Altitudes & Attitudes

8/7/12

The team departed Raleigh about 7pm EST and arrived in London at 2am EST (7am London time).  After completing our own triathlon of making it through Customs, obtaining our boarding passes for the evening flight to Johannesburg, and storing our carry on luggage we departed the airport for a day in London.

We were given many opinions regarding going into London for the day, most said "don't do it", but with at least 12 hours to wait we opted to venture in.  We did however heed the warnings to stay on foot as there could be transportation issues due to Olympic events.  So we were off, first to the tram, then to the underground or the "tube" as the locals call the subway, disembarked at Paddington Station and then out into the City of London.  The day was beautiful and the walk along the Thames River was amazing.  We viewed Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Margaret's, and finally Buckingham Palace.  One of the sweetest moments occurred on the way to the Palace as we walked through Green Park.  Green Park offered the shade and coolness of a dense canopy of London Plane trees (a type of sycamore) and a grassy place to rest for a bit.  Yes, the grass called to us . . . "rest here my friend", and we all did so.  It was AWESOME !

Now things got interesting, it was about 2pm London time and we had planned lunch at one of the local pubs.  Just love how "our plans" seem to work out.  All of a sudden everything and everyplace was overflowing, there were people everywhere!  We were told that several Olympic events ended within the past hour releasing approximately 500,000 people into the city.  No time for lunch in London due to the crowds so it was back to Paddington Station and then to Heathrow Airport for us.  It was interesting navigating the crowds but we made it back to the airport and even found the traditional fish & chips there for a late lunch.  Yes, I hear you - "but you don't like fish?"  I had a marvelous rare roast beef sandwich and chips (fries).  Life is good !

Our personal Olympic event began after our meal !  We were diverted from security checkpoints 3 times and finally were directed back to a ticket agent.  While the ticket agent was working to find the problem I decided to open a coke which honestly exploded all over me !  Yep, it was me again !  I so attempted to smile my way through the embarrasment and chalk it up to a possible divine appointment.  God is so good!  Amazingly the situation did present itself as a divine appointment and we met a few really neat people.  Well, off to security once again . . . Eric, Whitney, & I made it through the initial check point but Doug . . . well; Doug . . . Doug headed back to the ticket agent as we three patiently sat against the wall inside the security area   Thankfully he returned soon and was allowed to pass.  We all then managed to make it through security check and awaited the sprint to the gate.  Gate assignments are only announced 30 minutes prior to the flight and ours just happened to be 20 minutes away from the waiting area we were in. The race was on! 

All in all we walked many miles and it was an awesome day for all !  It was amazing how we all sewed in laughter when things didn't seem to go quite right.  We even had help staying "on the sunny side" from others around us.  It always helps to remember that each and every day holds its own blessings, joy, mercies, and of course new adventures.  Let the adventures continue . . .

Blessings