Mommy Abroad

Where to start?! First off, Liam was Darth Vader for Halloween and Max was a mechanic. I don't have photos of their costumes, but grandma does so I will have to get those from her. I saw the boys as they  finished trick-or-treating since I didn't get home until about 6pm last night! It was an epic journey...but let's start from the beginning.

I drove to Chicago on Monday, October 25th and flew out of O'Hare on a non-stop flight to London Heathrow. The flight was around 8 hours and for 7 and 3/4 hours the man sitting next to me had most of his body on my side of the seat divider. Not comfortable, but I was able to sleep a bit. I arrived in London at 5:45am local time and made my way to Sarah's apartment via the tube. It was relatively quiet since it was still so early, and the ride went quickly. I found her apartment pretty easily and rang the bell. I waited. I rang again. I waited. I rang again. I couldn't figure out the keypad and wasn't sure I was doing it correctly. I started to get worried. Was she still asleep? How long would I have to stand on the street until she woke up?! Then, she burst through the door breathlessly and started screaming about how she had oversleptandthenthechainwasstuckonthedoorandshecouldn'tworkthecallsystemandwasafraidIwouldleave!!!! Um, Sarah...where would I have gone?! It was a hilarious start to our week.

Sarah had a little welcome basket waiting for me with all my favorite British things: Strongbow, Bulmer's, Pret bars and Pret sparkling apple juice. There were two juices but I had to open one immediately upon arrival. So good.

Sarah has the sweetest flat-mate ever, Ashley. She made welcome muffins!

We took lots of cute pictures...

...and some unfortunate ones. Hate when that happens. Camera just catches you at the wrong time...

This was my third trip to London, so we avoided many of the tourist-y things and did lots of walking around and just going to some of my favorite places. We visited my old school, Foundation House. *Study-abroaders: Mick, Britt and Mary don't work there anymore! And Madison only has a spring program now!

:(

Ahhh, Garfunkel's. The site of many a dessert run. Or breakfast followed by dessert. Or dessert and then more dessert...hey, it's really good!

We walked around Kensington and checked out my old apartment. (Study-abroaders: it looks a little run-down. Did it look like that when we lived there??)

Badgers must still live here in the spring!

We had a terrific week filled with Unsolved Mysteries and Quality Street. Ghost walks and Henry VIII. More on all of that tomorrow...