home sweet home....for a few days

Well folks...here I am, back in sunny Santa Clara, California.

...time to unpack the boots, scarves and coats...and fill my suitcase with my shades, swimsuits and flip flops!

It feels nice to be home after my 16 day trip, but I am definitely missing England a lot! My eyes are not used to this lack of GREEN. Adjusting back to the time difference is difficult as well... I am up most nights and tired during the days. But finally, (5 days later) I think I have adjusted! I shouldn't speak too soon though, because on Monday I am off to Hawaii to visit my cousin David...and that is a three hour time difference! Not too big of an adjustment though.

It sounds weird to say, but I am kind of excited to start working again. It's been a few months of freedom and adventure...but getting a job will be nice to save up a little to achieve my goals of moving :) Before that can happen I am SO excited for my final adventure of 2010...Hawaii trip #2!

It has been so nice to catch up with all of my friends! Carli and I are back in the swing of things, with wine nights, stories from the past two weeks & chocolate fondue! Tonight we are headed to a San Jose Sharks pre-season game. yey. I even got a chance to take some night pictures of the golden gate bridge last night with an old friend...well, not old litteraly...old like I havent seen him in a long time hahah.

Hawaii here I come :) 5 hour plane flight is nothin! ..compared to my 10 hour one to England!
thanks to everyone who followed my journey to England through my blog posts! I have loved reading all of your comments and messages. love you guys.

xoxo,
Elise Diane

....never forget that with true dedication, motivation, perseverance, & love...you hold the key to every closed door.

CHEERIO ENGLAND.....

:(

The departure day is almost here...we leave on a 11:30am flight tomorrow morning, headed back to the US of A. We arrive back in California at about 1:30 in the afternoon....which is about 9:30pm in England!! It will be a long day of traveling.

This trip has been a once in a lifetime adventure...well, not ONCE in a lifetime, I hope to go back to England of course!! The last 16 days were ones that I will never forget. There is something about going back to the country where my grandparents were born, grew up and met, that is truly indescribable. Also meeting family, and people, who I never knew, now I can put a face to the names of people who are part of my extended family, just placed on another side of the world. Me & Nessy had such a wonderful adventure, traveling all over the south of England. We saw a variety of scenery, from ponies and sheep to the underground tube and chaos of the big city.

What I have learned as I am about to head home is that, (England is "bloody" expensive!) & you never know where life is going to take you....always be open to new opportunities...and never lose your sense of adventure!!! Another thing that has become pretty apparent to me, is that I love the country more than the city. Hard to believe since I am such a girly girl with a shopping addiction. I have to say, the best parts of my trip was seeing for myself the beauty of the English countryside, the little shops with candle makers and antique stores with wonderful friendly owners...lovely rolling green hills, with sheep scattering them...houses with thatched roofs...afternoon tea, charming little pubs, white wine spritzers.......& most of all, quality time with my Auntie, family and friends.....and wishing I brought my good Nikon camera to capture it all in detail! grrr...my point and shoot will have to do the trick :)

I can't even begin to describe the close relationships I made here in England. I miss everyone already!!! Hopefully my pictures & videos will give a better glimpse into the past 16 days.

Bye England, and thank you for opening my eyes to new experiences, new adventures, new memories, a better sense of what the hell I want to do with my life! ...and even conquering some fears... (driving on the wrong side of the road, AHH!!!... & figuring out the "tube" system!) I think I got the accent down...and some awesome new words to use :)

Here comes a 9 hour flight! See everyone at home soon. x.

cheerio!
Elise Diane

THE MORNING SHOW

Ello!

I totally feel like I'm wayyy over blogging, but I finally got a cord so I can upload pics and videos so bare with me...

Updating you today from London, England, we welcome you to the morning show with Elise & Nessy.

Today we had quite the experience going on the "tube" for the first time. It's like an underground subway. We asked about 57 people how to get there and what tube lines to take...but with my sense or direction and Nessy preparing us with Starbucks this morning, we were really to begin our journey! Before getting on the tube, we walked to Buckingham palace from our hotel to see the Changing of the guards (only about a 5 minute walk, the Queen is practically our neighbor!) It kind of reminded me of a Disneyland parade, but way more meaningful. We learned that the guards change shifts every 2 days (48 hours) and they each work 2 hour shifts, then get 4 hours breaks, then back on for 2 hours and so forth and so on. After that excitement, we had more coffee at a local pub kind of place and watched the Pope on the TV there. He was at Westminster Abbey today, which is not too far from where we are staying!

Then we went to the tubes.....everyone there is ON A MISSION, speed walking as fast as they can. Thank God Nessy & I were wearing our matching shirts of we might have gotten lost ;) ...total losers....we know. We went on two different tube lines, got off at our stop....and then I saw it...HARRODS. Pretty much heaven on Earth for people who like to shop. Maybe if I win the lottery I can actually go shopping there one day. For now I just got a cool little Harrods bag :) I must say the absolute HIGHLIGHT of the day was where we ate lunch.... let me just say, the name of the place started with "Chocolate" and ended with "Bar".....yep, a chocolate bar! Are you kidding me?! This place was amazing-ly-yummy.

Tomorrow is our last day in England....hard to believe. I don't even want to talk about it haha.

Here are some pictures from the past week!

(Hike from our B&B to Watersmeet)

(New job! ...as a guard at Buckingham palace)

(Twin day! Watching the Changing of the Guards)

(Chris & I at the train station)

Ok mates, we are off to go see Dirty Dancing!! Sooo excited.

x,

Elise Diane

LONDON BITS & BOBS

Alright Mates!

This is a mini update coming to you from London, England! I'll do a more current one soon hopefully when I have more time.

This morning I realized there was a USA outlet in our hotel room, which means I can charge my laptop, yeah!! .....that's the good news....bad news is, I lost my cable for my digital camera somewhere along the way, (think I left it in Lynmouth) so I have no way to upload pics and videos :( oh well

London is madness... kind of reminds me of San Francisco, but everyone has accents and drives completely insane. I do love it, but I have to admit I miss the countryside. The shopping is absolutely awesome, but it does make me realize that I don't think I could ever live around all of the "hustle and bustle" of a big city. I do notice that everyone dresses up more here than at home! A lot of men are wearing suits, and women wearing interesting styles that I will probably try to copy and bring back to the States... ;)

Today we went to Blenheim Palace, we walked through the room where Winston Churchill was born. along with seeing the palace where he grew up. Amazing! It was huge, we took tons of pics and pretended that we lived there. We then went to the Cotswolds, where we shopped around in the cute little towns there and had lunch & wine spritzers...duh.

We ate at a nice little restaurant, conveniently located in our hotel :) Tomorrow we are headed to HARRODS! I can not wait.

It's so weird to think I only have a couple short days left in England! We have been here over two weeks now, and I can't imagine going home...I am basically a local now...and going to miss it SO much.

Going to go check out London! Here are some pics that I put on my laptop earlier in the trip before it died....not the latest, but thought you might like them. Hopefully tomorrow I will get something so I can upload pics. We have some good videos haha.

"shouldnt there be a steering wheel here?!"

(Christchurch)

(inside St. Andrew's Church, where Grandma & Boppa were married)

(me holding my BIRTH announcement that Auntie Vera still had at her house. Baby Elise was eight pounds 9 ounes, and 21 and a half inches long on Nov, 25th 1988! lol)

"X" (it means kiss!)

Elise Diane

LONDON BOUND!

hello pea-pool (people)

This is an update coming to you from Bournemouth, England again!

We successfully returned the car!!! yeah!! We have had such an amazing last day in Bournemouth. Yesterday Chris picked us up from the car rental place and we finally were "home" back at Chris and Terri's. We always walk in the door and say "WE'RE HOME!!!" knowing that Terri is cringing...and thinking "oh no, they might never leave!"

We then went to their "local" (local pub) for a great meal before picking up uncle Tom and preparing for our last supper with everyone. It was a full table: Me, Nessy, Chris, Terri, Andrew, Ally, Nick, Ella, Lauren, Uncle Tom, Heidi and Sam. We has a fabulous night telling them about our driving adventures and places we have seen in the last 5 days. We said our sad goodbyes and made them promise to come visit us in the States VERY soon :)

This morning we are packing up all of our stuff and getting ready to leave for the train station. On our way to LONDON TOWN!!!! Watch out London, here we come :)

Hugs & kisses
Elise Diane

YMCA...

Hey loves!

This time Nessy & I are updating you from Bath, England!

We arrived safely yesterday in Bath....we only hit 1 curb so we are pretty happy with ourselves! It is a huge difference here from the little town of Lynmouth we are used to. We kind of miss our little B&B....

We are totally tough cookies and are having the adventure of a lifetime. We survived our first night here.. but probably should have listened to the few warnings we had before arriving here. A few days ago I told Andrew we were staying at the YMCA in Bath, and he responded "haha no you're not" ..that was clue number 1....Clue number 2 was when we were trying to find the YMCA and asked a man if he knew where it was... He responded "Its that horrible building with the grey roof behind you..." hmmm...

Let me just give you a little info on where we are staying.
First the positives:
-We are in the heart <3 of Bath
-There is a Starbucks a block away from us
-We have a computer, blow dryer and towels, and a sink in our cell....I mean room.

Now on the the not so positives....:
-We are staying in the YMCA (aka a dormitory style place)
-We have COMMUNAL showers...yep...communal.
-Walls are paper thin and the bed is like a cement floor.

After Haiti, I'm am 100% sure I can survive anything on this planet, so, with our Starbucks in hand, we are ready to start our day! Today we are off to explore Bath!! We are going to see the Royal Bath's, do a little shopping and then go see the Princess Diana dresses event!!! We are soooo excited to see her amazing dresses. YEAH!!!

I am not able to upload pics here. We have a funny video to post when I can. Kisses & Hugs!!! Love you guys.

Smashing darling,
Elise Diane

LYNMOUTH ADVENTURES

Alright Darlings! (alright means whats up in England)

Soooo.... we are really liking Denise now (our B&B landlord.) She is so sweet to us. We made the mistake of looking at another room at the B&B and we both went green with envy...we moped all the back to our small box of a room. Yesterday morning Denise asked us if we would like to stay in the bigger room overlooking the river for the last night of our stay here. We both were SOOO excited and gladly accepted. It has a bathtub and cute decor.

Yesterday we went on the cliff railway up to Lynton (a small town close to where we are staying.) We came across this AMAZING little coffee shop where we had our morning mochas and an excellent view of the coast. We continued on our way to some shops including, a antique shop (totally my thing!), a candle maker named John who loved us (He said he was in Heaven when we took a picture with him) and a few other little shops with unique gifts.

We walked along the coast path through the Exmoor Forest and saw some wildlife along the way. Did I mention....WILD PONIES!!??!! yeah, we were hangin with the Ponies (aka PONES.) We also saw some geese and locals playing cricket.

For dinner we enjoyed some fish & chips, of course, and our last dessert of the trip. We made a pact that we will eat NO MORE fish & chips and NO MORE desserts....for fear of us being over the weight limit on the plane like our luggage.... Our waitress said Nessy's fish was VERY happy to see her....can you see why in the pic??

Don't know when our next post will be since we are off to Bath tomorrow!! Miss you guys tons.

Also.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOB!!!!!! I love you soooo much and wish I could talk to you today. I am so excited for your and Jon's trip to Vegas. You are going to have a blast. I cant believe you are only 30 ;) love you!!! xoxox

Cherrio!

Elise & Nessy

"WE SURVIVED"

Hellooooo darlings!!

Me & Nessy here, updating you this time from Lynmouth, England! You will understand the meaning of the title of this post when you watch the video on my facebook. It was about a three hour drive here, with about....60 roundabouts....ahhhh

Lynmouth is so beautiful. Our B&B....hmm.. lets just say...small. As in, our room in about 10 feet by 10 feet (midget feet) lucky I like my Aunt Nessy or one of us might end up dead by the end of this trip. We have gotten to know a lot about each other, like that I am a cover hog. That's ok because Nessy lived up to her nick name (Winey.) She was so happy that she got us here safely that she celebrated a a little to much with two LARGE glasses of wine...followed by 4 Advil that night. She is slowly recovering with much coffee :)

I come to the conclusion that I packed a little too much. My first hint was at the airport when my luggage was 14 pounds over the limit....it all got figured out and me, Nessy and my wardrobe made it safely. My second hint was yesterday when our English couple that run our B&B helped us with our luggage. We insisted we could do it ourselves...but Denise had other plans and made her husband drag up Nessy's bag, followed by my 64 pound hot pink bag.... Then I overheard Denise ask her husband if our bags were heavy, he responded with this "The first bag was light....this one (mine) is RIDICULOUS!!!" ....oops... and when he made it up the stairs, sweating probably, I kindly said thank you...and got no response.. We had a nice English breakfast this morning, cooked by Denise and her husband, we will find out soon if he poisoned me.

Today we are doing a little shopping and will find a place for lunch. Tomorrow we are headed to Clovelly, a little town my grandparents went to when they were in their twenties.

Thank god we made it safe. Keep you posted on our next adventure to Bath.

Cheers!

Elise & Nessy

LET THE ADVENTURES BEGIN!

Helloooo!!!

This is the third installment of the Nessy & Elise England extravaganza updates.

This morning we are packing up our stuff and are getting ready to leave Bournemouth, England. We are sad to be leaving Chris, Terri and Andrew, but excited for the adventure that lies ahead. We are renting a car today and driving to Lynmouth, which is about a 3 hour drive northwest of Bournemouth. We are staying at a nice little B&B for three nights. After that we are taking another drive to Bath which is more toward the middle of southern England. We are staying there for 2 nights I believe. Then, next Wednesday we are headed back to Bournemouth to stay a night with Chris, Terri and Andrew again before heading to London! Lots ahead of us, and today kicks off that road trip through England.

We have had a great few days, yesterday we drive to Salisbury and had a nice afternoon drinking coffee and looking at the shops. We then went to see the Salisbury cathedral, I have never seen a more amazing church in my life. It was just breathtaking. The amount of detail in the 400 foot tall cathedral was unbelievable. Pictures don't even do it Justice. I can't imagine what an accomplishment it was for people to build that with such little tools and technology. It was built in the 1200's. We even saw an actual copy of the Magna Carta which was on display at the church. We had a nice lunch at at restaurant called the Lemon Tree and then continued on our way. Next stop was Stonehenge! We had a great time learning the history of the rocks and why they might have been placed there. I had no idea how big the actual rocks were!!! Amazing!!

Last night we then went to a local pub with Chris and Terri called the Curlew. It was a perfect meal after a long day of driving through the England countryside. We had some wine, amazing pub food and dessert! Yum!

Last night when we got home, Andrew and I went to a pub so I could see some of the Bournemouth nightlife! He took me to a place called 60 Million Postcards. A cool little bar not too far form their house. We had a fun time grabbing a drink and chatting. Great music and atmosphere too!

Alrighty well we are off on our little adventure! Here are some more pictures from the past few days!

Cheers!

Elise Diane

TEA TIME WITH ELISE & NESSY

Hey Americans!

It's time for another England update coming to you from Bournemouth, England! The last few days have been non stop adventure and fun! Yesterday we had a visit with Auntie Vera (my great grandpa's brothers wife, aka my great great great grandmother), and also Auntie Valerie (my grandpa's sister, aka my great aunt.) It was so nice to meet family who I have never met in my life. Also we got to hear about Nessy's cousins who she has never met. I understand this is hard to follow along with..... to help us, we have written down a family tree with names to all of our family members.

Last night we also got to meet Chris's son, Nick and his wife and daughter. Ella is their daughter, the most adorable 4 year old with a British accent!!! It does not get much cuter than her. I was playing hide and go seek with her all over the house. We ordered Chinese "take away" also known as take out, and had a wonderful meal around the table.

Today we went ALL over the place. An 11 hour journey.... with Nessy, Chris, Terri, Uncle Tom and I. We went all over the south of England. We first stopped in Milton Abbas, which is the most unique little town. All of the houses have thatched roofs. Then we were off to Dorchester, traveling through the back country roads. This was my favorite part, just seeing the open countryside, with the brightest green hills I have ever seen. There were many properties with horses and sheep grazing. Our nest stop was at The Cerne Giant.. if you have seen this before, you will know why Nessy and I couldn't stop laughing. Its basically an outline of a naked guy on the side of a mountain! Private parts and all! haha. After we finished making jokes and took some pictures, we were off to eat lunch at a local pub. Where I of course had a glass of white wine and some fish and chips. After that, we stopped at Lulworth Cove, one of Uncle Tom's favorite places he said. He walked all the way down to the beach with us. Where he bought Nessy and I each a painted rock. If you know our family, we are very big on painted rocks, it is just kind of a thing that we have done as a hobby for a long time. After we picked out the rocks we liked, the local artist painted on the back the date and "to: Elise Love: Uncle Tom" on the back. It was so sweet and special. I will have that rock for the rest of my life. Our final stop was at Colfe Castle (I don't know if I have the spelling right) but we had afternoon tea here before heading back to Bournemouth. A long day, but SO many memories and amazing sights.

We have just gotten back to Chris and Terri's house and are having a glass of wine before go out to a local pub. I have noticed that the British have this great sense of humor. Everywhere we go people are cracking jokes, and laughing constantly. It really shows me part of who I am, and my roots. Our family is so funny/sarcastic/joking that I feel like I understand it a lot better coming here! Nessy and I have nick names for each other now...she is "Winey" because we tease her about drinking wine (not like she drinks any more than I do) or sometimes I call her "Windy" because the chair she always sits in makes a farting noise. She calls me "Porky Pie" because last night Andrew said I was telling a "Porky Pie" which means lie, but since I love the little pie pastries they have here, Nessy has stuck with the nick name Porky Pie now....yey thanks Andrew!

Here are some pictures from the last few days! ....enjoy!!

(Nessy, Me, Auntie Valerie and here husband Dave)

(Nessy, Auntie Vera, and me! She gave me my birth announcement that she had from 21 years ago)

(me & Nessy at 22 Kinson Park Road)

(me and Uncle Tom at the Church Grandma & Boppa were married)

Cheers!

Elise Diane

WE'RE IN ENGLAND!

Hello!!

This is my first post coming to you from Bournemouth, England!

Nessy and I made it safely to England. The flight went smoothly, we just talked and laughed the whole way here. We even figured out the seat-to-seat messaging on the plane and had some fun with that too. We are having a great time traveling together and really getting to know each other.

Once we arrived we had no problem finding Chris and Terri. They spotted us right away and we we're so happy to finally be here with them after all of these months anticipating the trip. It was about an hour and a half car ride to their home in Bournemouth, and we ALL had so much fun laughing about our difference in accents. Nessy and I have learned some new words, the ones we have learned so far are: "Chippy" which means, Carpenter (Jon you would be a Chippy) "Sparky" is an electrician, "Bricky" is a brick layer.....I wondered if "Roofie" would be a roofer...but the answer was no ;) haha. We had a wonderful dinner last night with Chris, Terri and Terri's son Andrew, who is an amazing guy! He even plays guitar...so we are going to try and get him to play for us. After a few glasses of wine we went off to bed.

Nessy and I woke up this morning and we're recovered from our jet lag and ready to start the day! We went to 22 Kinson Place Road and saw where Boppa used to live. I absolutely love England, and feel that coming here is so necessary in really understanding the culture. I have seen pictures at home and heard stories about Grandma & Boppa's childhood and how they met, but being here I feel so much more connected to that time in their lives and find it so special.

We then picked up Uncle Tom, what a SWEET man.. I instantly connected with him and we just chatted about all kinds of things. He thinks I look like Ethel, Grandma's mom when she was younger (when she was about 18 he says) and he also says every time he looks into my eyes it brings him back to a different time. We then went to Saint Andrew's Church in Kinson, where Grandpa & Boppa got married. There was a woman outside gardening who actually let us into the church! Once I walked in I could just imagine Grandma walking down the isle toward Boppa waiting in his tux and glasses. After just recently seeing the pictures from their wedding it was not hard to imagine. Nessy and I did a little reenactment and pretended we were getting married! Uncle Tom gave me and Nessy a few words of advice, 1) You only find one true love in the life and you will know who that is when you are older... 2) Directed at me, marry a rich guy! haha. He is very funny. We are just finishing up lunch about going to a show tonight with Uncle Tom.

I will update again soon! Grandma & Boppa, I thank you so much for sending me on this trip. I have barely been here a day and I already feel like I know so much about our family. It is so amazing and beautiful here, the horses, green countryside and brick buildings are just gorgeous. Love you guys!!

Elise Diane