London

So London started off a little rocky. We took the tube from Paris that goes under the ocean. Unfortunately the kid diagonal from us on the train threw up. Luckily it was near the end of the train ride, but if you know me well then you know that throw up and snakes are my worst fears. I was stuck in an assigned seat...on a train...under the ocean. I was shaky and my nerves were shot for several hours after we got to London but it honestly could've been so much worse. For example he spent most of the beginning of the train ride playing with his brothers in the aisle right next to us. Anyway, we found platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station before checking into the hotel.

We walked a ton in London. On the first day we explored Covent Garden and had some burgers and chips. It was good but it would be hard for anything to follow the food we had just had in Paris. We saw Buckingham Palace lit up on our walk that night which was beautiful.

We spontaneously decided to go and see Wicked the first night. It was Kevin's first time and it was a wonderful cast...although it was weird to hear them singing in an accent.

Being kind of a history nerd I had planned to see all sorts of palaces and such while we were there. However, Buckingham palace wasn't open to visitors and Windsor Castle just seemed so far away and too much effort. We were pretty worn out at this point and just enjoyed doing nothing in London. We rode a couple of routes on a double decker red bus and covered tons of ground that way. I got to see where Andrew Lloyd Weber and Audrey Hepburn used to live and loads more. Unfortunately Big Ben is undergoing some construction and he was all covered up. I was super bummed.

For dinner we walked down to the swanky Savoy hotel to have dinner at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants (a bucket list item for both of us). Of course we had to order the beef wellington, which didn't disappoint. Everything tasted wonderful! Aside from the food, my favorite part was probably when I convinced Kevin that our complementary truffles were sitting on nuts or shaved chocolate. He tried it and said, "Nope, that's rocks" and put it back on the tray. Clearly we belonged in that high class place.

The next day we relaxed on a bus tour some more and ended up exploring the Tower of London. It was all fascinating. There were still gates that worked, amazing tour guides, lots of history about executions, lots of armor and the Chapel where lots of people are buried, including Anne Boleyn. We skipped seeing the crown jewels because the line was gigantic. My favorite part was the chapel up in the high tower. It was the perfect place to get my medieval fill.

On our last full day we wandered around Covent Garden again and took in all of the Christmas decorations that were already up. We checked out the mummies at the British Museum and then met an old friend of Kevin's for dinner and dessert. We took a long walk home and enjoyed our last night kid free.

It was so nice to reconnect. It wasn't that we were disconnected, but we both needed time just to focus on each other more than either of us realized. I came home feeling completely refreshed and ready to take on the next 7 years of parenthood. It sure was good to get back home to our babies. I was exhausted from the jet lag and was glad to have my mom with us for a few extra days. We walked like 80 miles over the course of the whole trip!