Frank earned us a trip through his job for reaching certain criteria, and we had a whole catalog of destinations to choose from. We quickly chose a London/Paris trip, and my auntie flew up to stay with the kids. I am told they had a great time that week too!
Getting to London was... interesting. We sat in our tiny local airport for more than 5 hours, while the entire airline we were travelling had a computer glitch. Not a single plane from Alaska or Horizon Air could depart, anywhere in the country. It was actually fun, and we met some very nice people. Once we finally arrived in Seattle, we had to wait in a line to re-direct our flight, since we'd missed all of our connections. We weren't the only ones... it was a 2 hour line for customer service! People were in line as far as we could see. We wound up on a better, direct flight to Heathrow Airport, and only lost half a day. Of course that threw off a few details, like our chauffeur from the airport. He left me to hold the sign for the next arriving couple while he went to make a plan. But really, with no kids to worry about, it was all part of the adventure.
Our hotel, the Grosvenor House, was the nicest I have ever stayed in! Everything was gorgeous. It had a really old feel to it, but it was at the same time, very modern and fresh. Our room was perfect, with a bathroom made entirely of marble, and crisp white bedding. That evening, the hotel was hosting some movie awards - red carpet, velvet ropes, papparazzi and all. We were told Keira Knightley, James Franco and Colin Firth were there in the ballroom. We never recognized anyone, but we saw many fancy dresses and people wandering around carrying their gift bags from the evening. Yes, definitely the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in.
{Frank and Caidee in Hyde Park, with the Serpentine Lake in the background}
The whole reason we chose the London and Paris trip was so that we could see (Frank's daughter) Caidee! Once we dropped our luggage at the hotel, already many hours late, we found her. It was sooooo good to see her!
We wandered around Hyde Park with her and saw the leftover shenanigans from the riot that had occured the day before. The chauffeur from earlier told us that had we arrived the day before, there was no way we could have gotten to our the hotel. It was so chaotic that all the roads were shut down. We saw broken windows, paint bombs, graffiti and a tent city in Hyde Park.
We had to go to a reception dinner that night, so Caidee went back to the hotel she was staying at with her mum and aunt. Late that evening we went out pub-hopping with some friends.
The next day we met up with Caidee again, and wandered around the city...
We went on the London Eye, a large ferris wheel kind of thing, and a fairly modern London landmark. It is on the south bank of the river Thames, with an incredible view.
We went to Trafalgar Square to find tickets for a show that night. As we wandered around the square, there was a street performer, and gobs of people stopped to watch. I wasn't really interested, so I went to look at a cool bronze statue. I looked straight up its nose. Then it moved, and scared the heck out of me. I shrieked especially loud... and the entire crowd from the street performer had all turned to stare at me. Sort of Hugely embarassing. Caidee paid him some coins and Mr. Statue took photos with us.
We did watch a show that night, Dirty Dancing. It was one of my favorite parts of London. Frank napped through it. Caidee and I loved it.
The following day we took the train with Caidee to her town of Ispwitch. We saw her new flat, where she works, and "The Butter Market" - her local shopping mall. The train we took there was just as in Harry Potter, pigeons and platforms.
{Doesn't she look like Mariah Carey here? In real life she doesn't. She's cuter than Mariah!}
I met Caidee's mom for the first time on the train to Ipswich. She was very nice and it wasn't awkward for more than 5 minutes. :) She has done such a fantastic job of raising Caidee.
We met them all - Caidee's mum and step-dad, her two sisters, her aunt, her grandmother, and her cousin Kammie, for dinner at a nice pub near Caidee's house. I hadn't thought about it from Caidee's perspective, but she was really nervous about the dinner - It was the first time she had ever seen her parents in the same room. I think it all went really well, everyone was comfortable, there was a lot of laughing. I think it was good for everyone involved.
And that was some of our England trip. We packed up early the next morning to take the Chunnel train to France...
