So much to do, so little time left!

Well we have just one week left, leaving a week from tomorrow, back home to the USA, land of the free and home of the brave...and home of processed foods and driving everywhere vs. walking...and many other things! I have gotten used to life here although I admit I'm c-r-a-v-i-n-g a big, juicy American hamburger, drive thrus for those late-at-night-cravings, and ice in my drinks!It's the simple things...! What a wirlwind these past few weeks have been. I foolishly thought that, when I started this blog, I'd be able to keep up with it if not daily, then every couple of days. I know a couple weeks have passed and my apologies. We have, in fact, been exploring, enjoying company, and living up our last bit of time here! My friend, Sara, arrived a week and a half ago. It was so fun having her here, catching up and spending a lot of time together, more than we've had the time to do in recent years, and of course exploring London together! forever to find Harrod's...that place was awesome...it would be so fun to spend an entire day in there...but we had to eat and grabbed lunch at a great little Italian restaurant across the street, headed back to grab a couple things from Harrod's Food Halls (candy and souvenirs) and then on the tube to Tower of London. Tower of London. Gets all the hype due to it's infamous past, however there really wasn't so much to see. Again, had I not had free kids coupons I would have kicked myself for spending so much for this place! Being within the tower walls was very neat, seeing all the tiny stairwells and nooks and crannies and just knowing what took place there centuries ago. The crown jewels are kept there as well and were amazing to see. You are on a moving walkway, however, so there is no taking your time. You get your glimpse and keep on moving. No photos allowed, either! On Sunday we took a more leisurely day after having spent 3 days in a row in London and toured Windsor Castle. This was the kids' favorite thing we've toured yet and Sara's first castle tour so it was nice to do it again. On Monday we trekked to London again and went out to Greenwich, to the Royal Observatory to see the world's largest refracting telescope, timepieces thru the ages, and of course the Prime Meridian (0 degrees Longitude). There was a very long line to get to it, where photo enthusiasts gleefully placed one foot on each side of the brass bar in the ground (Prime Meridian) so one foot would be in the Eastern Hemisphere and one foot in the Western Hemisphere. We had just decided that the line was not worth it (it didn't appear to be moving!) and we went behind the roped area to leave when we realized we were over the line ourselves! We very *quickly* made a photo op out of this and called it done, happily so!

The kids at the Prime Meridian We ended the day spending the rest of the afternoon at Greenwich Park, a massive, old park with a large playground and full of beautiful old trees. This park used to be Henry VIII's hunting grounds some 600 years ago. Elizabeth's Oak is also located there, which is a felled 900+ year old oak tree in which a young Princess Elizabeth I would enjoy tea in. It is also believed to have been a tiny prison for those breaking park rules! Gotta love the history at every turn! Miss Ava turned FOUR on Thursday and we made last-minute plans to drive out to a nearby town for use of the hotel pool and couple it with a trek to Stonehenge. Loved Stonehenge, it was incredibly awe-spiring...you can't help but ponder the age-old question--just "how" did *they* get those big rocks up there? We got close and peeked through the fence as we opted to not pay the 20 Pounds for our family to get on the other side of the fence, as a few guidebooks have mentioned it's just not worth it. I suppose if it were just us, without the kids, it would be been enjoyable as they had an audio tour. But I only get to listen to about half of that as I'm helping adjust falling-off-headphones that are made about three sizes to big for my head...and you can imagine how big they are in the kids' heads! That said it was neat to see and I recommend it to anyone...just plan on visiting a nearby area (Bath, Bristol, or Cotswolds to name a few) and drive out to Stonehenge for a bit. That had been my original plan when envisioning a potential Stonehenge visit, however Mike had to work till noon that day and the next morning we had to get up at 6:30 to make it back home in time for him to get an early start at work again. Oh well, at least we came, we saw, and we conquered!