London day 1

In spite of very little sleep, perhaps an hour or two, on the plane, we made it through our first jet lagged day pretty well. We are staying in a funky flat owned by friend of friend (thanks again Jeff!), with Mouche the cat and Gollum the huge bulgy eyed gold fish, and many works of art: paintings and sculpture. These are by Sam, the man of the house; I'll take some pictures. After a walk to the Tesco Express for groceries, we went out for some geocaching along the Thames, figuring that would keep our kids awake. It worked, along with an ice cream stop, but while the second cache was being sought, I was sure that I could fall asleep standing up. We did make it back to the flat, made dinner and got everyone off to bed. I found a second wind here, but I am still looking forward to sleep in the horizontal position.

We are all tickled to be here, and tomorrow will be even better after sleep. We had a great moment getting on the plane in Minneapolis, feeling all giddy that we were about to fly over the ocean to a different continent. I really enjoyed flying with all 3 kids, but especially Sully, who is such a little man now. On the first leg, we were very busy with different projects, then on the second leg, he snuggled on me and slept for close to 7 hours. He is loving having his Scuut bike here; we opted for that instead of a stroller, and so far it seems like a great move.

Tomorrow we plan to hop on a double decker bus and go to the Tower of London and various other tourist spots...

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We made it.

Well, we made it without any difficulty though nobody except Sully slept very well. The kids were glued to the map showing where the plane was at any time. Navigated the Tube with a transfer and have arrived at our friend's friend's flat in residential Hammerstein, about a five minute walk from the Thames, west of the main city center.

Sully's airport skuut ride.

So far so good. Flight from Portland was late but we made the turn and are waiting to take off from Minneapolis. Kids are all fired up but we are hoping for some sleep tonight. Good night.

Let the adventure begin!

We leave in a week! This will be the first time our kids have left the continent, and the last time Nik and I were abroad, Madeleine was barely a bun in the oven. We went to Paris that trip, and being newly pregnant and tired, I found many places to nap: a nook at the Louvre, the bateau mouche, maybe even the gardens at Versailles. I am thinking that this trip will be a bit different...