Despite my classes Mom and Dad were fully equipped with a meticulous schedule. I found it crumpled amongst Rolaid wrappers and Guinness Factory napkins in Dad's pockets later. Regardless they made it to the Tower of London successfully. They were  (un)fortunate enough to witness the execution of a pigeon by one of the White Tower raven. Long Live England!

After class I made my way to Leicester Square to pick up Billy Elliot tickets for the night! Unfortunately I couldn't join because of an Art midterm but we had a Bella Italiano dinner outside the theatre before. They loved the show! I have seen the show once and loved it - much better with a British audience...they crack up at all of the homeland jokes while you're still trying to make out the garble that just came out of their mouths.

The next day I had the morning free so a bus tour was on the schedule. Unfortunately Dad for reasons unknown (chocolate, Guinness and heavily-cheesed pasta) was very sick in bed. Mom and I got on the Original Tour Bus (highly recommended for visitors!!). The tour guide was British humor to the tee. We were "Boston" the entire tour and the two, sweet old ladies next to us were not only the "gangsters from Churley," but also the former Bond girls from earlier films.  I was not forgiven for wearing a bow the height of Big Ben's tower on my head either. The tour was wonderful - it was rewarding filling my Mom's ear with small facts I had learned and pointing out some of my favorite parts of the city. If it wasn't already abundantly clear: I am in love with London and all it has to offer.

I left Mom to tour Westminster Abbey with specific instructions to plot a sneaky entrance for the Royal Wedding. 

After Art I met up with Mom and Zana to do see Buckingham, Horse Guard's Parade (more below) and Trafalgar Square including the National Gallery and a quick trip into the National Portrait Gallery to see the new William and Harry photograph. We got Mom's picture by the Lions and saw the Olympic countdown for the first time.

The Queen is in!

2012 London Olympics Countdown

We stumbled upon the  Horse Guard's Parade changing of the guard. History gets a good laugh from some of the military and royal traditions, but this was bizarre - a mix between Mom checking to make sure everything is buttoned and neat to praying the horses don't down one of the guards or chew through their reins.

The next day I got more time with Mom and Dad so had breakfast and then buzzed over to the Imperial War Museum. We lost Dad for the entire visit - his mistake as he also missed the entire WWI and WWII exhibits downstairs. Show a man a life-size airplane and u-boat and he's entertained for hours apparently.  Mom and I meantime hit the heart of the museum in the ground galleries of WWI and WWII. Definitely my favorite museum so far in all of London. So much to explore and a really good insight to why London and Great Britain are how they are today from major changes in the last century.

The great distractors - Imperial War Museum 

After my actual history class we visited St James' Park and Buckingham with Dad and Trafalgar for HIS picture with the Lions and then went to Harrods. There may or may not be a Harrod Rewards card with the Clancy name on it. We can't be sure of these things. Souvenirs for hosts in other countries and two Harrods plastic bags later we were off. Dad had a bed to be reaquainted with but Mom and I had a St Patrick's Day to celebrate London-style....fish n chips and too much cheap wine! We sampled some overcrowded, rowdy with very cute Irish men who couldn't wait to drunkenly whisper (shout) "Americans" behind our back after leaving because of no food. The more responsible thing to do would have probably been to ask them to join us...their stomachs could have used a food lining.

Too cute to not add these guys to the post

St James' Park..Spring is here! 

Disney World of London

Any department store that dedicates an entire section to chocolate knows what they're doing

The Harrod's police bear with his two favorite shoppers

We finally settled on a typical fish n chips solely joint and had girl talk into the wee hours of St Patrick's Day over two bottles of wine. Rough life.

Well rough life for those of us who needed to be up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 4:00 a.m. bus for a 4:30 a.m. train for a 6:00 a.m. flight. Ouch. And for those of us who were not packed, printed out or entirely sober. So much for those meticulous agendas.