Last year, Lizzy and I sat in her high school choir room on the risers, listening with growing excitement about a forthcoming London trip focusing on theater enrichment. As Mrs Oakenhurst relayed what we would likely experience, my eyes and smile grew ever bigger. She later told Lizzy that she loved watching me get more and more excited during the meeting. As you can imagine, I fairly floated home with such a coveted prize so close. I quickly extoled all the virtues of just such a venture with my rather prozaic husband, who readily agreed that it sounded just my sort of thing, but was quite right in underscoring the effect such a venture would have on our finances. I was justly deflated, but understood, of course.
He said he would rather just send me, but I was insistent that Lizzy should go. For her part, she was intrigued, but had not the understanding as myself, of what a truly amazing gift was being offered. Nevertheless, she was excited for the possibility. In discussing the alternatives, she dutifully agreed to find gainful employment to pay back her portion. And so it was decided. I was ecstatic!
Each month brought more information, slowly fleshing out what our adventure would be like. As with any adventure, there were many hiccups and multiple changes, but we were fed tidbits, like choosing what shows we would like to see and what sites we would like to visit. As this was a theater-based trip, we were to see 3 West End shows and 3 workshops, one such workshop would be at the Globe Theater itself! Also, we were going to Oxford and Stratford-Upon-Avon as add-ons. But first, to get there!
Daniel was kind enough to drop us off at the airport on Tuesday, July 7, at 8:30 AM. We said our goodbyes and then located the first of our group. While waiting, I chatted with a gentleman who was traveling that evening at 5pm, but came early. He said this was always his custom to wait the day in the airport. I felt it was excessive, but to each their own.
Our group consisted of 36 members of varying ages, and many had graduated. We had one family consisting of parents, a 12-year-old girl, and a 9-year-old boy. He was our youngest member. Several were adults. Only 17 were still in school. We were a motly crew.
We got through security fairly easily, but this would prove to be a fluke. Our flight was supposed to board at 11:30, so we wondered a bit, but mostly waited until seating opened up in our section.
Ren, the one in the mask, was the only person Lizzy knew, but we were soon acquainted with Rowan, who attends Blue Spring South High School, and happened to be their other roommate. They all seemed to get on well.
After what seemed like hours, we finally took off! I was seated next to Lizzy on most of the flights, which was nice. Some of the parents did not get that consideration.
We landed in Denver as a storm was brewing, and Lizzy was stopped in security; it turns out her deodorant was the culprit. Apparently, Old Spice Sport will get you the entirely wrong sort of attention at some places! Instead of a 3-hour layover, it was stretched into 7 hours. To wile away the hours, Mrs. O had a photo contest. This was my submission:
This was Lizzy's:
If you look closely, you can just see Rowen in the background. She doesn't like getting photographed. We had dinner at Wolfgang Puck's Italian restaurant with Shela (Ren's Mom) and Kinley, another student from South, who was often flitting between groups until she settled with one she liked.
I had the Caprese sandwich, and it was delightful.
Lizzy decided to share food with Rowen, who doesn't eat much, but made a spectacle of herself by quickly finishing her half and loudly sighing in Rowan's direction while eyeing the salad. She began to relate to our companions how much food she can pack away. Rather than being mortified by this admission, I let our guests take it as a warning. She finished the salad, helped herself to my fries, and even ate a bit of Ren's pizza.
When we got on the plane, it was quite late, after 11PM. We tried to sleep, Lizzy was able to, but I couldn't do more than doze. They did serve us dinner and breakfast. So that was nice.
We arrived at Heathrow in the afternoon; there was another EF tour there as well. We ran into a few of them during our trip. We went through customs and found our tour guide, Claudia. She is Italian, but has been living in London for the passed 12 years and is a fashion designer as well as the occasional EF tour director, among other things. She reminded me of the Bard's quote from A Midsummer Night's Dream, "though she be but little, she is fierce." We loaded up a bus and had our first glimpse of England.
Our original itinerary had us arriving in the morning, but since we arrived in the afternoon, we were able to check into the hotel (we were staying at the Copthorne Tara) and freshen up a bit. My roommate was Valery. She's a former Air Force pilot who now flies drones to help airports with maintenance. She flies a lot still, just as a passenger. She was a great roommate. Our Hotel was a short walk through the High Street Kensington Arcade to get to the underground subway. We rode the tubes nearly every day, so it was important to remember our stop!
We headed to Carnaby for dinner at
Mother Mash. Carnaby was lovely, but we didn't get a lot of time to view it as we went to the wrong restaurant and had to "leg it" to the right one across the way, about a ten-minute walk, but we were already running late due to the mixup. It was nearly a run as we tried to trail behind Claudia and navigate the narrow streets.
We made it with enough time to eat and run, as they had another group coming in ten minutes and the place was quite small.
I ate with Claudia, and we were served a lovely pie on mash with gravy. It was piping hot so I had to let it cool a bit while feeling anxious to leave a soon as possible. They had the toilets down this tiny staircase. It was a bit of an adventure.
After dinner, we were released to look around for a bit. This area was called Covent Garden. We found an American store, it turned out it be a chain, but the store was funny. I love to see what other countries think constitutes "American." They had several things I had never heard of.
Obligatory telephone booth photo!
There were a few street performers in the square which had Punch and Judy painted on the balcony. I explained who they were to Lizzy and her friends.
Ren loves pigeons, and surprisingly, there are none in Missouri. She kept trying to catch one.
Then it was time to head back to the tube and hotel. Our room had outlets only on one wall, so I had to move the bed for my CPAP machine, but after a little finagling, we settled in for the night. I made the mistake of not changing my cell phone for international, so unfortunately, I only had wifi at the hotel, which led to a few late nights for me. At the last minute, Claudia changed our morning gathering time to 9:15 so we had a little more time to rest.
