We flew into London early in the morning, we had a long overnight flight and not much sleep in the night before.Needless to say it was a struggle to keep going throughout the day.We had some minor issues getting off the plane (kids going through the wrong customs and some instrument damage) but they were handled and we were on our way to Windsor.
I have been to London before so many of the things we were going to do I had seen before, like WindsorCastle.I couldn’t remember if I had done the tour, but once I was inside it all came back to me.My group of kids really liked it and took a lot of time to look at everything.They were especially impressed by the Chapel, which is going to seem tiny compared to some of the churches we are going to see in London.
Outside Windsor Castle
Inside the courtyard
We witnessed the changing of the guards at Windsor and got to see the band play some tunes.It was very odd to me, because they like to play arrangements of pop tunes, mostly classic rock, but I found that strange as traditional a ceremony as this was….it was very strange to hear a rock version of Toccata and Fugue.
A guard at Windsor
We had a quick lunch at a sandwich shop and I gave the kids some time to wander around.They ended up sitting by the train station (some sleeping) trying to catch up on rest.We then boarded the bus to head to our hotel.We were supposed to try and keep everyone awake to get everyone adjusted to the time change, but everyone seemed to pass out on the bus ride to our hotel.I was even losing 20 minutes here and there.I found it pretty funny how your body will just shut itself down when you’re that tired!
We checked in, had a quick dinner, and then it was time to take our groups on a walk to get acquainted to London.Our goal was to see St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Globe Theatre.It was a pretty good walk, I think our main mission was to get the kids good and tired so they would go right to bed.We enjoyed wonderful weather and hit the millennium walkway to the Globe Theatre right at dusk, which was beautiful.
After our walk, the kids were very excited to go to bed…as was I.I actually missed hanging out with the staff b/c I fell asleep unknowingly in my room!
We are finished with day one, it's pretty amazing how much you can fit into one day. We didn't have too much trouble with the flight today. Ryan and I didn't get to sit together which was a bummer, we were one row apart so we talked through the seats a lot. I had a seat open next to me, but the lady on the aisle wouldn't stop sleeping so there was never a good time for him to move. It was OK though, I just listened to Car Talk podcasts on my iPod and did the crosswords in the newspaper. The flight was pretty rough coming down, but good for the rest of the time.
We rented our car ('07 Mustang Convertible) and spent quite a while getting all of our stuff in the trunk. It was pretty packed, if we would've brought one more thing, I don't think it would've fit! We also stopped by the grocery store and had a quick lunch. After lunch we set up my Sirius radio (only to find out that we get it through our regular radio) and sunscreened up for our drive.
The drive was pretty good, I spent a lot of the time taking pictures out the window and looking for funny billboards (there were a lot!) and trying to get faster at taking cool shots that didn't include me in the side mirror. We rode with the top down until we were beyond cold, I would bet it was around 60deg.
We did have a cool encounter with nature, Ryan happened to spot a Moose at 70mph! We pulled over and spotted 3 total, and talked to a nice older couple who were looking to spot the International Space Station in the sky. It was pretty cool to see the Moose, Ryan's Mom's friend guarantees that we'll see a Bear in Yellowstone, so that should be cool!
One exciting moment, we were driving and all of a sudden the car stopped working all together. Luckily we were near a gas station and could pull off the road. After a couple of panicked moments, we figured out that Ryan had somehow managed to shut off the car while driving down the road at high speeds!! It was definitely a funny moment, we were grateful that our first day didn't end with a tow truck ride!!...not to mention that we are pretty sure the car is brand new (only had 300mi when we got it)!
We finally arrived in West Yellowstone, Montana a couple of hours ago and after many fits and tantrums got the internet and digital cameras figured out. Hopefully we got those kinks worked out so it doesn't take us two hours to post every night!!
We have an early day tomorrow so it's off to bed for me. I've already added two new states to my list...a pretty good day overall if you ask me.
**FYI** my (ALPF) blog posts will always be in Courier New and Ryan will be in a different font so that you can tell who you're hearing from
Tower Bridge from Millennium Bridge
