London

Last weekend we went to London for 4 days and had a lot of fun seeing all the sites.

Friday - We left for the airport at 0-Dark-30 for our 7:20AM flight. The flight itself was fine except that the kids naturally did not fall asleep until the plane was about to land. The bad part was that we had to wait in line for over an hour to get our passports stamped.
We took the Hogwarts Express from the airport into downtown. OK, actually it was the Gatwick Express but Hogwarts Express sounds...not "cooler" I guess but at least more interesting.
After getting settled in at the hotel we spent the rest of the afternoon at the Natural History Museum. VJ really liked the dinosaur bones and Katie liked the computer guides. Neither one of them were entirely thrilled by the animatronic T-Rex.
Back to the hotel and dinner across the street at the local Pizza Place.

Saturday - We took the Underground (aka The Tube) down to Westminster Abbey and toured the Abbey. Beautiful place. Also here's a tip: To bypass the line and get right in ask the security guard where the bathroom is since your 6 yr old has to "go." We got right in but then had to run halfway through the place to get to the restroom in time.
Right near the Abbey we also saw The Parliament Building and Big Ben. Then we walked up to Trafalgar Square for lunch. On the way we passed the heavily guarded Downing Street.
After a short break at the hotel, we went and had tea at Harrod's. OK, I had tea. Anna had a cappuccino and the kids had milkshakes.
For dinner we walked over to China Town for some really good Chinese food. Dinner was made more interesting when VJ dumped his whole glass of apple juice in his lap. Joy.

Sunday - We had ordered tickets for the "Royal Day Out." This included going to the Queen's Gallery to see some of the Italian Masterpiece's owned by the Royal Family (paintings by Caravaggio, Parmigianino, Annibale Carraci, etc. and sketches by DaVinci, Bernini and Michaelangelo, to name a few).
Next we went to the Royal Mews to see the Royal Coaches and horses. Finally we went and toured the state rooms of Buckingham Palace. We got lucky since this tour is only available in August and September when the Queen goes to her Castle in Scotland. The Palace was gorgeous! I only wish we were allowed to take pictures inside.

When Anna suggested that we go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner I was all for it. In retrospect this was not one of our better choices. We had eaten a late lunch and so we did not get there until about 7:00pm. We were told that the wait was 45 - 60 minutes. OK, we'll have a drink and wait. The Music was way to f#%^king LOUD. And let me just say that living in Texas and listening almost exclusively to Country Music for 10 years meant that I only recognized every 5th song. After 60 minutes I went and checked on our status only to be told that they had paged us 20 minutes ago. I chose to blame the children (who spent the wait passing the pager back and forth) for missing the page rather than cause a scene by calling the hostess a damn liar. So we were seated at 8:00pm.
Two new problems: 1. VJ was about to fall asleep and had to be forced to eat his dinner. 2. Katie looked like she felt the night was still young and was ready to move on to the next club. She couldn't help but be-bop around to the REALLY LOUD music. Not a problem per se until you are her Dad and flash forward 10 years and worry about what she will be like at 16. Definitely time to order that 3rd beer. At least the French Dip was awesome.
Funny story: When Anna ordered the appetizer (Spinach Avocado Dip) she asked the waitress to bring "extra chips." Since "chips" = "french fries" in England the waitress brought us an order of fries...and the music was TOO LOUD to try and sort that out so we just let well enough be.

Monday - We spent the morning and early afternoon at the Tower of London. Great tour and lots of really interesting stuff to see.
We could have spent at least 2 more hours here but had to get back to the hotel, get our stuff and catch the Hogwarts Express back to Gatwick Airport to catch our flight. Home Sweet Home by 11:00pm. I know that's kinda late, but don't worry...I didn't have to go to work the next day.

Our internet connection has been a bit unreliable this week which is why I'm late posting about this trip. And it's premiere week so once I'm done downloading this week's TV shows (legally through iTunes, of course) I'll get around to uploading all 430+ pictures to our Kodak Gallery for the three of you who like to look at them.