Yesterday, we took the tube into London with the plan of going to St. Paul's Cathedral and walking to the very top. Instead, we were sidetracked by the Lord Mayor's Parade, which stretched through the streets of London. Most of our pictures turned out blurry, but there were lots of military bands interspersed with African drumming, characters on stilts, children marching, people dancing, and some flourescent orange rats on rollerblades being chased by a cat on some pogo stick/stilts contraptions. It was all very festive and the point of the parade was so that the Lord Mayor (we're not sure what his relationship is to the Mayor of London yet...) could present the state of the people to the Queen (who was around there somewhere). There were some high society looking people in the grand stands near us, complete with big, fancy hats, and, as always seems to be the case in London, there was a fireworks display somewhere last night.
We managed to wind our way around the parade, using Jim's great navigating skills, but getting to St. Paul's at that point was not possible, so we settled for the Globe Theatre. We just enjoyed it from the outside and will go back some other time to see what the inside looks like. They won't be putting plays on there again until May, because it's too cold.
After the Globe Theater, we moved along to the Tate Modern, where we planned to maybe slide down the giant slides pictured behind Jim and enjoy some of the exhibits. But there were literally mobs of people at the museum, which made it hard to walk, much less enjoy the art. We plan to go back sometime when it's not a Saturday afternoon. There is supposedly a great David Smith exhibit there now, which we would like to check out.
Here is Jim outside the Tate Modern--which is a pretty ugly building and not very modern looking at all (as opposed to the art inside).
The previously mentioned flourescent, rollerblading, rat person. I have no idea what he was representing, but he and his fellow rats were pretty skilled on the rollerblades and were having a blast yukking it up for the crowds.
Channelling Shakespeare--Jim get's his Hamlet on in front of the Globe Theatre:
I took this picture of the Millenium Bridge to show how many people there were walking across. The funniest part about it is that you can see Dan walking, front and center, across the bridge. He was also just coming from the Tate Modern as well, but we didn't know it until we ran into him on the steps of St. Paul's (after this picture was taken). Random.
After getting rejected from St. Paul's cathedral, we joined Dan and his cousins for a drink at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (founded in 1667 and one of the many places Mark Twain used to drink). There were many merry makers there and lots of raucous singing of "God Save the Queen" going on. We were also asked if we were Canadians...and we fessed up that we were not (but it was tempting to be Canadian for a few minutes).
I was feeling pretty happy after my first pint and the evening continued with lots more pints, some good Vietenamese food (sp?), good fun with friends (we caught up with Meg and two other friends of Dan and Meg's), and a ride back to Greenwich on the drunk train. London on the tube on the weekends at the end of the night can be pretty entertaining. 
"I love Bitters! I'm Canadian..I mean, American!" 
We managed to wind our way around the parade, using Jim's great navigating skills, but getting to St. Paul's at that point was not possible, so we settled for the Globe Theatre. We just enjoyed it from the outside and will go back some other time to see what the inside looks like. They won't be putting plays on there again until May, because it's too cold.
Here is Jim outside the Tate Modern--which is a pretty ugly building and not very modern looking at all (as opposed to the art inside).
These Meercats had the right idea, huddling together under the heat lamp in their "cave." They were very cruious about the camera.
These "Peckish Penguins" thought that the zoo keeper cleaning out their pond was going to feed them, so they all followed him with great enthusiasm as he made his way around.
And this pink pelican looked a little chilly. More colorful than our Louisiana State bird the Brown Pelican! They turn pink when they are ready to breed:
