Grateful Friday

We're back!  I'm grateful to be home. I'm grateful to Mark for watering my plants (they're all still alive, although the basil looks a bit ragged) and I'm grateful to him for heroically looking at our pictures and acting interested.  

I'm grateful for our trip!  I loved every day of it and this blog is where I capture my memories. 

So here I go:

Monday, June 16-Tuesday, June 17

We flew from Provo (which I love! so easy!) to Orange County.  From there we rented a car and just poked around for a few hours, looking at pretty things.

This is at Palos Verdes.  About this time it was becoming clear to me why people live in California.  We met a man walking an enormous tortoise--the size of a small microwave.  Adam talked to him, like Adam does and the guy said he walks the tortoise every day for 1.6-1.8 miles.

I appreciated that level of specificity into the habits of him and his tortoise.

We walked the pier at Manhattan Beach and watched the surfers.

After Adam's recent travels and after just the busyness of life, it was so nice to just be together.  So nice just to walk around holding hands and talking about everything and nothing.

Before our flight, we stopped at In-N-Out for lunch.  We were right by the airport and Adam wanted to sit outside and watch the planes.

You can take the boy out of Everett, WA, but you can't take Everett, WA out of the boy.  He grew up near the Boeing plant with his dad working at Boeing.  He loves planes.

We were on a Boeing 787, flying to Gatwick, which didn't thrill me because the Air India flight that just crashed was a Boeing 787, flying to Gatwick.

Adam was fascinated by all the ways the plane is different than others.

Here our selfie shows the extra big windows of the 787.  Ask me how I know....

The flight was fairly comfortable and uneventful.  It was long.  I wanted to see out the window for the Northern Lights, which I've seen twice on that flight with Emma, but all we got was a sunrise.

Flying over the English countryside, I had my eyes peeled for Paul and Prue and the tent of the Great British Baking Show.

Once we landed, Adam was the superstar traveller I'm so grateful to be married to.  He knew where to go and how to get there, always.  He's familiar with London, but everywhere we went, Adam had things figured out.  He's a wonder.

MVP-working his magic on his phone

On the Tube or on the Metro in Copenhagen, he'd nudge me toward an open chair (which I gratefully took because my feet were always tired from all our walking).  He'd stand next to me, hanging onto the bar.  When it was our stop, he'd give me a nod.  Then when I'd inevitably start walking the wrong way, he'd grab me back.  Traveling with him is the best.  Not only is he so good at travel, but I get to be with him too!

We went to our hotel.  It was a Sonder.  They are Marriott properties, but different.  I think they are little boutique hotels that Marriott acquired. 

It was in this lovely building.

We left our luggage with the man at the desk and headed out into London.  We went to Trafalgar Square and stopped at a Pret for a sandwich.  (Pret was on the must stop list.) Was it dinnertime?  Lunchtime?  We had no idea, nor did our bodies.

Next stop was the National Gallery and first stop at the National Gallery was Whistlejacket, this enormous horse painting we both love.  Walking around in my jet-lagged haze, it was surreal to be staring into Monets and Renoirs.  Also, it was fabulous.  I love the National Gallery.  Art Museums are always a good idea.  

I was flagging, we both were.  I considered if we were going to be mugged, it would be a great opportunity.  I don't know what drunk feels like, but I'm guessing it is a lot like that.  We went back to our hotel because it was time we could check in. 

When I tell you the room was small, I don't know if I can really explain how small it was.

Here's Adam for scale:

It was somewhere between a full and queen sized bed with less than a foot all around.  It was at the end of the narrow hall in the basement and the window looked out at a window well and another building.

We both lay down for a brief nap and felt somewhat revived.  We took a walk along Regent's Canal and it was lovely.  I don't think I would ever choose to live in a huge city, but if I had to choose one, it would be London.  Being there makes me happy.  We were looking for a place for dinner, I wanted bangers and mash at a pub.  We walked to several that were either too crowded or too fancy or not right in some other way.  We finally found a pub inside of Paddington Station and it was perfect.  I felt like Goldilocks.

Adam's steak pie and my bangers and mash.  Pub food for the win!

We were still SO tired.  Funnily enough, a twenty minute nap doesn't really make up for missing an entire night's sleep.  We went back to our prison cell hotel. 

I really hated the claustrophobic feeling.  It was near Paddington Station, which was super convenient (you could feel the trains going under!) and I was so very exhausted that I slept fine.