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We just got back from the Grand Canyon and are not ready to go back to school/work. Both the Toon's in the Coffey's were on this trip. Only my sister Jennifer didn't make it. We were not there too long but saw a lot. The first night we stayed in great hotel, Jerome Grand Hotel, that used to be a hospital in Jerome, AZ. Jerome claims to be the largest Ghost Town in the World in the 1950's.

The next day we were off to the Grand Canyon. It was Claire's first time and my second to the Canyon. However, I didn't remember much from my first visit there since I was only 6 at the time. Our first experiences at the Canyon exceeded all of our expectations. It's one of those things that no pictures or words can describe fully. You have to be there on the edge of the Canyon and get a sense of how small you really are in the grand scheme of things. Claire's parents, her sister and her boyfriend, my Dad, and I all took the overnight mule trip to phantom ranch. Claire could not go because of her condition. More on that later. She stayed at the top of the South Rim with Sandra (my sister) and my Mom. They did some hiking and got to see a lot of the Grand Canyon as well. Overall it was a great trip and would highly recommend it to anyone. Click here to see my photos from the Grand Canyon.

Posted by Greg at 10:21 PM | Permalink

Claire and celebrated our first year of marrige with a trip to one of our favorite places. We took a long weekend trip to Sonoma. Click here to view our pictures from Sonoma.

Posted by Greg at 10:20 PM | Permalink

In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I have finally finished putting up our pictures from Ireland on the website. They are in the adventures section. I will warn you now. There are over 100 pictures you so you better have a high speed connection. Click here to see the pictures.

Our friend Amilyn from St. Louis, is going to join us out tonight for a little St. Patrick's Day celebration. We are trying to keep our Ireland vaction alive as long as possible.

Have a Guinness for me today,
Greg

Posted by Greg at 12:53 PM | Permalink

At the end of February 2004, Claire and I packed our bags to go over the Atlantic Ocean again. This time the destination was Claire's homeland of Ireland. We started our trip in Dublin and then her parents, sister, and grandmother met us over there a few days later. The 2nd and main part of our trip was an orgainized tour that her parent's had found. The tour started with a few hours in Dublin, then to Waterford for a night, and then Killarney for the rest of our stay. We got to see lots of Irealand but enjoyed the Dingle Peninsula the most. Click here to see pictures from our Irish adventure.

Posted by Greg at 06:21 PM | Permalink

On Sunday, we met up with Kris again, spent the day at Greenwich Market, and Kris made dinner for us. It was OK but too many people for me. I am not a big fan of big crowds. I like my personal space and people not to invade it.

Today was a rest day. We didn't want to do anything real intense so we decided to go to Wimbledon and go to the museum. It was just the pace we wanted the only bad thing was the weather. Rain? what else in London.

We got back to Sally's early and watched TV and relaxed. We can't believe how much Bush is in the news over here. With him coming to London Tuesday night through Thursday for the State visit, he is on non-stop. He gets more coverage over here then in the States. A lot of people in the UK don't like him and they are expecting huge protests while he visits. I just hope GW's visit doesn't affect our vacation.

Click Here to see the photos from our trip London.

Posted by Greg at 09:32 PM | Permalink

We spent the day with Sally's friend Ian from University. He is also in the TV industry and lives outside of London near Leeds Castle. Leeds Castle is one of those picture perfect castles with the moat around it. It was not as big as the other ones we have visited but stunning none the less. One of the neat things about Leeds was that it had one of those garden mazes that lead to a grotto in the center. Inside the grotto, they had a huge face built out of stone with a little water fall coming out of it's mouth. They also had other things like dragon mosaics made out of shells. It was quite impressive.

After Leeds Castle, we went back to Ian's place to watch Pop Idols. Pop Idols is where we got American Idols from. Sally, Ian, and most of the UK love that show over there. It was funny to watch the judges and not have Simon the only one with an English accent. Once Pop Idols was over it was off to the local pub, Pizza Express for dinner, and then catch the train back to London.

Posted by Greg at 07:30 PM | Permalink

We didn't do too much today. Sally had the day off from work and we headed to the War Experience exhibit downtown. The exhibit was set up to make you feel like you were in London during the World War II. It was really interesting to see the war from a different perspective. I can't imagine what it was like to have bombs dropping on your neighborhood night after night.

After the exhibit, we had time to kill before we had to head to the theater to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Sally recommended we have a pint at a pub and then eat at a restaurant called Wagamamas. Just from the name of the restaurant, I knew I was going to like it. How can a place called Wagamamas have bad food. WAGAMAMAS ROCKS! That place is awesome. It's a Japanese noodle house chain of restaurants. I have to find out if they are in the States.

Sally and I were very excited to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Claire had never seen it before which I couldn't believe. It has always been one of my favorite Disney movies. The theater production was unbelievable especially with all the little children in the audience getting into it. The flying car they made for the stage was very realistic. With the actors in it, it flew up in the air and over the crowd. The whole time you really thought it was flying because you couldn't see any of the movable polls, supports and mechanisms they used to put it into the air.

Posted by Greg at 08:29 PM | Permalink

Today's trip was Windsor Castle, the weekend retreat of the Royals. We started out from Paddington Station which brought back memories of our engagement. That was the same station we left from to go to Warrick Castle. It was neat to see a castle that is still in use and the queen stays at over the weekend. Most of the castles we visit are now just big museums. They showed video clips of what the rooms we were standing in look like when they are used for Royal events. One of the most impressive things we saw was a doll house that was a gift to one of the Royals. Everything in the doll house was real just smaller. It had running water, electric lights, and even real wine in the wine cellar.

After we were done exploring Windsor Castle, we headed back to London to meet up with Claire's friend Kris. She (just like Sally) is a friend from the summer camp that Claire worked at for five summers. After dinner and a lot of drinks, we found our way back on the tube to Sally's.

Posted by Greg at 11:28 PM | Permalink

Business Class Rocks! After you fly Business to the UK, you'll never want to ride with the cattle in coach again. We were very excited to be able to use our upgrades to get closer to the front of the plane at no extra charge. It took us a good five minutes of playing around to figure out how to work everything on the seats. Once settled, on came the feast. I dare not call it a meal because in Business you get a feast. The food was excellent ending with a very very yummy ice cream and toffee dessert. The only complaint is it takes so long to serve all the food. All that service cuts into your sleeping time.

We were happy to see that Sally (Claire's Friend from Camp and our host in London) was meeting us with her car at the Tube station. Not to my surprise, all of our luggage didn't fit in the boot. Everything is smaller in the UK including the cars.

Sally headed to work and we headed downtown just to wonder around. We couldn't believe how nice it was of London to roll out the red carpet for us. We would discover later that night the American Flags were for Bush's State visit next week. G. W. is going to be in London the same time we are. I don't know if that is a good or bad thing.

We were so tired we didn't want to do anything heavy but were trying not to sleep until a proper time to get over the jet lag. This was no easy task. In the evening, I actually fell asleep changing channels on the TV. It was one of the weirdest and funniest things that has ever happened to me.

Posted by Greg at 08:27 PM | Permalink

In November, 2003 we went back to London. We found cheap flights on-line and had some free upgrades we had to use by the end of the year. Just like last time, we stayed with our friend Sally who lives in Finsbury Park. We called this trip our 1 year proposal aniversary trip. Click here to see all pictures from our trip.

Posted by Greg at 04:25 PM | Permalink

On Sunday, June 15th, 2003, we woke up at 5:30 am to bike Lake Shore drive in Chicago. It was a 15 mile bike ride that started and finished in Grant Park. Claire had a great time using the bike Greg had gotten her for Christmas. We were both happy they chose to invest in padded bike shorts for the ride. This summer we plan to ride our bikes a lot more and look forward to doing my rides like Bike the Drive. Click here to see all the photos from our bike ride.

Posted by Greg at 07:31 PM | Permalink

We visited Paris in December of 2002 with our good friend from work Jason and his friend Kristine. It was just a long weekend but we had a blast. Despite the fact that it was colder there then back in Chicago. Click here to see all the photos from our trip. Click here to see the pictures from Paris.

Posted by Greg at 06:36 PM | Permalink

In November, 2002 we took a trip to jolly ole England. We stayed with Claire's friend Sally at her flat in Crouch End. We saw the sites- Big Ben, Tower of London, Millennium Eye, and Westminster Abbey. We also had an opportunity to catch up with other American/ English friends in London, and catch a taping of the TV show where Sally is a production assistant on Have I Got News for You, for all our Brit readers. Oh, and we also agreed to spend the rest of our lives together...... Click here to see the proposal pictures.

Posted by Greg at 03:42 AM | Permalink

We spent some time in sunny California in Feb 2002, and had a chance to visit Los Angeles and San Diego. While in LA we took in the Walk of Fame, got a tour of Beverly Hills, and tried to get up close and personal with the 'Hollywood' sign. We managed to see Madonna's house, walked along Sunset Blvd., and saw a live taping of a TV show, but the true highlight of the trip (at least for Greg) came when we stopped at Lego Land on our way to Sand Diego. There were models of entire cities (Washington, New York, New Orleans) made out of Legos! From Legoland, we made a stop in San Diego and had a chance to enjoy everything southern California has to offer!

Click here to see all the pictures from our trip.

Posted by Greg at 01:33 PM | Permalink

In January of 2000, my father had business in Hawaii. We decided to make it into a Toon family vacation. Claire and I went to couple of days early and would meet up with my parents and sisters later in the week. We now know why Hawaii is such a popular vacation destination. Click here to see all the pictures. Click here to see all the Hawaii pictures.

Posted by Greg at 01:35 PM | Permalink