Tuesday, March 31, 2009

London first impressions: sunny and nicer than New York

Sloane loved the flight from New York to London.
Lance and Grace loved finally getting food and movies on a plane. We hate domestic flights in the USA and all of the supposed cost-cutting strategies.
This is outside Grandma and Grandpa Crisler's apartment in London. We rested up a few hours because we were a little tired after the flight from the US.
Palace Court is a beautiful place and it was nice to be back.
Then we hit the streets to check out this city. We couldn't resist sitting on the upper-deck of a London bus.
Our excitement was only somewhat stymied by the gridlock on Bayswater.
Window shopping on Regent Street
led us straight to Piccadilly Circus.
If you try hard you can just make out Sloane's little face between us.
First time on the London Underground for Sloane and Grace--much more comfortable than New York's rickety old subway.
Tower Bridge

We were too late to get into the Tower of London that night so we spent some time taking pictures around the outside.

St. Paul's Cathedral
This is just outside Leicester Square. We spent most of the day walking around the city and wandering in and out of different streets.
Sloane dug he tube.
Check out the creepy guy peering into the picture in the background.

A long day of travel and sightseeing. We were ready for some sleep.

First leg of Spring Break trip

Sloane's first time in an airplane. She performed well--didn't cry even once on the flight from Denver to JFK.
She even got in a little nap, but she seems to have not been able to shake Uncle Lane's tongue disease.
Here is another view of this now well-documented disorder.
This is yet another first for Sloane: first time in train. This is the Long Island Railroad that took us from Jamaica Station to Penn Station in Manhattan. It was a stinky ride.
Lance in Times Square. He had to carry all of the bags this trip.

Grace got to carry Sloane--not such a bad trade. This was the first time that any of us had been to Times Square. We had a 7 hour layover at JFK so we thought we could at least check out some part of New York. It was cold, rainy, and really touristy.
Sloane liked the horses.
Grace holding her ground on the Air Train back to JFK.