24 hours

On Saturday, Jim was acting cagey. It turns out, he was plotting to surprise me with a night in a hotel BY MYSELF. He was listening very carefully when I complained that I just wanted to sleep through the night unconditionally.

On the way down to my surprise, we discovered that the Jubilee line was closed and the replacement buses were old school. Evie was psyched!


We were wandering around and suddenly came upon this vertical garden. It was planted up the building and the irrigation system is built into the wall. At this point, I still didn't really know what was going on. It turns out this was my hotel, which was located directly across from Green Park and very close to Hyde Park. I could see Buckingham Palace and hear Big Ben (which, even after 3 years in London, still excites me).


Evie was a huge fan of the mirrors in the room and did a few laps to check them all out. She is speed crawler extraordinaire and also has mastered pulling herself up.



As soon as Jim and Evie headed home, I took a really hot bath (not possible at our house anymore because our sole bathtub is attached to Evie's room) and put on my fluffy white robe (and took a picture to commemorate the occasion).


It was only about 6pm at that point and I didn't want to be totally lame and just go to bed, so I got dressed again and took a walk. It was a beautiful night and it's the height of tourist season, so I heard lots of languages and was surrounded by festive people. I saw ducklings racing and people dancing and everyone just seemed to be happy to be there.

Green Park:


Dusk at St. James Park:


A twilight birthday party at St. James Park:


The lights come on in Green Park:


When I got back to my room, someone had come to turn down my covers and had placed some slippers on a piece of linen next to my bed. That made me laugh, but it also motivated me to go to sleep. I slept for 11 hours without waking up. Bliss!

I like to sleep, but my favorite thing to do is be with Jim and Evie, so they came to meet me the next morning and we spent the day in Hyde Park.

A somber moment at the 7/7 memorial.


And a less somber moment upon discovering it was a lot warmer than I thought. Fortunately I had a bag of clothes with me, so I did a quick change into my skirt (over the jeans).


Then we settled down under a tree.

The Serpentine in Hyde Park was just getting busy. It's a great place to watch people and also the home of showboating rollerskaters/bladers.

Jim enjoys the sunny weather:


People walking along the Serpentine:


Paddle boats in Hyde Park. We can't figure out why we never went paddleboating before having Evie. I blame me:


Seriously skilled (and proudly hairy, Jim noted! Hairy guys unite!) roller blader. You can't tell, but those cones were very close together and he was zooming between them on one blade. We were impressed:


Sun seekers on a bench:


Random shirtless guy strolling along:


We made our way back home via Marble Arch, in front of which Jim posed. I would like to note that he almost had the arch to himself, but then that girl strolled into the picture. A few minutes later her mother chewed out a group of people for walking through the picture she was taking of her daughter in front of the arch. WHATEVER!! People are so strange and self-involved.


And then we waited for a bus off of Oxford Street. CROWDED. Evie is always watching her Daddy.



Our bus dropped us off in Camden, which made Oxford Street look vacant. Pushing the stroller through the masses was a challenge, so we rewarded ourselves by getting some ice cream. Jackie and Piotrek joined us. Jackie and Evie are fast friends now and Evie has embraced our family favorite flavor of ice cream--mint chocolate chip!


I think we all thoroughly enjoyed my 24 hours off. We should do it again sometime soon!