My Mom Came to Visit!

The reason it has been so long since my last blog is because my mom was able to come out and visit me for about two weeks! And I planned every nook and cranny of her visit with as much of England for her and I to see as possible! I barely left time for us to pee!





We spent three days in London, where we saw and experienced almost every big tourist site to see:




Friday
-Saw the Marble Arch
-Walked through Kensington Gardens and saw Kensington Palace (which was a depressingly ugly brick building that looked more like a condemned warehouse than a palace)
-Saw the statue of Peter Pan (FINALLY!) and took about a million pictures
-Saw the Wellington Arm and went up inside it, then saw knights in shining armor ride through on their way to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard
-Saw the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and were right at the gates
-Ate at the world famous Chor Bazaar Indian restaurant
-Saw Trafalgar Square
-Saw Piccadilly Circus
-Went through the British Museum and saw the Rosetta Stone, artifacts from the Parthenon, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and Nineveh, and saw mummies
-Saw Big Ben and the House of Parliament
-Went to Westminster Abbey for Evensong and heard their angelic boy's choir
-Found our favorite sandwich shop in the whole world - Pret*A*Manger (pronounced with a French accent)
-Walked through some amazing bookshops
-Went to the longest running show of all time - The Mouse Trap in the West End
-and then went back to Big Ben to see it all lit up for the night





Saturday
-Took a train to Hampton Court Palace where King Henry VIII lived with all his unfortunate wives, and walked through the beautiful gardens, saw the longest and biggest grape vine in the entire world (which is in the Guinness Book of World Records), and went through a yew tree maze that was a little lack luster to be honest
-Had Cornish cream ice cream that looked and tasted like cold sugary butter and probably put me back a month of working out
-Walked over London Bridge
-Walked through the magnificent St. Paul's Cathedral and climbed over two hundred steps to the dome
-Saw the London Tower and the Tower Bridge
-Went to the Royal Opera House to see three new ballets from the Royal Ballet Company
-Went to see Harrods all lit up at night





The following Sunday
-Went through the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, including the largest cut diamond in the entire world, which is in the Queen's scepter.
-Walked on the Tower Bridge
-Walked around the Globe Theatre (it was closed due to a show, so we couldn't go in)
-Shopped at the famous Foyles Bookstore
-Went all over Harrods
-And then went back and walked through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens watching all the Londoners celebrate the unusually hot weather in the Serpentine Lake and Diana's Fountains, and then sat by Peter Pan's statue watched the cutest little children play with their fathers and climb all over Peter.

And that's just what we did in London! We also experienced:





-Blenheim Palace (the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill
-Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace, burial site, and cottage where he courted his future wife)
-The Cotswolds
-All over Oxford, including an extended tour of the Bodlian Library where they keep at least one of every book published in England and thousands of books from all over the world!
-Shotover Forest
-and probably more that I can't remember, due to the fact that I'm still trying to catch my breath!

It was sooooooo wonderful having my mom come and visit me. I loved every minute of my time with her, even when I was grumpy. Hopefully she'll recover soon as well!

And now I must call this summary to an end as I have just given five tours of The Kilns today and am exhausted all over again!