Day Eight: Good Ol' USA

Apparently we used up all our "good travel karma" Thursday night in France. Today was a very long day. We woke up at 5:30 am (12:30 am EST) and were on our way home. First, we took a taxi to the train station, then went to the platform on the board for the train to the airport. Turns out that wasn't the right train, so we had 3 minutes to get to the other platform and get on the right train, luckily we made it. The train takes 45 minutes to get to the airport, where it lets you off in the South terminal, then you have to take a train to the North terminal. We go to check in, where they threaten that Chadd's carry on bag is too big because the United Kingdom works on different rules than every other country on Earth, and we are told we won't make it through security with our bag. We decide to take our chances getting with it through security, because his carry on has all our souveniers in it. We got through security (the one thing that went right), and went to our gate. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 9 am, and at 8:20 they made an announcement that they found a mechanical problem and engineering was coming out to look at the plane, they would update us at 8:40. We went to the British Airways lounge to wait. About 10 am, we found out that the part that they needed to fix the plane was in Frankfurt, yes, Germany, and they were trying to figure out how to get it. There was another flight to Atlanta at 11 am, so they moved us over to that flight. The 11 am flight didn't actually take off until 12:30 pm, so we were definitely going to miss our connection in Atlanta. What's funny is that we waited about 30 minutes for them to find somebody's luggage in the cargo hold so they could remove it from the plane because the person wasn't on the flight. You are required to fly on the same flight as your luggage whenever you fly internationally. Why is that funny? Because when we got to Atlanta we found out that our luggage was still in England on the first plane we were supposed to be on!

Then, on the flight, I ordered the beef entree, they had run out. After all this, I deserved their blanket! So, I took it. Our new flight home is scheduled to leave Atlanta at 6:30, orginally we were going to be home by 5:40. Our flight is so geriatric it takes forever to board, and we arrive home just before 9 pm. Then we have to go to the luggage office to report our bag missing, and there is no one there. It takes someone about 15 minutes to show up, and they confirm our bag is in London, and it should arrive tomorrow. Hopefully. My Mom and sister meet us at the airport with Claire Bear (who is asleep) to pick us up. We end up crawling into bed about 11:15, about 23 hours after we woke up.

On the Claire Bear front, this week while we were gone she started saying "dada". Very cute. And she waves to everyone!

Day Seven: London

This morning we got up and took the train out to Salisbury to see Stonehenge. We were very thankful to have been able to spend the night in our Marriott in London, and not some roach motel in France. The train took about an hour and a half to get to Salisbury, then a bus drives you out to Stonehenge, along the way showing you Old Sarum and other sights. The drive out was about 30 minutes, one way, and it takes about an hour to see the "Big Rocks". So, this was basically an all day event! Stonehenge was beautiful, smaller than I thought though! Now we are back at the hotel, all packed up, and ready to cross the big pond tomorrow and come home. See you soon Claire Bear!! Mommy and Daddy miss you.

Day Six: Paris

This morning we awoke and went downstairs to partake of the Marriott Buffet Breakfast (free because Chadd is special, my quote yesterday was "Why don't you pull your pants down so they can kiss your ass a little more." It's revolting) After breakfast we went back to the room, packed our bags and we were off to Disneyland! We took the train to Disneyland, and got there about Noon. Since we were out so late the night before, we didn't feel like getting up really early. The place was EMPTY, there were no lines at all for any ride, and the weather was just cool enough so that it was enjoyable, but you didn't need a sweater. We headed first for "Discoveryland" (aka: Tomorrowland). Of course, we headed immediately for Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast! I would like to mention that although we were both ranked "Pilote Interplanetaire" in the end, I had won! Space Mountain: Mission 2 was closed, so we went over and rode Star Tours, "Que la Force solt avec vous!" In Fantasyland we rode "It's a Small World" and it was the best one ever! They kind of updated it, it was super cool. We also went through "Alice's Curious Labyrinth" which was a hedge maze. We walked by "Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains" but didn't know what it was until we saw the pictures....ah, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. One thing that was really neat is that under Sleeping Beauty's castle is "La Taniere du Dragon", they have a dark chamber and a big dragon lives under the castle! Over in Adventureland we went on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril roller coaster. It had the smallest, tightest 360 loop ever, and it was pretty cool! After that we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which wasn't much different than Orlando's. In Frontierland, everything was decorated for Halloween, and they had these "pumpkin men" all over. We went on Phantom Manor (The Haunted Mansion), Big Thunder Mountain and walked around Woody's Roundup Village, which was really cute. EuroDisney has two parks: Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios. The price isn't that much more to do both parks in one day, so we bought the combo ticket. The parks closed at 7 pm and we had to catch our bus to the airport at 7:05, so we didn't have much time to do the Studios. But, first of all it was small, and second they didn't have anything there that isn't in WDW, except Crush's Coaster. Named after the turtle in Finding Nemo the description read: Plunge through the East Australian Current aboard a spinning turtle shell. It was basically a roller coaster, but you are in a single car, and it spins 360 degrees while on the track! It was soooooo fun! They need to build one of those in WDW! That was the longest line we stood in all day by far, at 15 minutes. We had a few minutes left, so we also rode Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. It was 6:30 and we still had to go to luggage check to collect our luggage so we decided to leave. We got to our bus stop a few minutes early and hung out until the airport shuttle arrived to take us to the airport. Our plan was to take the shuttle to the airport, which should take about 45 minutes, that would give us just under 2 hours at the airport to check in and get some dinner. The shuttle took a little longer than expected, but we got there and went inside and checked the boards for our flight. British Airways flight 329/ to London Heathrow/ Terminal B......CANCELLED. What?!?!??!?!?! Okay, let's get to Terminal B, we are at Terminal F. Sign above us "Terminal B this way, walking time 10-15 minutes". Holy crap. We arrive at Terminal B and someone had definitely hit the chaos button. British Airways has an agent in front of the gate basically telling us that the radar at London Heathrow went out and no planes are going in or getting out this evening. All the flights for tomorrow morning are booked and so is the train. Shit. We are advised to get in the "queue" and get accomodations for this evening and hope to get booked on a flight for tomorrow afternoon. Great. First, there goes our plans for tomorrow, second, we are going to have to stay in some two bit roach motel, three, I have no clean underwear. There were already about 45-50 people in line, so we took a place and started trying to figure this thing out. As soon as we hit the line, a British Airways agent was there with a little hand cart handing out cold Pepsi, Sprite and water. We took a Pepsi each, then he gave me a water. He came back by again a few minutes later handing out chips to the people in line. By this time we had out our laptops, we were on the airports Wi-Fi, and we were booking train tickets for tomorrow. They were fully refundable, and we wanted to be sure we had at least one option! We were in line for about 10-15 minutes when the Pepsi/chip man came back an asked us if we had a connection or if Heathrow was our final destination. We told him it was our final destination. "Are you checking any bags?" We told him "no." He says "Come with me, we have two seats for you." Keep in mind there are still about 40 people in front of us, at least. Who cares, off we go! He fast tracks us through passport control, and sends us to a check in line. The bottom line was the radar in London was back up. There was a 7 pm flight that was now over 2 hours late, some of the passengers had been given hotels for the night, so they were already gone, and now the flight was back on. When the agent was checking us in, we had been put on the "standby list" for the flight, well she couldn't get us off the standby list without upgrading us. So now, not only were we on the flight, we were in First Class!! WTF is this, The Twilight Zone? And why did the Pepsi/chip man choose us? I honestly think it's because we were the only ones that thanked him for the cold beverages and didn't accost him for information he didn't have. So now we are all checked in, we've gone through security, and we are getting on our flight. We were originally scheduled to take off at 9:55 pm, we took of at 10:15, so after all this we are only delayed by 20 minutes! However, we never did get dinner. No worries, even though it's only a 40 minute flight, they serve us food in First Class! It wasn't alot, just some smoked salmon, some bread, a little dessert truffle, but just enough to hold us over until tomorrow. By the time we trained and tubed it back to the hotel it was 12:15 am and time for bed.

Day Five: Paris

Today our wake up call was for 3:30 am. Wow-zers. We had scheduled for a taxi to pick us up at 4:15 to take us to Heathrow airport. As soon as we got off the elevators the Marriott guy took our bags and told us our car was waiting. The taxi was parked out front, the driver catching up on his reading, waiting for us. The driver hauled ass to Heathrow and got us there earlier than expected. We couldn't print our boarding passes at the kiosk (long story, don't ask) so we had to wait until the ticket counters opened. It was a very "Amazing Race"-like moment. Our flight left London at 6:15 am for Paris. It was a quick 40 minute flight, but we lost an hour because Paris is an hour ahead of London. When we got to the airport, we went through passport control (No stamp! Boo!) and got our baggage. This whole time looking for a bathroom. There is a McDonalds in the airport, no bathroom. No wonder French people stink, they are forced to pee their pants looking for a stupid bathroom! Anyway, we eventually found one. Next we found out that the trains from the airport are on strike (apparently this happens a lot) and we have to take the bus. There was a lot of traffic, so the bus took a while, but we made it to the Champs-Elysees in about 45 minutes. We walked to our hotel because it is right on the Champs-Elysees, and got to walk around the Arc de Triomphe. That thing is BIG! Our room wasn't ready yet, so we went up the street and grabbed some lunch from a bistro with a very rude french waiter. After that we walked back to the Marriott where they told us our room was ready, and oh by the way, they upgraded it for us. The hotel lady escorts us to our room, it's 3 floors! The bathroom is on the first floor, then there are 8 steps up to the second floor, the bedroom with windows overlooking the Champs-Elysees, and then another set of stairs going to the third floor, the sitting room. It is pretty cool! We paid with points, but Chadd looked online and this room would be $956.48 a night otherwise, Yikes! Anyway, we were so tired because we had gotten up so early, that we took a short rest before exploring Paris. About 2 pm, we headed toward the Louvre. We decided to walk because it didn't look that far, we made it, but we really should have taken the Metro! We did what I like to call the :"Cliff Notes" version of the Louvre. We darted through and saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus di Milo, and the headless winged lady statue (name? anyone?). When we were taking a picture of the Mona Lisa my camera informed me, "One or more of your subjects may not have smiled", ironic. After the Louvre, we went to Notre Dame. We walked through the joint, but there wasn't any sign of Quasimoto or talking Gargoyles. They had very pretty stained glass windows though! Next we went to take some pictures of the Arc de Triomphe, then proceeded to the Metro station in order to get over to the Eiffel Tower! We took some pictures of the outside then bought our tickets for the top. There are three levels, the first elevator, GLASS elevator that is, takes you up to floors one and two. Then you wait in another line to get a second glass elevator up to the tippy top. We timed it so when we got up there it was shortly before sunset, so we watched the sunset from the top of the Eiffel Tower. After that we hung out until it got a little darker and the city lights were on, it was very pretty! By the time we got down the tower was all lit up blue, and at the top of every hour, it twinkles! It was 8:45 pm, so we walked to the end of the Champ de Mars (like The Mall in Washington D. C.) to watch it twinkle at 9:00 pm. I thought it would be a subtle twinkling, but it really reallly twinkled!! It was my favorite part of the day! Our last stop of the day was the Paris Hard Rock Cafe so we could get Chadd a shot glass. We decided to just eat dinner there as well. Wouldn't you know it, the ONE Hard Rock Cafe that would run out of shot glasses? Paris. The french never plan ahead.

Day Four: London

Today we slept in!! Yay! We got up around 10:30am and took our time getting out to do our sightseeing today. First we hoofed it over to Westminster Abbey, which actually isn't that far, just behind Parliament, on the other side of the Waterloo Bridge. It cost £12 (about $24) to see the inside of the Abbey...yeah, right, we passed on that one. After the Abbey we took the tube out to Tower Hill. It was now about noon, so we found a place to eat some lunch. We chose a traditional London Pub and had some fish and chips. Yum-my!! Oh it was so good. Nice crispy tempura battered fish and great fries with a whole slathering of malt vinegar. One curious part of the lunch was that the menu said the F & C came with "mushy peas". One would expect that meant peas that have been mushed? And if that was true, why the hell would you mash my peas? So, I eagerly anticipated exactly what was going to be brought to me. "Mushy peas" are actually peas that were quite al dente... I'm still confused about this. After lunch we went to tour the Tower Bridge. The exhibition starts in the north tower, where you ride up a lift (elevator) to the elevated footpaths. Then you walk along the east upper bridge crossing toward the south tower looking out at the sights of London. This footbridge over looks the financial district and Canary Wharf. Once you get to the south tower, you cross over and explore the west elevated footpath. This over looks the City of Westminster, the "Gherkin" (big glass pointy building that when it was opened they lit up green, thereby looking like a pickle), and gives a good birdseye view of the Tower of London. It was while we were exploring the catwalks that we had our first bout of London rain. We had been having such great weather, I was beginning to think all this "it rains a lot here" talk was a farce. The last stop on our Tower Bridge exploration was the engine room, and of course, the gift shop. It was while we were in the gift shop that some man from Maryland tried to pick Chadd up. I quickly shuttled him away. We found out the bridge was going to open up for a boat at 3:15, so we left the bridge, went and bought our tickets for the Tower of London and parked ourselves on the riverbank to watch the bridge open. After that, we toured the Tower of London, which has apparently had many duties in it's long existence. One cool thing is that they have guides walking around in period costumes, and the Beefeaters were there as well. I just missed getting a picture of one. Anyway, the Tower of London has been a palace, a fortress, a prision and execution center (it's most notorious use), and now it is home to the crown jewels. The crown jewels were very pretty, almost too pretty, that they looked fake! The coolest thing in the room was this HUGE punch bowl, a small person could literally bathe in this punch bowl! And the ladle was enormous! The Beauchamp Tower had many engravings from the prisioners that were held there. My observation was either a) Thomas was a very popular name back then or b) there were lots of prisioners named Thomas! We also explored Bloody Tower, so named because two princes (ages 9 & 12) supposedly went missing there and they think their uncle (who was to become King Richard) got rid of them so that he could have the crown. The White Tower was the largest and held all kinds of weapons and armour. All the staircases in these towers were so tight and twirly, I needed a damn Meclizine (vertigo drug) when I was done! We were at the tower until closing time, 5 pm. Since we needed to go to bed early, our flight tomorrow for Paris is at 6:15 am, we decided to have an early dinner. We crossed the river and walked along the water and checked out the available eateries. I had my first crappy English food at this restaurant. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The steak, although cooked nicely, the only flavor it had was of a charcoal grill. And the mashed potatoes? One would at least expect them to taste like potatoes that have been mashed, but no, they tasted like, well......nothing. After dinner it was starting to get dark and I wanted to see the Tower Bridge at night. We hung out on the boardwalk until dusk and took some pictures with the illuminated bridge. Then we went back to the hotel to pack for Paris and get a good night sleep! On the train back everyone, and I mean everyone, was reading a copy of the newspaper that they hand out in the tube stations, "The London Paper". Guess who made the front page? Yup. Georgie Porgie. Apparently after his arrest, he took off with Kenny in a private jet on holiday, and he apologized to his fans for screwing up again. Hmmmm...maybe he is in Paris? Once we got back to the hotel, Chadd mentioned that his side of the bed had a slant to it, I thought my side was fine, so we switched. Well I'll be, it was like sleeping on the side of a mountain! Weird. More London observations: There are NO trash cans in this city. However, there is also no litter on the street. How this works, I do not know. You can walk for 40 minutes, through tube stations, railway stations, tourist areas, and not find a trash can. Also, their bathrooms are so clean! Clean pee-shacks = good! (P.S. theirs no speel chek on thiz programe, So deel wit it)

Day Three: London

Today we went to stalk George Michael! No, seriously, well I kind of am serious.... today we took the tube out to Paddington station where we caught a train to Goring, a little city nestled on the Thames River, which also happens to be where George lives. It is about an hour outside of London. When we got there we walked to the river from the train station, it is actually a little tourist kind of town. They have the "Thames Walk", a path along the river, and the Goring Lock, a river lock for the boats. George's house is right on the river, so you get a good view of it from the "Thames Walk" bridge [PIC]. Right next door to his house is a 10th century church [PIC], which is neat in it's own right, but also affords some different views of GM's house [PIC]. It was actually a nice little place to live! We walked around the perimeter of his property, then decided to hit the main street to find some lunch. We ate at "The Miller of Manchester", which is apparently a very old restaurant. Most of the buildings here (GM's house included) date back to the 16th century. In one of the little shops on we found a "Goring Bear", a little bear with a red hoodie. We bought it for Claire Bear. After lunch we did another quick walk around GM's place, looking for signs of life, dogs in the yard, anything really, but all was quiet. So, we leisurely strolled back to the train station and came home. We had to switch from train to tube once again in Paddington Station, and just what did we find there? Paddington Bear! You know we had to bring Claire Bear back a Paddington Bear directly from Paddington! [PIC]

We came back to the hotel for a bit, took a rest, then got up and went out to dinner. On the way we stopped by Harrods [PIC] so we could finally look around. We got there at 7:50 and they closed at 8, so we got a brief look of two of the seven floors. I touched a dress that was $5600. Riiiiiiiiiight. You know I also had to use the pee-shack, or as the signage read "Luxury Washroom". After Harrods, we went and had dinner at an Italian restaurant whose address was 3 Charlotte Place :)

The End.

Day Two: London

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary! Our plan today was to do the tourist thing and take the "Original London Sightseeing Tour" on a traditional double decker bus. We started by taking the tube to Trafalgar Square [PIC], where we were supposed to be able to find the main visitor information center easily...HA. Either the English learned from the Italians or vice versa, but neither know how to use street signs!! After we found the office, she gave us incorrect directions to the bus stop, she told us to go up to stop "H", but what she really meant was "K". Sooooooo, after wasting a lot of time looking for the wrong bus stop, we found out where we were supposed to be, and boarded the tour bus. The first route took us out to Harrods [PIC], finally I get to lookie look at things I can't afford, but no, they don't open until 11:30 and it's 10:00. Oh well, we got ourselves a Starbucks and got back on the bus. The next stop we got off at was Kensington Palace. This is where Princess Diana lived. I would have paid to tour the palace if you could in fact see where she lived, but that part is not open, so we just looked at the outside [PIC]. In Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park is the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain [PIC], now I know she was the "black sheep" of the royal family, but come on, could a fountain be in a more obsure, hidden spot? It took us FOREVER walking around the gardens to find this fountain, but when we got there it was worth it. It's kinda like a lazy river set up, and you are invited to sit on the wall and dip your feet in the ice water. Which initally was cold, but then actually felt good after all the walking we had to do to get to the fountain. After we trudged back to the bus, I was hungry! We followed the circle route back around and had some lunch. After lunch we hopped on a different tour route and saw Buckingham Palace [PIC], where we got off and took some pictures. Driving around the apartments near Buckingham, I was looking at the roofs and all the little chimneys the buildings have. I kept looking for Dick Van Dyke to start dancing across the roof tops. We also drove by the neighborhood where Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow live, and the hotel where Elizabeth Taylor spent five of her honeymoons! Next we drove by Parliament and Big Ben [PIC], and Westminster Abbey. We did not get off to see the Abbey because it is closed on Sunday, so we are going to go another day. It is just a short walk from our hotel. Next, we crossed from the "City of Westminster" into the "City of London" and saw St. Paul's Cathedral [PIC]. The cathedral was closed for touring because it was Sunday, but they had an "Evening Song" going on with the choir, so there were people in there, mostly standing in the back. Now, if you have seen churches in Italy, there is nothing you can see that would impress you anywhere else, so although the church was beautiful, it was just another church. We were standing there for a few minutes, when I hear Chadd gasp, I look at him and he's about to sneeze. Oh crap! This is going to be loud and scare all these very quiet spectators!! Chadd supresses the sneeze and just makes the tiniest of a pathetic sneeze noise. I ask him "Okay, are you ready to go?" He whispers "Yes, now that I just gave myself an anyerusm". We continued the tour over London Bridge, from which I got my first glimpse of Tower Bridge [PIC]. Then we rounded the corner and went over Tower Bridge. We bought tickets to do the Tower Bridge exhibition, but we were running out of time and that was one attraction where I wanted to be able to take my time, so we decided to do that on Tuesday. We got off the bus and took our "included Free River Cruise" [PIC] down the River Thames back to Westminster, and our hotel. We had about an hour before our flight on the London Eye, so we showered and changed. Our reservation was at 7:00 pm for the London Eye, we scheduled it around sunset. We went to go pick up the tickets and the man tells us "Okay, your host will be right with you".... I asked Chadd "We have a host? huh?" He said "I guess so". This wonderful girl walks around the corner holding this basket and says "Okay, follow me". So, I follow, confused. She walks us up to the Eye and we go right to the front of the line.... Then I start putting two and two together and come up with the answer that my husband has done a little of his Hunnie Bunnie sneaky magic. He got us a private capsule for the ride with a bottle of Champagne (and O.J., I made mine a Mimosa) and some yumalicious truffles [PIC]. On the way down they take your picture, so we posed with me kissing my sweetie. Then walking down the exit ramp, these women start asking me if I am Chelsea? I said "No, I'm Sheri". They said someone had a sign that said "Will you marry me, Chelsea" and thought that the couple was us (they could see the kissing pic on the monitor) and I said "No, but it is our sixth wedding anniversary!" After our "flight" we went back to the hotel and took a taxi to dinner. I was excited that I got to ride in the cute taxi! I had told Chadd I hoped it was a standard black one, because I had seen some gray ones driving around. Then I said, "did you see that hot pink one earlier today? Geez, I hope we don't get that!"... and guess what drives up? You guessed it the only hot pink cab in the city [PIC]. For dinner we went to a Japanese restaurant (surprise) Matsuri. It was EXCELLENT. It was very authentic Japanese, from start to finish. Our dinners were like 9 courses, I am so full, I want to go to sleep but I have to finish this blog just to keep me up long enough to digest. The soup was served in little pots that you pour it out and drink out of this little saucer [PIC]. The sushi just melted in our mouths. I was worried that since it was so authentic that my prawns would come out with their heads on, I am happy to report that they did not. Our garden vegetables consisted of some asparagus, lotus root and carrots. Chadd tried the carrots and made this comment "Note to self, these are NOT carrots, they ARE yams", Chadd hates yams. Oops! After dinner we start chating with the couple across from us. During the converstation, they break the news to me that George Michael was arrested today for drug possession! When I look it up on the internet once I get back to the hotel, turns out he was actually arrested on Saturday, the day we got here, was taken to a North London police station and giving a warning. So, hopefully he will be home tomorrow, keeping a low profile, playing with Meg and Abby (his yellow labs) in his back yard, so when we go out to Goring to see his house he is there!! Keeping my fingers crossed..........

Day One: London

This is us in London, behind us is the River Thames, the London Eye and our Hotel.

I've made notes when there are corresponding pictures on our picture page. You can get to the link for our pictures from http://rxphiller3.googlepages.com/

Our flight left Atlanta at 5:30 pm bound for London [PIC]. Once we boarded we settled into our "Business Elite" seats (7 A & B) and read our menu for our dinner choices. Sometimes, when I'm at home and I have to take out the trash, I kinda get mad, because I don't like to do it. Taking out the trash is Chadd's job but I have to do it when he is traveling somewhere for work. At these times, I need to just think about the Skymiles he is accumulating so we can fly international First Class, and know it's all worth it in the end! For dinner we had Greek salad, Moroccan Crab Salad, Pesto Pearl Couscous (yummy!), and Cream of Asparagus soup to start, then for our main course we had Grilled Beef Tenderloin and Shrimp Scampi with lemon risotto and sauteed squash. You know the beef was tender because you could slice it with the barbie doll size butter knife they give you. During dinner I decided to play a game on my personal video unit, they had Zuma, man, was I in trouble! I finally had to turn it off because I gave myself a frickin' shoulder cramp playing. After dinner was dessert (ice cream sundae) and time for bed [PIC]! Chadd thought ahead and booked us in the back row so no one could kick our seat while we slept....smart thinking, considering I myself kicked the guy in front of me no less than four times while he slept...oops! Chadd got all decked out in his plane sleeping regalia [PIC], and I cuddled under a very very comfortable Delta blanket [PIC], and off to dreamland we went. When we awoke (about 4 & 1/2 hours later) it was time for breakfast, we would be arriving in London in just over an hour. I watched the sunrise over the English countryside [PIC], but coming into the airport I was quite surprised, I thought we would be flying over the city, but we flew over cow farms instead [PIC]. Once in the airport we cleared passport control (got a stamp, yay!), and retrieved our luggage. From there we had to take a train to the opposite terminal to get to the train station. We bought our train tickets from Gatwick airport to London, and we also got our "Oyster" card for the week for the " tube" (subway) as well. We took the train to Victoria station then transferred to the tube. We took the tube to Westminster, the stop closest to our hotel. When we walked up the stairs from the tube, we were right in front of Parliament and Big Ben. Chadd and I debated whether or not it was actually Big Ben, but indeed it was, I just thought it would be bigger! Our hotel was just over the bridge from the station and we walked there easily. Our hotel is in the "County Hall" building. The building was apparently the home of the London Government from 1922 to 1986, but now part of it has been renovated to a Marriott. Walking up to the door, the bellman came bounding down the steps dressed in coat tails and a bowler hat...whoa! [wish I had a PIC] Once we got inside, the decor was right out of a creepy hotel movie...very Haunted Mansion-esque. There was a lot of dark wood paneling and marble. Our room wasn't ready so we headed down to the gym facilities to take a shower, and change clothes. Once we were refreshed we asked where the nearest shopping district was. I wanted to look for a dress to wear for our anniversary dinner tomorrow night. We took the tube over to Oxford street and did some shopping. I was looking for Harrod's (not to shop there, just to lookie-look) but we never saw it. I ended up buying a little black dress in H & M. At this point, my feet were tired, my body was tired, my head was tired and my husband was tired, so we headed back to the hotel. Our hotel sits right on the river Thames, and right behind the London Eye, so we had lunch at a little cafe right next to the hotel [PIC]. When our room was finally ready and we were able to go up, the first thing I did was run to the window and check our view....sitting on the bed right now, Big Ben is framed in the center of our window with the river Thames flowing just beneath [PIC]. It was now time to take a nap and catch up on some sleep we didn't get last night on the plane. After our short rest, we got up and got dressed for dinner. Walking to the tube station I had to laugh because the taxis look just like SuperNanny's car! They are so cute. We took the tube over to Hyde Park and were going to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe (the Original HRC) since we had to go there to get Chadd a shot glass anyway. But, the wait for a table was an hour and forty minutes! So, we got our shot glass, returned to the hotel, and ordered room service so we could eat while watching the UF v. Tennessee game. You can take the boy away from college football, but you can't take college football away from the boy.

And Away We Go......

Hello All!

We are just sitting here at the Palm Beach airport waiting for our flight. My mom dropped us off at the airport where I had to say Bye Bye to my Boo Boo --------------------->
She was sleeping, so I just kissed her a zillion times. We have to go to Atlanta first, then we are off to London-Gatwick. We will arrive there 7 AM (2 AM EST). I will keep you posted during our trip!
Cheerio!

Claire's First Shoes

Today we went to the mall to get Claire her first pair of Stride Rite shoes! She picked out a pretty brown pair with pink circles. We also went to Gymboree (Gymbucks days!) and got her the most adorable outfit to wear once it gets cold, and a cute hat! In the past few days, she has been suffering with her first cold. She has had some nasal congestion, and she hasn't been feeling well. We took her to Dr. Rahman to check her ears, he said she had some fluid, but they were not infected (yay!). Today she was in good spirits, so I think she's already starting to feel better!

Claire's first "manicure"

Yesterday we went out and ran errands with Grandma, and after she was done getting her nails done, the lady came over and painted Claire's nails! In this picture the paint at the top of the nails has already come off, but it looked cute for one day!