The trip from Houghton to Minneapolis went smooth as silk. A big thank you to Dave and Elvis for taking us to the airport. We had a 9-hour layover in Minneapolis (Paul doesn't like short layovers!), so we did what any sensible person would - we went to the Mall of America to see the newest Harry Potter movie. We give it two thumbs up! A tip for our Houghton travelers: The skyway between concourse C and G has a security checkpoint in the middle. If you exit the terminal from this checkpoint, you'll be at the light-rail station. It's about a 10-minute train ride to the mall. You can also re-enter the airport at this checkpoint if you only have carry on luggage. Pretty snazzy!

The flight from Minneapolis to London was delayed by an hour, which was more than a bit annoying, since the plane isn't very comfortable to start with. The seat in front of Deb had a box under it containing some plane gear, which reduced the leg-room under the seat about two-thirds. Neither Deb or Paul did much more than catch a few cat-naps on the journey over.

We picked up the car rental, and started our journey to Exeter! Google told us to take the motorway, but our Tom-tom GPS told us to get off the motorway, so we followed the little lady's directions. Our GPS has a british lady's voice, so it sounds like a nagging woman if you go wrong somewhere. Getting off the motorway allowed us to drive directly by Stonehenge, which was pretty cool. We arrive at the hotel in good time, and had a nice dinner at a nearby pub, the Barn Owl. Paul drank a Tribute Cornish Ale and Deb had a Bulmers pear cider. We had some fishcakes, chips (fries for our american readers), and spinach-cheese soup.

We were a bit disappointed to find that internet wasn't included in the room price, but found out this morning that there was a reasonably priced 7-day package. So, Deb is able to blog from the hotel room and upload pictures. It will also be handy if we need to find any details for places we're visiting the next day. We slept a lot last night (who thought we'd be tired?) and Paul is still tired this morning. The weather is dull and cold. That's pretty normal for England! Our plans today are just to head into the town and explore a bit. It will take a day or so to get into the right time zone.