Weeks 33 to 35 in France and London

Yes, we ARE still alive and well.  The past 4 weeks have flown by and we were out of town when our last blog was due.  We decided to wait until now because we've had so much to tell about in the past 2 weeks as well as in the 2 weeks before that.  This blog will mostly describe our trip to London.  We had to get special permission from the Temple Department in Salt Lake City to leave our own temple district.  We spent 3 days at the London temple, and 4 days in London.  We had a very negative experience trying to rent a car, so we decided to just go with taxis and public transportation, and it worked out very well for us.  I'll use picture captions to describe the pictures rather than trying to mix text with pictures.  Here goes:

Our favorite view of the London Temple

Flowers in front of the London Temple servant residence

Flowers around the pond

Walking around the temple grounds where we met a member of the temple presidency

Our first restaurant Monday evening: fish and chips, of course

Royal Albert Hall

Beefeater at the Tower of London.  He was great!

A bicycle parking lot!

A concert crowd we had to get through while going to Costco

Eating lunch beneath the Cutty Sark

The Diana Princess of Wales memorial fountain (it's actually a water sculpture).

Near the top of the Eye of London

We wandered into this passage under a train station where graffiti artists worked

wandering in Kensington Park, right next to Hyde Park

In front of the Naval Museum. Janet bought chocolate covered raisins.

In front of the Christus at the Hyde Park Chapel

Buildings near the Royal Albert Hall

Victoria Station

We happened to meet our neighbors from Ogden, Doug and Peggy Wheelwright at church Sunday.

Albert Memorial in Kensington Park across from the Royal Albert Hall

detail of the Albert Memorial

This is the Tower Bridge, NOT the London Bridge as many think.

sarcophagus in the Tower of London Chapel

eating  lunch by the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial children's playground

cool ice cream on a hot day

We had a wonderful visit aboard the Cutty Sark.

Another pic of us on the Eye of London

A collection of mast heads under the Cutty Sark

Enjoying actual Welch's grape jelly we bought in London on a PB&J. We couldn't carry-on the jelly, so I had to check an extra bag to get this back to France..  Expensive, but worth it!

We truly enjoyed our trip to London while the Paris Temple was closed for maintenance, but it's good to be back at work serving the Lord in His holy house.  We love you all, and love getting your Marco Polo video clips keeping us in touch with you.  Until next time, Au Revoir.