Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Trip Report: Days 1-2: London

Look, it's ANOTHER trip report! 9 days after we got back from Charleston, I abandoned Ben and Papaya and set out to Europe with my mom.


Traveling with my mom has a few pretty sweet benefits, because she's Diamond Platinum Elite 1000 Level or something with Delta. I hoped this would lead to a first class upgrade, but alas, they seem to be kind of stingy with those on international flights. We did get access to the Virgin Atlantic lounge for free both ways, though, which turned out to be extremely fancy. They told us to be at JFK three hours before the flight and it took about twenty minutes to get through security, so we had plenty of time to enjoy the amenities.




We had eaten breakfast at the hotel but got some additional food in the lounge, mainly because it was free.


Then we flew to London! We arrived in the evening, which turned out to be a million times better than the early morning arrival I've experienced on every other trip to Europe. We found a restaurant just down the street from our hotel that was still open at 10:00pm and had some dinner and wine, and then went back to the hotel and went to sleep. I took pictures of all the wine so I could look it up later. This one is apparently not available in the United States.


We stayed at the Doubletree Hyde Park, near Notting Hill Gate. (Second benefit of traveling with mom: all hotels were free through her Hilton Honors points!) This is the same neighborhood where Ben and I stayed a few years ago so I was sort of familiar with it and knew there were good tube connections nearby. Since our first morning there was the same day as the big market at Portobello Road, we went over to check it out.

We got over there fairly early but by 10:00 it was totally packed - very touristy but fun to see. We both bought small crossbody purses which turned out to be perfect for the rest of the trip, as they were very lightweight.



Oddly almost all the pictures I took are of food. POTATOES.


More food.


Here's a giant thing of paella!


Then we went back to the hotel to put on some fancier clothes, and headed into Kensington Gardens for high tea at The Orangery, which was built by Queen Anne as a conservatory in the early 1700s.




We got legitimate British Pimm's cups!


And the waiter offered to take our picture without us even asking for it.


Look at all this stuff! We had no trouble finishing it off.


Then we walked through Kensington Gardens and around the palace.


This is the famous gates where the memorials to Diana were, but see behind it where there's the wall with the guard station at the corner? THAT'S WHERE WILL AND KATE AND HARRY LIVE. They are really serious about you not taking pictures or anything in that area. I was hoping for a glimpse of Harry but alas, did not get one.


After going back to the hotel and changing back into jeans, for some reason we walked the entire way through the park from our hotel to Buckingham Palace.



And then down through St. James' Park to Trafalgar Square, and popped into the National Gallery for a snack and the National Portrait Gallery to look at a few pictures. Although we were already pretty tired, we then decided to set out on Rick Steves' historical walk of The City of London, which turned out to be insanely long and detailed. But we learned lots of things about London.


This is Somerset House, a big palace right on the Thames. Before we left I had just finished reading about the big palaces lining the Thames because one of them was mentioned on Downton Abbey recently! Most of them were torn down after World War I.


This is the Royal Courts of Justice, their highest civil court building.


This is Samuel Johnson's cat, Hodge. I am still not entirely clear on who Samuel Johnson is.


The walking tour went all the way past St. Paul's and to the Monument, but we didn't make it to the end because we ran out of time.


We met up at a very old and atmospheric pub called Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese with my high school friend Fred and his husband Will. You may remember Fred from when we met up with him in Denmark. I had not seen him for nearly twenty years before September. I guess now Fred and I are going to be the type of friends who meet up for coffee and dinner in various European cities every six months. It was crazy packed and the service was terrible, but Fred assured me the service is terrible nearly everywhere in the UK. We enjoyed some beers and fish & chips and great conversation, and then we took the tube back to the hotel to rest our feet! We covered a lot of ground on our first day in London - I thought surely it would be the most walking we'd do the entire trip, but little did I know the death marches to come.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Trip Report: Charleston, Take 2

Oh boy, I'm getting behind!

I finished my last Herceptin treatment on February 24th, and had the port removed on the following day. Port removal turned out to be every bit as irritating as port insertion: I had to be there at 8:00am, couldn't eat or drink anything, and then sat around until 2:30 before the procedure because they had some type of emergency. And then I didn't even get any sedation so the IV insertion and the starvation were all for nothing. Next time I'm supposed to have "surgery" I'm going to risk death and drink some freaking coffee beforehand. Anyway, I was very mildly sore for about a day and a half and that was it. Definitely not as painful as when it went in.

The next day we drove to Charleston for a little weekend celebration! We stayed at the Andrew Pinckney Inn, which was great. We were actually in the building across the street from this one, but you could go in the lobby and get cookies whenever you wanted.



I sprung for the junior suite.


Look at all this coffee! I have never stayed anywhere so generous with the in-room coffee.



This picture over the couch was alarming, though, once I noticed that it looks like a creepy alien eye is peering from behind the plant. I feel sure this is not intentional but once you see it, it cannot be un-seen.


Our main goals on this trip were to wander aimlessly and eat a lot and relax. As part of the relaxation portion, Ben brought this library book for some light reading.


The first night we went to Husk, which was my top restaurant priority upon booking the trip. It was fantastic! This picture of my entree is the only one I took, but rest assured everything was equally beautiful and delicious. Highlights included our appetizer of fried chicken skins, which was a huge portion, and the beverages. The wine was excellent and they had a big selection of non-alcoholic drinks, too, so Benjamin got to try some fun stuff.


On Saturday we toured the Aiken-Rhett House, which does not allow photography inside but was very interesting. It's preserved but not restored, so has a slight air of creepiness throughout.


This is the park next to the house.

  
We met up for lunch with my friend Emily and her boyfriend, who were coincidentally in town at the same time, but sadly did not take any pictures. Then we just walked around town for a long time. The weather was perfect. These houses are on the waterfront.



Saturday night we ate at Blossom, which I think was the best meal of the trip. Unfortunately we overestimated what we were actually capable of eating and got way, way too full. Ben couldn't bend at the waist to take off his shoes. It was rough!


Sunday we did some more walking.


And then we went out to Middleton Place plantation to look around. It has the largest gardens in America (I think? or at least they were the largest at one time) and they take really great care of it. I was initially kind of horrified at what it cost to get in ($43 per person for gardens & house!) but after wandering around there for a few hours it was obvious how costly it has to be to keep up.


The original house burned after the Civil War. This was a small side-house used as a business office but they have all sorts of family treasures in there now.


This is the oldest tree in South Carolina.



There are lots of animals at Middleton Place!








For our last meal we went to Slightly North of Broad, which was also our last meal the last time we were in Charleston. We need to stop going here last because we're always too full from the weekend by the third day. Still, we managed dessert.



I also saw a lady there with super short hair sitting at an adjoining table and eavesdropped enough to determine she was also a breast cancer person. I later saw her in the bathroom and said that I noticed her short hair and she said, "I noticed yours too!" and then we hugged and talked about our treatment plans and stuff. What a fun secret club! Just kidding, it sucks.

It's been over a month now since I finished treatment and I'm kind of alarmed at how little I think about it (aside from being annoyed with my short curly hair and repeating to myself, "if it comes and goes, it's not cancer," regarding my occasionally achy right hip). I had a followup with my radiation oncologist's nurse practitioner last week and I kept getting the feeling she expected me to be more freaked out than I was. Most people do have a difficult time with the end of treatment, but I wonder if having the Herceptin for nine months following chemo helped me feel like it was tapering off rather than just ending abruptly.

I don't have any appointments now until mid-June, which is the longest doctor-free stretch in over a year. It's a touch unsettling. I have to trust that they know what they're doing, though, and don't think I warrant any more treatment. I do sort of wish I could keep having some, though. Like just a chemo booster once a year or a little extra burst of radiation once in a while. Just in case!