Last weekend we went to London for 4 days and had a lot of fun seeing all the sites.
Friday - We left for the airport at 0-Dark-30 for our 7:20AM flight. The flight itself was fine except that the kids naturally did not fall asleep until the plane was about to land. The bad part was that we had to wait in line for over an hour to get our passports stamped.
We took the Hogwarts Express from the airport into downtown. OK, actually it was the Gatwick Express but Hogwarts Express sounds...not "cooler" I guess but at least more interesting.
After getting settled in at the hotel we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Natural History Museum. VJ really liked the dinosaur bones and Katie liked the computer guides. Neither one of them were entirely thrilled by the animatronic T-Rex.
Back to the hotel and dinner across the street at the local Pizza Place.
Saturday - We took the Underground (aka The Tube) down to Westminster Abbey and toured the Abbey. Beautiful place. Also here's a tip: To bypass the line and get right in ask the security guard where the bathroom is since your 6 yr old has to "go." We got right in but then had to run halfway through the place to get to the restroom in time.
Right near the Abbey we also saw The Parliament Building and Big Ben. Then we walked up to Trafalgar Square for lunch. On the way we passed the heavily guarded Downing Street.
After a short break at the hotel, we went and had tea at Harrod's. OK, I had tea. Anna had a cappuccino and the kids had milkshakes.
For dinner we walked over to China Town for some really good Chinese food. Dinner was made more interesting when VJ dumped his whole glass of apple juice in his lap. Joy.
Sunday - We had ordered tickets for the "Royal Day Out." This included going to the Queen's Gallery to see some of the Italian Masterpiece's owned by the Royal Family (paintings by Caravaggio, Parmigianino, Annibale Carraci, etc. and sketches by DaVinci, Bernini and Michaelangelo, to name a few).
Next we went to the Royal Mews to see the Royal Coaches and horses. 
Finally we went and toured the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. We got lucky since this tour is only available in August and September when the Queen goes to her Castle in Scotland. The Palace was gorgeous! I only wish we were allowed to take pictures inside.
When Anna suggested that we go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner I was all for it. In retrospect this was not one of our better choices. We had eaten a late lunch and so we did not get there until about 7:00pm. We were told that the wait was 45 - 60 minutes. OK, we'll have a drink and wait. The Music was way to f#%^king LOUD. And let me just say that living in Texas and listening almost exclusively to Country Music for 10 years meant that I only recognized every 5th song. After 60 minutes I went and checked on our status only to be told that they had paged us 20 minutes ago. I chose to blame the children (who spent the wait passing the pager back and forth) for missing the page rather than cause a scene by calling the hostess a damn liar. So we were seated at 8:00pm.
Two new problems: 1. VJ was about to fall asleep and had to be forced to eat his dinner. 2. Katie looked like she felt the night was still young and was ready to move on to the next club. She couldn't help but be-bop around to the REALLY LOUD music. Not a problem per se until you are her Dad and flash forward 10 years and worry about what she will be like at 16. Definitely time to order that 3rd beer. At least the French Dip was awesome.
Funny story: When Anna ordered the appetizer (Spinach Avocado Dip) she asked the waitress to bring "extra chips." Since "chips" = "french fries" in England the waitress brought us an order of fries...and the music was TOO LOUD to try and sort that out so we just let well enough be.
Monday - We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Tower of London. Great tour and lots of really interesting stuff to see. 
We could have spent at least 2 more hours here but had to get back to the hotel, get our stuff and catch the Hogwarts Express back to Gatwick Airport to catch our flight. Home Sweet Home by 11:00pm. I know that's kinda late, but don't worry...I didn't have to go to work the next day.
Our internet connection has been a bit unreliable this week which is why I'm late posting about this trip. And it's premiere week so once I'm done downloading this week's TV shows (legally through iTunes, of course) I'll get around to uploading all 430+ pictures to our Kodak Gallery for the three of you who like to look at them.
Friday, September 28, 2007
London
Monday, September 17, 2007
Saturday
On Mom Price's last full day in Europe Hungary we did some more tourist stuff.
First we went to St. Stephen's Basilica (Szent István-bazilika) on the Pest side of the river. The Basilica is beautiful and very well maintained. At the top of the Basilica is an observation deck/balcony (luckily there's an elevator). The view was awesome!
Next we went to Matthias Church (Mátyás-templom) and Fisherman's Bastion (Halászbástya) on the Buda side. Again great views of the city but a lot more stairs involved. When we got to the top we were glad to take a rest in the cafe we found there. In case you were unsure, I can report that beer and cake go very well together!
We capped off this day with dinner at...wait for it....TGI Friday's! I'm serious...those Jack Daniels Pork Chops are awesome!
Saturday would have been Mom's last day in Europe but alas, her plane was a little late leaving Budapest and she missed her connection in Paris! So she had to spend the night in Paris to wait for the next flight. Hopefully she got to see more than the hotel and the airport. We'll let you know when we hear from her (if she's still speaking to us).
Between the Really-Bad-Make-People-Puke turbulence of her first flight and her Unexpected-Extra-Night-in-Europeness of the return flight I'm pretty sure Mom Price 's trip did not inspire my parents to run out and book their tickets to visit.
As always, you can see all of Saturday's pictures on our Kodak Gallery.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Cruise on the Danube
Today Anna, Mom Price and I took a 1 hour site-seeing cruise on the Danube. It was a lot of fun and we learned some interesting facts about Budapest (which I won't bore you with now).
Check out all our pictures on our Kodak Gallery .
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Touring Budapest
Busy week this week.
On Tuesday, Anna, the kids and I had to go and get our visas renewed so we could stay in Hungary for another year. The process itself was not difficult but getting to the Immigration office was horrendous. We were in traffic for at least an hour going and then another after we left.
Anna went to work and the kids to school so Mom Price and I went to the Citadella. Great views of Budapest!
On Wednesday she and I went to Statue Park. After the end of the Soviet Occupation, most the Soviet-era Statues were carted off to a warehouse (unlike some cities in Europe that just destroyed them). In the early 90's they decided to put some of them on display again. It was pretty cool.
Afterwards we drove over to the Pest side of the river and visited Hero's Square.
Today Anna took off from work and we went to the Marketplace and walked the Vaci Utca and did some souvenir shopping.
Tomorrow we hope to take a boat ride on the Danube!
Monday, September 10, 2007
House Guest
So we are very excited that Anna's Mom has come for a week's visit.
Mom Price arrived yesterday, exhausted after her long flights. Apparently the first flight, Houston - Paris, was EXTREMELY bumpy. She said she counted at least 4 people who lost their dinner! To celebrate her arrival we took her to our favorite Hungarian restaurant: TGI Friday's (I highly recommend the Jack Daniel's Pork Chops...A Hungarian Classic).
In addition to being happy she is visiting because we love her and are glad to see her, I was especially happy to see her since she brought me my new contact lenses! My left contact ripped a few weeks ago so I've been having to wear my glasses...the glasses that are about 3 yrs behind on my prescription and whose nose rests broke off recently.
She also brought us other goodies like Froot Loops, Welch's Grape Jelly, Crystal Light Pink Lemonade, Starbucks Coffee and Splenda!
Today Mom took it easy: got up late, had breakfast, enjoyed the cool, pleasant weather by sipping her tea on our patio and then went back in for a nap!
We look forward to spending the week with her and showing her around Budapest!
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Why Did the Kitty Cat Cross the Road?
On the way to school today a cat crossed the street about a half a block in front of us.
Katie: "Daddy, did you see that Kitty Cat? Why did he cross the road?"
Me: "To get to the other side!"
Katie: (in annoyed tone) "I was not joking Daddy, I was asking a question."
VJ: "Why did the chicken cross the road?"
Katie: "Because he was stuffed." (which is the punchline to some joke she heard on the kid's TV channel.)
VJ: "To get his doughnut to his house. Hahaha. That's funny, right Daddy?"
Monday, September 3, 2007
School Pictures - Exclusive Preview
Katie has school pictures today. Being that her class is scheduled for 11:00am, right after outdoor recess, we are not counting on them being super good. So here's a picture from this morning before we left for school when her hair was still looking good.
VJ distracted helped Katie smile by acting like a goof.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The Many Faces of Frank Salvaggio
So while wasting time on the internet I came across this gem: Face of the Future. You upload a picture of your face and the site applies filters to it and you get to see what you would look like if you were a different ethnicity or a type of art work, etc. And I thought, wouldn't it be funny if I loaded my picture and posted some of the results on the blog.
Then it hit me. Wouldn't it be even FUNNIER if I uploaded a picture of my Dad and posted the results to the blog? Oh yeah, that's definitely funnier.
East Asian Frank
All of these pictures are available on our Kodak Gallery site. Slightly off topic, but did you know that you can order personalized gifts, like coffee mugs, playing cards, coasters, etc. directly from the Kodak Gallery site? I'm just saying.
