Day Ten: STONEHENGE!!!!!

It's been really nice having jet lagged parents this whole holiday. Usually when I travel with my parents we're up and awake really early but not this time! We laid around until about 10am and then got up and around to head out to get some food and then off to Stonehenge.

We went to Starbucks...we were going to go more British and try a place called Pret A Manger that we have seen EVERYWHERE but went in there and apparently was too British for me. I thought the sandwiches and such would be better at Starbucks so we went there. The tickets told us that the bus left the hotel at 12:30 so we got there at about 12:20. We stood around there and were pretty sure that we had somehow missed it when luckily a guy told us that they just tell you it leaves at 12:30 because they don't want to be waiting around for people. So we waited and it got there about 12:50...a little annoying seeing as we thought we had missed it and were about to walk away, but it ended up working out!

When we got on we found out we were the last stop to pick people up and so we couldn't sit together. Mom ended up sitting to a lady that was incredibly rude (she looked asleep so mom scooted her bag off her seat and over towards her to sit down and the lady turned to her and said "if you want my things moved tell me don't sit on them" in a very rude way) but then she eventually apologized since even she realized she was very rude. I sat next to a guy that didn't speak much English so we just looked out the window. It was a LOT of driving to go see something for a little portion of time but VERY worth it!

I was even able to get a charm for my charm bracelet at Stonehenge! The drive was about 2 hours there and about 2 and a half back because we got back when people were getting off work. When we did get back we were good and hungry because we hadn't eaten since around 11am so we headed out to find a place for dinner. We found a GREAT little place that had wonderful food called Coco Momo (funny name...great place).

Dad thought that was his dinner roll and tried to pick it up....it was his mashed potatoes!!

Best waffle dessert EVER!!!

This is insane...I've been away from the states for almost 4 months and we've set up a taxi to pick us up at 8am tomorrow morning to take us to the airport so I can head home! My parents and I have different flights and mines the earlier one so they're just going to hang out at Heathrow for a couple hours. I will be flying out of Heathrow at 10:30am (my time) tomorrow morning and then landing in San Francisco at  1:45pm (states time). Then, I have a layover there for about 3 hours and fly from San Francisco at 5:10pm and finally get to Seattle at 7:10pm tomorrow night! Robert has taken some days off and will be picking me up at the airport. :) Then, we are going to waste a couple hours (HAVE DINNER WITH KAY AND LAURIE) and then pick my parents up at 11:45pm. It's going to be a loooong day for me. We'll be picking them up and it doesn't seem too late but for me (and my parents) like it's 6:45am the next morning! I'll be sleeping very well tomorrow night. :) Hardly at all tonight...too excited!!!!!!

Day Nine: Boxing Day, Harry Potter and STOMP!

Last night was our last night in our Grand Plaza hotel and so this morning we got all of our things packed up and headed down to the lobby around 11am. Ally headed out on a taxi for the airport back to Belfast and mom, dad and I headed in another taxi to our next hotel at the Holiday Inn Kensington London Hotel. Our room was not ready yet so we just checked in and put our luggage into the luggage hold room. We did all of the sightseeing on the hip on hip off bus two days ago but our tickets are good for two days and since yesterday was Christmas ours were good for Christmas Eve and today. We looked at all of the things and took the river cruise that went with it two days ago so today we did one of the free walking tours that went with it which was a Harry Potter walking tour. My sister is a MAJOR Harry Potter fan so we took her picture with all of the cool places.

Laurel excited to start the Harry Potter tour.

Laurel in the walkway where Harry, Ron and Hermione walked down showing that the CINEMA lights are still out.

Laurel at the entrance to Diagon Ally.

Laurel in the part of London where the Death Eaters flew through.

Laurel with the Ministry of Defense Building.

The tour went from 2-3:30pm and it left us in about the same area as where we had bought tickets for Stomp and so we just found a pub to sit in for most of that time to have dinner and some drinks before it was time for Stomp. We went a little picture crazy in the pub…

We finally got it right :)

Stomp was incredible!!! I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance. Beyond impressive.

After Stomp we figured we could walk out of the playhouse and find a taxi and head home. Little did we know that was a harder task than we imagined. Today is boxing day and also a strike day for the Tubes so everyone was looking for a taxi. We spent an entire hour walking around London trying to find a cab. Mom and I had finally given up and went into a restaurant to ask for help when dad found one! Now we’re back in our room completely beat!

TIRED of walking!

Dad "doing his laundry"

Stacking my pillows....

On top of mommy!

We had asked the concierge about Stonehenge because we have been wanting to do that and it’s really simple so we’re going tomorrow! All we have to do is meet up in the lobby at 12:45pm tomorrow and we get back around 5-6pm that night! Yay! Tomorrow is our last day here in London and then the next day I head back to the states for the first time in almost four months! Crazy!!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Day Eight: London for Christmas

Had a late morning this morning which is unusual for my family. Mom usually manages to wake up between 7-8am with or without an alarm so we usually have early starts. We were woken up this morning by the cleaning ladies knocking on the hotel room door at 9:30am! Woke up to some presents at the foot of mine and Ally's bed! Santa can even find you in a hotel room in London!

We each got some of our beloved stroop waffles, inside the bags we each got a scarf (which are the scarves in the picture below), an I <3 London pin and a London pencil and underneath the bags is a box of mini mince pies for all of us to share. Santa also brought mom a scarf too. :) We spent the morning munching on all the goodies we have, drinking champagne with strawberries and mimosas and watching Christmas movies.

We didn't end up getting up and leaving the hotel until around 3pm but it didn't matter much because most everything is closed today along with the tubes and buses. We walked around our area a bit which I took some pictures of to show you our cute little area.

When we went out walking we did find a Tex Mex restaurant that was open so we went in and had some nachos. They also gave us some little shot glasses that had strawberry margarita in them! We asked them to take our picture with them so they decided we needed some sombreros for the picture.

Then, we came back to the room and did the same thing we did all morning laying around, watching movies and snacking. Dad made over easy eggs on toast that was lovely and that's about all that consisted of our Christmas Day. Dad also purchased tickets for him, mom and me to go to see Stomp tomorrow night!!! :) It will just be us again as Ally will be leaving for the airport to head back to Belfast at around 11am tomorrow. We were supposed to be heading to Bath tomorrow, but we've taken Bath out and we think we'll just take a day trip from London to see Stonehenge and just stay in London for the last couple days. We'll be changing hotels tomorrow as we didn't book this and it's full so we'll be staying somewhere else the last two nights. Dad booked the hotel today and we've come to realize he booked a room with two twin beds so we'll be nice and snug! ;)

Day Seven: Hip on Hip off...Happy Christmas Eve from London!

We spent our day taking the "Hip on Hip off" bus tour around London seeing all the good sights. We spent ALL day calling it that because the guy at the front desk said it like that with whatever his accent was and from wherever it was...when he said "hop" it sounded much more like "hip." Inside joke that stayed funny ALL DAY LONG. We saw tons of great stuff like Big Ben, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, the Tower of London, the London Bridge, we went on a Thames River boat tour and then last was Buckingham Palace! That made up our entire day and it was a great way to get in everything you want to see without having to walk all over the place.

After the bus tours we came back to the room and on the way bought a few souvenirs and then headed for dinner. We went to a restaurant that is really close to where we are staying called Cous Cous and it was a Moroccan restaurant. None of us had ever had Moroccan food before but we ended up ordering pretty well because everyone liked their food! Weirdest one was mom's but we all tasted it and thought it was good. From the outside it looked like a pastry with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over top but then inside it was a chicken pie...STRANGE but good. You put a piece in your mouth and it's sweet so you think it will be dessert and then after taking a bite you taste the chicken and it's more of a dinner. Mine was made in a Tagine which is a clay pot that it's cooked in and when it came to the table it sat there bubbling for like 5 minutes! Very very tasty and a great choice for a Christmas Eve dinner. :)

Only down to four more days until I'm home and it feels soooo weird. Santa comes tonight!!!

Day Six: Dublin to London!

All that consisted of our day in Dublin was to wake up, get ready and head in the taxi for the airport. We set a wake up call for 8 but ignored it and didn't get up until about 9 and our taxi picked us up at 10. The front desk told us that if we needed to be to the airport by 10:45am we needed to leave at 10am...but there was absolutely no traffic so we got there in about 20 min so we had plenty of time at the airport before our flight to London at 12:45. The moment we walked into the airport was the first time it really felt like Christmas to me. We walked in to a big band playing Christmas music and lots of trees and lights all over. It was lovely! We got all checked through, ate some breakfast, found a snowman thing to take a picture with and hopped on our plane.

The flight was very short, only about 55 minutes so we got to Heathrow, waited for our luggage and hopped in a taxi to take us to our hotel. It took about 45 minutes to get to our hotel from the airport and by the time that we got here and got everything settled we were ready to head out and find some dinner in London. Our room is very fun. It's a little apartment but just one room. It has a bed for mom and dad, a pull out bed for me and Ally that was a couch, a table and chairs, a mini kitchen and a bathroom. They use their space here very wisely because there is JUST enough room to walk around everywhere haha.

We headed out to find a pub called The Swan that our taxi driver had mentioned but half way we decided it was farther than we wanted to go, especially since it was cold, windy and pouring down rain. So we turned down another street to find a nice little british pub that had very good food, beer for the parents and a nice little hot cider for me. After that we headed on back to the room and went into some of the little shops along the way. The area our hotel is in is right next to Notting Hill area and Hyde Park so there is a lot to see!

After dinner we came back to the room to hang out and wait for Ally to show up. I stayed in the room and mom and dad went to the store to get orange juice and champagne to make mimosas! :) They got back, Ally made it and we went out bowling! I was TERRIBLE!! But...it was a lot of fun and a fun little bar and bowling alley!

Day Five: Cliffs of Moher!

Today was our second day with the Galway Tour Company and we didn't end up with Michael...we ended up with Desmond or "Dessie." A 75 year old little Irish man who was in love with me and my red hair. Throughout the day I got nudged (which I'd more call punched) every time I passed him, he made me hold his hand crossing the road, called me Rua (red head) all day long with a wink every time and he also grabbed and patted my bum while I was standing by the fire to tell me I was going to burn up that close. He takes advantage of the fact that he is a little old man but he's just a dirty little old man with a nasally little Irish voice that you have to try really hard to understand, though if you didn't catch it the first time he almost always repeated what he said about three times. Brilliant day! ;)

Desmond took us to see many different things. We went to a castle, a ferry fort, an old tomb, a great little pub for lunch and the best part the Cliffs of Moher at the end of the trip were just as breath taking as the first time I saw them. It was VERY windy and pretty darn chilly but a very fun day altogether! On the bus trip back to Galway we also got out by the ocean to look around and it was very pretty!

The bus drive back from Galway to Dublin was long and boring and unwanted after being on a bus al day for the past two days but that's ok. We made it back to our hotel and planned on going to a pub (since it's my last night in Ireland) but we're all tired and just ready for sleep. After being here for 4 great months my time in Ireland is almost over! We head out on a plane for London tomorrow around noon.