London!

Well it finally happened.  After having been married for 4 years my wife and I finally managed to take a vacation that didn't involve visiting family.  Not only that, but we traveled outside the continental U.S.  It was also the first time we were away from Kydin for a significant amount of time (nearly a week!) though you wouldn't know it by how he was trying to alter our flight from NY.

Here he is messing with the touch screen trying to reroute us through Korea. True story.

It was a long flight to London but that didn't stop us from getting right onto our international adventure.  We went straight into the city and took a ride on the Eye of London.

Ahhh, the beauty of London

Next stop on our first evening?  Outside Parliament and Big Ben

And I thought our electric bill was bad.

Over the next few days we did a lot of walking and even more drinking of hot chocolate (mostly to stay warm).  Neither of us came very prepared for the cold weather

Guy Fawkes fireworks celebration at a windy park?  Cocoa has us covered.

This cocoa is so hot I need stylish Zebra gloves to act as oven mitts.

Not so miserable with cocoa in hand.

We had the opportunity to make lots of new friends on our travels...

Fist bumps: A universal language 

 

Buzz was a bit of a "blockhead" in Hamley's Toy Store

I've always had a way with the ladies . . .

 

Apparently we have a way with birds as well.

Trident saves me from an international incident 

We visited all the iconic tourist locations...

Buckingham Palace and two royal subjects

Apparently J.K. Rowling is a liar.  There is no platform 9 & 3/4

 So much for visiting Hogwarts on this trip

London Tower Bridge (which isn't falling down)

The Real London Bridge (also not falling down)

Big Ben (where we tried calling both sets of parents as it chimed)

Hyde Park, one of London's Royal Gardens

One of the many gates around Buckingham Palace with the cutest guard I've ever seen

(note that she has another hot chocolate in hand) 

 I didn't realize Shanae owned real estate in London before now

And what vacation is complete without a slew of silly pictures/poses (and this is only a few!)

I couldn't figure out what she was looking at either

 That's my wife.  Part tourist, part model

My best peasant pose donning robes that countless other strangers have worn

If only I had read this sign before entering the stables at London Tower

Shanae was prepared in case of Lion drool

Not only are the chairs only for little kids, the puzzle is too.  Way to advanced for my level

 And now for the statue mimicking portion of our journey:

I just don't have the hips to pull this pose off

 Since I had to do the hips pose, I challenged her to mimic the galloping horse...

...to varying degrees of success...

And finally, what London trip would be complete without some story involving one of the royal guards.  In what became many attempts to capture me leap-frogging this post, Shanae had to keep a constant watch out for the guard on duty who would march around and through the tunnel where we were attempting this little stunt.

We weren't so worried about being told to stop as we were of being in the guards way which is exactly what happened regardless of the fact that Shanae was taking a picture or that she is a lady.  On an earlier take the guard stayed his course and marched right through her.

You can see the top of his helmet in this shot

As you can tell, we thoroughly enjoyed our vacation in London.



On a side note, we were eager to return home and see Kydin after being apart for so long.  Upon meeting him in Chicago (a layover) he was so excited to see us that we were ignored completely for all the other exciting things going on in the airport.  Perhaps next time we will take that route through Korea to give him more time to miss us.  =D