wicked.

[starbucks run:)]

first full day in london and it was lovely:) it was nice and cool outside - prolly in the 60's - and overcast, raining off and on throughout the day as is typical of london weather lol.
after a nice breakfast in the hotel this morning, we set out to buy our wicked tickets for this evening from the theater a couple blocks away. after purchasing them, as well as our big bus tour tickets and tickets for the tower of london, we walked over to buckingham palace to watch the exchange of the guard. it was cool and the palace is beautiful. (changing of the guard)
after watching the procession, we ventured over to catch the our bus at the first stop on the tour. we spent our morning thereafter atop the big red double-decker bus:) as we rode about, i rmred how hot it's been back home and was SO greatful to be in the chill of london haha. the architecture here is great and im already planning out a weekend adventure to carry out by myself if i ever get the chance to venture back here when im older (say college age?) lol:)

[little chilled/damp, but happily so:)](the biggest apple store in the world. sick. i know)(st paul's cathedral. beautiful.)
a little before we got to the london tower though, i started cramping like freaking craaazzyyyy.. it was horrible. like.. i cant even tell you. it was really frustrating too bc it was kinda ruining my time there - and london tower was one of the main things i'd really been interested in exploring. tho after the basic tour (which didnt rly go into any of the buildings except the one chapel) i was so miserable, we were just going to go see the crown jewels and then head over to the boat tour to finish our day. but the line into that attraction was like down and around the huge.. idk palace-structure? lol. it was loongg.. and i was like dang.. should we even do this (bc nana and grandad have both already seen this stuff). well nana (true to form) of course goes into the gift shop and starts talking to i guess one of the ladies at the counter, asking if there are any crown jewels left in the buckingham palace museum and if not if she could maybe just get me a book with the pictures of them in it bc i was so miserable etc. well, long story short, the lady (just being incredibly nice) asks her manager permission and then took us through the back into the exhibit and back through up to the front so we wouldnt have to wait in the line. i was SO greatful. Lord is good:) my advil was taking an UNNATURALLY longgg time to kick in and so getting through the exhibit and still getting to see it all was perfect. He always comes through haha; thank goooodness.

(london tower - where we began our boat tour)

the boat tour was next down the river, from the london tower all the way down to big ben. it was great and i got some really great pictures along the way. it helped the experience that my advil did finally kick in and our tour guide was hilarious. (big ben from the river)
after riding back into buckingham palace and walking maybe a block to our hotel, we prepped up and headed to dinner at a little nook-in-the-wall italian restaurant just down the road. it was great food, and we were all glad to have something a little different from rice, beans and range chicken. lol.
with dinner done, we headed back to the hotel to change into something slightly nicer and then over to the theatre for our show to complete the night. i think new york was still a tad better, but tonights performance was still great and nana really enjoyed it. grandad appreciated the music but was a little lost in all the story line - of the connections between it and wizard of oz and so forth. today was great if somewhat tiring. tomorrow im not exactly sure what the plan is. oxford i believe? but i dont know much past that..ill keep ya'll updated tho. goodnight!