Day 1 - Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon - Katie

In 2018, my mother and I took a trip to Ireland. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more. Immediately after that trip, we started planning our next grand adventure, which we decided would be London and Dublin. We planned,  saved, and planned some more. Then 2020 happened.  The world and our plans turned upside down. 

But thanks to an amazing travel agent (Take the Trip Travel) that worked with everything we wanted to do and gave us some great suggestions, this year was our year.

A good omen for the trip started from the very beginning. My husband's cousin is stationed outside of London and had already offered us help with whatever we needed. Fate apparently smiling down on us, she not only ended up flying back home when we did, but ended up on the same flights due to a change in her schedule. 

Once she expertly explained how to navigate the London Tube system (a skill we would master within the week) and dropped us off at our hotel, it finally hit us. We were standing on the sidewalk. In London. We were looking at our hotel. In London. Oh, and I suppose I should mention the small fact that our hotel was ACROSS THE ROAD FROM BUCKINGHAM PALACE! After dropping our bags off at the hotel we just stood there, mouths open, looking like complete and total tourists. We were looking at the back side of Buckingham Palace. THE Buckingham Palace. 

We left our bags with Kevin, the man at the Rubens who has a knack for taking care of people and an accent reminiscent of My Fair Lady and set out exploring (it was still a while before we could check in). We happened upon the very end of the Changing of the Guards ceremony. Being on a weekend, there were throngs and throngs, squeezed into every possible vantage point...on the sidewalks, on the road, climbing on the Victoria Memorial Statue (Big Vic, as I affectionately called her) to get a glimpse of the daily ceremony. We heard the band play to usher out the old guard and usher in the new, and saw them march away from the palace. 

We walked around, checked out some shops, got some lunch, and then took a much-needed nap in preparation for the "main event" for the day...a Mother's Day tea on a vintage double-decker bus. Yes, Mother's Day in the UK is March 19th, meaning Mom gets to celebrate it twice this year (and every other year, she has told us). Throughout our trip, we came to the conclusion that the UK definitely beats the snot out of us when it comes to desserts.  I probably should have saved some more for later, but I lacked the self-control. It took us around landmarks like the Marble Arch, London Oratory, Albert Memorial, Kensington Palace, and the Royal Albert Hall. We sipped tea in souvenir mugs, devoured delicious pastries and sandwiches, and took in all the sights, matching them to the facts being cranked out of the speakers on the bus. Our jet lag was drowned out by the upbeat jazzy pop songs flowing through the bus, and our excitement could not be contained. 

We walked through the beautifully-lit city back to our hotel and melted into our posh hotel bed, the high of finally being in London slowly giving way to jet lag. This Mother's Day was definitely one for the books.