Casa de Crazy...: London...Day 2

London day two started out with a bang. Since Non and I were the only one's who had been to London, we wanted to do all we could...the next five days we were essentially tourists on crack, trying to see everything...with our grandmother in tow.

We started with our breakfast at the hotel which I soon began to view as my "carb loading" for the day. Our driver, Ray picked us up early-ish and we were off to see the sights. Ray has been a driver/tour guide for ...well ever, I think. He is a jolly ole chap in his 60's and could not be nicer...but loves to talk...A LOT. We loved Ray and he was so great that we booked him for the next three days right then and there. It was so great to have a driver, as Nonnie is in her eighties so, as she put it, sometimes she has a "hitch in her get-along."

We were a little late getting started due to our travels the day before...and let's face it, we are five women. Since we had a lunch reservation, Ray gave us a driving tour of the sights. I swear he knew the date and time each of the buildings/roads were built/paved, the guy (and his backstory) who laid the brick and or pavement. It was very interesting, but I would laugh because I could see different people mentally check out at different times when it wasn't something they were totally into. We saw Buckingham Palace, Margaret Thatcher's house, Richard Branson's house, and lots of stuff that is really beautiful but didn't make it into my memory.

That is one thing Nonnie is really big on...meals and reservations. Literally there is no "grabbing something on the go" with her. It became a bit of a joke between us that with a driver and no walking then having to stop and eat every 45 minutes we literally forgot what it felt like to be hungry.

We had lunch at The Ivy London and it was as you would expect, fabulous. We did get in trouble for taking pictures because apparently, that is not done at The Ivy....oops. Stupid Americans.

Our stop after lunch was the Tower of London to see the Crown Jewels. We were lucky enough that while we were there they were doing a dress rehearsal for some 'super posh' function that was going to be that night....a concert of sorts, dinner and a private viewing of the jewels. All for the bargain price of £1,000.

We saw the jewels, got a 'tourist on speed' version of all the history from Ray instead of having to listen to the headphones. I learned all sorts of interesting things and Ray even sang us the jingle he learned in school to remember all the Kings and Queens in order. Basically, not super hard since most of them were named George, Victoria or Mary.

After the ToL we went back to the hotel to get ready as we had tickets to the theatre. We saw Legally Blonde at the Savoy Theatre in the West End which is neat because it's really small. Nonnie loves the theatre so we had awesome seats. Legally Blonde was cute, pretty funny and comical to see how they portray American sororities. Nonnie loved it, so that was great.

Dinner was following the theatre a J Sheekey. I read about it somewhere as one of the celeb favorites in London so naturally, I wanted to go. The food was amazing and we sat right next to Whitney Port and Kelly Cutrone from MTV shows The Hills and The City. They were there for fashion week. Not A-listers but, celebs none the less.

Funny story, I was going to the bathroom which was down a steep flight of wooden stairs with a sharp turn about halfway down. I also had on really tall shoes that are super cute but I can't seem to get the hang of walking in. I was almost to the turn when a person came at me from the other direction. I was startled because I didn't see them coming then even more so when I looked up and it was Whitney. This causing me to lose my balance and almost flatten her. Awesome Linds, always one to keep it smooth. I caught myself or she caught me, I don't really remember and then basically weirdly smiled, tried to play it off and kept going when she asked if I was okay. Why couldn't I just say "Hi!" and that be it? Nope, I had to almost lay the poor girl out...

Until tomorrow...