I'm totally freaking out..I think someone hacked my Photobucket account, because many pictures from different albums have been deleted, including pics from this trip. If I wasn't convinced to abandon Photobucket and use just Flickr, I am now..it seems to function better anyway (for some reason Photobucket puts the pics out of order, even with its filters, which is EXTREMELY annoying to me). I doubt I'll be able to get the pictures back (but I asked anyway :P), so I'll have to upload them all over again (luckily Flickr is very fast at uploading lots of pics at once). Ugh. Maybe I'll do a little each day, so I don't get overwhelmed. Stupid hackers!! *glares*

Anyway, mom and I made it to Cambridge just fine yesterday (beware, I'm going to freak out a lot in this entry LOL)..we had to take the train to London, the Underground to King's Cross (I indeed saw Platform 9 3/4, but the line to get a pic was too long..the Harry Potter shop next to it was cool though!), the train to Cambridge, then to a bus stop near SPRI. Like Wheathampstead, I had butterflies first seeing Cambridge. If I thought the past few days were cold, it was NOTHING compared to Cambridge..I sure felt like Scott of the Antarctic as we walked to SPRI..cold wind was COLD!!! I squeed when I finally saw SPRI..another dream come true! I couldn't believe I was there! Their museum was kind of small, but OMG the treasures it had..artifacts from many different expeditions (Shackleton, Franklin, Amundsen, etc), but of course my favorites were from Scott's expedition. They had a sledge, some of Scott's and Birdie's last letters, food tins, and..and..THINGS CHERRY HAD USED ON THE EXPEDITION, ESPECIALLY ONES TO CAPE CROZIER!!!!! I was completely freaking out haha! That was insanely awesome!!! I told the people at the front desk how happy I was to finally be there, and told them Cherry was my hero..both of them were like "heck yeah, we love Cherry!" and the guy said "The Worst Journey in the World is the best book ever right?" Ummm, YES lol. The lady said she was TEACHING A CLASS ABOUT CHERRY AND THE WORST JOURNEY!! OMG I didn't even know such a class existed!! I bet I'd get an A++. :P I told them I wondered if there was anyone still alive who knew Cherry, and the lady said some of her colleagues had, and one of them might be there today, and would I like to talk to him on the phone? Umm YES PLEASE haha! The guy was a past archivist or something like that..he said he might have seen Cherry once before he died, but he knew his widow Angela very well! He said she was very nice. Wow, that was an incredible treat! I was starstruck and so honored he took time out to talk to me! Everyone there told me Cherry was very shy and felt so bad about not being able to save Scott, which I knew (I'm always afraid to ask that..I'm worried someone would say he was mean or something like that, which is ridiculous..he didn't have a mean bone in his body!). The lady also mentioned twirlynoodle, who is making a Terra Nova graphic novel! I was like "yeah, I know her!!" Awesome. :P I'd love to go to their archive room where they keep the letters and diaries and stuff, but you have to make an appointment..someday hopefully! I was jealous of the school having a field trip there lol..awesome. :P Their gift shop was awesome and dangerous LOL..they had so many awesome looking books, including an edition of The Worst Journey I didn't have (I couldn't justify buying it though, my suitcase is only so big and I had bought a lot of books already LOL), and all FOUR books of the South Polar Times!! Wow, what an amazing place, an amazing experience, and a great end to my Cherry Pilgrimage. :D This trip was amazing!

Today is the last day of our vacation..we're still not sure if the flights will be messed up because of the weather though. We'll just have to see what it's like tomorrow. I'm very happy to stay home out of the cold today though :P

Today is also Jack's 96th birthday!! Wow, impressive lol. Mom's going to get him a yummy cake later :D

( pics from spri! )