Late July 2016

Greetings from London! We arrived safely and our driver got us straight to our hotel. Even though it was 8pm it only felt like the afternoon so we walked around to explore London a bit and finally had dinner at about 10pm. Late nights and late mornings were part of our first week here while we adjusted to the time change. Our Marriott hotel was great - a central location in Mayfair, walking distance to everything. And we loved the concierge lounge where they served breakfast in the morning, tea-time just after noon, happy hour before dinner and evening snacks and drinks after dinner. With so much to explore we were walking miles each day, not something the kids were thrilled about. We decided they would earn £1 for every mile walked. This was a great motivator for them and a chance for them to collect some of their own British Pounds.

Here we are on our second day in London, trying to see everything! Big Ben! Buckingham Palace! Trafalgar Square!

As we were walking towards Whole Foods Market one day we discovered a toy store called Hamley's. This is no ordinary toy store, its got to be one of the world's largest! Six full floors of toys, everything you can imagine. And the employees are scattered throughout the store demonstrating some of the toys so you can see them and try them. What an amazing place. When we reached the Lego floor we were amazed at all the life-size replicas made from Legos. The Crown Jewels! A Palace Guard! Queen Elizabeth with her dog! A Star Wars fighter jet! This is now the kid's favorite place to go in London.

We were able to find a park in the city for some play time. This park has a sign at the entrance: "Grown-ups must be accompanied by a child to enter." Love it!

Our day at the Tower of London was great. So much history here! We had a rare glimpse of Tower Bridge with the draw bridge up as we went by.