Trip to London, Day 1!

After the flight back from Italy (which I didn't post about but which involved about 12 straight hours of Elowen screaming), I was honestly dreading the flight to London. Like I'd rather have been in labor again during the brief rough period when my epidural wore off than ever do a flight like that again. 

Repping Ohio at Buffalo Wild Wings in the airport

But Elowen was an angel and didn't cry once, even though she only slept for about two hours. In fact, the woman in front of us was surprised at the end of the flight that a toddler was behind her. That Elowen, always keeping me on my toes with unwarranted anxiety.

People were also just very kind throughout the day, from a woman handing us a bag of pretzels for Elowen to a group of older people telling the gate agent to let us onto the plane first to a Methodist minister with three kids encouraging me to travel often no matter what. ("Girl, let her scream! You just have a drink.")

The flight was very smooth, and we landed in London at about 8 am to head to our hotel, the Park Lane Sheraton. We stayed here a few years ago, so I already knew it was comfy and quiet (and has lovely art deco decor). Our friends we're traveling with arrived shortly thereafter, with their 8 and 11 year old girls, and since our rooms weren't ready we went to Mother Mash for some traditional British fare. 

Elowen passed out in her stroller and the restaurant parked her in a quiet little corner, and that was shame--she would really have loved my cheesy mashed potatoes, mushroom and bacon pot pie, and farmer's gravy. 


The afternoon was pretty much fully taken up by a nap (I blamed Elowen for needing to rest, but really I'd been up for about 25 hours straight and dramatically thought I was dying). But for dinner we headed to a Georgian restaurant, where I forgot to take pictures because I was so tired. I had a cheesy eggy carby amazing khachupuri though, as well as herb and cheese khinkali that I doused in black pepper like my friend at Chama Mama taught me. And Elowen was thrilled to have big girl friends pay attention to her at the meal...she just beamed. We need to figure out how to get her a big sister. 

And finally, I had a lovely rose gin cocktail at the hotel before crashing into bed and trying to hype myself up for a very busy next two days. This was an uneventful post, but it does get more exciting! 








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