Last fall, Rob found a great deal on a 5 day trip to London, so he booked the trip for the kids' Spring Break. The deal included air fare thru British Airways and hotel stay for the 5 days. Rob seemed really excited about going, but to be honest, I didnt feel any great desire to visit London. I didnt really have any interest in the royal family, or visiting any of the old buildings there, no interest in seeing the changing of the guard, though I was a little intrigued by seeing Stone Henge, but Rob didnt want to see it and besides, it was quite a distance from where we would be staying. Not expecting much, I began my search of things to do in London, when I was reminded about the Harry Potter studios in London and then I got really excited by it! But, sadly, our initial search showed that there were no tickets available at the studio or thru any tours for any of the days we would be in town. We found some on one sketchy looking website that had very little information and no reviews. It was called Concierge Services. Seemed a little risky but we were desperate and took our chances. Ended up being just fine. We also booked a walking tour of places in London where Harry Potter was filmed. Add in a day to see the biggest Lego store in the world, a proper traditional afternoon tea, and a day in Paris, and it was shaping up to be a pretty fun trip.
I made arrangements thru Rover.com to find care for Kyira while we were gone. She's sweet, but still immature and very strong--not the best combination to entrust to our elderly parents in our absence. I found a sitter named Linda G. who was highly rated and had a house with a backyard, other dogs, a family with older kids, and a husband who formerly trained K-9 dogs and was currently working as a vet tech. It would be Kyira's first time away from us and away from home, so I wanted to be sure she would be in good hands with lots care and attention and this sitter seemed to be a good fit.
Kyira was excited when we dropped her off at Linda's house, which was good because we literally had to drop and run. Our originally scheduled flight just got cancelled a few hours before we were scheduled to leave, and after Rob called British Airlines and talked to them, they got us on an American Airlines flight to Chicago O'Hare and from there on another American connecting flight to London, but leaving several hours earlier from a different airport (no longer Dulles, but now we would be flying out of National). Before I left, I managed to get Kyira's attention, grab her face and state my usual departing words, "Kyira, you be a good girl. Mommy will be home soon." But she was so distracted I dont think she heard me. I wanted to be sure to say what I always say, so she would know I was coming back and not think we had abandoned her. But her focus was squat so fat lot of good that probably did!
We arrived at the airport in good time despite the rushing to get Kyira dropped off and then we had to pick up Rob's mom, who would to take us to the airport. The flight there was pretty uneventful, but tiring. We flew thru the night (10pm from O'Hare to London) and no one felt very rested by the time we arrived at Heathrow around noonish, London time. Ozzy probably slept better than I did, but he was still super cranky upon landing. I did manage to eek out a tiny smile when I showed him the bag of chips ("crisps"), excitedly cheering, “It’s the best ever recipe! They did it! What an accomplishment!”
We walked around a little on our way to our hotel. Ozzy would see people out with their dogs and suddenly miss Kyira and feel sad. We got to our hotel, unloaded our things, I think we napped, then headed out to walk around and find food. We walked along the Thames to Trafalgar Square. Checked out a telephone booth. Ozzy was wondering if they were still used. We checked out the worlds biggest LEGO store at Leicester Square. Then went to get dinner at the Rainforest Cafe since it was listed as being peanut allergy friendly on some mom blog and the kids didn’t remember going to one when they were very little. Afterwards we stopped by The Kingdom of Sweets (so many names referenced royalty in England!) to find some treats that we didn’t have in America. Didn’t expect to see sexualized treats like dick on a stick there. 🙀 Disappointingly there really werent any treats that we couldnt find back home at Lolli & Pops or Candy Heaven. well maybe the dick on a stick.
Day 2 London, written by Ozzy:
today we as in family went to the harry potter studio tour. it showed us the process of making Harry Potter. beginning we watch a small movie about the actors talking with the show movie. there were lots of structures and we got a passport where we collected all the stamps you were sick stamps and all the first one was found in the Gryffindor common room the second one was found in the Quidditch area the third one was found talking about the Voldemort it and his crew the fourth one was found at the Hogwarts express a giant train and the fifth one was found at a mini structure of gringotts and the last sixth one was found at a giant statue of Hogwarts which is really cool because is big and big and before that it was really cool paper structures of everything and also you could buy these things I got a chocolate frog with a double dumbledoor. really cool part about it was it was a bunch of animatronic kind of things there was the book of monsters it is like a chomping thingthere was baby voldemort there was Hedwig buckbeak one and it was and also screaming plant called mandrake root. the harry potter studio was cool.tomorrow we are going to a muggles tour of england.
Day 3 London, written by Mimi:
Today was our third day at London. This morning we went on a Harry Potter tour, or the Tour for Muggles (people without magic). Our tour guide was great, and we learned some interesting facts about Harry Potter, from film locations, to name meanings, to secrets about different characters. I had no idea that the name of the dragon guarding the Gringotts bank is called a Ukrainian Ironbelly. The tour finally ended at the location of the inspiration for Diagon Alley. By that time, we had been soaked head to toe by the constant downpour of rain, as it was raining all day long. So we decided to pop into a nearby bookstore which the tour guide suggested. Mostly religious, spiritual, and dream related books inside. After browsing through the books, we headed to Byron to eat lunch. The hamburger I had was delicious. Later, all of us scooted on over to the British museum, home of many ancient artifacts. There, they housed mummies, stone sphinxes, arrowheads, and even the Rosetta Stone. Finally, all of us felt tired from the journey, after all we went several miles on foot! All of us decided it would be best to head back to the hotel for a much needed rest. I am so thankful for these wonderful opportunities that few people in the world can ever grasp. I’d say that today was more than well spent.
I made arrangements thru Rover.com to find care for Kyira while we were gone. She's sweet, but still immature and very strong--not the best combination to entrust to our elderly parents in our absence. I found a sitter named Linda G. who was highly rated and had a house with a backyard, other dogs, a family with older kids, and a husband who formerly trained K-9 dogs and was currently working as a vet tech. It would be Kyira's first time away from us and away from home, so I wanted to be sure she would be in good hands with lots care and attention and this sitter seemed to be a good fit.
Kyira was excited when we dropped her off at Linda's house, which was good because we literally had to drop and run. Our originally scheduled flight just got cancelled a few hours before we were scheduled to leave, and after Rob called British Airlines and talked to them, they got us on an American Airlines flight to Chicago O'Hare and from there on another American connecting flight to London, but leaving several hours earlier from a different airport (no longer Dulles, but now we would be flying out of National). Before I left, I managed to get Kyira's attention, grab her face and state my usual departing words, "Kyira, you be a good girl. Mommy will be home soon." But she was so distracted I dont think she heard me. I wanted to be sure to say what I always say, so she would know I was coming back and not think we had abandoned her. But her focus was squat so fat lot of good that probably did!
We arrived at the airport in good time despite the rushing to get Kyira dropped off and then we had to pick up Rob's mom, who would to take us to the airport. The flight there was pretty uneventful, but tiring. We flew thru the night (10pm from O'Hare to London) and no one felt very rested by the time we arrived at Heathrow around noonish, London time. Ozzy probably slept better than I did, but he was still super cranky upon landing. I did manage to eek out a tiny smile when I showed him the bag of chips ("crisps"), excitedly cheering, “It’s the best ever recipe! They did it! What an accomplishment!”
We walked around a little on our way to our hotel. Ozzy would see people out with their dogs and suddenly miss Kyira and feel sad. We got to our hotel, unloaded our things, I think we napped, then headed out to walk around and find food. We walked along the Thames to Trafalgar Square. Checked out a telephone booth. Ozzy was wondering if they were still used. We checked out the worlds biggest LEGO store at Leicester Square. Then went to get dinner at the Rainforest Cafe since it was listed as being peanut allergy friendly on some mom blog and the kids didn’t remember going to one when they were very little. Afterwards we stopped by The Kingdom of Sweets (so many names referenced royalty in England!) to find some treats that we didn’t have in America. Didn’t expect to see sexualized treats like dick on a stick there. 🙀 Disappointingly there really werent any treats that we couldnt find back home at Lolli & Pops or Candy Heaven. well maybe the dick on a stick.
Day 2 London, written by Ozzy:
today we as in family went to the harry potter studio tour. it showed us the process of making Harry Potter. beginning we watch a small movie about the actors talking with the show movie. there were lots of structures and we got a passport where we collected all the stamps you were sick stamps and all the first one was found in the Gryffindor common room the second one was found in the Quidditch area the third one was found talking about the Voldemort it and his crew the fourth one was found at the Hogwarts express a giant train and the fifth one was found at a mini structure of gringotts and the last sixth one was found at a giant statue of Hogwarts which is really cool because is big and big and before that it was really cool paper structures of everything and also you could buy these things I got a chocolate frog with a double dumbledoor. really cool part about it was it was a bunch of animatronic kind of things there was the book of monsters it is like a chomping thingthere was baby voldemort there was Hedwig buckbeak one and it was and also screaming plant called mandrake root. the harry potter studio was cool.tomorrow we are going to a muggles tour of england.
Day 3 London, written by Mimi:
Today was our third day at London. This morning we went on a Harry Potter tour, or the Tour for Muggles (people without magic). Our tour guide was great, and we learned some interesting facts about Harry Potter, from film locations, to name meanings, to secrets about different characters. I had no idea that the name of the dragon guarding the Gringotts bank is called a Ukrainian Ironbelly. The tour finally ended at the location of the inspiration for Diagon Alley. By that time, we had been soaked head to toe by the constant downpour of rain, as it was raining all day long. So we decided to pop into a nearby bookstore which the tour guide suggested. Mostly religious, spiritual, and dream related books inside. After browsing through the books, we headed to Byron to eat lunch. The hamburger I had was delicious. Later, all of us scooted on over to the British museum, home of many ancient artifacts. There, they housed mummies, stone sphinxes, arrowheads, and even the Rosetta Stone. Finally, all of us felt tired from the journey, after all we went several miles on foot! All of us decided it would be best to head back to the hotel for a much needed rest. I am so thankful for these wonderful opportunities that few people in the world can ever grasp. I’d say that today was more than well spent.
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