November 26, 2011

Playing Catch Up

Hayes and I spent two wonderful weeks visiting Spence’s parents in England while they were on their mission.  I haven’t had the chance to chronicle our trip, so I’m going to start with some random posts of our trip. 

One day, Hayes and I split up from Jay and Trish and decided to take a boat ride on the Thames that ended at the Tower Bridge.  It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly because when we arrived at Tower Bridge, they announced that in 30 minutes, a cruise liner was going to come through the Tower Bridge and dock next to the H.M.S. Belfast, a WWII cruiser that is permanently docked on the Thames between the London Bridge and Tower Bridge.   They said we were lucky to see them raise the bridge completely up to let a ship pass.  They usually just raise it a little to let small boats through.  When you see the pictures, you’ll see why they had to raise the bridge all the way.  It was an amazing sight!

A shot of Hayes on the little tour boat with the Tower Bridge in the background.  You can see a red bus crossing the bridge and people walk across also.

tower bridge with hayes

Here the bridge is opening up to let the cruise ship come in. (just bear with me here…even if I’m boring you to death!)  It was really neat to see.

opening 1opening 3opening 2opening 5opening 6

Finally here come the ship in the background on the left.

approaching ship 1

It doesn’t look that big as it approaches.

approaching ship 2

These pictures can’t really do it justice.  The ship was massive.

approaching ship 3

People on the ship were on top waving to all of us who were watching it come by.

closeup ship 1

This is the cool little tugboat that was anchored to the back of the Silver Cloud.  I’m guessing it was there to pull the ship backwards out of the Thames since it was too big to turn around.DSCN1167_3567

cool little tugboat

The whole trip was like a dream.  We saw so many amazing things it seemed surreal.

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