Sarah and Connor's World Adventures

1 Year Anniversary

2009-04-06T09:29:00.017+01:00

Connor surprised me and took me to Paris for our anniversary. It was great. We were here a few years back but it was Feb. and freezing. It was nice to experience it in the spring. We mostly spent our time walking around and sitting in parks. We'd seen all the tourist sights so we didn't need to bother doing much. It was very relaxing and a great way to spend a weekend together.

Luxemberg Gardens

Lux Gardens again

Along the Siene and Notre Damn above me

I love this picture, one of my finest.

Don't know but looked cool

Eiffel Tour of course

I just got a LV purse on the Champs-Elysees

Arch de Triumphe

Connor's Birthday

2009-04-06T09:22:00.004+01:00

I took Connor to Holland and Holland Shooting Ranch outside of London for his birthday. He got to have a shooting lesson out in the country air of England. He did pretty well except on one of his first tries where he didn't hold the gun tight enough and he ended up getting a bruise on his face. We went to dinner a few nights later for his real birthday at Scott's. It is a very yummy restaurant and rated Best Restaurant in London 2008. Guy Ritchie was there the night before celebrating his divorce from Madonna. Too bad we missed him.

PICTURES OVER THE PAST 3 MONTHS!!!!

2009-03-23T09:07:00.032Z

Hello Everyone! I kind of messed this up and started with what happened first but that ended up putting everything in reverse order. You may want to start from the bottom and work your way up to this last picture of my dad with the bike.

Is it Jill's long lost bike?

A lovely day. You can rent these Punts and float along the river.

Corpus Christi

Kings College

My dad use to work right here at the University of Cambridge. My mom, sister, and brother all lived here back in the 70's.

Outside the pub

Cambridge. The yummiest pub with a yorkshire pudding wrap with roast beef. The yorkshire pudding was the "bread" and it was huge wrapped around the roast beef with a gravy sauce, mmm. The plaque above us signifies the discovery of DNA, right there in the pub they solved it. Also, in another room on the ceiling there were a bunch of names from the British Military who shipped out to D-Day. Probably the coolest pub I've been in.

Drinking on Sunday afternoon in a pub, or course.

We are in Falmouth on a boat tour. This is Pierce Brosnans new summer house. Right next door is Roger Moore's summer house, interesting.

Connor is trying to throw me into the ocean, as usual. Behind us in a St. Michaels Mount and when it is low tide you can walk out to it.

My dad and Martha have been visiting us for the past week and a half. Pretty view in Lands End.

Lands End. The most southwestern tip of all of the UK.

Gardens by the church. Pretty.

Church in St. Ives

Cornwall, England. This is St. Ives, a lot of great beach towns in the southwestern part of England.

No idea what this is it just looked important. We were in a little outdoor shopping area with some cute restaurants and this was at the beginning of the area.

Gotta love the Vikings!

We're in Malmo, Sweden. I was very excited to be in my homeland.

Looking back at our hotel, Copenhagen Admiral Hotel.

Copenhagen Opera House right across from our Hotel.

The mermaid was the reason for us trekking around in the rain.

Copenhagen. It rained on us all day and so we went on a boat tour in the afternoon and of course the sun came out while we were inside on the tour.

Me in Helsinki, bad picture but the only one. The clock tower in back was designed by the same guy who made the St. Louis Arch.

Helsinki. This area is often used in movies about "Russia". The architecture is very Russian looking. This area was in the movie Reds.

Almost done living out of suitcases! Helsinki fun, too!

2009-01-29T11:41:00.003Z

Well, we are out on the street on Sunday so hopefully we get keys to this place before then. It isn't your typical small english flat you might think of. 2 1/2 baths, 2 bedrooms-1 very large, reception room is very large, small outdoor space so we can have a small grill. There is 2 1/2 flights of stairs and no lift, though. We are right between Oxford Circus and Bond Street (shopping mecca!!! and dangerous!!) about 5 blocks from Hyde Park. We get our stuff Feb. 15thish, so until then we'll have an airmatress and that is about it. :( At least we almost have a home! You can get from Chicago to London in April for $350!!!! We'll hopefully get a cell phone in the next few days, you have to have an address to get a cell phone. You can try to call us on YahooIM or Skype, yahoo:snoonan08 or connor_noonan skype: chicagosmellgren1 (i've had this one for a while). Well that is my update so far. OH, wait I was just in Helsinki. Ate some reindeer and elk, had some fish, beer, saw a bit of the town. There was a sauna in my hotel room! The room, not just the hotel! That was pretty cool. I wish I could buy all of the nick nacks and funishing type stuff from there...very West Elm/Crate and Barrel/CB2 like stuff. I hope to make it to Sweden and Norway and load up with cool stuff.

Madrid

2009-01-20T21:11:00.002Z

Hello All. Had a fast trip to Madrid last week. It was quite a process to take the train, took forever, get there early since I had to go through customs, it was actually fast. Then my flight got cancelled, nice, got on a later flight and missed my appointment and had to reschedule for the next day. I didn't have time to explore at all so I really saw the highway, my hotel, and the airport. Next trip is to Helsinki so hopefully I'll have some fun pictures of that!

We are still in the middle of finding a place to live and getting mobiles. If feels like it will be about another 3 weeks before any of this gets done. Our stuff is getting shipped so hopefully we'll have our own unpacking celebration! Wahoo our own stuff.

Sunday Roast and A Night Out of the Town

2009-01-12T20:41:00.001Z

So we met up with a friend of a friend that moved to London about a month ago. She was cool and her boyfriend was nice, too. We went to a "club" and hung out for a while. Sunday we went to one of Connor's work friends houses and had "Sunday Roast". A very English thing to do, have a roast and drink all day. It was nice because although they were from Australia they just moved from the US where they had lived for many years. We had a great time and can't wait for more roasts!

We're Here, seriously it's not a tease.

2009-01-06T14:46:00.002Z

So we have officially moved to London finally. We landed on January 2nd. We spend the freezing weekend walking around Notting Hill and Bayswater trying to figure out where we want to live. Of course Connor got picked up in a bar by an Austrialian on Sunday and he made us drink with him the day before our first days at work. Ha. I was gone to the bathroom for 2 mintues and he had moved tables and made friends. Our temporary apartment is nice, we can cook at least. It is pretty cold, I need my ear warmers! We basically work all day and then go apartment looking. The wire that hooks my camera to the computer seems to be malfunctioning so no pictures just yet. I'm going to Madrid next week for work so hopefully I'll get those pictures up.

Almost there!!!

2008-12-01T19:37:00.003Z

So our latest update on the Work Permit and Visa situation is that, after all the loops we've gone through applying for the second time, we got a call on Saturday saying everything looks fine they just needed to know an entry date into the UK and they would send out passports and paperwork back to us on Monday. So we are hoping to get it all taken care of in the next week. Who knows when we will actually leave. I'm guessing between 1-2 weeks. Thanks to everyone for baring with us, housing us, cheering us up through all of this. Hopefully just a few more weeks and we'll be London bound. So start looking into trips to see us!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2008-12-01T19:31:00.004Z

Well we had a nice snow on Sunday after Thanksgiving. We escaped the 18 inches in Monument since we made it back to Castle Rock on Saturday night. (We spend Thanksgiving weekend in Monument Colorado). We bundled up in our finest old school snow gear and took the dog sledding. I almost got in a fight with some stupid snowboarding kids who decided to build a ramp in the middle of my sledding lane. It snowed all day Sunday but this week it is going to be about 60 so it will all melt.

Amsterdam, Switzerland, Germany, Oklahoma, Colorado, OH MY!

2008-11-14T14:58:00.006Z

I've made it back from Switzerland and Germany. I just had one day flying in and out of Dusseldorf and a direct cab to and from Essen. I didn't see much and there were no real photo opportunities. I made it back to Oklahoma and am now in Denver. I'm seeing my first snow of the year and it is gorgeous. Connor and I will be here through Thanksgiving. Still working on the work permit issues we'll see how it progresses over the next few weeks. Here is a picture of what is going on currently just south of Denver.

Switzerland

2008-11-04T15:48:00.003Z

This is my co-worker in London, Dawn. We are at a conference in Geneva and this is a trader party one night at "Club Bypass". Above that is my train ride from Geneva to Zurich. These mountains, outside Luasanne, were so close and big it seemed like I could have reached out and touched them. They looked like they were floating on a cloud/the water (it all blended together). I am staying with Gretchen and Greg in Zurich now. We had a good time this weekend doing some baby shopping for Baby Smith and Greg and I enjoyed way too many bottles of wine while poor Gretchen just had to watch. I'm off to Dusseldorf/Essen Germany tomorrow. In and out in one day, quick trip we'll see if I remember to take pictures!

Amsterdam

2008-10-13T22:08:00.004+01:00

I, Sarah, was in Amsterdam for the past week for business. I had a few meetings and then also attended a conference. Connor and I have been to Amsterdam before but it was a fast 1 1/2 day trip in Feb. about 5 years ago. It was nice to see it again in some warmer weather! My next visit to Europe will be in 2 weeks when I head off to Geneva.

Colorado Wine Fest in Grand Junction

2008-09-22T14:49:00.004+01:00

We drove out here for the weekend with Heather, Doug, and Darren (Doug's cousin). We had a good time and had A LOT of wine.

Monument Rock

2008-09-22T14:47:00.002+01:00

Again, more hiking. This is close to where Heather and Doug live.

Garden of the Gods

2008-09-22T14:42:00.003+01:00

Here we are hiking around Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

Stonehenge postponed

2008-08-31T17:20:00.003+01:00

Well we were going to go down to Stonehenge but extenuating circumstances made us delay that trip. Our observations of British TV is that The Weakest Link really is kind of entertaining. Also Friends might be the most played show on TV, which I like very much. Although, there was the same episode of Friends that was played at least twice on two different channels. White Chicks has been on every day for the past few days, weird but now we are both actually fans of the movie. Connor has disowned Indian Food. We had a really great Thai dinner a few nights ago. Connor got taken out to a nice meal over by Tower Bridge where he had the 'Best Oysters' he's ever had. I had lunch with James, Theresa's brother, who is here with the NYC Philharmonic. It was nice to see a familiar face. Please everyone feel free to come visit, once we actually have a place. Kelly save your money for shopping because there is some great stuff here! We are getting our bearings on everything and (sarah) would like to live in Marylebone which doesn't give you as much space for your $$$$$$. Man everything is expensive here. When your salary gets cut in half based on the exchange rate it really hurts and makes you really think how do we want to spend our money. We want a decent amount of space but at the same time will want to travel. Hmmm....decisions decisions.

London visit

2008-08-26T15:57:00.004+01:00

I am waiving to the Queen and Connor is showing that his head is as big as the clock on Big Ben. (Insert Gretchen joke here).
We have had a great time so far. We went to Harrods and played with the massive kids toys on the top floor. We had an excuse for being there for a few hours. We were with our new friends from Australia who are working up here for a few months. They have a 9 month old so we had to test out the toys for him. We had a good night with a home cooked meal at their place. We didn't go to the Notting Hill Carnival, which is probably good since there were a few knife fights. London is known for stabbings, watch out! We are thinking of getting a place in Marylebone which is a really cool area just north of Oxford Circus (major shopping strip, worse than michigan ave). There are two large parks within walking distance and the area is filled with great little restaurants and wine and cheese shops! It is a really cute area, but our money will be stretched if we get a 2 bedroom. We'll see what we find.

Handing off the Olympic Torch

2008-08-26T15:48:00.001+01:00

This was infront of the palace during the celebration of the Olympics being handed over to London. There were about 40,000 people inside there. We thought that was kind of small since The Taste of Chicago draws a crowd of at least a million people. We didn't go inside because you had to get a ticket and they were sold out. We watched just outside on the jumbo screens they had in St. James Park.

Short trip across the pond

2008-08-14T20:43:00.003+01:00

We are headed to London Monday, Tuesday for Connor. I'm doing a little introductory work and going to check out some apartments and things. We will be there for about 2 weeks which will be the longest time we've spent in London, I hope we still like it! I have got to remember to charge the camera!

I got nothing

2008-08-11T16:05:00.000+01:00

No updates, except that we are in Chicago. Delayed going to London.

This is for Corbett

2008-07-27T11:57:00.002+01:00

Bondi Beach....major surfing in Sydney

Sydney, finally!

2008-07-27T11:45:00.005+01:00

This is our first day in Sydney! Finally made it to the big city. It was weird after being in such a small beach town going to the big city. I think we forgot what they were like. The picture to the left is of the Harbor Bridge. You can actually walk up the bridge along the very top of the arch but we decided we spent most of our money on skydiving and that was good enough. Then the Opera House is the opposite direction of the bridge. It looks like a giant golf ball that someone cut up into a bunch of different pieces and fanned out. It was a nice day and we ended up taking a harbor cruise around the bay. We also walked through the Botanical Gardens and there is a lovely section full of bats, see picture above. There were thousands of them just wizing by us and hanging from the trees. I tried to get Connor to walk faster but he enjoyed seeing me squirm while we walked through all of them.

2008-07-27T11:40:00.002+01:00

We didn't have our camera for a whole day and it just so happens it was when we went to the Zoo. But the Aussie's are always the nicest people and a guy made us pose for a picture while we were petting the koala and he emailed it to us. So nice of him. We also saw some kangaroos mating and also some donkey's. It was a happening day at the zoo. We also got to pet the dingo's who were out for a walk with a trainer.

Sky Diving

2008-07-22T06:53:00.011+01:00

Here we are sky diving today. The first three are from my footage and the other three are from Connor's so that is why it is a little out of order. We have video too but it wasn't letting me add it so I'll have to work on it. It was a lot of fun and went way too fast. It really wasn't that scary. I was the last to go so I had to watch Connor jump first, so that was weird but he made it so that's good. :)

Austinmer

2008-07-22T06:47:00.002+01:00

So the past week has been Connor's dream come true. He surfs during lunch and they feed him all day from breakfast, snacks, coffees, lunch, more coffee, and beers. They are even having a going away dinner for us on Thursday before we head off to Sydney. He is really excited and happy about his new company. He in trying to make me move here before we even get to London! It was nice the first couple days we were here but it seems that we have brought the cold with us as usual. It is a bit to chilly to try and read on the beach or take leisurely strolls. The beach is about 50 yards from where we are staying and where Connor works. We love the wine and the Tim Tams!! MMM. Our yard is filled with about 10 of these birds (below) from about 2-4pm. I think I have become "the bird lady". We went for a hike, went to a Zoo, a buddist temple, an authentic BBQ (yum), out for beers with the locals, and eaten A LOT!

The Past Week in Austinmer

2008-07-22T06:37:00.006+01:00

And We're Off

2008-07-11T14:40:00.004+01:00

This is where we will be staying just south of Syndey. It is in a town called Austinmer. We will be here through the 24th and moving on to Sydney on the 25th-30th. The picture of the beach is what you are looking at when you are turned away from the house.
It looks like we are not going to make it out of the south of Australia. We will have to make The Great Barrier Reef a trip for the next time we are down there. We hope to have some more exciting posts for you to enjoy in the next week! We leave Sunday July 13th and do not arrive until Tuesday because of the time difference. Stay tuned....

Small Change

2008-07-02T15:08:00.002+01:00

So Connor's company is jerking him around and we are not leaving for Sydney until July 13th now. So that only puts us there for two weeks but two weeks is better than nothing. We can't wait to get the journey started. We've lived the last few months as if we are a yo-yo. One day we're told one thing, the next day it changes. We are trying to keep our spirits up in hopes it will all be worth it soon.

Time Difference

2008-06-27T15:34:00.000+01:00

I just added this world time clock so everyone would know what time it is in Sydney. It will be hard to keep in contact other than email or IM. You can call us on IM if we need to talk. London will be a little easier to chat.

Going To Australia

2008-06-26T21:46:00.000+01:00

Well, we are off to Australia on July 4th and will be returning July 30th. Connor will be working and getting to know his new company and the people at its headquarters. Sarah will not be working and spending her days waking up late, having a coffee, going to the beach, and walking around town. We hope to make it up to The Great Barrier Reef while we are there, that is our number one goal. There is a lot to do even in three 1/2 weeks. There are a lot of adventure sports so don't be surprised if you see a picture of Skydiving or Paragliding in the near future. We will try to keep the blog updated with our adventures in Australia and our move over to London. Check in periodically and see what we are up to "across the pond".

Cheers!

Sarah and Connor