London, UK

I had an amazing opportunity to go on a work trip with Britton.

He is working on a special project with labs from all over the southwest U.S. and a lab out side of London, UK. they rotate meetings through out the year. A little over a year ago he got to go to the London for the first time, dusted off the old mission passport and had to get it renewed. :) He mostly worked but he got to walk around one day and see a few of the sites, Buckingham palace, Eye of London, etc. and got to learn all about international travel.

So when it came time to go to London again in the rotation Britton invited me, I was so excited but had some hangups, expense, pregnant, and would have to miss Halloween with my kids. Not to mention the sacrifice of my parents to keep my kids for 8 days! But with lots of support and encouragement from everyone, I got my passport, and booked a plane ticket.

To London we left October 28 after taking the kids to my parents with their own suitcases for the week.

10 hour flight, got to eat dinner and and breakfast on the flight. My feet swelled to double their size but we slept some and made it safe and sound

We arrived in London October 29th, they had already had daylight savings so we were in the one week where there is only a 6 hour times difference, made it a little easier to talk to our kids and not shift our schedule to much. Checked into our hotel and took a nice nap after all the traveling.

No rental car, not experienced enough to drive on the left side of the road. Got to do lots of walking and use public transportation. Had lunch at a cute little Italian place, a yummy cal-zone the size of a pizza and some soup.

Britton wanted me to be able to do all my sight seeing in London so we got a hotel near the Marble Arch, monument pictures below. But that meant that Britton had to commute an hour to work each day, I have huge sympathies for those that have to do that on a regular basis! so hard!  Britton would walk 15 min, to Paddington Station and catch the train to Reading were he would meet a coworker to car pool to the Lab for their meetings, and the reverse to get back for dinner with me each night

Monday October 30. A whole day all to myself! No kids to worry about, I slept in made breakfast just for one and got to only get myself ready for the day. I researched the map picked my route for the subway and roads.

 Kenningston palace, Queen Victoria's home. Didn't do the tour inside but enjoyed the gardens and  near by pond

 Walked to the museum district. Enjoyed the King Albert Memorial and some of the ambassador houses. In my walking. I was not very good at finding street signs and would have to make lots of u- turns or take the long way to get places, but it worked out. The damaged wall is from bombing in the area in WWII

Went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. 6 stories of British history and different exhibits, glass, sliver, jewelry, money, it was all so fascinating, and I loved walking around and looking at everything at my  slow waddle pace. It was so much fun, I felt so blessed to be so spoiled.

That night Britton meet me back at the hotel and we found a 4star Fish and Chip restaurant Mayfair Chippy, a European must right?

It was fun loved the tartar sauce hated the mashed peas, gross baby food!

Tuesday Oct. 31st Halloween

This was my easy day, just wanted to have a lighter day so that I could survive the rest of the week. 

Down the road from our hotel was Oxford Street, lots o fun shopping. 

Went to Selfrdiges and walked around with my mouth a gap at the prices of all the high end name brands, did find a Paddington story book on sale though, so I could claim a famous yellow bag. Became a fan of Selfridges from the PBS drama about the store. 

 Lots of Christmas decorations going up while we were there, it was fun to see all the festivity.

 Did most of my souvenir shopping at Primark , the store for the common people

Dined in that night with some Indian food from a local place by our hotel, and a swim at the hotel pool, not brave enough to go out for Halloween.

November 1st

Buckingham palace day! This was my day of lots of improve from wrong turns and mistakes. Walked over 13 miles! Started out early. and walked around Westminster abbey. 

Took a stroll down the Thames until I bumped into the Guard Home, and got to see the watch check by accident, was not trying to time it for that. Sign on the building says horses will bite.

Then continued to wonder past more war memorial's then i have ever seen and found the Guard barracks for new guards in training, they were having band practice got to listen to that for a little bit

Finally took a right turn and found Buckingham palace! Again timed it just right to watch the changing of the guards. Did not know what a popular activity this was. Felt like I was watching with all of London, so many people to see a couple of dozen guards march around, a few horses and a band play. The simplest of parades. :)

Awesome band, that was pretty cool to listen to the real thing and hear the newbies rehearsing the same day. After that I thought it would be peaceful to walk along the queens gardens, little did I think it would be guarded by a ten foot wall covered in spikes, makes sense now but the five mile walk along this wall was not very fun.

After that detour I need a restroom and was no where near my next stop at the National gallery, had a to find a public restroom and pay a fee to use a old run down bathroom!

Continued past more memorials' of every kind, this one was covered in cobwebs, when you have so many memorials you can't keep up the maintenance on all of them I guess. :)

Finally found the National Gallery after walking down a business avenue, I wasn't sure was the right street.

A huge Art Gallery full of amazing things

Van Gogh, Monet (not pictured), Edgar Degas had a great exhibit of his pieces, it was my favorite of the day.

That night Britton found a great little Swedish Fondue restaurant. the most expensive place we ate but very fun, don't know if I should be proud or not but between the 2 of us we ate a pound of cheese. 

This was also the night Britton found a new pair of shoes, he has been needing to replace his Echos from his mission and were able to buy him a great new pair at the Echo store near here.

November 2nd

British Museum and Harry Potter

Rode the subway to the museum, it was the most popular one I went to during the week. Tons of school groups and people

Beautiful building inside and out

lots of history from all around the world, they even had one case about Southwest United States, mostly about the Native Americans in the area, but it was nice to see a little bit of home. And the school groups were so fun, what a great opportunity for those kids!

That night we got to dinner to go from a Chinese wok shack. Then headed straight to the Palace Theater for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It was so good! I first searched for tickets right after I booked my plane ticket. It was way to pricey over $600 for us both to go. All the articles and research I did  said not to give up and to continue checking in as tickets get returned and things open up. Then when we were in the airport heading to London I found seats for both of us for $300. We decide it was worth it, our big splurge for the trip/my birthday/christmas present. Oh Iu am so glad we did, it was so amazing.

 The casting was prefect, the story was really fun, special effects so cool! and the best part for me was that we got to go two nights to the theater! It is a 5 hour play spread over two nights! I was so happy to spend 2 nights with my old HarryPhjiHpotter friends, it was so MAGICAL in every sense of the word.

Awesome Subway electric violinist heading back to the hotel after the play. It sounded so cool and was the perfect conclusion to our day.

Nov. 3rd Britton's day off from work!
We decided to spend the day at the Tower of London and the area around there.

riding the subway together. way more fun with a friend.

second breakfast at a fun little crepe place, nutella and strawberries were a hit

outside the London Tower, standing in the mote. Got a tour from a Beefeater. Very fun to hear about all the history of the tower. This was the first tourist thing I had to pay for all week, glad we did it!

 Royal armory, line of kings, and the Royal Crown Jewels are still guarded at this location. Beautiful each in their own way. This one is a retired crown with all the jewels removed! I can not even imagine all the sparkle!

Lunch at the little cafe there, biscuit and cream were so yummy!

Walking around the top towers of the London Bridge. The first kings of England lived here with their guards and their families, now 47 Guards maintain it for tours still leaving in the same quarters with their families. Tower Bridge in the background.

we had enough time in the evening to take a tour at the Tower Bridge before dinner and round two of Harry Potter

 walked on a glass floor over the bridge between the two towers, fun to see how it worked and hear the stories of the people that built and maintain it for its functions on the Thame today.

HMS Belfast, did not make it for a tour here, but enjoyed seeing it along the river

Super yummy Steak Restaurant, Flat Iron. Perfectly cooked steak, side salad and yummy dips. My favorite restaurant of the week

 Another perfect night at the theater. I cried my eyes out at the end, Britton blamed the pregnancy hormones, but I probably would have cried even if not pregnant! If you ever get a chance to go see in theater don't miss it. Britton liked it enough, he is not as much in love with Harry as I am, and did not think naming our baby boy Harry was a good idea but he was grateful he had read/listened to some of the books and had seen all the movies. Unlike one of the grandma's we over heard, say she did not understand any of it, all the jokes were going over head so she didn't know when to laugh. So with that being said, if you are a harry potter fan, don't miss out on the chance to see the play. ;)

Nov.4th Travel home day

The weather was so amazing all week, sunshiny and pretty warm for the season! I think we were good luck charms. The day we left the rains and clouds came back

Another long travel day with swollen feet, but we made it home by bedtime and got to snuggle all our little people to sleep that night. We had missed them terribly.

It was all so fun! Can not thank my parents enough for their sacrifice that week! To keep our kids, coughing, throwing up and all for 8 days! So blessed and grateful.