Live in LONDON!!!

Well, sorry it's taken so long, things have been really really crazy!! We thought we'd have internet in our room, as advertised, but it was sooo not the case.... long story. Anyway, I will get all our cool pictures up on here as soon as I get home, and back to my computer. Well, we have been busy....

Tuesday, we flew to Heathrow, waited for mom and dad to arrive, and then we got to our hotel, here in London by aboug 11 pm, and it was SOOOO HOT!! London is having the biggest heatwave in 7 years right now. People are falling down in the subway stations because of heat exhaustion, and the streets are melting, they're actually melting!!! The British people here talk about it all the time, and unless there's a new press release on Michael Jackson, then that's all the newspapers print about.

Wednesday we went on an amazing walking tour, saw Buckingham Palace, Wellington Arch, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Parliament, The Clarence House (where Prince Charle's and family live - and they were HOME!!!) We then got to see some more sights, and even scored front row seats to WICKED for the whole family!! SO AMAZING!! It was a little weird to have everybody in Wicked have an English accent, but it was awesome. Dad and Mitch had seats off to the side, but mom and I were in the slam dam middle, front row... for only 25 pounds!!! AMAZING!!!!

Thursday, we saw even more sights around London. We went on another walking tour, and saw the City of London, St. Paul's Cathedral, saw places where Harry Potter was filimed, and then we went to the National Gallery... it was SO HOT AND HUMID THAT DAY!!! It was miserable, so we opted to go to the art museum where it was climate controlled and nice and cool. It was such a smart idea, but only like 2,000 other people had the same idea too!! haha... it was awesome. I found one of my new favorite paintings ever.... Supper in Emmaus by Caravaggio. It just hit me really hard, and this really nice old lady was giving a 10 minute talk all about the painting, and I was just captivated! It was so cool!!

Then that night mom and I went to see 'A Little Night Music'.... which by the way has the best music EVER!! I LOVE IT!!! The only thing was that it was sooo hot in the theater. I felt so bad for the actors, they were wearing these huge costumes, under tons of lights, in MAJOR heat... right after bows, you could see them all ripping off their wigs and jackets, they were DONE!! I don't blame them either it was really hot!! It was really hard to sleep that night, as we have a 4th floor apartment, with no air conditioning.... not so much fun....

Friday was busy as well. We went to the Tower of London, and saw the Tower Bridge. We saw the Crown Jewels, which was totally amazing. It's hard to believe that so many jewels are on a single crown or scepter... no way!!! Funny thing was, on our way there we saw this girl with like 3 huge suitcases, in the subway, trying to manuever them herself, so we offered her a hand, as she desperately needed it. We got her stuff on the subway, and it just turned out that she was going to the same stop as us.... how cool!! We got to talking, turns out, she is a return missionary, from Orem, graduated from Orem High, is a musical theaer major at BYU that just finished a semester abroad in England, and is working at EFY this summer!! How totally cool and random is that? It's not often you find someone like that on the underground! I even got her number so I can look her up when I get to Provo... totally awesome!

Mom and Dad went on a Charles Dicken's walking tour, and Mitch and I headed over to Harrods, a huge department story, and got some lunch. Then we met up for dinner, and Mom and I went to go see Alan Menken's new musical, 'Sister Act, the Musical'. It was really fun, some great songs, and the lead, a newbie, Patina Miller, was AWESOME!!! I didn't care for the story very much, and they tread on some spiritual ground in the Catholic Church, but it was a fun show, and I could see it doing well when it transfers to Broadway next year.

While we saw that, Dad and Mitch went and got us tickets to see Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens for Saturday night. They've erected this huge tent, and the characters fly around the tent, over the audience, while they use projections on the tent for the scenery and backdrop, it should be very cool, we've had quite a few people recommend it, so it should be awesome!!

We have had so much, there is just so much history here!! It's hard to believe how old this city really is!! Anyway, I hope things are going well, I will post pictures when I get home, we've got tons, but will be getting even more!!! Have fun, enjoy your wonderful 4th of July.... while we celebrate it in the country we rebelled from!! haha... interesting irony there isn't it... haha....

Love, James