A Visit From Dad

I apologize for the scarcity of posts in the past week; not only has my Internet been down, but I've been up to my eyeballs in work. Seems I had to eventually buckle down and become a student after all (sigh).

My dad came to visit me this weekend, and boy, did we have some adventures. I met him at Heathrow on Friday, and took him into central London. I showed him my flat, and then took him on a tour of UCL, making sure to stop by the main library, the body of Jeremy Bentham, the main quad, and the Institute of Archaeology. From there we went to the British Museum and wandered around there for hours (I was a very good tour guide and took him to the coolest artifacts). When night rolled around, we went out to a crowded little pub and had some Guinness (in typical Wray family fashion). We then went to Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus, because those are pretty cool to wander around at night. After that we went to another pub and had more beer. I'm not kidding. Dad eventually had to pass out around 10:00 pm from a combination of jet lag, beer, and endless hours or girl talk on the behalf of yours truly.

Saturday we woke up early, ready to hit the sites of London and also to meet up with Jeannie, dad's British nanny from when he was a kid. We went to the Tower of London first, and then met up with Jeannie, her daughter Jo, and Jo's husband Pete at Victoria Station. From there the five of us went to Covent Garden (an outdoor market), crossed the Thames, re-crossed the Thames, and went to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, and Buckingham Palace. We then went to another pub (surprise!) and had drinks and pub food for the next couple of hours (we all had beer; Jeannie sipped SoCo on the rocks). It was really nice to see Jeannie again (I hadn't seen her in years), and her and Dad reminisced on all their crazy adventures they had back in the sixties and seventies. Jo and Pete were very charming too; it was great to have finally met them.

One of the main sights my Dad wanted to see while he was over here was Stonehenge. Going out to Stonehenge was proving to be a difficult excursion to plan; the trains and buses to Salisbury, the nearest town to Stonehenge, all seemed to take too long (over three hours, while the site was only 80 miles outside London).
"Let's just rent a car," my dad said on Sunday. "I'll drive, and you can navigate."
"But they drive on the wrong side of the street," I pointed out.
"I can handle it," my dad replied (Mr. Navy Admiral), but I remained wary. My concern grew when I saw the car, which was a stick shift. The stick was on my dad's left hand side (he was sitting on the right side of the car). I just didn't like the looks of this. Not to mention driving out of London was going to be difficult.
Dad stalled a few times in busy traffic in London, but I kept my mouth wrenched shut, determined not to seem like a wuss.
Miracle of miracles, we made it to Stonehenge later that day, on behalf of Dad's superb driving (he got the hang of it) and my navigational skills. Stonehenge is truly a wonderful site; I had been there before, but I still found it amazing. The weather was raw when we got there, but at one point the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the wet stones, and I was taken aback by the sense of timelessness of the place. If you ever get an opportunity to look at it, you must go.

When we made it back into London, we stopped by the Natural History Museum for a little bit before going back to my flat and to the pub across the street. We went out with my girl roommates and Dad bought a round of drinks and pudding; they fell in love with him instantly.
"Your Dad is so cool!" they squealed to me. Hey, free drinks and dessert means alot to a college kid.

Overall, I had a busy, exhausting, but awesome weekend with my dad. We managed to see alot of stuff over here, and we managed to drink alot of alcohol. It was also nice to have someone from home actually see what I've been up to over here. I was sad to see him leave Monday morning, but I'll be home in a month (can you believe it?).

Now I have to get back to my paper- it's about the layout of the ancient city of Babylon (mmm...yummy).