London

Here are the much awaited pictures of London. As we all have tried to adjust to the time change, I've been too tired to write. But Reagan's sleeping for now, so I'm going to attempt to get as much posted as I can.

Our flight over last Friday was a bit delayed by a storm in Minneapolis, but that didn't stop Reagan from sleeping in the airport. She slept most of the way there and John and I switched off holding her in our arms while she slept and we tried to.

We arrived Saturday afternoon after an uneventful plane ride. Below is a picture of where Tim and Jane live. There's are the two top windows above the women's boutique.

The area that Tim and Jane live in is nicknamed "Nappy Valley" by other Londoners (Nappies are diapers in London). The street was lined with maternity shops and baby shops (and some really cute women's clothing stores and gift boutiques). While John watched the cars that passed in the steet (the houses up the side streets in Nappy Valley are quite expensive, thus the cars were quite expensive), I watched the strollers as moms (or nannies ~ It was hard to tell) walked down the street.

After our arrival we took showers and a stroll through a nearby park. It started to rain a little bit so we took shelter in a coffee shop.

On Sunday+, we rolled out of bed quite late. We had kept Reagan up until we went to bed, so it was nice for John and I to get a full 10 hours of sleep! The only activity that we had planned was to take a ride on the London Eye. It was also Reagan's first day on mass transit.

Reagan's first overland train ride.

Reagan's first ride on the Underground.

The London Eye

View of Big Ben and Westminister Abbey from the London Eye

I think the one thing that we will all remember from the ride on the Eye is the smelling European guy who rode in the bubble with us. Yuck.

Afterwards we went to a pub to check out its potential for Tim's 30th birthday celebration. I think it passed with flying colors.

Reagan with her Auntie Jane.

Tim and Jane's friend Lou met us at the pub as well. I had met Lou the first time I went to London and met Tim and Jane and John met her when we were in New Zealand for T & J's wedding. It was so nice to see her again.

Reagan with Lou

On Monday we went to the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. I was really disappointed that we didn't get a picture of Reagan with a beefeater (The official guards of the Tower). We did see the biggest diamond in the world though!

We also went on a "cliffnotes" tour of London and took Reagan's picture at quite a few sites.

Tower Bridge

Big Ben ~ Notice that she's sleeping . . .

Westminister Abbey ~ Sleeping again.

Harrod's ~ Fully Awake. A girl after my own heart!

Most nights we stopped at the grocery to store to buy ingredients for dinner on the way home from where ever we had been. John got a kick out of the man sized Kleenex's that they sell in the grocery store. Like men really need bigger Kleenex's.

Tuesday was a late start as well. By the time we were all ready to go, Reagan was ready for a nap. While she napped, Jane and I hit the shops along their street. Then we headed for the London Zoo.

The zoo had a petting area that we took Reagan into. I thought she would be afraid, like I usually am, but I was wrong. She reached right for any animal that was close. I stayed back though.

John got a little closer than I did.

Bearded pigs?

Jane, Reagan, John and Tim going into the Monkey area.

John and Reagan with a Chimpanzee in the background.

John and Reagan with the giraffes. Reagan couldn't take her eyes off of them the whole time we were in there.

This was an accidental souvenior. Reagan ate the tag on the giraffe's ear, so I felt like we should buy it instead of leaving it on the shelf for someone else (plus he was so cute!). It was fitting that she chose the giraffe to chew on since those were obviously her favorite animals.

We stopped at a park to give Reagan a bottle and to play a bit before we took the train home. I was able to get a couple of cute pictures while we were sitting there.

Tim, John and Reagan riding home on the train. Gee, do you think they're related?

Tuesday night Reagan got a bath in the makeshift bathtub at Tim and Jane's flat.

On Wednesday, we swung by Buckingham Palace to take Reagan's picture on our way to meet Tim.

Of course, by the time we got there, Reagan was sleeping again.

We met Tim after our stop and had lunch in a park again. I forget which one, but it was by the palace.

Our Wednesday afternoon adventure was to the O2 building to the see the King Tut exhibit. I don't know what you would call it ~ Stadium? Arena? Concert Hall? It was built for the millenium and now houses an indoor street lined with restaurants. I didn't take a picture because to be honest it was an atrocious building. It looked like the metrodome but with antennas coming out of it.

Since we were close already, we went to cross the Prime Meridian.

Reagan with her Uncle Tim.

John's in the Western Hemisphere and Reagan and I are in the Eastern Hemisphere. The center line of the sculpture is the Prime Meridian.

On Thursday, Tim and Jane had to go back to reality (aka work), so John and I ventured out on our own. It sure had been a lot easier when there were four of us to push and carry the stroller and all of Reagan's things. If you have a child in London, it's important that you pick a house close to everything you want because the Tube and the overland trains are NOT handicap or stroller accessible.

John and I decided to go to the British museum to see the Rosetta Stone. The stone has a decree written in three languages ~ Egyptian hieroglyphs, some form of Arabic and Greek. The stone is what linguist used to decipher the hieroglyphs. I tried to take a picture of John and Reagan looking at the Rosetta stone, but apparently everyone had the same idea and the surrounding area was packed.

We took a picture with this thing instead. Not sure what it was, but all that mattered was that we got the picture.

Our next stop was Madame Tussard's Wax Museum. I had never been and it sounded like a fun thing to see. Unfortunately, I didn't realize the popularity of Madame Tussard's and the line to buy tickets was around the block.

I guess this is still the closest I'll ever get to standing next to Brad and Angelina.

Skipping the wax museum freed up some time in our day so we went over to Regent street to do some shopping. I wanted to take Reagan to Hamley's which claims to be the world's largest toy store.

Reagan loved the big stuffed dog. John didn't want to buy a plane ticket just for the stuffed animal so he settled for a smaller (but not by much) stuffed Beagle.

Riding the rocking horse.

Playing with a wooden train.

John and I were fortunate enough that Tim and Jane offered to babysit on Thursday night so that we could catch a show. We ended up seeing Wicked which was awesome! Poor Tim and Jane had to deal with our crying child all night. They said she was happy and smiley for about an hour, we were gone for 5 hours. That leaves four hours of crying! Sorry, Tim and Jane!

We were running out of places to go, so John and I opted to stay at Tim and Jane's on Friday instead of schlepping all of our stuff around again. We spent some time checking out the shops on the street for a bit, but spent most of the day playing, reading and watching Cricket in the flat.

Reagan playing with her new Beagle.

Reagan's favorite toy the whole time we were there was this Diet Coke bottle. It ended up being another souvenior that we brought home. She seemed to be using it as a microphone.

Playing with her rings at the table.

Since Reagan was well rested on Friday, we were FINALLY able to go out to the dinner at an Argentinean steakhouse that we tried to get to all week.

John, Reagan and Jane at dinner.

On the way to the airport after a fun week!