With the time change, the big kids and I got up super early the morning after our long flight. We ate breakfast at 5am, which maybe isn’t all that early for some, but the Hendrychs family members only see that hour when breastfeeding or barfing.

We were on the road on a crisp spring morning before 8am, speeding east across Washington. I‘d choose eight hours in a car with four children over eight hours in a plane any day. We made easy progress across Washington, Idaho, and finally, northwest Montana. The sunny spring day felt just like the day we left Montana in late October. For a moment, it almost felt like we had just been gone for a weekend trip. How could it be that a quarter of Jude’s young life has been spent away from home?

Our friend Kyle met us at the Missoula airport, where we turned in our rental car. One hour later, and we were finally home.

We love our mountain view, peaceful neighborhood, and house. We’ve done our best with what we have, and we’ve worked hard to make our home and property comfortable and fun. So my first thought pulling into the driveway naturally went towards wondering why we even left all this. Although I need more time to reflect more fully on our trip, I already know that one of the most beautiful things about taking a sabbatical away from home is learning to more fully appreciate home, with all its boredom, chores, hard work, and annoying predictability. There is nothing like a long trip to make you yearn for home. We experienced this last time we took a sabbatical (scroll way down to read about that), and I’m sure we will experience it next time as well. Need to get rid of your restless feeling of wanderlust? Just leave home for a few months longer than makes sense.

We had a happy reunion with our fluffy dog. The poor guy is a little overwhelmed by our chaos and missing his quiet life of luxury with our dog-loving house sitters. I rolled a suitcase through the house today, and I swear he looked almost hopeful for a moment.

Speaking of suitcases, as of forty-right hours after returning home, and over five days after checking the bag in Dublin, we still don’t have our suitcase. It’s in Seattle now, and I’m starting to wonder if anyone will ever do what’s required to get it to our front door.

And that’s that, I suppose. Sabbatical 2.0 complete. We forgot to take a final family picture on our excitement to be home, but we are home, I promise.

I’m planning on writing at least a little more as we reflect on our trip and get back into normal life again. I wonder – is there anything that you, dear reader, would like to know about our trip? A few people have recently asked me a few questions about some of the logistics and our favorite this and that. If you are curious about anything specific, please comment below or reach out to me directly. A few questions will give me an excuse to write again, a good thing since I’m not quite ready to give it up!

We left Iceland several days ago. I had been carrying so much anxiety about our long flight home. I’ve dreaded that flight since the day we booked it last summer. It just seemed impossible that we could get through such a long chunk of time without really struggling with Jude. And struggle we did, for eight hours. But we’re on the other side of it now. The big kids entertained themselves with a month’s worth of screen time and never slept even though their normal bedtime happened about halfway through all those hours of flight. Jude was very difficult to entertain. He missed his nap that day because of the timing of heading to the airport. He conked out for maybe 45 minutes early on during the flight and was finally tired enough to sleep quite soundly for the last hour. He screamed plenty, proudly demonstrated his willful personality, charmed zero adults around us, and was generally a pain. But as my mom says, we’ll never see any of the people in the seats around us again. We will likely remember them for the colds they must have given us, but time will tell on that.

We walked through the Seattle airport in a less zombie-like state than I had expected. We all felt so excited and thankful to be that much closer to home, and even though the kids didn’t have to deal with as much of the difficulty of being in a foreign country, they were obviously glad to be back in the USA too. I suppose they probably pick up on plenty of our stress and anxiety subconsciously.

After learning that Nic’s bag didn’t make it onto our flight as we had been told it would, we went to collect our rental car. It would have been much easier to fly home from Seattle, but we couldn’t make that work in an affordable way. Just on the short jaunt over to the rental car, Laila and I conversed with several random strangers, a feat not always as easily accomplished outside of our own home country. We’ve never been so happy to hear American accents and to look around at familiar things. Even if Nic and I haven’t spent much time in Seattle, every little thing about driving and picking up a few groceries was familiar and easy to navigate – what a relief!

Feeling so incredibly tired, we ate a quick snack and settled in to one last set of unfamiliar bedsheets. But in this case, one room’s bedding matched sheets we purchased at Target a few years ago – ah, familiarity!

We warmed up for our long transatlantic flight with a few hours’ flight north to Iceland. We had been watching the weather nervously, since snow and wind had been battering Iceland recently. A number of flights were cancelled the day before our arrival, but we arrived under calm skies, with full knowledge that a big storm was forecast for our one full day in Iceland. We mentioned our previous arrival in a blizzard and the upcoming storm to the passport control lady, and she joked with us that it was our fault: we brought the storms to Iceland!

Nic’s bag didn’t make the trip from Dublin, unfortunately. We’ve been surprised to not have any luggage hiccups before this. So Nic and the boys were stuck in their clothes, and Jude borrowed pajamas from his big sister. Morgan may or may not have borrowed some pink polka-dot undies from his big sister, but he wouldn’t want me to talk about that!

In typical Iceland form, we experienced some struggles. After getting a few groceries and plenty of skyr, we headed to our Airbnb. I couldn’t find a suitable place close to the airport, so we drove out a bit to an area a short distance outside of civilization. Recent unplowed snowfall made it difficult to navigate the neighborhood. Twice Nic had to back down a hill and try again to get up it with momentum. Our rental van lacked four wheel drive and any kind of decent traction. We couldn’t figure out the precise location of our house either and stopped to ask a neighbor.

Once safely settled in our Airbnb, we waited for the storm in cozy warmth. About seven inches of snow later, Nic headed out to evaluate the driveway and neighborhood exit. With only one outfit and pair of shoes, Nic fastened trash bags onto his feet to make himself boots! A short time into shoveling the heavy, wet snow, our only shovel broke. Fortunately, our host came to the rescue surprisingly quickly and hired a friend to plow us out. We never could have driven through the drifts with that van, and even with a few working shovels, it would have taken both of us several hours to clear the path. In the meantime, nearly all flights were cancelled that day, including the Dublin flight that was going to bring us our bag.

We used our snow day to rest and finish Quinn’s quarter of school. I am calling this her kindergarten school year, but this little math whiz is ripping through first grade math like it’s a walk in the park. In one sense, it has been fairly easy to keep school going with Nic around and more time on my hands, but even with the extra help, it really felt like hard work to get it all done. I’m proud to say that we are on track to finish the school year on time and managed to submit all our quarterly portfolio assignments on time from Europe. For social studies and science, the girls completed country information pages for many of the places we traveled, as well as science-themed assignments based on what we were seeing as we traveled. We taped their country pages into notebooks we carried, and the notebooks can now serve as a fun reminder of our travels.

Morgan’s schooling fell through the cracks majorly. We brought his writing book on our trip, and the poor kid lugged that book all over Europe without using it much. This is the year he was supposed to learn how to write his letters and learn enough sounds to be set up well for reading next year. When I did find the time to sit down with Morgan, neither of us could quite find the patience required to teach a lefty preschool boy to write, so we will have to work more on his school now that we’re back! Quinn started kindergarten math along with Laila when she was Morgan’s age, so I have felt bad at times for not starting math early with Morgan as well. There was no way that was going to happen on this trip! The good news on that front is that, in true third kid fashion, he’s already absorbed a ton of math and constantly surprises me with the acquired knowledge I never sat down to teach him. Hooray!

We left Scotland for a brief stop in Dublin. A few months ago I tried unsuccessfully to get our flights changed to go straight to Iceland and then home from Edinburgh. Dublin was proving difficult for both affordable lodging and transportation, so it would have been easier to skip it altogether and shave a few days off our trip. Nothing worked well enough to make the change, though, so to Dublin we went after all.

By the time we arrived in Dublin, we all felt pretty tired. Even with our small window of time to see and do things, inertia kept us at home base for our entire first day. As home draws nearer, we feel the inspiration to explore waning. The kids enjoyed the huge playground across the street, and Laila finished her school assignments for the quarter and earned her spring break.

We did all travel downtown one day. Our general impression was that Dublin is full of pubs and not a whole lot else of interest to us. I searched unsuccessfully for a Christmas ornament to add to our trip ornament cache, since the only options I could find were tacky tourist stuff. The kids found a few used books, but we didn’t see nearly as many used bookstores as we expected.

We toured Christ Church Cathedral, where the kids searched for the items on their scavenger hunt list. With our flagging energy and interest, we might not have looked at everything as thoroughly without that activity. Early manuscripts date the cathedral at this location as early as 1030.

After a beautiful lunch in a blossoming spring garden nook, we went down the road to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Only 800 years old, this cathedral was built on the site where St. Patrick baptized many Irish people into Christianity in the fifth century.

The family favorite in Dublin was easily our stop at Butlers Chocolate Café. The Irish love their sweets, and combining chocolate and coffee in one store is of course genius. The big kids slurped down their own hot chocolates (a rare opportunity to not have to share), while we enjoyed our caffeine boost. Drinks come with the option to add whipped cream and chocolate shavings as well as a free fancy individual truffle of choice! Delicious!

I went on one last yarn shopping trip on our last day in Dublin and found some fun yarn from an Irish brand I’ve used once before. I won’t publicly release to the internet how much yarn I’m bringing home in my suitcase, but it’s enough that Nic took it upon himself to count the skeins and poke fun at me. Our baggage has slowly lost weight as we’ve used up clothing and school supplies, so why not fill it with yarn? I have few opportunities to yarn shop in person at home, and I’m bringing home enough yarn to keep my fingers busy for the next year. Each yarn purchase serves as a reminder of some special place in Europe, and those memories will live on as I work with the yarn and eventually wear it. I’ve been knitting daily on our trip; it’s truly a necessary part of my mental health routine, and I’m thankful to have a portable hobby.

That’s how you pronounce it like a local, in case you wanted to know.

Even in Scotland, castles and cathedrals have begun to seem commonplace (even occasionally boring) to us as we have now seen so many. After five months of travel, we get up and out the door many days to see the sights, but it has become so routine that it feels a bit like the normal tedium of regular life. We’re not quite dragging ourselves to the next thing as if it’s a chore, but we are heading in that direction.

Nevertheless, Scotland treated us well with fair weather and plenty of sunshine. We spent six days in Leith, which is a bit north of downtown Edinburgh. Perhaps it’s just the time of year, but we loved the peace and quiet of Leith, especially in the early morning and late evening hours. We could walk the wide sidewalks and pedestrian bridges as a family without feeling like we were constantly getting in someone else’s way. (On that topic, there must be a law of physics to describe the way four American children will spontaneously spread out and take up way more room than necessary time after time no matter how often they are asked to do the opposite.)

We joined all the other tourists in town as we explored Edinburgh Castle, set dramatically atop a rocky outcrop above the rest of the city. History in this part of the world makes American history seem incredibly short and simple. One of the many displays at the castle showed the numerous times the castle changed hands during a century, and people have built fortresses on that rock since the Iron Age. And the complexity of the history does not draw me in. At least on a trip like this, with kids in tow, I tend to stop reading displays and engage even less given how impossible it feels to actually understand what I’m looking at. Fortunately for me, an attraction like the castle offers amazing views and all kinds of nooks and crannies to physically explore as a side to the heavy main dish of information.

We left the crowded castle to find St. Giles’ Cathedral, a church with over 900 years of working history. I regret not being able to attend a service in this beautiful building.

On another sunny day we went to see the super modern Scottish Parliament Building. We mainly went to see the interesting architecture, not realizing the significance of the Scottish Parliament, which was founded a mere 27 years ago! The original Parliament of Scotland ceased to exist when Scotland merged with England to become the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Scotland’s own elected officials now have the power to legislate in many areas. And by the way, Scotland athletes compete as part of Great Britain. Scotland is a country but is not a sovereign state.

A short walk across the street brought us to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Scottish residence of the British monarch. We couldn’t take any pictures inside, but we wandered through many impressive and elegant rooms, including the bedroom of Mary, Queen of Scots. King Charles spends a week here each year, so it was interesting to walk through a building still used by royalty. We added the courtyard to our list of lunch spots with a view.

Also notable in Scotland: a fun yarn-shopping excursion for me where I walked seven miles and checked out all the major yarn stores in Edinburgh. And Jude turned two! We celebrated with a special playground trip, scones, and Simnel cake for his birthday treat (a fruitcake traditionally served at this time of the year). He did so well blowing out the candle and then screamed when he grabbed it and burned his fat little hand.

Even with our flagging enthusiasm, we could’ve spent a lot more time in Edinburgh, and we would like to explore the wilder parts of Scotland as well.

Continuing northward, we finished our time in England in beautiful Berwick-upon-Tweed, which sits just a few miles south of the Scottish border.

Berwick feels compact and walkable, edged on one side by cliffs and a beach. The river Tweed cuts through town, crossed by an old bridge, a newer bridge, and an impressive viaduct. The Elizabethan walls surrounding much of town are one of the best preserved examples of bastioned walls in all of Europe. Neat and tidy paved paths follow the walls, with many signs warning you to keep track of dogs and children given the distance you could fall from the walls and enormous mounds of earth.

We enjoyed brisk, windy sunshine most days, with only one day reminding us of rainy Portugal. The kids went from mittens and hats to just long sleeves and back again to layers in the space of an hour. The lower temperatures haven’t necessary been completely comfortable, but the UK weather overall has surpassed our expectations. We expected better conditions in Portugal and worse in the UK, and after our earlier rainy days this winter, we appreciate each dry day so much.

We splurged and arranged a taxi ride to Lindisfarne, also known as the Holy Island. To visit Lindisfarne, you have to first check safe crossing times. This tidal island can be accessed by several miles of road that the tide covers completely for part of each day. Our taxi driver told us that a car a week has to be fished out of the water.

The Holy Island is considered the cradle of English Christianity with its history of important saints based here. Many centuries ago, residents of Lindisfarne created the illuminated Lindisfarne Gospels. Lindisfarne is also the site of the first Viking invasion of Great Britain.

We froze a bit in the strong wind, but we managed to see the major sights in a few hours before catching our ride back to home base. The island is not necessarily extremely dramatic or stunning, but it captures your attention quietly with its feeling of separation from the mainland for so many hours of each day. It’s not hard to picture religious folks seeking silence and solitude here, nor is it difficult to imagine Viking longboats appearing on the horizon.

We interrupt this broadcast for a special segment brought to you by a rare solo adventure with Nic, written by the man himself…

I went on a historical pilgrimage to the coastal town of Bamburgh (pronounced Bam-bruh), a half hour bus ride from our lodging in Berwick. This place was on my bucket list, and Katie suggested I go during nap time. I haven’t had much time to solo adventure on this trip, and it was a much needed break and an awesome experience!

Bamburgh Castle is rich in history and a remarkable fortress with tales of epic battles, total structural demolition via canon fire during the War of the Roses followed by 200 years of vacancy and ruin, several failed attempts at rebuilding it, and then finally multiple generations maintaining it as it is today. The sprawling castle sits atop a massive protruding rocky fin. It is striking from every angle inside and out and filled with armor, weapons, exhibits and various period artifacts.

More recently, it has had a resurgence of tourism since part of The Last Kingdom TV series was filmed there, a fantastic book series and show that somewhat accurately follows the conquest of the Danes’ raid on Lindisfarne and the decades that followed ultimately leading to Saxon control of the kingdom. The great hall has some of the costumes worn by the show’s main characters, and much of the gift shop celebrates the historical fiction with some themed trinkets and collectibles. After a couple of hours exploring the castle, I headed back to Berwick on a double decker bus and helped put the kiddies to bed. I would love to go back to Bamburgh someday and spend more time exploring the town, castle and beach!

During our time in York we were fortunate to be able to visit the York Minster several times. We’ve seen so many old churches now, but this one stood out as very special and stunning.

Our first visit was to attend an Evensong service. We were able to sit in the Quire, an ornate wooden seating area for the choir. Jude didn’t cooperate during the service, but the other kids really enjoyed the formal song-based service and tried to follow along in the Common Book of Prayer. Our hearts soared to the sounds of the majestic organ and humanity. As we listened to the choir sing an entire (lengthy) psalm, we heard the organ and voices mirror the tone of the words, varying from soft and gentle to loud and powerful. To sit surrounded by centuries-old stained glass panels, to hear the beautiful music, and to soak in the spiritual atmosphere was a unique privilege.

We took our full spirits and next filled up our empty bellies with fish and chips. With delicious fish and chips everywhere, we’ve gotten almost as much take-out in our brief time in the UK as on the rest of our trip. Who doesn’t love a fried piece of cod or haddock? We’ve sampled fish and chips from a handful of restaurants and premade from our favorite fancy-ish grocery store, M&S Foods. It’s all been delicious, and the whole family devours both fish and chips alike. We’ve read the other items on the menu with great curiosity: chips buttie, mushy peas, etc. Do American menu options require Google for the Brits?

We returned to the Minster on our last full day in York, the entire family voting to travel via a portion of the wall. This time, we paid the hefty entrance fee. Many churches in the UK list their daily running costs in close proximity to their entrance fee. The York Minster requires something like £33,000 per day to run!

We spent too short a time wandering the awe-inspiring cathedral. The British cathedrals we’ve visited don’t have half the paintings we saw in Belgian and Italian cathedrals, but the stained glass here surpasses all other stained glass we’ve seen on this trip in quantity at the very least. While Nic looks at engineering and woodworking, I can’t help but look at the stained glass. The stories and colors draw me in every time.

The octagonal Chapter House, ceilings soaring miraculously without a center column, would have been an incredible place to sit for an hour, but alas, our children. Completed in 1290 and chock full of outstanding 13th-century stained glass, I will remember this space as one of the most beautiful and amazing pieces of human accomplishment I have ever seen.

By the time we got to the crypt, hunger threatened, so our time learning about the foundations of the building was cut short. The Minster was built right on top of fascinating layers of history dating back to Roman times. You can even see parts of Roman and then Anglo-Saxon excavations in the crypt. Amazing!

I returned to the Minster early on the morning of our departure for morning Matins. For about twenty minutes, I joined the clergy and a handful of regulars to say morning prayers. I wish every person on earth could experience such a peaceful and beautiful start to his or her day. During the service, I sat facing the stunning 600 year-old Great East Window, one of the largest surviving narrative windows in the entire world. This moment of orderly and peaceful prayer was truly a gift, and I walked away feeling that the cathedral and the experiences it offers had truly been a gift to each of us during our time in York.

Now that I’ve more than exceeded a reasonable limit of superlative adjectives, I’ll bring us back to reality.

We traveled north from York to Newcastle. We stashed our luggage for a few hours (surprisingly expensive), so we could wander the city before taking the metro out to Sunderland. In the middle of our morning transportation maneuvers, we had learned that our airbnb host had not been able to get the guest before us to leave the property. Long story short, our host had a different house for us for one night and most of the next day. It all worked out just fine, but the inferior substitute and less-than-ideal neighborhood gave us an initial bad impression of Sunderland.

Once we got into the house we had reserved, we were able to relax and explore. Highlights of the area: walking to Roker Beach and out to the Roker Lighthouse, a day trip to Seaham’s glass beach, delicious fish and chips by the ocean while Jude screamed and threw tantrums – guaranteed to not aid digestion.

If there is anywhere we’ve visited so far that I would first choose to live long term, it’s beautiful, charming, ancient, atmospheric York. Stuffed full of history and gorgeous architecture, this town has been a worthy stop over the last few days. The daffodils are shining happily, and people have been warm and friendly. There is no end to the narrow streets packed with unique shops and a handful of talented street entertainers. It’s rather magical, this officially most haunted city in the world.

At the recommendation of a chatty fellow traveler we met in the train station, we first explored the city walls. Forming a loop of a little over two miles, the walls make a great urban hike through history. Many portions of the walls have a bit of a drop on one side, but we managed to stay upright, kids and all.

We ate lunch by the most intact portion of the Roman wall. The kids played by an ancient tower about 1700 years old while we sat with the crisp spring sunshine on our faces. The list of fantastic lunch spots continues to grow!

Following the wall we came across spectacular views of the York Minster, which we haven’t yet visited. We finished our circuit just in time for Jude’s nap, which we try to arrange daily if possible.

The following day we explored the National Railway Museum, an enormous compilation of engines, train cars, and all sorts of rail-related items. We saw the oldest, biggest, fastest this and that. One of Morgan’s favorite books is a huge picture book of transportation vehicles, and I’m sure many of the trains pictured in that book live at this museum.

Meanwhile, spring arrives a bit more with each passing day. From the crocuses to the buzzing bees to the early blooms on trees, it’s a beautiful time of year to be in Great Britain!

We dragged our stuff and kids through the Tube to board a train north, leaving the hustle and bustle of London behind and we sped through the vibrant green countryside.

We spent a quiet five days in Newark-upon-Trent, walking around town mostly. With a compact downtown area, we were able to walk easily to grocery stores, a used book store, a shoe store for some much-needed replacements, playgrounds and parks, and a beautiful cathedral.

Traveling on foot to our lodgings with the entire circus plus supplies in tow isn’t fun, but we’ve managed to find lodgings less than a mile from train stations. (An aside: dragging two suitcases, a backpack, and a heavy food bag (Nic’s job) and carrying Jude and a backpack and holding Morgan’s hand (my job) cannot be classified as easy, even for half a mile, with cobblestones and the wondering stares of passers-by. At least the British are so far too polite to comment on our family size.

We took a day trip to nearby Nottingham to see a petting farm and to visit Robin Hood’s territory. We stayed dry, but we are chasing the chilly tail end of winter a bit as we travel north.

As time passes, we are less and less impressed by the age of each church and castle and historic building. How many hundreds of years old was that place – seven, nine, more? We have forgotten! Every town is full of ancient, beautiful buildings. And at least in the towns we’ve visited, most buildings are pleasing to the eyes with their straight lines, multiple chimneys, black iron fences, and durable red brick. Whether wild or well-tamed, the landscaping or natural foliage is similarly pleasing. No one here seems particularly impressed by the blooming bulbs, but we have really enjoyed the beds of daffodils and bits of crocus lawn. Things are quaint and charming in a way that maybe only old parts of New England can imitate in the US.

We traveled north again today to York. We’re about as far north as Edmonton, Alberta. With castle walls and other ancient beauty all around us, and a promising weather forecast for the days ahead, we are excited to get out and explore!

What a joy it has been to be back in the English-speaking world! After four months of struggling to communicate, we deeply appreciate being able to understand our environment and the people around us.

With mostly good weather, we have packed as much fun as we could into the last few days. We are staying in noisy, lively Camden, trying to sleep through the sirens and street noise. We explored locally on our first day. Much of the grunge and alternative everything that we saw probably went over the kids’ heads as we wandered through Camden Market.

One highlight for me has been taking early morning jogs along the Regent’s Canal Towpath. The peaceful and mostly empty path along the canal is great for running, with views of canal boats, locks, graffiti, endless pigeons, and pretty greenery. I’ve run in Regent’s Park too, along with hundreds of others out for their morning exercise.

Our big activity on our second day was a visit to St. Paul’s Cathedral. When you’ve seen the Duomo of Milan close to the beginning of a big trip, it’s a little hard to be amazed by churches, but St. Paul’s did not disappoint. Every aspect of the cathedral is so well-kept and spotless that it doesn’t feel like a 300 year-old building. No other cathedral experience has been so full of helpful and friendly people: they provided a kids’ craft, shared informative tidbits, and exuded genuine kindness. We climbed close to 600(!!) stairs to get a spectacular and dizzying view of the interior of the dome and the city of London. It was particularly moving to visit the chapel dedicated to the American dead who served in WWII and to see a beautiful book with the names of all the American servicemen. We were also in the cathedral for two moments of prayer, and hearing the Lord’s Prayer recited (in a beautifully posh British accent) was extra special given the fact that the kids just memorized it.

We started our third day with a peek at Buckingham Palace. A pleasant stroll through the blooming daffodils of St. James’s Park brought us to Parliament Square and Westminster Abbey, home of royal coronations, weddings, and burial sites. We filed through the Abbey with the crowds. We likely did not find the royal burial sites as meaningful as other visitors, but the intricate details and majestic grandeur of this building completed almost 800 years ago inspire awe. Had we half the kids and twice the staying power, we could have spent much longer in this amazing building. Along with being the burial site of many UK monarchs, many famous people like Sir Isaac Newton are either buried or commemorated in the Abbey.

We took our lunch break right outside the Abbey. The day before we ate looking at St. Paul’s Cathedral. On this day, the towering walls of Westminster Palace filled our view.

We ventured briefly into Chinatown, which was crazy busy due to the Lunar New Year celebration. We wanted to scope out the area for our exciting start to our last day in London: the Chinese New Year Parade! Given the insane crowds from the day before, we didn’t think we’d be able to see the parade, but we arrived on time, got a great spot, and had a ton of fun watching the parade. Of course it was wildly different from a small town Polson parade, but just like at home, the kids got to interact personally with a handful of the participants. The loud drumbeats, colorful costumes, graceful dancing, excited anticipation of the crowds, and the cheerful Happy New Year wishes made for a memorable morning – so fun!

The boys and girls split up for the afternoon. I splurged on surprisingly reasonable tickets to go see Wicked with the girls. I saw it in London in 2007, but my previous experience did not prevent me from taking us to the wrong theater and realizing my mistake only twenty minutes before showtime. We rushed to correct my mistake, and in rushing, I erred again and put us on the wrong train! We arrived only five minutes late but had to sit in the lobby and watch the show on a screen for another twenty minutes. Once in our seats we enjoyed the show thoroughly!

London is an amazing city. We’ve just barely scratched the surface here, and we will be sad to leave tomorrow!