Day 3, Part 1: Big Ben, etc.

As soon as we left the tube station and saw Big Ben right in front of us, I felt like I was finally showing my kids LONDON!!  Of course, it's not the best place to take pictures though, so we walked across the bridge to get some better ones.  Right on the other side of the river is the huge London Eye.

We've been to England 3 different times, and we still haven't ridden the London Eye.  I want to, but it's expensive, the wait is long, and last time I was prego sick, and this time I had 6 kids in tow.  Next time, we'll ride it for sure!

And there he is!

(Big Ben is actually the name of the largest bell in the tower, but the name has become synonymous with the clock.)

I don't know why, but I just love this building.

And it is enormous too!

The Palace of Westminster is a fitting place to home the UK's Parliament.

This view is from the opposite side.

Peek-a-boo!

I just think it's the prettiest clock I've ever seen!

We walked all the way around to the big park in the back.

More big towers.

Our boys,

and our girls.

The field is huge too, this picture is probably only showing 1/4 of it.

Love this colorful, Victorian fountain too.

Next on our stop was Westminster Abbey right next door.

I sure wish we built things now-a-days like we used to!

Mary and baby Jesus, so sweet.

The towers soar into the sky.

Love this prayer:

May God grant

to the living = grace

to the departed = rest

to the church & the world = peace and concord

and to us sinners = eternal life

Amen!

We then decided to walk to Hyde Park.  I looked back and had to capture this shot with the London Eye, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey.  Triple treat!

London is famous for its Lions and Unicorns.  I was able to capture a few of them throughout our journey.

This guy is across the bridge from the Parliament buildings.

And this guy is on the Parliament buildings!

*More lions and unicorns coming soon.

Day 2: Covent Garden

Our dear friends, the Stiles were in London for Caden's PhD graduation.  We had one day were our vacations overlapped so we were able to spend some time together.  We visited Covent Garden, which is an awesome shopping/restaurant venue, that I really want to visit again.

Some buskers just make me smile!

We decided to have lunch at Creme de la Crepe.

It was a little spendy...

...but it was so good!

This is the Cheeky Monkey (nutella and banana).  I got the Piggy That Went to Market that had ham, egg, cheese, tomatoes, and English mayonnaise.  I'm craving crepes now!

All of the kids ate well (except we had to take Ali's to go as she was asleep again!). 

I love being a part of "us"!

Rebecca and Caden were so awesome hanging out with us and not caring what we did.

We visited the British Museum, but only for about a minute.  Our kids were so tired they were literally laying down on the floor trying to nap.  We all went back to our apartment and then the Stiles spoiled us with yummy ice cream, tarts, cookies, and chocolate!

We love spending time with friends!

London- Day 1: Hard Rock Cafe

When you take your kids to London, you have to take them to historic places right?  What's more historic than the Hard Rock Cafe?  Well, after a 7-hour red eye flight, 2 hours of waiting at the airport for our hotel shuttle, another 2 hours of actually getting to our hotel from the airport, left us exhausted when we finally arrived.  We all took a nap and woke up in time for dinner.  We rode the tube to this historic site, ha ha!  So what's the story?  Two Americans who had been living in London were really missing American hamburgers and fries (not chips) so they opened up a deli.  It soon became really popular and was frequented by local musicians.  Eric Clapton was a regular and one day he left behind one of his guitars asking if he could hang it on the wall and claim "his" seat so he wouldn't have to wait on crowded days.  His guitar was hung, but it's unclear if he still had to wait for his seat.  Soon after, Pete Townshend from The Who gave one of his guitars with a note that said, "Mine's as good as his."  Thus beginning the collection of music memorabilia.

The Cafe is in a gorgeous building (what building in London isn't gorgeous?).

We visited back in 2000 when we lived in Canterbury, but there has been a new addition.  Across the street is a new Rock Shop with The Vault in the basement.

Since we had an hour and a half wait for a table (too bad we don't have any famous guitars to get us a seat quick), we meandered over to the shop.

Say cheese!

The Vault is actually pretty seedy, it's literally an old bank vault.  Just a small room with guitars, costumes, and photos lining the walls.

I love me some Jimi Hendrix!

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace."

And a cute photo of Paul and John.

Gene Simmons is a big fella!

Sitting on Jimi's love seat.

We wanted a turn too.

I remember Madonna's bullet boobs freaked me out in high school, ha!

We miss you David Bowie!

Guitars from Adam Clayton and Sting, and don't know who the statue used to belong to.

I love this picture of a young Elvis and Bo Didley's square guitar.

Our 90-minute wait was finally up and we got our table inside.

Of course, Ali was asleep by then.

And Hiram didn't seem too impressed.

The big kids were though and they loved their dinner and milkshakes!!

(Mumbai has 2 HRCs, we need to check them out!)

Goodbye Home Sweet Home

After church and our youth photo shoot, we stopped by our home to say goodbye.  We got our new garage door installed just in time!

This pretty day lily bloomed to send us off.

It was so surreal walking through our empty house.  It's even more surreal to think that another family is living in it now!  I hung our family picture from this year, even though it would only be up for a short while.  Now I look forward to it arriving in our sea shipment, so I can put it up in our apartment in India.

Teague made these hearts in art class.  They make me think how we loved our past time in this home, we will enjoy our present time in India, but we also look forward to the future when we can return back to our home sweet home!

After we said goodbye to our home, we rushed back to the Clark's to pack all of our suitcases up.  

Our dear friends, the Martins,

and Meissners,

and Brooklyn helped take us to the airport.

Yes, we needed 3 vans to get all of our family and suitcases there!

We flew overnight to London, for a pitstop on our way to Mumbai.

We love you Ottawa and we will miss you!