OUR HEROS REUNITE IN LONDON

May was long. Time seemed to stand still while Jared was in Germany. It was harder for me then I expected. I wasn't tormented day and night, I could sleep OK and ingest food and all that...I was just so bored! Nothing seemed as fun without my partner in crime. I didn't feel quite right. It was almost like walking around with my clothes on inside out all month or wearing two different shoes. Perfectly functional just not incredibly enjoyable. I missed Jared Birdwell Alexander- his crinkle face, his golf obsession, his squealy little chirps. By the time it was over, I was buzzing out of my seat with anticipation. That first hug after a month...thats a great feeling. I definitely have a new respect for all of you out there in long distance relationships.

My father-in-law Ed and I took the red eye to London and I thought it would be a great idea to take  a sleeping pill so that I would arrive in the Queen's backyard bright eyed and bushy tailed. Oh what a freaking mistake. My seat mate was a nice British man who, even as I began nodding off while he was speaking to me, kept plowing through talking about who knows what. I started hallucinating at some point and as I stared into his face trying desperately to concentrate his features started to move and shift. His face looked like the real life embodiment of the swirl feature in a Mac's photobooth. The sideshow mirror thing really started to freak out so as soon as he took a break for air, I high tailed it to the bathroom. When I came back I turned on a movie and immediately fell into a nightmarish fitful sleep.

Suffice to say--do not follow my example.

After we arrived everything was smooth sailing. We stayed in this apartment I booked through AirBnB. One of the best decisions I made was using AirBNB.

London was perfect.The entire vacation was pretty perfect, but London truly knocked my socks off. I think because I was so psyched to go to Paris that London was sort of an afterthought and snuck up on me. I would love to live in this city someday. 

I have been putting off this post trying to figure out how to put our week in the UK into one post. Pardon my stream of conscience, but my vacation is swiftly becoming more and more ephemeral, an exciting little island, slowly fading into the background as my real life engulfs it.

There are more hamburger restaurants  in the UK than any other place I've ever seen, and they're alright but they still don't know how to make a milkshake

The tube is incredibly easy to use, and an Oyster card with £30 on it will let you travel an insane amount for a good week--literally anywhere you want to go. Once, in a fringe neighborhood of the city, I quickly realized I had spaced out and we were about to miss our stop. I quickly jumped off the train only to turn around and see it pulling away with Jared and Ed still aboard. Woops.

We walked and walked and walked and walked. Walking from the British Museum, up to Parliament, across to St. James Park and up to Buckingham Palace was one of my favorite things. We did different versions of that walk quite a few times and it never got old.

There are so many cute dogs in Europe!! In pubs! Pub dogs! And everywhere else for that matter. My kind of place.

Speaking of pubs, 9 out of 10 pubs went down the gastropub route and while trying to be unique ended up having the same exact menu every single time. Besides hamburgers, it seems as if the most popular food in all of London in cuttlefish cooked in its own ink. Mmmmmm.

I got the super duper heebie jeebies seeing "The Woman in Black" in the West End. If you ever get a chance to see it, DO!

British bacon just ain't the same.

Yes, we did the ultimate touristy thing ever and went on the Harry Potter Studio tour. It was awesome. I embarrassingly took more photos there than almost anywhere else. And yes, we skipped Stone Henge in order to go.

The weather was perfect in early June. We had cool clear days and crisp nights. One thing I didn't realize until a few days in was that we desperately needed sunscreen. I would come in every night and feel like I was blushing uncontrollably, but really my cheeks were just glowing with sunburn.

You had to climb like 6 flights of the STEEPEST stairs of my life to get up into our apartment. Every night I would crawl up them and then go into cardiac arrest.

One of my favorite days was going on a Beefeater tour at the Tower of London. So funny and smart.

This is a city I know I could visit many many more times. I'm getting a bit wistful just thinking about it...