London!

You didn't think we'd go all the way to New York City for one night and then come home, did you?

We wouldn't.  We just stopped there on our way to London.

Actually, our flight to London was my first international flight and I was super worried that if we flew there all in one day, I would die.  Of boredom.  I'm like a four year old on flights.  It doesn't matter how many things I've brought to keep me entertained, I'm bored after about five seconds and all I want to do is get up out of my seat.  I figured that if we split the flight up and played in New York for a day (thus wearing ourselves out), I'd do a lot better on the New York to London part of the flight.  (For the record, it was a brilliant plan and worked wonderfully.)

London was lovely.

The first day there we were a little jet lagged (obviously), but we were able to make the best of it.  We checked into our hotel and then took a double-decker bus tour of the city.  It was a nice way to get our feet wet without actually having to walk or really do anything besides listen.

Trust me when I say we weren't up for much more than seeing and listening.  

The next day we were (a little bit) more rested and the sun was shining, so we made our way over to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard.  Funny story:  When we first got there (right on time), we saw these soldiers and a small crowd of people.  Huh.  Okay.  So we figured that was it.  We watched them and they did their thing.  And we were kind of aware that there was a bigger crowd across the street from us, but they looked like they were going somewhere else so we didn't really worry about it.  Then our guys started marching out the gate near us and over to where the other crowd was.  Oh.  So we were at the wrong gate.  To be fair, I think these were the replacement guards, so it was like we got a pre-changing of the guard show.  And, we were able to push our way through the other crowd and still get a decent view of the rest of the show as well.  Our bad.

It was cool though because we were able to see them way closer initially than we would have if we'd gone the right place to begin with.

(The rest of these pictures are outside of Buckingham Palace where the real changing of the guard show was.)

On our walk from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey, we passed by this... pond? lake? something.  It was cool because you could still see Buckingham Palace in the distance.

Then there was Westminster Abbey.  It was actually pretty interesting.  I've seen the Abbey on television and in pictures, but the layout inside seemed totally different.  (At least, to me it did.)  It just didn't make sense to me how all of the people that attended, for example, William and Kate's wedding would be able to actually see the wedding.  There'd be stuff blocking their views.  Luckily, the guides there were super helpful and they answered all of my (many) questions.

I loved all the architecture.

Across the street was the clock tower (Big Ben) and the London Eye.

 We also went to Harrods that day, but we didn't take any pictures.  I've always heard how wonderful it is and it didn't disappoint me.  They even have a pet store on one floor!  (There was a darling little puppy that I wanted to bring home, but Mitch said no.  Boo.)

And after all that, we went and saw Wicked.

(Another iPhone picture...)

By the end of the day we were exhausted, but glad we were able to see so much.

The next morning we woke up and went to the Tower of London.  (This was Mitch's favorite thing the last time he was in London.)

Seeing the Crown Jewels was hands down, the best thing.  I think I'm ready for an upgraded ring.  Maybe for our 5 year anniversary?  Mitch?

Our other favorite thing was the Beefeater tour.  Fantastic.

From the Tower of London, we had a great view of the Tower Bridge. 

We tried to get someone to take a picture of us with the bridge in the background, but instead we ended up with us and some buildings across the river.  (Really??)

Next, we went to the British Museum.  (And we took obligatory photos of us with red telephone booths along the way.)  Mitch loves museums.  (Have we ever talked about this before?  He loves them.  I love zoos, Mitch loves museums.)

I loved the roof of the museum.

We got to see the Rosetta Stone.  (It's hard to get a picture of the Rosetta Stone because everyone else wants to take pictures at the same time and no matter what I did, I always had other "photographers" reflected in the stone.)

The British Museum has the Olympic medals for this summer on display.  (Because, if you didn't know, the Olympics are in London this summer.)

Most of the metal for the medals came from Utah.  :)

And finally, we stopped at Regent's Park.  It's pretty.  We wanted to see the roses, but they hadn't bloomed yet.  Instead we settled for the lake, the ornate gate, and one of the gardens.

And then, when we were exhausted and didn't think we could walk any further, we went back to the hotel to pick up our things.

Any guesses where we went next?  No guessing if you already know.