Thursday, April 7, 2011

England {part 3}

The next day, John, the president of the Integrity London office picked us up and took us to Eastborne where their office is.  Eastborne is also along the sea and just about 35 minutes north of Brighton.  We spent the first few hours touring Eastborne and walking along the boardwalk.  We stopped on the boardwalk at a little cafe for a cup of tea and we had the most wonderful conversation with John.  Again, another man of God who we were left so encouraged by.  He really just spurred us on in our faith and it was just so refreshing.  I would love to share all the things God was doing in us, but I would end up writing a book.  


After we spent some time in Eastborne, we headed to the office where we got to meet more of the Integrity staff.  It was so great to meet the staff who will be behind releasing Travis' album in UK.  Travis and Brandon were able to share there story with them, get to know them a little and just answer a any questions they had.

Here is a picture of us with some of the staff and John: 

Later that night we took a train back into London and headed back to Ben and Brett's houses.  The following day Hudson actually woke up sick, so we stayed home for the next two days.  However, as far as timing goes it worked out perfectly.   I felt awful that Hudson was sick, but at least most of our traveling around England was done.  The remainder of our trip was spent just in London. 

The day Hudson woke up sick, Travis and Brandon had another writing appointment this time with Ben Cantalone.  The following day they had to do some recording to send in the work tapes of the new songs to Integrity.  So while I was home with Hudson the guys were working... so we didn't miss out on much.   

Ben's wife, Jess is actually a nurse so it was great to have her around while Hudson was sick.  She and Ben were sooo accommodating and being home for two days actually allowed for some great time to visit.  Jess and I really enjoyed getting to teach each other about our cultural differences.  I loved getting to hear all about the queen and just the British customs.  

On the way to one of their appointments, Travis and Brandon were able to see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.  I encouraged them to go without me because I had been to the changing of the guards when I was in college and I back packed across Europe.  I didn't want them to miss out on the opportunity.  Here is a video they took during the ceremony:

The final day we were in London we just toured around.  We took the Tube (their underground train system) into downtown London to see a few of the classic sight seeing spots:

Again, Hudson taking his nap in the stroller while we walked around:
Brandon was so much fun to have with us, plus he is great with Hudson and Hudson adores him!
You can see the London Eye in the background:
The classic telephone booth photo...too bad Hudson was sleeping while we took this picture:
The oh-so-famous Big Ben clock:
The street preformers were quite entertaining too:
This guy was crazy... Travis and Brandon couldn't stop laughing.  To think this guy makes a living like this:
We were able to hear the boys choir sing at the Westminister Abbey.  Every time they would stop singing Hudson would say, "more"... I guess he really liked it :)
This was the first H&M I ever shopped at ....haha... way back when I was in college long before H&M ever made it to the states:

Downtown London has such a fun night vibe... we totally could have spent sooo much more time there. The last thing we were able to do was to meet up with Jonas Myrin for a cup of fresh squeezed juice at this really awesome little spot.  Jonas is another great writer and we actually have a ton of mutual friends.  It was great to meet with him and to just hear all that God is doing in his life.  
Then we took the Tube back home to pack, visit a little more with Ben and Jess, and head back to the states the following morning.  Our flight home was great and Hudson slept on and off for the 11 1/2 hour flight.  Trav and I always wanted to be able to go to Europe together and it just worked out perfectly that since Hudson was only 22 months old we didn't have to pay for his plane ticket.  We definitely got our money's worth from the airlines considering Hudson has flown quite a bit and all for free.  He will be turning 2 in a couple of weeks which means we now will have to start buying his ticket :/  

It was a busy trip with lots of traveling, but such a wonderful trip.  We are so thankful that the Lord allowed us all to have such a great opportunity.

1 comment:

stringsofpurls said...

I love all these posts! What a great time you had and what a beautiful place. I especially loved seeing all the hand knits in action! :-)