UK Trip - Planes, Trains, Automobiles, and Fun!

Cheers everyone! I'm back from my adventure abroad. It was grand!

Mommy, Grandpa T, and I flew out of LAX on Thursday, 3/11, in the evening. I was a good girl on the plane. I tried my best to sleep, but it was really hard to get comfortable. We landed in London midday on Friday, 3/12. Below is a pic of me waiting at baggage claim.

I was excited on the inside.

We had arranged for a driver to pick us up. However, it turns out he wasn't the only one there to greet us once we got through customs. Aunt Miss Natasha Turner (AMNT) came too and surprised us! We were all so happy to see her. She joined us on the hour long ride to our hotel in the Victoria area, just a short walk from AMNT's flat.

Below is a breakdown of all the fun activities we did during our stay:

DAY 1 (Friday afternoon, 3/12) - Mommy, AMNT, and Grandpa T pushed me in my buggy all over London. There was so much to see! Shops, flats, and people everywhere, and such neat old buildings! We saw the outsides of Buckingham Palace, Westminster Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey.

After lots of walking around and photos, we went to AMNT and Nigel's flat for dinner. Nigel made bangers and mash. Grandpa T and Mommy seemed to enjoy it a lot, but I decided to stick with my mash ups.

DAY 2 - AMNT, Grandpa T, Mommy, and I rode the tube and the train to see Windsor Castle. Victoria Station was crazy busy! I passed out from the excitement.
When we got to Windsor Castle, I was really impressed. It was huge! Right now, I'm a princess and I live in Hawthorne, but I think I wouldn't mind living in Windsor Castle when I'm older and a queen.

How big was Windsor Castle? So big! (This photo doesn't really do it justice as it shows only a small fraction of the castle.)

DAY 3 - I went with Grandpa T and Mommy to the British Museum. Lots of cool old stuff to look at.

However, it seems I was still the main attraction. A group of tourists at the museum asked if they could take a photo with me. I wish I had a copy of the photo to share with you, but Mommy dropped the ball on that one. Oh well, it's probably plastered on MySpace or Facebook somewhere. Actually, those were just the first among several tourists to request my photo during our trip. Apparently, ginger babies such as myself are quite the novelty! AMNT thought we should start charging a fee for each photo. Sounded good to me; I could build quite the toy fund.

Later that night, AMNT and Nigel hosted a roast at their house in honor of Mommy (it was Mum's Day in London). It was a great feast by the looks of it (Mommy's favorite meal of the trip), but I opted for mash ups once more. Can't get enough of those things!

The guy I'm with in the photo on the right is one of AMNT's friends, Kevin. I liked him a lot.

DAY 4 - Grandpa T, Mommy, and I took a double-decker red bus ride around London. We stopped to take tours of the Tower of London and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

The Tower of London was mostly about gruesome beheadings, murders, and torture. I earmuffed myself because I didn't want to hear about it. It was cool to see the Crown Jewels there, though. Grandpa T especially enjoyed the Globe Theatre since he's a big Shakespeare fan. It was hard for him to restrain himself from schooling our tour guide. My favorite part of the day was when we got back to the hotel, though. That's because someone I love very much showed up there - Daddy! Daddy had to come late because of work, but he got to stay throughout the rest of our trip.

DAY 5 - AMNT, Nigel, Mommy, Daddy, Grandpa T, and I flew to Dublin. We grabbed lunch at a pub and walked all over town. We saw a beautiful cathedral (St. Patrick's), a festival by St. Stephens Green, and cool street performers.

DAY 6 - St. Patrick's Day! The whole gang did tours of the Guinness Storehouse and Jameson Distillery. We also saw a little bit of the St. Patty's Day parade. (Mostly we just saw the crowd for the parade, though.) At night we went out to dinner to eat Italian food.

DAY 7 - We met up with my God Aunt Kelsey at a pub for lunch. She had come to Dublin to partake in the St. Patty's Day revelry too! We flew back to London in the evening.

DAY 8 - Mommy and Daddy took me around to see more sights in London. We visited Harrod's (the most amazing department store ever) and we toured the inside of Westminster Abbey. Below is a pic not including either of those things, but a nice one nonetheless :)

DAY 9 - We hung out at AMNT's place for a while and then I kicked it with Grandpa T at the hotel.

In the upper right photo, I'm with AMNT's friends, Bradley and Christie, who were also visiting from the U.S.

DAY 10 - Flew back home to LA with Grandpa T and Mommy. (Daddy flew back separately because he booked his tickets after us and then couldn't get on our flight.) The return flight was tougher than the one over. I only took two 45-minute naps and I was pretty restless. I don't know who was happier to land - Mommy or me. At least there were a couple kids in the seats behind me to play with a bit.

If you would like to see more pics from my UK trip, you can click on this link to view an online album: http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=994518979308%3A1436044465&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee Mommy did the captions for the online album. You will notice that I am missing from a good share of the photos. That's because Mommy and Daddy went out at night without me and partied like college kids with AMNT and Nigel. They did all sorts of stuff like went to pubs, rode the London Eye, sang karaoke, and went to an Arsenal football (soccer) game. Mommy went to the theatre (Billy Elliot) with AMNT too. While they did that, I enjoyed special time with Grandpa T. Thanks for taking care of me, Grandpa! I had lots of fun with you and I love you! Never mind that falling off the bed incident - it happens :)

In summary, aside from the flights and a little trouble adjusting to the time change, I had an outstanding time. Thank you so much AMNT for having us come visit you! I loved seeing you and your cool city.

As much fun as we had traveling, I'm still happy to be a California baby and it is great to be home. I missed the warm weather, regular baths, my room, music class, my little baby friends, and my dogs*. It will be nice to just kick it in Cali for a while. Much love to the UK, though! It's really cool and I'd love to go back one day when I can have my own seat on the airplane.

*Thanks for watching Pookie and Bubba for us while we were gone, Grandma Linda! That was so nice of you! Xo