Day 2 was really great. However, as mentioned previously, the public transit system has a steep learning curve. Sizergh Castle is really more of a large manor house. The same family has been on this estate property since the late 1200’s. The house itself is an accurate representation of houses from the 1400’s (in the older sections) – and as they have added on rooms – it gives you a view into architecture and style of later centuries. Oh, and by the way, we couldn’t take pictures outside the house, but we snapped away in the gardens.

Public transportation is great, but only when you know how to use it! The day started in an interesting manner. We took the correct bus number – but in the wrong direction. Then when we finally got on the right train – we got off a stop early (and the next train was an hour later). To avoid the wait, we took a cab (and the cab driver helped us quite a bit). Today we were on 4 trains, 3 buses, 1 cab, and mostly two feet.

We got here – and we were bound and determined to not go to sleep. Every article that we read said that you needed to tough the first day out if you truly want to defeat the jet lag. Corrine and Martijne were an enormous help. We wanted to go tour somewhere local – somewhere that we could get to by car. We went to York and man was it amazing. The highlight for me was York Minster (you can see some pictures in the gallery). It just was an awesome day … but it is SO tough to fight “the lag”.

After a seven hour flight, we touched ground in the United Kingdom. The flight was uneventful and uncomfortable – but overall very bearable. We got to catch up on some movies that we hadn’t seen (I got to see “Breach” – it was pretty good).

Probably the weirdest thing was seeing the sun rise at 2am (Savannah time) on the plane ride over. We didn’t have dinner last night until 10:30pm – so I can officially say that my internal clock is amazingly messed up.

The line to customs / immigration took forever. I felt like I was waiting for space mountain. Two hours later we got through – after taking some lip from the immigration lady. Tucker and Martijne picked us up – and we are now chillin at their cool English crib.

Yeah, things were pretty delayed coming out of Savannah. The other interesting thing is that neither Shannon or I had ever been to the Philly airport. If you look at a map of the Philadelphia airport and pick the two gates that are the furthest apart…that is what we had to travel to get to our flight. We made it to our gate, and they were doing final boarding.

UPDATE: We rushed to get on the plane, but we sat in the plane for 45 minutes before we moved at all. Not such a rush after all (hopefully it allowed our bags to get on board).

We are currently coasting above the clouds somewhere in South Carolina. The airport was crazy. So many flights were delayed. We managed to get off about 45 minutes late. Assuming that we get there on time – we should catch the connecting flight to Manchester. However, our hope is that our baggage also catches the next flight. This flight should only take about 1.5 hours (nothing compared to the 7.5 hour flight that we have coming up). To pass the time, I figured we would share some pictures of our wonderful puppy Nala (until we get somewhere that we can take pictures of something, lol).

Well, we made it to the airport. We managed to get the dog dropped off, buy our headphone adapters for the plane, and Shannon cleaned the entire house. However, surprises were waiting just around the corner. As many of you know, because of the terrorist stuff today, there is increased security…

FLASHBACK: Several years ago (before we were married) I bought Shannon a knife keychain on a youth mission trip. She poked me with it many times on the trip and I later regretted purchasing it. However, she placed it in her purse, and quickly forgot about it.

Well, since that youth trip, the knife keychain had managed to work its way through a hole in the lining of her purse. So today – when going through security, they detected something. I must admit that I chuckled when the TSA representative asked “Do you have a knife, hun?” I mean, why would Shannon have a knife? However, the lady intently searched through the bag. After three or four minutes of searching, she produced the knife keychain. Shannon’s face turned ghastly pale, but the lady could quickly tell that it wasn’t another terrorist incident. I am so glad that this happened in Savannah – if it were Baltimore, she might have been spending the night with some gangbangers in the pokey.