Jesse and I had quite an adventure the last week and a half!

We flew from Atlanta to Birmingham, England. The trip was very challenging with United Airlines coming in late to Atlanta, which caused me to miss my connecting flight to Newark about five minutes, despite a valiant attempt and over a one mile run to the connecting terminal. Managed to get customer service on the phone which set me up for another flight, which again I had to run about a half a mile to catch. BARELY made that one.

Then got to Newark to catch up with Jesse and had to run about two miles to catch the flight to Birmingham. One of the most intense physical challenges I’ve had in years, but I MADE IT!

The plan was super crowded and the aisle was incredibly tight which meant every time the cart went by it would clobber my elbow. Not zesty. That kept me up all night long. Got to Birmingham and for the second year in a row they lost my bag! Ay caramba. They finally got it there the following day.

Had a wonderful time with the Jacquin family.


Anthony has been a great friend for over three years now. We’ve met up in NYC, San Diego, Vegas, Amsterdam and again in London. Fun to see my buddies again.

It was beautiful in Derby!

Anthony took us to the Peak District on the 14th which was amazingly beautiful. It reminded me of the Rift Valley in Kenya.

Interesting hand made stone walls and building.

We went into the little town of Edale to eat at the Ugly Nag’s Head.

I loved the stone paths.

And this phone booth.

Met up with my friend Amit Badiani who took us around Leicester for some delicious Indian curries.

The 15th we went into downtown Derby. A wonderfully historic city. Always fun to see new places!

The 16th we traveled into London. Had a nice train ride into the city. Got into our hostel (which was just ok) and enjoyed visiting with our friends at The Gun. It’s a historic pub which Lord Nelson used to hang out in. It’s right on the river across from the O2.

The 17th Jesse and I enjoyed the Change/Phenomena conference. It was great to seem many of my friends there and was a very interesting group of speakers including the Artist in Residence of the British Library.

Went back to The Gun that evening. Sad to say goodbye to my many amigos in the UK.

The 18th Jesse and I toured the British Museum.

A FANTASTIC place where we saw the Rosetta Stone, an Easter Island head, the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, some of the earliest writing from Mesopotamia, busts of Julius Caesar (same birthday as me!), and the earliest known coins.

Also dropped into the Museum Tavern which is over 300 years old. Beauty!

The 19th I checked out the Victoria Albert Museum. It was ok.


Also saw the Science Museum with Jesse. Liked that a lot. We saw the earliest computers including the Apple 1, the Babbage Difference Engines, an exhibit on 3D printing, the first Cray supercomputer, parts of the original DNA model by Watson and Crick, the first light bulb by Edison, and the first phone by Bell, WOW!

Next we went to the Natural History museum where we checked out the marvelous display of dinosaurs. Some were animatronic!

The 20th we went for a traditional English breakfast. Delicious!

The to the Tower of London.


Enjoyed the stories of the guards, Ann Boleyn, the ravens and the armory. It was awesome to see the Crown Jewels, but couldn’t take pictures of them. Boo.

I liked this statue of George Washington in Trafalgar Square.

Across the Thames over the Tower of London Bridge to check out Southwark Cathedral where Shakespeare and Dickens went to church. It was set up originally as a monastery in 609! Incredible.

Also visited the George Inn and the Anchor Tavern both of which Dickens and Shakespeare frequented. I’m quite sure that Ben Franklin must have also been there!

Went to check out the Globe Theater, a wonderful reproduction of the original, built in exactly the same way, with no iron nails!


We walked over London Bridge.

Met up with another friend of mine James Tripp who is terrific and super smart guy.

We hung out on the River Thames in the Hornimans and Hays. Another really old pub. Very interesting.

ON the 21st, Jesse and I got all our gear together and traveled the hour and a half from the East End of London all the way to Heathrow.


We caught our flight in plenty of time. Flew over to Toronto in good time. I watched Rush and the Monuments Men on the was. Canada Air is a SUPER good airline. Very comfortable and great customer service.

Caught our flight from Toronto to Atlanta and had another good flight into the ATL! Yeah, baby!

It always amazes me that in only 13 hours you can be all the way to the UK back to the USA. Astonishing.

Got an early night’s sleep. Slept just fine with hardly any jet lag.

Enjoyed a late breakfast with Kathy and Jesse.

My Bank of America debit card was hacked by someone. The bank called me while I was in Derby. I went through all the transactions and told them which were NOT mine. I called the bank this afternoon and looked like everything was OK. I had my new card in the mail which I’ve already activate. Thank you, LORD for making sure all that was ok!

Ashley came over to our house later today to love on her sweet ol’ Daddy. Nothing better!

Admin duties now. I was thinking about going to Azalea, but there’s nothing going on at all. Looking forward to a team coming into town on Saturday. AWESOME to be back at work!!