Tales of a Shoebox Princess

Jim and I had been to both Abbey Road and Westminster Abbey on our first trip to London, but Katie NEEDED to go to Abbey Road (and she has been there before too, but didn't get a good photo). And they all wanted to see Westminster Abbey as well. I do have a photo of our hotel room. Jackson is chilling on the chair. See, it's roomy! I was happy to be going on the Underground again! And this time, Jim and I were pros (compared to Katie and family). Bayswater station was only a short walk from our hotel. I spied MY PLACE to live while en route to Abbey Road. And here we are at Abbey Road. The studio. I did not get a good picture of everyone doing the crossing on Abbey Road. There was a huge crowd due to a tour bus unloading at the same time we got there. We had to wait and there was a ton of traffic, and drivers were getting irritated with the people posing in the middle of the street. I think Jim got a good picture of Katie and family, though. Hayley in front of Big Ben Katie and

Still day one in London. After the Hop On/Hop Off bus, we checked into our hotel. I didn't take any pictures of it, but it was nice. The rooms were big! Although to Katie and Christian, they weren't all that big. Caroline and Abbie, who shared the room with K and C, can, with their very small bodies, fill up a room. Hayley roomed with Jackson and Emma to provide an adult presence in their room, and Jim and I had a room to ourselves. They were all off the same common space, not really a hallway, more of a foyer. There was one other room off the same foyer and though we heard noise from the room, we never saw the occupants. One other notable thing: these rooms were in the "basement." There were windows with light coming through, but the light that was coming through were LED strips outside the "windows" which looked straight at a blank wall. Well at least we wouldn't have any street noise to bother us. We did hear the underground trains, but that was white

A year ago, or maybe 11 months, sometime before Thanksgiving 2022, Katie and Christian decided they HAD to go to London (partly because we had gone earlier in the year and they were a tad jealous, and because Katie had gone on a high school band trip to London and had always wanted to go back). They wanted to take all the kids with them, but wanted some help so they invited us to go along with them. Even though we had JUST been, we were eager to go again! And yes, we would assist with monitoring the children. We planned bit by bit, bought plane tickets, booked hotel rooms, planned our itinerary, bought admission tickets for many places, and talked about it a lot!  The best thing about traveling with children is you get to take advantage of early boarding! Emma was my seat neighbor and she was very well-behaved! She didn't eat much, but I don't blame her. The food was meh. I ate it, but only for the calories.  Here are some photos from the first half of the first day: On my firs