that night at the box office. We had so much fun at the concert! They really put on a great show!

London Day 1

First of all, Sam had about 2 weeks in London before I came, and he will blog about those later. So the next few posts will be about our trip in London together!

Have any of you ever flown Air New Zealand? It is a phenomenal airline if I do say so myself! Big fan! I had the whole row to myself, so I got to do some serious napping!

After touching down in London, I was anxiously awaiting seeing my sweet husby! I found him waiting for me with a sign and an old man's cap! hehe. What a cutie!!! We had one of our ridiculously public and romantic airport reunion scenes... my favorite!

Sam had to go back to work after picking me up from the airport, and I had high hopes of going down to Oxford Street and shopping.... yea, that definitely did not happen. I crashed on the bed for a few hours and slept through my alarm! I had to meet Sam at his office to go out to dinner with his coworkers, so I had to hop on a few buses and finally got there! I LOVED meeting Sam's British coworkers! Such fun and sweet people! We went to a pub and hung out for a bit before heading to an "ordinary" part of town for great Indian food! It was my first time having real Indian food, and for those of you who REALLY know me it was a big accomplishment... haha. I gotta say, not a fan of kebabs!

Sorry no pictures of Day 1!

London and Paris

I am leaving for London tomorrow morning to meet Sam! We will be there for a week, then Paris for a week! Hooray! There will be fabulous European posts in a few weeks!!

New Favorite Picture of Sam

Hehe couldn't resist posting this! You just can't help but smile while looking at it! That is Sam with Sam the dog (his brother's mini schnauzer). SO cute. Sam and Sam bonded quite well on our Utah visit!
Sam around puppies...possibly one of my favorite things!

WoW! What a day...

Man everything goes wrong when your hubby goes out of town doesn't it? Today just seemed non-stop! I can't believe I was so excited for the rain to start!! Haha.

Rain is not so fun when you manage an apartment complex aparrently! Apartments flooding, hallways flooding, parking lot flooding, slippery stairs, slugs (ok that was just me that was creeped out by that I think...haha), etc...The lights were flickering all day. SOOO nervous they were going to go out. Normally I love it when the power goes out...NOT when Sam is out of town though! Half of Los Gatos was out...so I am seriously glad it didn't hit us! I don't know what I would do without lights and a TV with him gone. haha. But alls well that ends well I suppose.

Anyone else enjoy the storm as much as me? I suppose I should count my blessings because at least we didn't have any major tree branch problems! I hear that was a big thing today! Can't wait for Sammy to be home!

Heading To Europe!

The Lentz family is heading on our European Adventure! Hopefully we will fair better than the Griswold's! (Btw did you hear they are making a new "vacation" movie?!?!) Sam is heading over to London for work so I am going to meet him there! He is leaving me on Sunday for TWO WEEKS (longest we have been apart since I was in Hawaii...sigh), then I get to meet him in fabulous London! We will be staying about a kilometer away from EVERYTHING in downtown London! So excited to shop on Oxford St. and Portobello Rd...Oh and probably see some cool sights too. haha.

We will stay there for a week then head to...PARIS! We will be staying in this absolutely gorgeous hotel in Versailles. I have been brushing up on my french....haha...We could not be more excited!! Although I have to say I am seriously dreading the two weeks alone....any good craft project ideas????

(and yes I know there are a ridiculous amount of exclamation points in this post, but hey! We are excited!!!)

Paramore and No Doubt Concert!!

Sam and I got to go up to Shoreline Amphitheater to see Paramore (one of Sam's favorite bands) and No Doubt! It was incredible! We had sooo much fun dancing and singing (not too loud...) along!

Millersburg, Pennsylvania!

On to Sam's hometown of Millersburg! It is such a cool little town! Definitely the smallest town I have ever spent time in! I think my favorite part was driving "downtown". I saw this guy riding a bike, and as a joke I said, "Hey do you know that guy?" and he said "Yea...he was a really big jerk in high school..". I laughed so hard. I could randomly pick out someone and he actually knew them! Small small town!Sam in front of his elementary school play ground.
His old baseball field!
I LOVED the town square! Such a cute gazebo. Reminded me of Gilmore Girls!! hehe
Sam's old house!!
His high school! Millersburg high represent! haha
Me and Sam with his nana!
Sam, Nana, and Uncle Andy!!
I thought this was so cool! Yes, that is Sam's grandpa! He was a state senator, and implemented this freeway. So awesome!!

And yes this is actually the end of our trip! We had such an amazing time! I'm so glad Sam got to share his old stomping grounds with me!! Thanks babe!

Hershey PA!

Even though I'm not a huge Hershey Chocolate fan...It is still the chocolate capital of the US! haha so we HAD to make a stop to Hershey's Chocolate World. We had SO much fun here! We took a ride through the "factory", took a chocolate tasting course, and explored the town.


These singing cows were hilarious! "Hershey's chocolate, hershey's chocolate, hershey's chocolate world!"

These street lights were awesome! Such a cool little town!

Lavish Lancaster!

Ok...so this town is definitely not lavish...but hey its alliteration! We had SO much fun here, and not just because our hotel was super close to 2 fantastic outlet malls! For those of you who don't know, this is the heart of Amish country! Sam grew up about an hour and a half from here...that explains a lot...haha. A few pictures of our stay there:




I know I know we are so immature...but it made us laugh.
#1 Greatest Sign All Time!

SOOO beautiful!!
Buggy!

Philadelphia, PA

Still trying to catch up on posts from our trip before our next big one!

Our next stop was Philly! We had a great time seeing the sights!


Liberty Bell!


So I kind of fell in love with this little house! Loved the red shutters and red door!
Supposedly these are the best cheesesteaks in Philly...not quite sure if I agree on that (I personally prefer my dads) but Sam loved his!

Outrageous Ocean City Beach, Maryland

Our next stop (yes this was a jam packed trip so I am breaking it down into days/cities) was Ocean City Maryland! It was fantastic!! We drove a about 3 hours (from the DC Temple) and got there about midnight. We were so excited to get to our romantic beach hotel, walked up to the room, and saw 2 twin beds....awesome. Sam was so bitter, and spent about an hour and a half on the phone with hotels.com and the hotel management...not so fun. And no we couldn't push the beds together...they were bolted where they were! So yes, because I can't sleep alone anymore, we slept in a twin bed together. Haha I woke up so refreshed and slept so well, and Sam had a pretty horrible sleep. Love the difference between men and women haha! We hung out at the beach in the morning! It was my first time in the Atlantic Ocean!






I always like writing our names in the sand at the beach. I just think it is fun!



We laughed pretty hard at that street sign! Sam made me pose with it! hehe!




My Heaven on Earth right here. Not only was I engulfed in all of this delectable candy, but the colors in there were spectacular. Bright pretty colors can cheer me up no matter what. Loved this store!! We got some really good salt water taffy here!



We had a terrific time walking up and down the Ocean City Boardwalk. LOTS of people watching which I always love. That picture is of the boardwalk from the pier. It was pretty long if you can tell!

Sam eating some Dip n' Dots...there are the ice cream of the future you know. Although I think they have had that title for a long time now...is it not the future yet??