Jolly Old England

Sooooo, after the departure of our guests on Tuesday, with just a teaser of a return to normalcy for the boys, we headed off to London and Cambridge for a week. We left on the morning of Saturday, October 6; Elliott was very excited for his plane ride and was perfect the whole time (the flight is less than an hour...). Once in London, we squashed ourselves, strollers, and luggage on the Underground and finally arrived a bit frazzled at our hotel. After a brief rest and some McDo, we journeyed into central London on an actual double-decker bus. Our first stop was the British Museum; it was great and free so we could leave without feeling guilty when the boys started to melt down. We ended our evening by walking around Covent Garden and having delicious pasties.

Highlights of the next day include: a ride on the London Eye, a walk to Trafalgar Square, seeing Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, touring a bit of the National Gallery. I really enjoyed London and would love to go back sometime...there is so much that we didn't get a chance to do (can't tackle quite as much when you are travelling with a two-year-old and a 3-month-old). Overall, the boys did pretty good, but I considered myself lucky with less than three meltdowns per child per day. We'll have to ask Cameron how he thinks I did...

On Monday, we headed to Cambridge where Cameron was going to do some research. In Cambridge, Cameron started the day with an English breakfast (no egg!); Elliott had an egg and sausage, while I focused on the thick-sliced bread! Lekker...oh wait, tasty. The boys and I spent a lot of time at the local park. One evening, we had fish and chips. We got a tour of the "campus" (bit of a different system than the US) which was beautiful and historic, and I'm sure inspires all the students to do their homework. One evening, poor Cameron had a screaming Theo practially naked at a restaurant in an attempt to calm him down while Elliott and I changed the laundry at the laundromat. Needless to say by the end of the week, we were ready to head home.