Time

The time is 1:45 p.m.

My son checks his watch to confirm we can make the 2:02 train in to London.

The big kids are excited to visit the London Transport Museum and eat at their favorite restaurant.

Gracie is excited to ride the "choo choo train."

I'm excited that I get go into London... period.

After a month of finding housing, schools, and everything else that goes along with that, it was about time.

After catching a delayed train and walking the half-mile from the station, we arrived at our destination around 3:30.

The Covent Garden area of London holds a special place in my heart.  It is one of the areas in which JD and I stayed when we first came here a year ago to celebrate our 15th anniversary.

The museum is right in the middle of the lively district of theaters, shops, and restaurants.

The London Transport Museum showcases old train cars and engines, double decker buses, underground (tube) cars, and all the history and technology that goes into moving people in and around the most densely populated city in Europe.  

The high population density of London is precisely the reason why the buses are double decker.  But before the buses, there were double decker stagecoaches pulled by horses. 

(I didn't take a photo because I was outnumbered 3 to 1 and I only have two eyes and two hands.  That's also why all my photos these days are taken with my iPhone.  If you'd like to see some prettier photos of London that were taken on the previous trip I mentioned, go here.)

After meeting JD for an early dinner, we walked back to the station and realized how close we were to Trafalgar Square.

It was already 6:00 and the clouds were getting darker, so we didn't have long before needing to move along home.  There was just enough time to go say Hello to the lions, though.

There are four lions around the monument to Admiral Horatio Nelson.  We're working on naming them and so far have: Simba, Rampage, and Reginald. 

The National Gallery looks over the square.  These photos would be better but it started raining.

We joined the mass exodus of commuters out of the city and arrived back home at 7:30. 

It's interesting how quickly a place can become "home."  

I've lived in 11 different houses, apartments, and dorms, but every one felt like home to me.

That's probably because I felt loved there.

Seventeen years ago when I met JD, I found in him another soul that shared my curiosity about the world.

Over the years we've dreamed and planned and changed plans... 

and at 10:00 when we cuddled up in bed, we just dreamed some more.