We named our daughter London because we like how it sounds... not because we have a crazy love for the city of London, not because we conceived in London, not because we met in London, not because we lived in London. We get these questions a lot about London. Don't get me wrong, we love London. But we love how London sounds more than the actual London. No we do love the actual London. Are you getting confused about what London I am refuring too? I am. So enough of that. Back in October we decided enough is enough London needs to see London. London needs to take on London. London needs to experience London. So we went and we took Sadie too. We took the easy 1 hour flight over for two days, stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast style hotel in the city and truly took in the sights and smells of London. We love London and I even bought a keychain to prove it.
"The London eye." Get it?
Sadie has a crazy obsession for horses she tells me almost everyday that when she is big she wants to ride a horse. Our neighbors have a bunch of horses and she stares out the window all the time dreaming of riding them. Anyhoo, she saw this giant horse head and almost lost it. She loved it.
There was a store on Portobello Road (THE Portobello road, like from Bedknobs and Broom Sticks) that had these old sewing machines lining the whole store it was really cool and very hip.
Her Majesty the Queen's royal palace: Buckingham palace.
The chicklets loved riding the double decker bus... well, kind of. It was FREEZING! We stayed on the bottom most of the time because they were screaming there heads off from near frost bite on top. And, we didn't want to look like lousy parents anymore so we moved them to bottom of the bus. We loved it I guess.
Waiting for the bus...
Girls bored to death; Mark in front of the thespian mecca Shakespeare's Globe
We had to try the fish and chips, of course. I went to London in High School and one of my favorite memories was the fish and chips. (Of course... my favorite memory was food.)
Trafalgar Square was a big hit with Sadie.
Hyde Park
We had an awesome time with our friends the Lemuth's. Austyn was in the same residency as Mark in Florida and they got stationed in England. It was fun catching up with them on the "other side of the Pond".
There was one "international incident" you should know about: once Ashley didn't mind the gap (gasp!!!). All joking aside, it was pretty traumatic as the stroller wheels got stuck in "the gap" and Sadie went down, leading to another head bump, as usual. Actually, pretty minor compared to previous bumpage... When you hear them repeating over and over to mind the gap, don't just stand there and laugh at their accents and phraseology like an American tourist. Do yourself a favor and mind it.
London's very own bridge. Now that is nice.
No need to say we enjoyed ourselves there. We asked Sadie what her favorite part of the trip was, and she said "the sharks" without hesitation. The sharks? Wait... oh yeah... We saw an aquarium advertisement on the tube wall as we were lugging strollers up and down. That goes to show how much the girls love these family vacations we plan. Next time: more sharks, I guess.
