On Your Mark, Get Set, GO DAY 2!

Our morning began with that Full English breakfast we talked about yesterday. Well, for most of us it did.  There were a few unfortunate souls who didn't make it out of bed in time :-( but hopefully tomorrow the alarm clock will actually work:-)

Our first order of business was Westminster Abbey and the House of Parliament on the with a group picture on the Thames.  How can a group like this with a backdrop like this ever make a bad picture - of COURSE NOT!

From there it was just a short jaunt over to the Abbey where we already had group reservations (of course) because standing in line is NEVER an option, right???  There's too much to see and do and to many places to be...

Namely the London Eye for Abbey's BIRTHDAY!!!  We even serenaded her in our own private capsule as we slowly climbed to the top of London.  There was quite a scare before our departure because the London Eye had been shutdown due to a power outage the night before, and we were told it might not be running until later in the evening (while we would be in Windsor).  However, God answered our prayers and Abbey got to enjoy her moment in the "Eye".

After our exciting time high in the sky of London we disembarked and journeyed across the Golden Jubilee Bridge (the one in Harry Potter no less) and over to Embankment Station for our Tube ride to Paddington to catch the train to Windsor...and catch the train we did by the skin of our teeth.  Our journey to Windsor began with a group sprint to the train and ended with another group sprint to the train leaving Windsor.  Surely I'll lose at least 5 pounds with all of these daily workouts.  Of course somehow Mr. and Mrs. Mynatt always wind up at the back of the pack during these sprint sessions...wonder why???

But as you can see it was all very much worth the workout, indeed.  Remember the comment about every monarch needing their own golden scepters and orbs?  Well they also need castles!  And Windsor Castle is one of Queen Elizabeth's favorites as she was actually in residence today...signified by the Royal Standard flying in the wind above the medieval fortress.  No worries - we were much to busy to fit her into our busy schedules and had to decline her invitation for tea ;-)  The grounds are just as beautiful as the castle itself and we snapped some nice photos as you can well see.

After touring around the castle and around the quaint little town of Windsor we ended up at the Cornucopia Bistro for our 6:00 pm dinner reservation.  What a fun place!  Good food and very friendly people.  Abbey even got another birthday serenade (twice) with a candle in her very own birthday surprise!

After dinner we made our usual mad dash back to the train station and as we waited the sign said a "fast train" was approaching which did NOT stop at our little station.  Fast is an understatement!  It felt like a tornado was going to pick us all up and deposit us somewhere far away.  I managed to snap a photograph as the train past and the tidal wind current enveloped us...

If you'll look at the shock in Ian's face and then look at the dark shadowy formless field at the extreme left of the photo above you'll see that my spiffy Nikon Coolpix didn't even have time to snap the actual train - just the shadow and shock left behind.   Hmmm so THAT'S why the sign says "Stay BEHIND The Yellow Line".

We caught a quick train back to Paddington (not as quick as the one above) and had a few laughs from Geyer modeling his new shades for us.

 Glad we snapped that picture when we did because 5 minutes later they were sucked out the window and lying somewhere on the tracks of the Circle Line between Paddington and Victoria.

Arriving back in Victoria all of 30 minutes after that big dinner in Windsor I was quite astonished to know that the kids wanted "Snack Shopping Time".  Really?  I guess this is called Second Dinner, right?  Second Breakfast and Second Dinner and Snacks are well and fine for teenagers - but WILLPOWER is the name of the game for the rest of us.  So here I sit in my room typing away while drinking my English breakfast tea and my chocolate bar :-)  So much for will power.

Mrs Mynatt has been down arranging for our car service in the morning to St. Pancras station to catch the EuroStar for our 2.25 hour journey to Paris at 186mph under the English Channel.  The kids are excited to see the tunnel under the channel...Shhhhh - we won't tell them that it's completely black!  But it will whisk us through a bit of the English and French countrysides and straight into Gare du Nord.  Our time tomorrow will involve checking in, having dinner with Philippe at LaVarangue and then off to the Eiffel tower.  Hope you all are enjoying the travels through your kids' experiences because they have a LOT of experiences to share already after only 2 days.

What a great group of kids to be sharing these experiences with!

Departure Time

Here we go moms and dads...your little ones are setting off for a tremendous adventure and a tremendous opportunity that you've given them.  They're going to see sights, experience new things, develop deeper friendships and make great strides in growing up - ALL IN 2 WEEKS!  What an adventure.

I'm happy to report we had absolutely no problems, no glitches, no humps...which are GOOD things!  Arrival went smoothly and Mr. Margene met us as always to have a group blessing.  Thank you Mr. Margene.

Our layover in Charlotte went smoothly and we had plenty of time to have dinner and play a bit...then OFF TO LONDON!

 Again, it was one of the smoothest experiences we've had and we were in London Gatwick, through Passport Control, loaded into taxis and arrived at our hotel with WAYYYYY too much luggage, but the Luna and Simone happily accommodated it in their tiny lobby for  10 hours until we got back to actually check in.

We wasted no time at all until we were back at Victoria Station on the Tube to The White Tower to see the crown jewels and all of the various gold scepters and jeweled orbs that every monarch seems to need ;-)

It's been a taxing day with only 4 hours of night time on the plane.  Most of us slept...

But some of us chose not to sleep on the plane and paid the consequences later. ZZzzzzzzzzzz

From the White Tower we embarked on the 2nd half of today's itinerary which was the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios in Watford Junction.  So back on the tube we went, connected with the train at Euston and onto Watford Junction to load on the Double Decker Harry Potter Bus!

Of course when riding a Double Decker bus the first order of business is to head directly to the upstairs where it's at least 10 degrees hotter than downstairs.  Air-Conditioning you say?  The students have already learned AC is not easily found in London.  Thanks to your faithful prayers we had P-E-R-F-E-C-T sunshiny weather today.  Thank you, God, for not making us slog through rain.  We would have done it cheerfully if that had been required, but we were blessed with blue skies and unseasonably warm weather in the rainiest city in England.

Truthfully - I was not especially excited about this Harry Potter sidetrip, but it actually turned out to be quite exciting of a place to see. 

It has been ONE EXHAUSTING day!  On the train ride back to Euston when it was time for us to get off Mr. Mynatt thought he was going to have to carry poor Jonathan Carroll off the train because it was IMPOSSIBLE to wake him! Poking, nudging, shaking, loudly talking ;-) was just not doing the trick.  Jonathan was down for the night...at 6:30 pm on the London Euston train (OH NO).  As the buzzer was sounding for the doors to close a hint of consciousness was detected in the otherwise fully asleep body.  Thankfully Mr. Mynatt only had to "guide" him half asleep out the door instead of carrying him. 

But this is to be expected on the arrival day from the USA. 6 hours difference and little to no sleep on the plane is no excuse - we've only got 13 days and we have SCHEDULES!!!

Rest assured they all ate well and after room assignments and last minute tucking in by Mrs. Mynatt, Ms. Ketchen and Ms. Armstrong (Mr. Mynatt was busy trying to coherently write something half way intelligible and upload pictures to the blog) the students were fast asleep snug in their beds.

We're meeting at 8:15 in the morning after our "Full English Breakfasts" for a days jaunt to Windsor to see the Queen's Castle.  Who knows, maybe we'll even see the Queen herself.

Anyway good night from London, and rest assured your young adults are having a great time and are safe and sound and probably too zonked to even be dreaming.

More updates tomorrow.