We arrived in London. Felt a little out of place. Ate lunch and then we presumably slept for 3 days, lol. Reed got sick. We had to make our first trip to the emergency room with him. Turns out he had a virus, which he would be unfortunate enough to pick up another one later in our trip. We searched and found a place to live in London. Phew. We played at playgrounds and went to Harrod’s, the National History Museum for the dinosaurs and the Science Museum for the water table. We shopped and shopped, with buying little to nothing, on Oxford Street, Regent Street, Kings Road and High Street Kensington. We learned new verses of Row, Row, Row Your Boat and joined a weekly Monkey Music class. We saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace too many times. You should see our kid march. We toured the Tower of London, my favorite attraction in London, and ventured to Borough Market, Chris’s favorite attraction, full of yummy cheeses and a pig’s head. We walked across the London Bridge, saw the beautiful Tower Bridge, checked out the quaint Neal’s Yard, tried to force Reed to sit with the lion statues at Trafalgar Square, saw the clock tower that houses Big Ben and listened to Big Ben ringing on the hour, and saw the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We took in the exhibits at The British Museum, which includes the Rosetta Stone and many mummies. We strolled our still somewhat sick toddler down Portobello Road for the famous Saturday market and saw sights from one of my favorite movies, Notting Hill. Lauren came to visit, yay for company!! Chris and Lauren rode the London Eye. We went to Paris, saw the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, toured the Louvre, went on a water cruise in the Seine and shopped on Champs de Elysees. I got sick…..and so did Reed again……..and so did Chris a week later. Fun times. We walked by the former residence of Benjamin Franklin. We toured Windsor Castle, which houses a dollhouse with running toilets! We toured Westminster Abbey just a week or two before the wedding. Stonehenge and Bath! We toured the Cotswolds, probably our favorite area outside of London. It is so beautiful! We were here for all the Royal Wedding craziness and I even got to see the couple on the way to the church and on the way back, very cool! Reed and I attended the premiere of Water for Elephants where I got to see Reese and Robert up close (I’ve still yet to see the movie). We’ve picnicked in Hyde Park, which has been the sight of much golf playing and football throwing for Reed and Chris. We toured Oxford and Oxford University as well as William Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-upon-Avon. We visited with the Crowell Family in their neck of the woods. My parents and brother came to visit. We toured around London. We went to Sandwich, nothing to see there and then we went to Scotland. The boys played lots and lots of golf and we enjoyed the sights, which included Palace at Holyroodhouse, St. Andrews Golf Course, Edinburgh Castle and the ruins of the St. Andrews Cathedral as well as many others. Chris and I had a date night and we went to see In the Forest Dark and Deep starring Matthew Fox. He dissed me outside. No celebrity craziness for me anymore. Reed and I rode the London Eye with my mom, saw a makeshift Mickey Mouse that Reed would have nothing to do with and even took in the Changing of the Guard again. We went to Ireland. Oh, how we love Ireland. We drove most of the southern half of the country. We saw the Blarney Castle, drove the entirety of the Ring of Kerry, visited the Cliffs of Moher and saw both Galway and Dublin. We will be back. We took a mini-trip home to visit family and meet sweet babies. We visited Hampton Court Palace and learned about King Henry VIII’s love for all things food. “The ladies” came to visit and we had a blast showing them around London. Reed and I had our first “proper” tea with them at The Wolseley. We all, including “the ladies”, strutted our stuff across Abbey Road like The Beatles. The Carlocks came to London. Chris and Teal attended the British Open, his first ever time at a pro golf event, in Sandwich. We visited Borough Market again. Headed a little way out of town to see Kew Gardens. We straddled the Prime Meridian Line, 0˚. We toured St. Paul’s Cathedral where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. It is stunning. We went to the Museum of London and the gift shop at the Transport Museum of London (I am terrible at finding souvenirs, ugh.). We visited Hampstead Heath. We started Couch Potato to 5K. We are going to miss running in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. We toured the replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. We lunched in Neal’s Yard. We toured Kensington Palace. And last, but certainly not least, we toured the home of the Queen of England, Buckingham Palace. What a great way to end our trip!
And that’s it folks, our time in London in a nutshell. It has certainly been a once in a lifetime experience that we wouldn’t trade for anything. We hope our kid will remember at least some of it (I’m betting on the marching part), but we will carry this experience with us forever. We are so glad that we had this opportunity, but we can’t wait to get home to our house and our family and friends. It has been good, but it’s time to go and we couldn’t be happier!!! Love you all! See you on the other side of the Atlantic!
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