Tuesday, April 28, 2015

London to Southhampton

I am so excited!  Today, I travel to Southhampton, UK to await Jeff's arrival.  

Jeff left in January for a trip around the world with an organization called "Semester at Sea" on "MV Explorer," a floating university.  He has visited 12 countries around the world and his voyage ends in Southhampton UK, about a two hour drive west of London.

A friend of mine from Tampa, Diane, who's daughter, Heather, is on the ship with Jeff, picked me up this morning at Claridges and we drove to Southhampton.  The drive was quite adventurous, as the British drive on the left and their steering wheels are on the right.  I handled the navigation using Google Maps and Heather drove.  Quite confusing and totally backwards to driving in the US, the ride was hair-raising!  But we made it through the London city traffic and the round-abouts and even survived highway driving.  No matter that folks were honking at us and whipping around in front of us signaling for us to get the heck out of the "fast lane."  We made it.

Lunch at the mall in Southhampton.

After a quick lunch, Diane and I went to the "Semester at Sea" parent's reception at the Harbor Grande Hotel in Southhampton where they filled us in on the ship's scheduled arrival and how to expect our children to disembark.  It was fun meeting other parents who's children had been on this trip.  Three mothers came up to me and said things like, "My daughter wanted me to meet Jeff's mom.  Jeff is the love of her life."  or "Jeff is the greatest guy ever!"  Of course, I've known that Jeff is a super special kid for almost 22 years.  Glad to know others appreciate him.  

After the drive and the late lunch, I was so tired, I went to the hotel and jumped straight into bed.  Tomorrow is a big day!  I can't wait to see my son.  By the way, I'm quite spoiled by Five Star Excellence of The Claridges in London.  The Novotel here in Southhampton probably does not even register on any type of service excellence scale.  It's a "do it yourself" kind of place.  But it's clean and close to the terminal where I meet Jeff tomorrow.