Busy Touring

Hit London hard on Wednesday. Started off Haley's 16th birthday the way every girl dreams--with a second grade music concert at Maddie's school. I have video of the concert which I will post when I can. It takes a long time load and edit.

Then we sprung Maddie out of school and we all headed into London via the tube. We got off at Piccadilly Circus and headed to China town where I took everyone for dim sum (which is kind of like Chinese tapas). Ken and Susan and Haley had never had dim sum, nor had the eaten with chopsticks, so we all had a lot of fun. We enjoyed walking through China town and made our way over to the National Gallery. Haley's mom is an art teacher in Taylor, Arkansas, so we had to make sure that Haley saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Monet's bridge paintings. And we picked up a couple of things at the gift store.

From there we headed to Fortnum and Mason for tea. A department store that is older than Arkansas, Fortnum and Mason is terribly elegant and does a great tea in their fourth floor dining area. There we all dined on scones, finger sandwiches, pastries and, of course, tea. Ken told us to say that he was not there, but I believe we have pictures. Maddie did pretty well through all of this, but was beginning to fade. I just haul her little self around everywhere.

Then we walked down Bond Street where saw all the high end stores like Tiffany's, Hermes, Dolce and Gabbana, etc. Haley and I enjoyed a pop into Jimmy Choo's. Neither of us had an extra 400 pounds to pick up this seasons latest sling back. When we made it past all the high end stuff, we wound our way over to what has to be every 16-year-old girl's dream store. Top Shop. Haley was properly enamored and picked up a new pair of sunglasses. By the time the 94 bus brought us home, we were worn out and pleasantly surprised to find that the hot water had been fixed. Whew!

Thursday, I got Maddie off to school and then took the group to St. Pancras Station to catch their Eurostar train to France. I was supposed to go with them, but Skip's trip to the States made that impossible. I started to feel sorry for myself about missing Paris, and then realized that anyone who has the opportunity to be disappointed at not getting to see Paris for a FOURTH time in her life really ought to be just extremely grateful. The trip to the train station was our guests chance to experience the real London. The morning trains were packed with people. Then, a strike on the Victoria line caused us to have make a detour that put us behind schedule. Couple that with the ridiculous number of people at the Kings Cross/St. Pancras Station (we now know what salmon feel like trying to swim upstream), and we missed the train. Fortunately, the train line issued new tickets for no extra charge (because of the strike) for a train leaving about an hour later.

I've spent yesterday and today catching up and resting up from all our touring. Am hoping their time in Paris is going well. They should be arriving back in London at about 8 p.m. tonight. All Tube lines should be in working order, and I wrote down directions on how to get back. But I'm betting they'll just opt to take a cab!