England Day 2

On Monday, we set out with Liz to watch the Changing of the Guard. We wisened up and only took one stroller with us since Harper usually demanded to walk anyway. It was much easier.

We got to Buckingham Palace a little late, so the crowd was already incredible. We squeezed our way in right next to one of the front gates, but I knew I wouldn't be able to last long there. I was feeling claustrophobic and my mama bear instincts kicked in when people started cutting in front of us and closing in. Once again, we had to get out of there and fast! We moved to an area that was further back but more open and the girls could perch on a wall to get a view (kind of ) of the action. Let us in! The Palace from afar Harper kept herself entertained by swinging on a bar
As we were walking away from the Palace toward St. James Park, the band went by. The girls were happy to see the "bear skins" up close. We met up with Papa Paul for lunch before heading to our Thames River Cruise. The London Eye and aquarium in the background Harper's shirt is a picture of a girl in front of Big Ben that says "I Love London!"
Tower Bridge We got off the cruise at the Tower of London. This trip was so different from the one Allan and I took in 2005. Then, we paid for the tours and went inside all of the attractions. Since we had been in before and I didn't want to pay for the girls to go through places they wouldn't remember or appreciate, we just took lots of pictures outside of the attractions.

I was so tempted to take this opportunity to push Harper over the wall into the moat :) Next, we went to Trafalgar Square so the girls could chase the pigeons. This is a picture of the London Olympics countdown sculpture in the middle of the square. Pigeons! Love this one of the girls being sweet.

We took the girls back to the hotel to have dinner and hang out with Mama and Papa while we met our friends, Adam and Abby, for dinner at a place called La Pietra. It was a little Italian place that was off the beaten path but very neatly decorated and delicious! We were so happy that they came from Switzerland to visit with us!

I had squid ink pasta (which made it black) with mussels and tiger prawns. Allan had filet of beef with gorganzola cream sauce. Adam, Abby, Jen, Allan, and a loin of pork :) We had a little bit of time before we had to get back to relieve Liz, so we went to take pictures of the London Eye and Big Ben at night.