LONDON, Baby, Yeah!

You're supposed to read the title of this post a la Austin Powers. Go ahead, read it again. :)

We're in London! Wahoo! So, that's my surprise vacation destination, and I still kind of can't believe it.

Today we got to our hotel about 1:00 local time, I think...and we're both tired, so we just went to see a few things this afternoon. We saw the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge, and London Bridge (it's not falling down; it's also, unexpectedly, just a regular bridge), and we walked around Trafalgar Square for a bit. I had real English fish and chips for dinner (preserved for posterity in the photo here), which was AWESOME (but also not that much unlike fish and chips at home...except that these were in LONDON). Also, I found it funny that that tiny patch of green on my plate was considered a "mixed salad." It was like three lettuce leaves and a cucumber. I guess perhaps they're not so into the lettuce here.

Tomorrow, we're having lunch with one of Brock's friends, and I think we're going to check out the National Gallery. The National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery are really close to our hotel. When we were walking from the Underground station to our hotel, we saw Big Ben. I almost fainted. Okay, not really, but wow - that was the moment I really felt like I was in London.

My favorite phrase from today is, "Mind the gap." The recorded voice on the Tube says this at almost every stop, and it just makes me laugh. It's so British and polite to "mind the gap." We minded the gap very well and negotiated the Tube without any real trouble. Brock has this weirdly accurate, innate sense of direction that enabled us to find everything we were looking for, and once you find the right station, the train is pretty easy to figure out. You just have to mind the gap. :)

My husband is the best ever. Period.