London days1 & 2

****Disclaimer- remember, this is my journal/scrapbook so brace yourself for the lengthy posts***
Driving from Utah to Oregon with three kids and a dog in the 90+ degree heat without my husband doesn't sound like my ideal 15 year anniversary celebration.  But that is what I was doing while Ronnie was in Seattle working and eating leftover salmon and broccoli he had cooked 4 days earlier.  Don't feel too sorry for us though...  Rewind a few months and you will see that we were in London, exploring ancient cathedrals, crossing famous bridges, dining on tea and crumpets.  Or in Paris walking the Louvre, strolling the Champs Elysees, and dining on 7 course french cuisine.  Yeah, don't feel too bad.  It was as cheesy and romantic as it sounds.  Going to the grocery story alone with Ronnie makes me excited so you can guess just how thrilled I was to travel to Europe with him.  We flew Ronnie's mom out to stay with the kids while we were gone for 10 days.  It was a long trip.  I was so nervous to leave the kids all that time.  Especially Bex, with his BFF leaving just weeks earlier, I wasn't sure how he would do. But they all did fantastic!  Grandma spoiled them rotten as she should and they had the best time. 

London was our first destination.  Getting there wasn't my most favorite trip ever.  I don't really love flying and especially long flights over the ocean.  I had just left my sweet kids in tears and then top it off with a mix up of our frequent flyer miles and I was traveling to London solo.  I almost didn't make it on the plane.  No joke, I was texting two girlfriends from my gate hoping they would talk me down.  It was all I could do to not bust it out of there and run back to my babies.  It was rough.  I texted Ronnie and told him I didn't get on my flight and he needed to come get me.  It was a joke but he knew how upset I was when he dropped me off that morning and totally fell for it.  But I knew it would be well worth it and I reluctantly boarded that plane.  Luckily everything went smoothly and I was able to meet up with Ronnie a few hours after landing in Heathrow.  I was immediately wooed by London.  The people, the buildings, the clean and efficient Tube...it was lovely.  

We shlepped our giant bags on and off the platforms until we reached our hotel.  After settling in we headed straight for Emirates Stadium to watch Ronnie's favorite soccer team, Arsenal play Manchester City.  It was definitely a bucket list moment for him.  He was like a kid in a candy store.  So very excited.  He packed me a special jersey to wear so I wasn't left out of the sea of red.  It was such a fun way to kick off our European adventure.  We ate lunch just outside the stadium at a little dive that served the BEST fish and chips I have ever eaten.  No joke, it was so delicious.  We walked around the outside of the stadium taking it all in as we happily munched on our perfectly fried fish and salty "chips".  After filling our bellies we entered the stadium and climed all the way to the tippy top where we were sandwiched in between a fiesty French man and a potty mouth Irish man. I have to admit, I was grateful for the excitement all around me because that jet lag is no joke. The game ended in a tie and the sleepy Americans stopped for some pretty decent Indian cuisine.   We then headed to the hotel for some much needed rest after being up for over 24 hours.

The next day Ronnie got up bright and early while I continued to sleep off the jet lag.  He went to the Olympic Aquatic Center to swim a few laps in the same waters that Michael Phelps splashed around in 2012.  It looks like an amazing place from his pictures and I am just a little bummed I didn't go with him.  But I have since forgotten just how wasted I was the night before and couldn't even imagine waking up any earlier.

When he got back and drug me out of bed we headed just down the street from our hotel to tour the Tower of London and the London Tower Bridge

It was cool to see the old part of the city backed up against the new modern part just over the river.  

I couldn't stop taking pictures or singing London Bridge is Falling Down.  It really is amazing to experience the history and get to actually see with your own eyes all the things you have learned about in school.

 Mr. Beefeater.  Seriously, its a real thing. 

I think living in San Francisco resulted in Ronnie and I falling in love a little with each and every bridge we cross.  This was no exception.  The London Bridge is magnificent.  They have a walking tour and museum inside which was very interesting.  However, I  preferred taking a walk across, buying some candied almonds from the street vendor and peering over the edge watching the boats on the river Thames.  

 Ronnie really loves city skylines.  He can pick out any major city just by looking at the buildings.  I think we talked various times about how that tall pointy building they call the Shard has a really upscale apartment at the top.  Is he trying to tell me something?  These pictures were taken through a tiny window up at the bridge museum that I was too short to see out of so I just reached up and snapped away.  Not too bad.

Looking back at the Tower of London against the modern city.  The Gerkin was one of my favorites.  No boring rectangles for London.

Next we headed for Trafalgar Square where we had lunch at the Cafe in the Crypt.  Many of the churches have crypts below which you can walk through if you would like.  This particular one, St. Martin in the Fields, had a restaurant where you could dine amongst the dead.  yep.

  Trafalgar Square.  It is a bustling place filled with street vendors, performers, protestors, museums, churches, and government buildings.  We stood right in the middle amongst an active protest and looked at each other after I took my obligatory panorama picture, and said "I can't believe we are here."  Little did we know we would say that many more times on this trip.

 We breezed through the National Art Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery hitting the highlights before taking a walk down to see where the Prime Minister lived on Downing St. and popping into a few red telephone booths.  It's a London right of passage right?

We walked all the way to Westminster Abby where we stopped for a few selfies in front of Big Ben and then headed inside the Abby for an evening sermon.  When planning this trip we knew we wanted to take tours and visit museums with the rest of the tourists because they really are interesting and informative.  But for us, being able to experience the different places as they were intended was even more exciting so we tried to do this whenever and wherever we could.  This evening the Abby was closed to tours and open solely for worship.  We had looked online and decided to attend an evening sermon.  We walked in through the west doors and were blown away by this amazing ornate and sacred building.  We sat in the back of the congregation listening to the ministers words echo around the Nave and tried our best to reverently sing some of the scripture.  It was beautiful and spiritual and exactly how I wanted to experience The Abby.  Though watching Princess Diana's wedding would have been nice too.

It is magnificent!  The pictures can not do it justice.

After our sermon we walked a bit more to the London Eye for a birds eye view of the city at night time.  While planning we had debated whether it was worth it or not to pay that much for a big ferris wheel.  I'm glad we did.  It really was breathtaking and so fun to point out all the highlights of the city as we slowly circled our way around.

Of course no Chapman vacation would be complete without a little research on the most tasty cuisine.  This particular night we hopped on the Tube to Camden Town where we found an amazing little Caribbean restaurant that was made just for us.  Interesting food, interesting people, and totally off the beaten path.  We soaked it all in as we talked and awed at the little bit of London we had already fallen in love with.