Cheers from Jolly Old England

We went to London over Thanksgiving. In a word, it was OVERWHELMING. There were literally a billion things to see and do there. Literally, a billion. Or more. We saw all of the cool Egyptian things that the Brits have plundered, including amazing mummies, huge busts of kings, and enormous iron city gates. We also went to the Tower of London, where we could have easily spent all day. Crown jewels, thrones, Tower Bridge, Beef Eaters, prisoner cells, museums- what's NOT to love?

We also went to Westminster Abbey. It was kind of expensive, so we decide to skimp by attending an evening service (free!) rather than taking the regular tour. As we went in, Ava was asleep and Aidan was really sleepy, so we hoped he'd take a nap on my lap. Instead, Ava pooped all over herself and then screamed and screamed and screamed. Due to the way we were positioned, we couldn't get out of the door without walking in front of everyone, right in front of the priest. Finally, a priest came over and asked Joel if he'd like to take the baby outside. On the bright side, Aidan did take a nice nap on my lap. Good boy.

Buckingham Palace was also on the itinerary. It wasn't quite what I pictured- we saw guards march in, but we didn't see the "unveiling of the colors" as promised by Rick Steves. November is typically very low tourist season; I can't imagine the crowds in the summer.

It wouldn't be a Springer vacation without some Asian tourists taking our picture. This time, I turned the camera on these paparazzi monsters to see how they liked it! (Answer: they didn't seem to mind... and neither do we.) I got this picture of some Japanese shutterbugs outside "Buck House," as the locals call it, taking our picture. We were also photographed at the Portobello Road Market, although I somehow doubt our dumb white faces were the biggest attraction in sight.

While doing some pre-travel research, I saw that we could visit Father Christmas at one of the large department stores. Harrod's was sold out, but Selfridge's had a cool train through an indoor "forest" and then we had a nice long visit with Santa. Here is Aidan looking over the "Nice" list for his name.

It was a really full trip for just two full days (and two travel days... but that's another story). We could have easily spent another, oh, I don't know, six months seeing all of the sights. We agreed that next time we'd have to leave the kids at home- we barely saw any other children while we were there. Either they were all at boarding school out in the country, or London is where all of the adults from Logan's Run end up. I'm betting on the latter.