Day 12 of Europe 2012 Trip: London

Day 12… Finally made it to London! This update is going to be pretty big because I took a lot of pictures… I’m sure you all won’t mind. We went just prior to the opening day of the Olympic games. It wasn’t as busy as I thought it’d be, but oh well, I’m not complaining. We took the coach into London and we got caught up in traffic which delayed us for an hour or so. We had reservations for the London Eye (thanks Pete’s parents once again for the tickets!!!). We were rushing to get there, but then realized we were going to be late anyways. So long story short, we made it! …. Eventually.

Here we are… On the bridge. Almost at the eye. Just have to cross River Thames.

Pete’s parents bought us the Fast Track tickets which gave us priority boarding. It was awesome! We got to pass all through all the people in the lineup. But here we are on the London Eye.

Proof that we all hung out!

They had Olympic mascot statues all over the place. It was pretty cool.

This random guy in a gorilla mask wanted to take pictures with us. We were all kind of confused about it… But afterwards he wanted money… Really?? He didn’t even do anything to deserve a tip or anything! So Pete pretty much told him to go away. We had an encounter with someone else dressed up as Jimi Hendrix in Portland, Oregon who actually entertained us… THAT deserved a tip. You can check it out that adventure here.

Bye bye ugly crappy gorilla guy…

The Elizabeth Tower! … Thanks for photobombing this picture, Pete.

Houses of Parliament.

Random buildings…

Westminster Abbey

Next stop… Buckingham Palace!

Victoria Memorial.

Canada Gate! Sooo cool!

This is the Canada Memorial. It’s located in Green Park. It’s a memorial for the Canadians who were killed in both World Wars.

Green Park!

Subway.

And now we’re at Abbey Road. It was so funny because everyone was trying to get “the shot”, so cars were honking at them and people were photobombing. Check it out on the live webcam here for hours of entertainment!

I wish we were able to check out Abbey Road Studio… Oh well.

So cool how people sign this wall at Abbey Road!

Next stop… Sherlock Holmes museum!

Time to head back!

Day 9 – 11 of Europe Trip 2012: Chepstow and Cheltenham

So here we are… Checking out a little town called Chepstow. It’s right on the border of Wales and England. The main attraction is the Chepstow Castle. It was built around late 1000’s? And later on it was expanded. It’s really crazy to see so much history around here. Everywhere you go, there’s really interesting history behind these things. So Shannon and I did some wandering around before we went to the castle.

Streets of Chepstow!

At the pub with some fish n chips.

Sweet lookin’ beetle parked just outside of Chepstow Castle.

Here we go!

Back to the pub for some…. Ice cream?

I love train rides…

Wandering around the streets of Cheltenham.

Yay telephone booths!

Mollie and John’s Wedding at Tigh Na Mara Resort

On Aug 17, 2012, my good friends Mollie and John got married! It was held at Tigh Na Mara resort in Parksville, BC at a gazebo outdoors. It was a great wedding! I was pretty happy I found some shade that day because it was about 31 degrees, and I had to drive from Victoria to Parksville (about a 2 hour drive). So it was definitely a good spot to cool down.

It’s pretty crazy seeing so many of my friends either married or engaged or having kids. I feel like I’m still trying to figure out life (finding “the one”, getting a real job, etc, etc). Maybe I’m just a late bloomer…

Anyways, here’s the pictures from the wedding! Congrats!! It was an awesome day!

The bridal party and John.

Mollie and her dad.

They’re married!!!

Chad Proposes To Rotha @ Bernard Park

I was in Europe from July 14 – Aug 5 (I will continue my blog posts about it after this… Because this is pretty important). I got a message from my friend Chad on Aug 3rd saying he needed my help on something. He said it was a secret so he wasn’t able to talk about it over the interwebs. I had no idea what this “secret” was because he always has some crazy idea brewing. So I got back from Europe, spent a day or two recovering, and then we went met up…. Long story short, Chad was going to propose to his girlfriend, Rotha on their 4th year anniversay – exciting!!!

Yesterday (Aug 13) was the big day! Here was the plan:

1. have everyone show up at Bernard Park (that’s where Chad and Rotha took the dog) by 8:00pm (near sunset)
2. Chad & Rotha walks down the path (which would be lit by candles) to the park with the dog
3. Chad & Rotha shows up at the park and sees a bunch of friends/family
4. show a slideshow of memories of Chad & Rotha
5. give Rotha a present that Chad made (the decoy)
6. BAM! Propose!
7. hopes Rotha says yes
8. happy!

So here’s the pictures:

Chad and I met up at 12:30pm to set up the chairs, projector, computer, sound system, cameras, everything. Then at 5:30pm – 7 whatever ish, other people showed up to set up the candles on the path and more cameras and finish up the loose ends.

Here’s the place at around 7:30pm. We were just finishing everything while people started showing up. It looked ace.

The pathway that was lined with candles.

Here they come!

Watching the slideshow.

Shoot! Someone noticed me taking pictures of candid people!

The lamp that Chad made for Rotha

The proposal!

She said yes!!!

Sorry, wasn’t able to focus properly on the diamond… Pretty close though.

A toast to Chad and Rotha!

Sorry that a bunch of pictures didn’t turn out alright. But at least Chad and Rotha are super happy! Congrats to the two of you, and thanks for letting me be a part of such an amazing event.

The ring was custom designed by local jewelry business, Vanessa Jewellers. Check out their website here: http://www.vanessajeweller.com

Day 8 of Europe Trip 2012: Oxford, UK

Day 8… Pete, Shannon, and I took the train to Oxford to do some geocaching, attend a mega event (geocaching event), Pitt Rivers Museum, and walk around. It was a good day! …. As usual.

We made it to the mega event. It was my first geocaching event so it was crazy seeing so many cachers in the same room. Nice venue too!

The Oxford University Museum of Natural History is where the Pitts River Museum is.

Cool pieces of tree roots were on display outside.

I LOVE the inside of this place.

Inside the Pitt Rivers museum. It was really cool here because it’s just a display of different artifacts. There were tons of stuff here – stuff overload!!

Pretty sweet looking museum.

Time to check out the first museum some more!

Day 6 & 7 of Europe Trip 2012: Dublin & Back to Bristol

One more full day in Dublin and then back to the UK. Since yesterday involved a lot of walking, we decided to go check out places that were a bit closer to where we were staying. First stop, Trinity College – the best university in Ireland.

The Sphere Within Sphere (Sfera Con Sfera) can be seen in different versions all over the world! Here is one of the versions!

HDR picture of Trinity College!

Apparently this sculpture of Molly Malone is an attraction in Dublin… And the leprechaun just happened to be there too.

Next stop, Temple Bar… It’s pretty much a street laid with cobble stone with a bunch of different restaurant/pubs. Really cool area!

I still think all the brick buildings are pretty cool.

Look who I’ve found!!

Next stop, St Patrick’s Cathedral

HDR pic of the outside of the cathedral.

HDR pic of the inside.

More wandering around Dublin!

The Ha’penny Bridge! It had a bunch of locks locked on the bridge. Pretty cool to see.

The next day, we bummed around for the morning and then headed off to the airport back to Bristol and back to Gloucester.

Back in Bristol waiting for the train at Temple Meads station.

The last picture is another HDR pic. I think it turned out alright!

I have a feeling it’s going to take me a long time to post my whole trip on here… Oh well.

Day 5 of Europe 2012 Trip: More Dublin

Scott and Aileen left for Victoria the next day, so Shannon and I were left alone in Dublin to check out the different sites they briefly took us and suggested us to go. It was a really full day – a lot of walking since we didn’t have a car. It was worth it though. We ended up going to the Guinness brewery and the Kilmainham Gaol.

There was a cool market on the street!

More pictures of the really tall spire, downtown.

The next picture is an HDR picture of O’Connell Street, downtown Dublin.

Shannon and I were geocaching around the area, and we found the Dublin Castle. It was really cool!

We found the Guinness Brewery!

Guinness ads!

This is where you can pour your own free pint of Guinness the right way, or you could get your pint up at Sky Bar which is at the very top of the building.

The proper way to pour a pint of Guinness.

Up at Sky Bar! Pretty sweet view.

Then we went downstairs to grab some lunch! Soooo good!

After lunch we walked over to Kilmainham Gaol (pronounced the same as “jail”).

We had a little bit of time to kill before the tour started, so we checked out the museum part first.

And the tour begins!

Shannon trying to hide in a cell.

HDR picture of the cells area.

On the way back home, we got distracted by the Irish Museum of Modern Art… Oops… But at least we didn’t go inside to check it out.

Well, this was definitely a huge post…. Hope you all enjoyed the pics as much as I enjoyed taking them! I’m hoping to get more frequent posts. I just have too many pictures to go through.