"I'm Proud to be an American!"

One last stop!  London.  We arrived at around 8:30 am.  We caught a bus to take us to our hotel and drop off our 6 pieces of luggage.  Yes, we had expanded by one over the 6 weeks!  We took the bus back to Heathrow Airport and caught the tube to our first stop.  The Tower of London.

Another country!  The UK!

Just getting there was exciting for the kids because they felt as if they were in a Harry Potter film!  Everyone around us had an English accent!  They were on a double decker bus!  They were on the tube!  Simple pleasures!

The top of the double decker bus!

By the time that we reached the Tower of London, everyone was getting hungry.  Being up at 4:30 am will do that to you by 11:30.  Excellent!  Fish and chips with malt vinaeger at the first pub that you see! 

Now, in France you can’t swing a loaf of bread around without hitting a boulangerie.  Here, you can’t swing a loaf of bread around without hitting a pub!  The kids were excited to try fish and chips…mildly.  I however, felt as if I were back in college eating out with Joeli!  What a time warp!

We were conservative and ordered only 2 orders.  Guess what…they LOVED it!  I could not believe it!  We had to order more! 

No one touched the peas, but loved the rest!

"I just have to figure out which tube line we have to take to get to Kings Cross Station.  Hmmm...what else can we fit in to see in our 11 hours here?"

The Tower of London on a full stomach with 3 tired children is much much better!  I could not believe how huge it was!  We were lucky enough to arrive just as one of the “Beefeaters” was starting a tour.  We jumped all over that, and were not disappointed.  He had some great stories and history of the tower, and was extremely entertaining to listen to!  He showed us the obese ravens (they do this on purpose so that they cannot fly away because it is believed that would be bad luck), the Bloody Tower where the two young princes were murderd, the place where Anne Boleyn spent her last week of life, where she lost her head (Soren was loving this!), and finally where we would find the crown jewels.  He also showed us where he lived, as all of the “Beefeaters” live here!

Bloody Tower 

Changing of the Guards

No pictures inside, so this is as good as it gets for photos of the crown jewels!

Anne Boleyn was kept on the top floor the week before she was beheaded.

Where Anne Boleyn and other "friends of the king" lost their heads.

Our "Beefeater" lives in the second blue door to the left.  The guard is stationed at the "Queen's House" should she ever stay here, but hasn't.

The Crown Jewels were incredible!  Just in that one exhibit alone, there is so much history and tradition that is still used today!  In fact, we learned that much of this exhibit will come out when there is a new King and/or Queen of England!  I am sure that you are all wondering about the royal future, but worry not.  I talked to several of the docents and now I know.  So, I will share this information with you.

First of all, it probably comes as no surprise to any of you that no one wants Prince Charles to be King.  They simply don’t appreciate how he has lived his life and the choices that he has made.  (Being that Makenna is planning on marrying into a French royal family, she is really going to have to watch her behavior going forward so as not to threaten her potential position)  They want Prince William to be the King and Kate to be their Queen.  Now, this was news to me.  Kate can be Queen even though she does not have any royal blood in her.  (Of course they reminded me that her family is very English and has been for as long as they can trace back.  I guess that is the next best thing)  Not only that, but she could be the Queen even if (God forbid) William were to die!  Now, this is where it gets a little cloudy.  I am not sure how much power that she would have.  I will find out and get back to you.

So, the English expect that Prince Charles will renounce his throne soon.  They don’t know if he will do this while his mother is alive, or after she has died but they absolutely expect it.  “It is the proper thing to do.” 

That being said, we saw the crown that Kate will wear and the one that William will wear!  His is much much more bejeweled than hers, but I would take hers if I was given no other option!  Plus, his is likely to give him a nasty headache as the thing must weigh a ton!

The next thing on the kids high priority list was a trip to Kings Cross station.  This is of course, where Harry and his friends boarded the train to Hogwarts at platform 9 ¾.  They actually have the luggage cart going into the wall, and so this was an absolute must for our little muggles. 

I guess that grownups can't get in!

We threw a little more culture in by going by Hyde Park and then Buckingham Palace.  They were a little disappointed after seeing all of the French chateaus.  I reminded them that this is a royal palace that is being used right now!  It is not a chateau.  OK.  Just knowing that there was royalty there at that time sufficed them.

Buckingham Palace

Now, it was time for tea.  We had all been looking forward to this and had chosen a place that had been recommended to us.  Well, the one that we would have loved to have gone to would have taken a lot more time and would have cost us almost 40 pounds per person.  Now, I love tea and scones, but we just couldn’t swallow the $300-$400 tea.

Well, at least I got my English tea.   Honestly.  How do you run out of scones in London?????

Things were going just fine.  We had been given out silver pots of tea, which were strong enough to take the enamel off of your teeth (still…when in Rome do as the Romans do!), the cream that they use in order to tone it down a bit, the sugar cubes that the kids love and our sandwiches.  I was holding back a little as I waited patiently for my favorite part.  The scones with clotted cream and raspberry jam.  My mouth was watering as I sat back thinking of what was to come when the waitress approached our table with “terrible news.”  No.  “We are out of scones.”  Pause.  No one spoke.  You could hear only silver spoons drop.  I swear to you, I thought that I was going to cry.  Could this even be possible?  Out of the very food that England is known for?  Seriously?  Well, what are you going to do?  I guess that it just wasn’t meant to me, but it definitely put a little chink in my armor of "I love London!"

Now it was time to get some snacks (Jeff and the kids found a scone in the store and got it for me.  No clotted cream and jam, but it was such a sweet gesture!) and go to the Lion King! 

The play was fabulous, and the family loved it!  What a lively and fun production to see!  When it was over, the family that had gotten up at 4:30 that morning was quite pooped.  So, we got onto the tube and then the bus that took us back to our hotel.  I had to face it.  The trip was now over. 

I just love the look of these classic pubs!

Wait…we would still stop in Chicago for a long layover the next day and try to get into the city!  OK.  I could hang on to the dream for just a little bit longer!

Well, we didn’t quite make it into the city as it would turn out because our plane got stuck just 50 feet from our gate as the airport closed for close to an hour due to bad weather.  The plane that was at our gate could therefore not get out, and we could not get in. 

But, we did take a taxi to the closest pizza place outside of the airport.  We had to have Chicago style pizza!!!  Now, we have had a lot of pizza in France believe it or not.  Pizzarias are everywehere and were a quick and inexpensive meal option for us many times.  But, that pizza could not hold a candle to the pizza/pie we had in Chicago!  Cheese, cheese, cheese.  It was excellent!  Now, I don’t feel like I can have pizza again.  Not after this one.  It was worth the taxi ride over and then some!

As we sat and waited for our pizza to be prepared and baked, we had some time to discuss what our favorite parts of France were, what we would like to bring back from their culture, and what we looked most forward to getting home to.

For all of us, it was difficult to pick out our favorite place in France.  They were all just so different, and so as we went around and talked about the trip, we literally decided that we simply loved it all, and that it felt like an injustice to pick a favorite.  Rather, we talked why we loved all of the different places that we had been.  We loved and will miss the adventure of seeing something new so often, and the pleasure of being able to just sit down and take it all in while we were there.  We will miss the history of the different places that we visited.

"You know Mommy, I did not think that I liked history, but actually I love it!"

"I cannot believe that 67 years ago, people were fighting eachother on this very beach.  I will not forget June 6, 1944.  That was a very sad time."

"I can tell you so much about the Roman civilization, the leaders, the people, the currency, and the kinds of things that they invented and built.  But, now...to see it...it all makes sense and is even more amazing!"

We will miss learning about and experiencing the differenced in the culture.  We will miss the people, and their genuine relationships.  We will miss the language and the challenge of learning more.  We will miss the beautiful cities, the rolling hills, the cobblestone streets, the stone houses and of course, the cows!  We will miss the bakeries, the baguettes, the pain au chocolate, the cheese, the quiche and the incredible variety of dinners.  We will miss the food!

"I like how people here are formal and polite."

"It seems like the people here are not in a rush, but they are on time if they say that they will be somewhere at a certain time."

"People in France ask for and accept help from others."

"I love how people will sit in a cafe or in a park, and really talk to each other."

"I love how the people don't interrupt each other because the conversation that you are in is the most important thing at the moment, and that people don't get impatient waiting because they understand and respect that."

"People in France talk quieter."

"I love that they don't worry about time or clocks."

C'est complet!  This trip was a dream born from the desire to show our family a different culture, a different language and different history.  We wanted to show them that the world is such big place, and that people are different and the same.  We hoped to open their eyes to different ways of doing things, and realizing that just because they are different, they are not wrong.  Just different.  We hoped that they would be able to appreciate those differences and to learn from them.  We also hoped that they would return home with a new appreciation for all that is wonderful and good (and different) here.

And, there is so much wonderful and good here!  We all looked forward to getting home to our wonderful family and friends!  That alone would be enough.  We feel so blessed to have such incredible relationships in our lives.  It is by far, the thing that we missed the most while in France.

People ask if I could live in France.  For the culture and the landscape, yes.  For the lack of family and friends, no.

We look forward to our backyard and our pool.  We look forward to our own beds, our garbage disposal and our bathrooms!  Of course, we look forward to our dog!  We cannot wait to get back to our dog!  We look forward to people smiling openly as you pass by, and simply saying hello.  We look forward to the service that you get in restaurants and hotels in America.  We look forward to being able to communicate so easily in our own language!  We look forward to Trader Joe's.  Not just for the store and the products, but how the people there are so kind and open to talking to you!  We look forward to our beaches that have good waves for body surfing and boogie boarding.  We look forward to our library and bookstores.   We look forward to easily being able to talk to and see our family and friends!

We look forward to coming home.

California coast...ahhhh!

It has been the trip of a lifetime.  One that has forever changed us.  A literal dream come true.