London, Baby!!

Here we are in London... and it's been amazing... and we still have 2 days to go!!
Survived all our flights, layover and got all our luggage - even arrived early, if you can believe that!! Once we dumped our stuff at the hotel, we were off. To give you a preview, we walked almost 8 miles on Monday!!

We tubed it up to Westminster, saw Big Ben (no canisters of chocolate milk, Jack!), Westminster, then headed down Whitehall - saw #10 Downing Street, caught the Horse Guards coming out for their morning routine, saw Trafalgar Sqaure & played with the lions, walked the Mall to Buckingham, saw the Horse Guard heading to their palace, ate lunch at Hard Rock, walked thru Hyde Park, tubed it to Madame Tussauds, out to the hotel to finally check in and then back for dinner near the Tower of London.... exhausted?!!? You should be - we sure were, but it was all worth it - what an amazing 1st day! Kids were sound asleep by 10... me too!!

Ready for Day 2?!? Tube to the Tower of London - kids were fascinated by this place - got into the Henry the VII exhibit for free, saw his armour, saw the crown jewels, saw where Anne Boleyn was beheaded and then wandered around by the Tower Bridge. Kids soaked up every minute of it... it was awesome! Grabbed lunch at Subway and caught a boat up the Thames that explained all the amazing buildings. Hopped off at Westminster and went into the Abbey. Found out the audio guides were free, so we spent almost an hour there - kids loved it!! Came back to our hotel (out in the Docklands area) to drop off pkgs and change. Headed to see Platform 9 3/4 - Harry Potter fans be jealous!! Then did some shopping on Oxford Street. Met our guide, Ceire, and went for dinner of bangers & mash. Caught a quick tube and saw Wicked - it was AWESOME!!!! So cool to see on the stage... and in London, no less.

The kids are becoming experts on finding their way around the tube - good problems solvers. The weather has been great - it poured on us coming home for dinner on Monday, but today it was sunny and not real cloudy - perfect!!! Only walked 5+ miles today.

We're all really enjoying being a small group and navigating around that way...the other 3 groups show up tomorrow. So, Wednesday's agenda is as follows: St. Pauls cathedral, Wimbledon, maybe lunch at the Sherlock Holmes pub... walking tour/meet other groups around Picadilly Circus, Leiscester Square, Free time to see Kensington and shop at Harrods, then dinner of fish-n-chips at Ye Olde Cock Tavern.

We are having a blast - kids are loving it and are so engaged in what they are seeing - it's great!! Only have a few more things on our London "bucket list" to check off
Thought I'd share some thoughts - hope all is well back home!
Will try to update tomorrow - thanks to Jenna, I'm using her laptop!!
Toodles ~ steph :)