Sunday Funday

Yes Katie, the title is for you.  You apparently know how to make Sundays more fun than I do because I have always thought of it as the day before I have to go back to work.  Despite the inevitable Monday, we did manage to have a nice Sunday.

We saw a lot on Sunday so the day's recap will be primarily in pictures.

Ann's first tube ride - We are all so proud of her!

Buckingham Palace - We had intended to see the changing of the guard, but it was cancelled we believe because of a race taking place in the area.  Brady found a big gate by the Palace and he insisted on getting out the keys to open it.

Ronny Woods Truck & Humps

Big Ben

Westminster Abbey - Mom, people here bike to church.  I thought you would think that was cool.

Parliament

Cory and the Eye

10 Downing Street

Churchill War Rooms - The museum is all about Winston Churchill & the War.  I thought the map was cool, because Churchill did a speaking tour in the US and his first stop was KC.  Also, the bedroom below was Churchill's bedroom.  Far nicer than any one else got to have.  Even nicer than poor Clementine who had to sleep in a separate bedroom.

Green Park

Little Dog, Big Stick

We saw this dog in Green Park on Sunday and I thought it was hilarious.

No Sleeping Allowed

Ann & Ron, Cory's parent's, arrived yesterday.  They are our first flat guests since we've arrived.  Their flight from Peoria to London went smooth, a man with the sign was waiting for them at the exit and they were ringing the door bell by 9am.  For both of them this was the longest flight they have ever been on and their first time flying out of North America.

The goal for the day was to keep them up until bedtime so they would get adjusted to the time change.  Both of them tried to lay down on the couch to 'rest their eyes' for a minute, but we would not allow.  Everyone showered up and we headed out for the day!

First stop was walking to Hyde Park.  It was a cool, overcast morning (pretty much standard issue here), but no rain so perfect for a long walk.  At Hyde Park we stopped a the playground so Brady could play and even found some chickens in a corner of the park we hadn't visited before.

After Hyde Park we headed to the London Natural History Museum.  We had heard great things about the dinosaur exhibit and Brady LOVES Dino-Sa-Saurs and he says it.  We grabbed a quick bite at the museum cafe and started exploring.  It was really busy which I think is normal for the weekends since it's free.

At the end of the dinosaur exhibit there was a life size replica of a T-Rex that moved & growled.  Brady was so excited about seeing it until until he could actually hear and see it.  Then he wanted nothing to do with the dinosaur and buried his head into my shoulder.  We all predicted this as he loves animals and replicas, but typically prefers to keep his distance.

We wrapped up the Natural History Museum and caught a taxi home.   Ron and Ann still had 4 hours to stay up before we would let them go to bed.  We rested for a bit and then headed to Pizza Express for dinner.  On our walk to dinner we stopped at Abbey Studios thinking there might be a memorial to John Lennon since it was is 70th birthday, but there really wasn't much there out of the ordinary.   Pizza Express is becoming a family favorite.  Awesome dough balls, great pasta and pizza AND they send out coupons.  After dinner we came back to the flat and went to bed.  As I write this at 9am, Ann and Ron are still sleeping.  Need to go wake them up so we can make it to Buckingham Palace today for the changing of the guard.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Last Friday our office had their annual Ball benefiting Cerner's First Hand organization that helps children with medical needs.  We weren't able to make it to the event, but did enter the raffle and happened to win a really nice price.  At first I was confused as I was told we won a hamper.  I was thinking laundry, but apparently it's more along the lines of a picnic themed wicker basket.

The hamper is from Fortnum & Mason which apparently is a lovely shop.  As Cory transported the hamper between our two office buildings he had several ladies comment.  "Oh wow, fancy."

In the hamper we received the following:

• Champagne
• Sauvignon Blanc
• Merlot
• Clotted Cream Biscuits
• Fruit Cake
• Olives
• Malt Morsels
• Truffle Selection
• Venison 
• Salvatore Ferragamo Purple tie

Neither Cory or I have ever heard of Salvatore Ferragamo, but apparently we should know about him.  The tie retails for £160.  I love purple, but I'm not so sure Cory is convinced it's his look.    We can't let such a valuable gift go to waste, so next time you see Cory in a suit make sure to compliment him on his new purple tie.

As for the Venison, I am saving it for when my mom arrives as she has a new found love for eating wild game.  She may have a change in heart when she sees the venison puree.

We're very excited to sample the hamper items and will perhaps open up one of the bottles to celebrate our 5 year anniversary this Friday.

London Aquarium and Westfield Mall

Sunday, we jumped on the tube and headed to Westminster.  Our tube line, the Jubilee, is super convenient for many of the touristy areas.  It only takes 10 minutes to get to the area where Parliament, Big Ben, the London Eye and many of the other touristy things are located. 

First stop was the London Aquarium which is right next to the London Eye on the Thames.  It was the destination of choice mainly due to the gray skies and forecast of rain.  Indoor activities are always preferable in this scenario.  The Aquarium was nice, but small and crowded.  Brady enjoyed the fish, sea horses and sharks.  We finished the Aquarium in about an hour which hardly justifies the £18 adult admission fee.  It was nice to see, but probably won't make a return visit anytime soon.  Sorry family if any of you had your hearts set on the Aquarium.

Second stop of the day was the Westfield Mall.  I was told this was a 'American' type mall so I was really excited.  Not that I'm a huge shopper, but I enjoy mall walking and find that malls are a great place to get treats.  Usually my treats are soft pretzels, fountain Diet Cokes and soft baked cookies.  A new mall means new treats to be discovered.  The mall was huge and fabulous.  Definitely will warrant a return trip minus Brady and Cory.  We found a cute cupcake stand and tried out the Sticky Toffee and Carrot Cake.  I forgot to take a picture so you'll just have to imagine it in your head.

A couple notable things from our mall trip:

The UK does not have a Coach store, but one is coming soon.  Oh the poor British ladies.  I guess they do have Harrods.

From some reason Hollister is so popular it requires getting in a queue and waiting for your turn to get in the store.  There were literally over 100 people in line.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  I searched the Internet thinking surely something was going on, nope, just people love Hollister I guess.  I wanted to go tell some of the people in line that the store is for teenagers, not grown adults.  Too funny!

Brady Pictures from weeks of 9/20 & 9/27

Route 187

The weather has been a bit icky the past week which has dampered some of energy to get out and about.  About a week ago Cory and I were talking about how great the weather has been and how lucky we've been to not have to walk in the rain to work.  Well, low and behold it does rain in London and it rains a lot.  I learned my lesson the hard way walking home from work on Friday.  I was not wearing proper rain foot wear and had wet socks about 5 minutes into the walk.  Nothing is worse than wet socks.  Lesson learned.

We were going to stay home Friday night because of the weather, but I think we all needed to get out of the house.  We decided to take the 187 bus to the O2 Centre.  A co-worker had recommended us going, but we hadn't had the chance yet and to be honest we didn't really know were we were headed when we got on the bus.  The 187 was a beautiful find.  First, the O2 Centre is actually not that far from our house.  We had almost walked there several times, but had not realized if we walked about 2 blocks further we would run into two full size grocery stores and about 5 restaurants.  It didn't exactly qualify as a mall in my opinion, but there is a movie theatre, several stores, restaurants and the big grocery store. 

We started by enjoying dinner at Nando's which is a Brazilian restaurant that had multiple locations around London.  Please don't judge my culinary sophistication by the statement, but I love chains.  They are predictable.  There is nothing better than walking into a chain knowing that regardless of where you are at it will taste the same.  Perfect example, on our trip to Cairo, Egypt a few years ago we ate at Chili's, Hard Rock Cafe, McDonald's.  Nando's did not disappoint.  Great chicken, fries with special seasoning, grilled corn, fabulous fountain pop, great kid's ice cream dessert.  Just Brilliant!

After dinner, the real excitement started, our walk through the giant Sainsbury.  They had everything, well almost everything.   One whole long aisle devoted just to yogurt, more than three kinds of cereal, a true meat counter, shopping carts!  After the last six weeks of shopping at our tiny grocery store this was amazing.  The only issue is we are still limited by what we can carry in our hands.  We enjoyed the sensory experience, but left with two small sacks.  Online grocery shopping is our reality for the next year, but it's good to know we can get the grocery store experience if we need to.

On Saturday we stayed around our area.  We picked up lunch at a really good deli called Plan 9.   The owner is American and noticed Cory's Iowa shirt.  They have tracked where all of the American visitors are from and Iowa was one of 5 states that had not been marked yet.  Cory decided to count himself as an Iowan and marked the map.   The weather was nice until mid-afternoon so we took advantage of the outdoors since it was expected to rain and spent the afternoon at the park.