Being that Kayla is my one and only sibling, that she lived with Brian and I for awhile and we also worked together at the same company for a period of time we saw each other A LOT when we lived in Minnesota. We are really close sisters so when we moved to London it was hard to leave her behind and be so far apart. Luckily we have FaceTime to survive... but still not seeing each other in person for 8 months is a LONG time! So when she was finally planning her trip I couldn't have been more excited! Then she even got it arranged through work to tour and shadow at her UK office for 2 days which is located in Cobham (about 1 hour from London.) This meant she could be here for longer (5 days more than originally planned with the way the weekend fell) plus use less vacation time AND it meant we would see each other for a FULL 2 WEEKS, we were THRILLED!!! Poor David had to stay home and work a few more days before coming but we were SO excited for him to arrive too!
I thought I was going to burst with excitement waiting at the arrival gate for Kayla to come through on April 26th...
When she finally arrived we were so happy to see each other!
Here we are riding the tube back to our place...
So Kayla has an obsession (ok actually quite a large obsession) with the Royal Family. After we brought her to our flat to drop her things and find something to eat she was ready to set out to see the sites. Once the initial excitement of seeing Brian and I had leveled a bit she was then focused on what "Royal" places we could see!
Our first stop was Kensington Palace where Prince William, Kate and Prince Baby George live. Kayla was in awe and convinced they were probably in there since they had just returned home from their Australia trip.
Once Brian was finally able to convince her that we should move on and that we "can't just stand and wait for them to come out" we rode the tube up to Paddington Station which was not far away. We walked to Saint Mary's Hospital from there... you are probably wondering what is so special there? Well if you love everything about the Royal Family you know that the Lindo Wing in the hospital is where Prince William, Harry and of course the newest Little Prince George were all born! The steps outside the Lindo Wing are also where they were first brought out of the hospital and shown off to the world to hundreds of news cameras and paparazzi. Kayla (and I) both thought this was pretty cool to see!
Then from there we went to show her Buckingham Palace where the Queen lives! She hadn't even been here 5 hours and she already gotten to see 3 of her highlights. She was in her glory after her first day in London!
The next day, Sunday we started out by walking Munch. Normally I don't walk him on the weekend but his owner had plans so I said I'd help out. Plus Kayla didn't mind getting to see him extra, she was so excited to meet him because she loves dogs too!
After our walked we enjoyed afternoon tea at the Ampersand Hotel. It was fun to introduce Kayla to this great British tradition.
Once again we struggled to finish everything but eventually polished it off.
Just as we were finishing the end of our tea something unpredictable happened! They have a certain type of "science tea" that you can order and the desserts are interesting shapes like a moon, dinosaurs, etc. Kinda strange but then the waiter pours dry ice over them and it looks really neat for about 30 seconds. Kayla was in the process of getting a picture of the dry ice smoldering at the table behind us while we got instead we got this...
A FULL MOON! This girl was standing up like this forever while everyone else in the room had been watching the dry ice so they all clearly saw too! Seriously?! How could she not know?! We were laughing so hard! Definitely haven't seen that at tea before!!!
On the way back from tea we were at the tube station and Kayla found it funny that, "I must look British or something." The two of us were standing on the platform and a french family came bee lining up to me to ask for directions and didn't even pay any attention to her. She took this pic as I was trying to explain to them where to go, they were pretty confused so hopefully they made it!
That night the two of us went to Cobham to stay at the hotel she was being put up at by her company since she was going to work on Monday and Tuesday. I went along to make sure she got there on the train then just hung out by myself while she was working.
One of the nice things about having visitors is they take pictures of all the things I don't think to take pictures of anymore. Here are a few of the street we live on...
Since there was a tube strike on Wednesday, the day David was arriving we had to ride the bus instead of the tube to Heathrow to pick him up. His flight was scheduled to land at 12:00pm and on our ride to the airport I was tracking the status of his flight on my phone. As we got closer and closer and planes were flying right over head we realized the timing was going to be really close to us being able to see his plane come in! Just as we were at the bus stop right before the runway area my phone said his flight was, "on approach." Since we were sitting on the top level and front row of the double decker bus we had a perfect view! We had a plan that one of us was going to video and the other was going to take a picture. Soon the plane was right above and behind us! We couldn't quite tell but as soon as it was in view and we saw that it was a Delta plane we knew it was his! I'm not going to post the video of us since we sounded like huge dorks with our excitement, "There it is! That's his flight! Hi David!" Everyone was looking at us funny as we squealed with excitement but we didn't care. You could never plan the timing of it that way again if you tried!
We made a "Ted Schnack... Please report to the snack bar" sign to hold up for him at the arrival gate. It's an inside joke from one year when we were on the way to Hawaii and in the airport they came over the loud speaker and said that. Ever since then one of his nicknames became Schnack!
After a LONG time Schnack finally appeared through the door.. We were starting to get really worried when it had been 2 hours and he still hadn't come through. Turns out there was a technical problem at customs and they were having to manually enter everyone's passports! We found out the next day some people waited 4 hours!
Brian got to our place the same time we did and was excited to see David too. After having a quick bite to eat and it was time for David to meet Munch for his afternoon walk! They liked each other...
From there we left to head into Central London so they could see Big Ben and the Eye and feel like they were really here!
Then finally it was time to find some drinks and toast to the four of us being in London together! We walked down to the SouthBank area along the river and tried an outdoor garden rooftop place I had been wanting to try. What better way to cheers to the trip with a huge jug of Pimm's (popular British drink) and an excellent view?!
The next day Brian went to work while I took Kayla and David to see another of her "Royal Highlights" Windsor Castle. It ended up being a pretty wet rainy day. This is us getting ready to head out (yes the entrance to our flat is actually in an alley)
This was my third time going to Windsor but I didn't mind because it was worth seeing how excited Kayla was to tour one of the Queen's residences!
After we toured the castle we took the train back to London and eventually met up with Brian who was done working mid afternoon. We checked out Harrod's then hit up another pub for a drink...
The following day we started out by touring the Tower of London where Kayla (& David) were in awe by the Queen's Crown Jewels! From there we walked over Tower Bridge on our way to the Borough Market for lunch.
After lunch at the market I took them to another place I love to bring visitors, the top of the Shard for a drink.
They were hoping to see more of the royal cars but there was only one Rolls Royce that the Queen rides in during certain events.
Kayla and I were pretty impressed by the Gold State Coach which was built in 1762 and has been used at the coronation of every British monarch since George IV!
It takes 8 horses lined up to pull it...
Next we saw the Changing of the Guard and toured Kensington Palace (we obviously didn't get to see where Will, Kate and Baby George actually live, bummer!) Here we are in the gardens after the tour...
The last place we visited to check off on Kayla's Royal stops was Westminster Abbey. We went to the 5:00 service and Kayla was so excited to be where the Royal Wedding had taken place. Her favorite part was getting to walk down the center isle after the service where Kate actually walked on their wedding day!
Then before we headed off for their last dinner in London we were able to get some pretty nice shots with Big Ben...
We packed in quite a lot and the next morning we set off for Italy! (Separate blog on that part of the trip later...)
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