London | BarelyControlledChaos

These photos have been calling from my hard drive for the past two weeks. I arrived at the realization that the photos are not going to get edited any time soon, so I’m putting them all up on flickr if you are interested in perusing them. But, be forewarned…there are many.

I just can’t believe it was only two weeks ago that J. and I were gallivanting our way across London sans children. So how was it, you ask?

AH-mazing! It was so very much fun. And a timely little anniversary present to ourselves. (Happy 17 years to us today!)

It did take me a few days to look at a menu and not automatically think “what should we get the girls to eat.” And I would wake up and sort of listen for them before realizing – “Ha! They are not even here!”

But, once I got out of mom-mode, it was very relaxing and fun. I was on my own while J. worked for a few of the days and I just wandered around, gave my camera some love and visited all the museums I wanted to. I pretty much didn’t say anything to anyone unless I stopped for a coffee or lunch somewhere – and nobody said anything to me. It was kinda nice. For a day or two.

Then I had J. all to myself and we did all the things that would have bored the girls to tears.

Like visit Stamford Bridge, home to the Chelsea Football Club…

We took the tour, so we got to see all the behind-the-scenes stuff…

And The Shed End…

We also went up and visited Lord’s – the Home of Cricket…

And got to watch a match…

AND, lucky us! The day we visited they allowed the spectators down on the field, which they haven’t done in like 10 years. You can’t see it here, but we are walking on the historic grass of Lord’s, barefoot…

Let’s see. We also visited Abbey Road…

Yep…that is THE crosswalk…

We had pasties (which were a very, VERY close second to the pasties Aunty used to make – they were so good!)…

We had a few pints at a few pubs…

We stayed here…

And here…

J. indulged me while I swooned in love with London phone booths…

And flowers…

And churches…

And cute little streets I must live on someday…

We visited my old stomping grounds…

And tried to peek in the windows admired the window treatments of the flat we lived in…

We did some shopping at the Portobello Road market…

We got in trouble for taking photos of this street (outside Kensington Palace – but it was still worth it)…

We may or may not have sung a round of ‘Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cher-ee!’ – I mean, tell me this doesn’t look like a scene straight out of Mary Poppins…