Saturday and Sunday: Covent Garden, Friends, and Church

So, Friday night we stayed in a nice hotel in St. Albans, near our friends, after our nice Halloween adventure. We woke up, packed up, and had a very lovely full English breakfast buffet in our hotel restaurant. No pictures, but believe me when I tell you those baked beans on toast were delicious! And, my kids were not huge fans of the fried mushrooms or grilled tomatoes, but Brian and I enjoyed them.

Then we set off to explore some of our old haunts, near Golders Green, where we used to live. We drove by our old flat, but didn't try to go in or anything. Here it is…

Good memories in that flat. Spencer was born while we lived there, and the back garden was so lovely and homey for us.

From there, we went into the village and visited our favorite neighborhood park, Golder's Hill Park. The kids really enjoyed themselves for an hour or so, and we got some cute pictures of them…

They even have a small zoo in the park, and the kids were very impressed with some of the animals. Here is Spencer with the ring tailed lemurs...

The sandbox could have kept them busy for another few hours. I was cringing, because I had just given them all baths at our hotel that morning. :-)

Natalie requested this picture specifically, because she saw other children really enjoying this telescope...

scenic view of the park…

We had to drag the kids away, so that we could show them Covent Garden for a few minutes that afternoon. They were very glad we did, once they saw how fun Covent Garden is. They especially loved the live statues…

Not sure if you can tell, but this soldier dude was standing in mid air. Pretty cool! Samantha gave him money, so he gave her a high-five! :-)

The magician was a hit with all three of our big kids! He was funny, and had some pretty good tricks. The best trick was inviting all the children to sit right in front, so the parents couldn't leave! Ha!

I tried to get some good pictures of my kids faces, because they were so excited to watch him perform.…

After the magician show was done, we wandered around Covent Garden's for a few more minutes, then headed over to the British museum because it was nearby.

Some were more excited to be there than others. Here is Spencer pouting on the floor...

Here is a cool shot of the ceiling. It really is such an impressive place! And it is free!! That meant we could run in, take our own 15 minute tour, and check it off our list. :-)

Can you believe they have ancient Egyptian sarcophaguses sitting right out in the open where you can touch them?!  Crazy and cool!

We also took a peek at the Algean Marbles. I told Brian our kids would just think they were a bunch of naked statues. But he thought someday in the future they might think it is cool that they had seen them, all the way from ancient Greece!

So, I dutifully took pictures of the kids standing next to the naked statues…

On our way out, we stopped by the Easter Island statue guy. Apparently he is pretty famous, according to Brian. He looks like a figure from Night at The Museum to me, no? So I guess he really is famous! :-)

I snapped this quick picture (below) of one of the squares we walked through on our way to the Tube. One of my favorite things about London are all the little parks or squares everywhere. They just make the city so green and bright and cheery.

On Saturday evening, we got together with our dear friend Ruth and her grandson. We had great plans of going to eat at our favorite Italian restaurant near our old flat.  Sadly, the place was all booked up and we couldn't get in, so we had to go somewhere else. But we enjoyed a fun visit and saw them at church the next day as well. I made Ruth take a selfie picture with me, which she did not enjoy but I think she looks cute…

It was really nice being back at our old London North Ward. We didn't know many people there, but it was a nice familiar feeling anyway. Ruth and our friends the Leavitts put together a light luncheon afterward for us and people we knew. It was fun to catch up and the food was lovely. Here is one more picture of Ruth and me in front of the church. I sure do love her! We have stayed friends by talking on the phone every week or so since we moved away six years ago.

Saturday and Sunday night we stayed at the Leavitt's house. They are also some of our good friends, and we really enjoyed catching up with them. Brian stayed up talking to Vance about American politics until waaaay late both nights we were there! :-) I didn't get any pictures of them. But I did go around taking pictures of their amazing kitchen. One day when we build our dream home, I want a kitchen just like Marquitta's. :)

Anyway, we had a very nice weekend and really enjoyed catching up with old friends. Monday morning we took off for our adventure "on the Continent." Stay tuned for Paris, coming up next!