London!

After we met up with Brandon, around 11 pm, we taxi-ed our way to the hotel. We stayed up sharing the many adventures over the last two days and eventually fell to sleep.

First thing on Thanksgiving day morning was to head to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. We had the best view yet out of our 3 different trips there. Next, we showed Mom a few of the major spots in London such as Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. We then made our way to the river cruise meeting point and enjoyed the next 45 minutes floating down the River Thames. It was a new event for the Riggs as well and we all agreed it was a great, educational overview of London. Immediately after our cruise we hit the London Eye. As you can see, we didn't waste much time! Mom was loving all these activities and new experiences just as much as we loved taking her around. We then went to Trafalgar Square, a must-see stop in London. We made a quick stop into the National Gallery (it was free) to see the highlights (Van Gogh and Monet) and then rushed back to the hotel to freshen up for our evening. 30 minuts later we were out the door and heading to our dinner reservations. We went to Gaucho, one of our all time favorite restaurants, which is known for their AMAZING steaks! There was no traditional turkey consumption involved this Thanksgiving, but frankly, it was okay. I was very happy with my Rib Eye. The last event of the day was our wonderful show, Mary Poppins. It was over 2 hours of sheer joy and entertainment. The talent and entire performance was spectacular! By the time the show was over, we had packed enough in ONE day to last a whole week and were quite tired. We retired to our hotel and rested our traveled bodies. It was pretty much one of the greatest and busiest days ever!

Friday consisted of: touring the Tower of London, going to the British Museum, and ending our time in London with a trip to Harrod's. We shopped the 7 floor, 4.5 acre site for a little over an hour. This department store has over 1 million square feet of selling space including 28 restaurants. It's also just so happens to be the only place in London that you can get Krispy Kreme doughnuts. While at Harrod's, Brandon commented that he loved being with the masses and a part of the the hustle and bustle shopping atmosphere. This was music to my ears because I too (as well as Mom and Amy) love the energy and excitement of shopping during the busy holiday season. In fact, Mom made a similar comment to me only minutes later. What a great fit Brandon is with our family.

Our full bellies made our way to the train station where we departed London at 8:00 pm. In typical Rigg fashion... we made our train with only 4-5 minutes to spare and had to rush, rush, rush to get there in time! We dropped Mom off at the train station platform while Brandon and I sprinted as fast as we could to pick up our luggage. Although, to our credit, we did plan plenty of time to get there early, but had a mix-up at dinner that slowed things down. Then because of the huge delay in getting our dinner, we received dessert on the house. And even though we were already running late, who could turn down free chocolate tiramisu! I mean seriously. I'll take a free dessert with a little running anyday! Thankfully, it all worked out and we made our train. We were back in Harrogate that night.

Mom was such a trooper in hanging in there and dealing with our very busy schedule we planned for her. It was definitely a fast-paced first four days of her vacation, but when you only have 1.5 days in Paris and 2 days in London, you have to be speedy. You'll be happy to know, however, that at this point of her trip, things slooooowed down and we made sure the next 3 days of her time were just as fun, but very relaxing. It was time to kick in the laid back schedule. In conclusion, we had an awesome time in London! I'll wrap up the last part of Mom's trip next time.

Ich liebe dich.