Jiggity Jig, and All That

Do you know what's awesome? Wearing jeans is awesome, and a special privilege. Why? Because you don't wear jeans when you're packing light and in situations where you wash things in sinks. Nor do you wear heavy cotton shirts. I'm wearing both today, because I'm back home in Birmingham (Alabama, that is) and it is (as previously indicated) pretty freakin' awesome.

Our holiday was really great- but I won't get too into that here, since I'm about to go back and post what I wrote while I was gone. It may take a while to get them all up, because right now they're in a sort of raw, "We did this, then this, then this," form, whereas I would like to put them into Witty Anecdotal form. Preferably with photos, but since Nate has approximately 1300 of them to process, that may take even longer.

What I will do is give some of my overall (ie, random) thoughts...

London is full of fabulous things to see, and you'd really need a few years to do them all justice. The people, however, leave a wee bit to be desired (one little old lady actually drew away from me in narrow-eyed suspicion when I smiled at her. Sadly, her reaction really wasn't that much more extreme than most...). In my opinion Edinburgh, although less brimming with Iconic Structures, is overall the far superior city, as are its denizens. I don't know... Scotland just felt like more of a home place to me. That's not to say I didn't thoroughly love the Lake Distric of Cumbria (I truly, truly did) but there was just something soothing about the Scottish countryside... an odd word to apply to craggy, windswept mountains, but true nonetheless. As far as London goes, Nathan and I both loved the convenience of the Tube (especially those Oyster Cards!)- however we wouldn't want to live in an area with the requisite population-density to require it.

We learned that as much as we love our family (and we do!), such large gatherings are probably better suited for National Parks than urban areas or long bouts of caravan-ing. Also, too many Alpha Personalities on one holiday can get... interesting. But the predicted homicides never actually manifested, so go team! Nathan and I have been discussing the possibility of taking a family trip with my side to Germany... that will have to wait a while, tho. Recovery, and all that.

Furthermore, the word "queue" is awesome, and I don't care what Nathan says to me about sounding pretentious, I'm using it from here on out. It's great fun to holler out, "Queue up!" at a mass of unruly individuals. I did inform a few locals, however, that our "Yield" signs beat the pants off their "Give Way" signs, so I'd say we're equal on the funny words front...

Also, I apparently must look at least a bit Scottish, since I got asked not once but twice for directions while in Edinburgh (one time by an actual Scotsman). I do kind of wish we'd gotten to Wales, to see how I fit in there (good bit of blood from that country- hence the slanty eyes) but ah well... just have to save that for another trip.

My Osprey pack turned out to be a very fine investment indeed (as did the Marmot PreCip jackets), and I must say that I did a perfect job of packing it. What makes me say this, you ask? Because I used every single thing I packed (minus the universal sink-stopper) and didn't wish for anything I didn't bring. So go me, way to pack 13 days of stuff for two people into one bag, and still be able to hump it all over the UK. Which leads me to this; we're in pretty good walking-with-crap-on-our-backs shape now. I hope to somehow capitalize on this as a launching-off place for getting us into superb walking-with-crap-on-our-backs shape. I strongly desire some PCT time... specifically the John Muir Trail. Just think of the photos Nate could churn out of that little experience!

Speaking of which, I'm pretty excited to show off what he got from this holiday. I hope you're equally excited to see them.

Finally, it took me three days to adjust to looking the proper direction while crossing the street, and frankly I'm a bit nervous that I'll have a bit of trouble adjusting back to American standards- I had to remind myself not to get panicky while Jeff was driving us home from the airport yesterday...




(PS; you'll be pleased to know the Rat Babies survived our absence and are just as hale and hearty as ever- big props to my mom or checking in on them!)