The Open, Freud, Hampton, Buckingham, Westminster and more with the Olson's
One of my college girlfriends, Jackie and her husband Craig Olson came to London with Sophie and me from Minnesota for a nine day holiday. We had a lot of fun! It is so nice to have visitors to share London with and host at our flat.
First, was the British Open, known only as "The Open" to the Brits. Jackie and Craig attended on Friday, and Jeremy and Craig attended on Saturday. All three said it was incredible to see the pros so close, particularly Tiger of course. It was a unique experience by far. Please see our shutterfly account for the photos.
While the boys were at the Open and hit the pubs in the evening on Saturday, Jackie, Sophie and I went to the British Museum for a visit, a little lunch at Wagamama, and then onto the Freud Museum. I had been to the British Museum before but of course saw a few new areas that we missed the first time around, like all the mummies, including Cleopatra's, which is a highlight of the Museum. Lunch was delicious, Sophie practically ate half of what Jackie was eating. The Freud Museum was a bit of a disappointment. They had a video with him and his daughter was narrating, and she mostly talked about their chow dogs. Freud only lived in this house the last year of his life. The flowers in the garden were gorgeous. We were able to walk from the museum back to our flat in about 30 minutes. Thankfully Sophie slept through this...The girls had a nice dinner at the flat and the boys hit the pubs hard throughout the city when they got back from the Open. Jeremy took Craig all over the city, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus and on...They had some fun!
On Sunday, I took Jackie and Craig to the markets in Camden Town to shop, people watch, eat some great food from vendors there. Jackie bargained hard for a very cool shirt, she also picked up a few gifts for her kids and family. After we were marketed out, Craig headed to a pub to catch the rest of the Open on a tele. Jackie and I took the tube to Harrod's where we spent the remainder of the day. I have been to Harrod's several times but was never able to see the entire store since Sophie and more importantly, Jeremy had been with. But Jackie and I hit it all. It is a gorgeous store itself and has a vast range of products in it--the place is huge--even for US standards. After they closed and kicked us out, we headed to Leicester Square to walk around a bit and get some dinner. We selected an Italian restaurant called Bella Italia, it is very popular, there were three within the Square! Dinner and wine was good, and it was so nice to have a girlfriend to catch up with. When we arrived back at the flat we all sat outside on our front stairs and enjoyed some more wine and conversation.
On Monday, the Olson's ventured to the Tower of London. They had fun and spent most of the day there, but it was hot! The Tower is not air conditioned as you can imagine.
Tuesday was spent by all of us going to Hampton Court Palace. Sophie and I had been before but it was the first for Jeremy and the first Palace the Olson's had visited. The day was superb! The gardens were in full bloom and they are incredible. When I visited last it was early spring, so early that the flowers were not in bloom, annuals were planted and the statues were still covered. The gardens are absolutely amazing. Tickets are available just to see them. We did enjoy the Palace as well. I realized that I missed three major sections when I was there last time with guests--oops! Not my strong point. Overall, a great day!
The State Rooms at Buckingham Palace were the priority on Wednesday. They are only open for a few weeks each year and we were there on the second day they were open this year. After massive queues, some confusion, checking our bags/buggy we were in the State Rooms. They were the best rooms that we have seen in a Palace to date! It was an awesome visit! Since it is the Queen's 80th birthday this year they had a special exhibit with select dresses on display. I loved seeing these! Jeremy and I bought a limited edition plate while at the gift shop as a keepsake to remember the day, London, the queen and to actually use! It is gorgeous and there are only 1,000 of them in the world! We have actually bought very few things for ourselves while here, so this was a little splurge which rarely happens.
After some lunch we headed to Westminster Abbey where we spent the afternoon, thankfully Sophie slept while we enjoyed this visit. The Abbey is about 1,000 years old and has so much history in it that you can't take it all in. Highlights in the Abbey include many kings and queens that have been buried there (including Elizabeth I), and other historic people that there are memorials too such as Shakespeare and Sir Isaac Newton. We briefly saw one of the gardens, which were beautiful but very dry, all the grass was dead. We will need to get back to the other gardens at another time. 
Next, we tried to see the Changing of the Guards ceremony at the Horse Guards Parade, but apparently they only last 5-10 minutes and we missed it. So we headed into Covent Garden to see the McMullin pub--Jackie's maiden name is McMullen, slightly off, but she thought her parents would enjoy pictures from this pub. Do I have that right Jack?
On Thursday, Jackie and Craig headed back to Camden Town to do some more shopping and have lunch. We enjoyed supper together, then it was time to get packed, check-in online and get serious about their morning travel. The week fly by even though our flat was steaming hot, their air mattress lost some air, and red wine did not do Craig any good one night...Sophie loved having two more adults to play with and pay attention to her. Jackie even painted Sophie's "pretty" toes one night, something I had never done and of course she loved it. We learned some new songs from the Olson's, Sophie's favorite, criss-cross applesauce...All in all it was a fabulous time and we hope all their stories will motivate others to come and visit us as well! Thanks Olsons! See you again soon!
Our Holiday Home
What an odd thing to take "holiday" where we used to live...nonetheless we had a great trip home to Minnesota and Wisconsin. We loved being able to spend time with family and friends, enjoy our parents cabins at Lake Wilson in Minnesota and Lake Nebagamon in Wisconsin, get some shopping in for supplies and clothes so desperately needed, eat some great meals, caught up with friends and more! It was so nice to do the day to day things like drive the car, get groceries with the car, drive-up and get a coffee, watch a little "tele", let Sophie run around in Grandma's garden (aka yard), use the dryer (ahh, no crunchy undergarments!), and so many other little things...
Some highlights of the trip include meeting our new nephew and cousin Mitchell who was born on the day we left for the US (Jeremy's sister Michelle's first baby); spending a few days with my best friend Teresa and her family; having dinner with friends Val and the Jacobsen family; catching up with members of the Lino Lakes Mom's Club while at the beach; spending a weekend in Eau Claire with my best college gal pals and their families; my sister Jill flying in to visit from Seattle; and spending an entire day shopping for clothes (a luxury I can't afford in London) with my sisters. 
Sophie had a great time playing with her cousins, especially her cousin Mackenzie who taught her to jump off the ledge of a pool, stick her face in the water, pretty much anything Mackenzie did Sophie copied her, even going potty in the outhouse at Grandma and Grandpa T's cabin! She had so much beach time, she was in heaven. Sophie also had her first crush! She has never been around older boys before this summer at Lake Nebagamon she absolutely adored Billy, which is a second cousin to her, he is going into 9th grade in Chicago. Sophie could not get enough of him, she followed him around and when he paid attention to her she would run off. She actually flirting with him--it was hilarious! He was a very good sport about it. Sophie is still talking about him everyday!
In addition to all the fun we had, there was also business to attend to such as doctor, dentist, eye appointments, Sophie's 2-year photos, all of which we managed to squeeze in as well, barely....and Jeremy flew to Denver for a 3-day workshop on his leg of the trip.
I took 8 rolls of film and have posted a variety from those rolls...sorry this is not all of them...I am not digital yet and scanning takes forever....Please check out our photo website to see those.
It was so great to be home and see family and friends! Thanks to all who took time off to be with us and especially to our parents for helping us to and from the airport, our sister and brother-in-law for storing and helping us with our transportation issues! We love and miss you all very much! Hopefully we will be home at the holidays! 
