Being the tourists that we are, we arose early and headed to the Red Bus Sightseeing tour! Now I should mention that Kelsey, Dad, Carson, and I were all still pretty sick. But we went anyway! Because it's London. And you just do that.
Before I get started though, you should know that it was Ava's birthday and her awesome parents got her a power ranger costume and it was the greatest thing that ever happened.
The only available seats were on the uncovered, top of the bus. It was cold, but oh well. I prefer the seats at the top anyway. That's what we did In New York a few years back and if you sit on the bottom, you can't see much.
The tour began and I loved it. I'm gonna be dramatic later in this post, so you should know now. I've fallen in love with London. Obsessed. I honestly want to live there one day. It's so beautiful and alive.
We got to see all of London on that tour. I couldn't stop taking pictures. Everything was beautiful! But when we got our first glimpse of Big Ben, I pooped my pants. (I'm just kidding guys, gross). But seriously, that was the thing I was most excited to see, and I was worried. Sometimes, these historical landmarks that are talked about all the time and you've seen a million pictures of just don't live up to the hype when you finally see them in real life. That was not the case with Big Ben. It's MASSIVE. And gorgeous! And so detailed! And the Parliament building it's attached to is so beautiful! I couldn't stop staring. We drove all around and I kept looking back to get pictured from different angles. I love Big Ben. I want to become a hunchback and live up in the top.
About halfway through the tour the wind started picking up. Then the rain. I was already feeling sick so I wasn't too excited about that. But it kept going. Getting harder and harder. But there were no seats in the covered part of the bus, and I wanted to see everything that I could, gosh dangit! But thirty minutes later, I was soaked and miserable. I was shaking so hard. My bones hurt. We finally just went down and stood, squished between several foreigners, just so I could try to warm up and stop shaking. We got to our stop, the Tower of London, and got off. After my first step onto the ground, I quickly realized that there were some holes in the bottoms of my boots. I've worn these in snow and rain a million times and thought they would be fine, but they weren't. A few steps down the sidewalk and both my boots were filled with water. And I was still sick. And still soaked. And still shaking. By the time we got to the ticket place, I was crying. Like a fool. But I was so miserable! We headed into the Tower of London and luckily went right up into a tower that we explored for a good 30 minutes so I was able to defrost a bit and stop being such a baby. The Tower of London was really cool! Even if it is a place where people were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered, it was so fascinating to learn the history and see these old buildings and old relics from that time period. The rain just set the mood for where we were.
Marshall's face accurately describes how we felt about the weather.
Warming our butts on a heater in one of the towers.
An actor from one of the shows they put on, sand happy birthday to Ava!
After exploring for quite a while, we got some lunch and Nathan had some authentic fish and chips. I took back my promise to be brave and eat fish and got chicken instead. Fish is gross. I don't care what you say.
What's also gross is that my kind little sister, who happened to be wearing two pairs of socks, took off her top pair and gave them to me so I could trade out of soaking wet pair. She is really nice.
We took the bus back through the same route and sat on he bottom this time. We were totally still able to see cool stuff and be warm.
We got pizza and rested up. That night was one of the coolest New Year's celebrations of my life!
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