My sister and I were born 1 day apart, 9 years apart, April 24th and April 25th. I was basically her 9th birthday present. One she was not excited about and one she held against me until I was about 15. Age 8 and age 17 do not go well together. It wasn’t until she moved away and I was about 15 before we starting building the relationship we have today.
When I worked for an airline between 1982 and 1993, we started making birthday trips together. This was long before we got interested in photography, long before digital photography, so the photos are not of great quality, even by our amateurish standards. The ones I post today were from our trip to London. I don’t even know what year it is, maybe Laura can say. I really loved our tradition of traveling for our birthdays, but once I no longer worked for the airline and then I was self-employed and Devin came along and it just got harder to commit to annual birthday trips. Once Devin is in college, maybe we can start up again, this time to work on our photography hobby as well.
We had a great time in London. This was before they closed Windsor Castle grounds to the public. You could walk around the grounds and see the castle pretty up close. I wish we had toured the castle, and I can’t remember why we did not. Windsor is a quaint little town and it was still when I took my daughter in 2009.
Even back when photography was not a serious interest for both of us, Laura was busy taking photographs and managed to get herself kicked out of Westminster Abbey. I was wondering around and could not figure out where she had gotten to….she was waiting outside for me to find her. You know, back when cell phones did not exist. She couldn’t just text me to say she was outside. I had to find her. She should elaborate on how that situation unfolded. I don’t know if she has any photos from that trip. I scanned all of my developed photos into digital format a few years ago.
I remember we had a lovely tea service in some small cafe with clotted cream (which I did not know what to do with back then). When I went back with Devin in 2009, I could not find a little cafe that offered afternoon tea. I still don’t know why, buy when I spoke to some people about tea time in London, someone told me that most people make their own tea at home or in their office. Too bad, that afternoon tea at a little bistro table on the sidewalk was very nice. You would think with the popularity of Starbucks, afternoon tea would have become more popular out of the office than in, but then, I am American, not British, so who knows what they think of the Starbucks stronghold.
I wish I could remember more about my trips with Laura and trips in general, but come to find out, I have a terrible memory. Thank God for pictures, or I would be really lost. I don’t remember where we stayed, but I was never real concerned about accommodations, still am not. I remember visiting Bath, the Tower of London, but not too may real specifics. Let’s see what Laura can add.
