London Day 3

Not the best nights sleep, but we managed to get a few hours of shut eye. Weather forecast today calls for the mid-50s. We ate a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel this morning and then met up with our local guide at 8:30. We decided against taking our jackets and Alan has decided that that was not his best decision. After a quick drive around the city we walked around Trafalgar Square. We learned some interesting information about the square and England and walked to Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Our guides timing was perfect all morning. We heard Big Ben chime at 10 am.

Upon leaving we saw the "summer cabin" of Dumbledore in one of the many gardens in London.

We continued on to Buckingham Palace and were just in time to see the changing of the guards as they rode down the Mile on horseback.

We wandered over to the home of Prince Harry. Here we watched the guards walk and patrol in front of the gates.

We continued to walk down the mile to Buckingham Palace. 

Our guide was nice enough to walk us to where we could purchase tickets to the Making of Harry Potter tour, but it was already booked up for the day. We are fully prepared to be called dorks, but it sounded like a lot of fun.

After our Harry Potter let down we wandered over to one of the many museums in London. They are all free admission. We ate at the National Portrait Museum cafe and then walked to the tube back to our hotel.

We are staying very close to the Notting Hill area of London. I like the way all of the streets curve and the buildings follow the curved line of the streets. Almost every home has a unique and different entrance.

After an afternoon nap we headed to Westfield Mall by our hotel. It has all of the usual stores. We ended up getting some really cute shirts for the girls. 

We decided to take a double-decker bus to dinner. We at the Arch Duke - Cocktails, Steak, & Jazz. We shared a Cote de boeuf bone-in forerib with fries and a salad. 

We walked the Mungerford Bridge back to the bus stop and then off to the hotel to pack and get ready for a VERY early departure tomorrow morning.

Big Ben at night and also Westminster Abbey at night.

We are headed off to Paris tomorrow, Good night!

Sightseeing in London Day 2

London Day 2

We have arrived! Let me start with the overnight flight to London. We left Chicago last night and endured a long, HOT flight to London arriving about lunchtime. I am pretty a sure that my husband and I didn't sleep at all. I shed every layer of clothing until I couldn't shed anything else and then still proceeded to sweat. The whole two inches that my seat reclined just wasn't quite enough to allow me to actually fall asleep and not end up jerking awake as my neck nearly snapped each time I actually started to fall asleep. How long has there been a restriction against smoking on planes? I had cigarette receptacles in my seat armrests and the bathroom and a disposal spot specifically for cigarettes. Hmmm.... The other dead give away that our plane was a bit aged would have to be the giant TV monitors that hung from the ceiling and took up a massive amount of space. But the important thing is that the airplane got us across the Atlantic safely. 

Upon exiting customs we were immediately approached by our travel rep who walked right up and asked if we were the Hunts. She took or info and sent us off to a shuttle that is taking us to our hotel. I am typing this as I ride through the streets of London. 

Several things jump out at me as differences from the US. First the streets are narrow and their billboards are huge and seem to be very close to the road. I am able to set my watch since most of the billboards have a digital clock on them. 

Yay! My first double decker bus sighting! The bus dropped us off and we braved crossing the street with luggage in tow. We got checked into the hotel early without any problems. We decided a 3-4 hour power nap was in our best interest. After our nap we met our Trafalgar rep in the lobby and got the skinny on our plan for tomorrow.

Our room is small but nice. The shower is  a tight squeeze and the bed is a little hard, but we no problems falling asleep quickly for our nap.

We decided to walk down the street for dinner. We stopped at The Castle. This place has a really meat vibe. We choose a little couch and table in a corner that is very interesting. We ordered a trio of appetizers: fish fingers, chorizo, edamame, and a meat plate for sharing: pickles and olives, beef brisket, cold meats salami and pepperoni, and scotched eggs. 

The eggs were kinda like hard boiled eggs wrapped in some sort of sausage and then deep fried. I may be way off in my description, but that was what it tasted like to me. The fish fingers were really good.

No dinner is complete without some gelato. We stopped off at a gelato shop on the way back to the hotel. Alan got caramel and I got coconut. Delicious!

We are settling in for a good night sleep. We have an early tour of London in the morning and we have a plan for our afternoon. Let's hope our plan works out!

European Vacation Day 1

We are at the airport and ready to go!! We brought Addie's Flat Stanley or in our case Flat Evie along for the trip.  

You will see her popping up in lots of places along the way. I am also working on my one suitcase post for this trip. I managed to pack 27 items and I think I have about 41 outfit options and of course it all fits in one suitcase.

Travel Day

My Family Christmas Card

I have been swamped at work these past few weeks, but I am hoping things will slow down and I can start posting again soon.  I appreciate everyone who visits and I promise to be back soon.... Here is my family christmas card from this year.  I hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas.

I like to think of my life as organized chaos!!

Traveling...

Sorry guys! I have a suitcase confession Thanksgiving I am working on and I am traveling this week again for business and I will have another suitcase confession Mississippi. I am traveling again next week too! Ahhh!! I will work on that suitcase confession Alabama next week.

Then I will be home enjoying my family and working until Christmas!  I don't currently have any other trips planned until Feb. 1st but that is always subject to change.

Happy Holidays!

Suitcase Confessions - Houston Meeting

This past week was crazy.  I spent the majority of it in Houston and then came home for one night hugged my husband and he was off to Arkansas to go hunting for five days.  He is home and I am one happy lady!  My boss told me to over pack and I did pack more than I had initially intended to. I pretty much had to pack something for each day and then after a whopping 12-14 hours I ran to my room to change into something clean for dinner.  

*I have not had a chance to build out all of my links below yet, but I will update over time. 

Gold Link Necklace * Gold & Black Chain Necklace * Multi-Colored Scarf * Gold & Stone Necklace * Brown Braided Belt * Leopard Skinny Belt * Black Skinny Belt

Blue Dress * Black & Gold Dress * Black Fit & Flare * Blue & Tan Dress * Purple Maxi Dress * Berry Lace Dress

Boyfriend Jeans * Black Skinny Pants * Purple Pants 

Teal Snake Heels * Leopard Flats * Nude Heels * Ankle Boots

Cobalt Sweater * Teal Tank Top * White Tank Top * Oatmeal Cardigan * Black Cardigan * Tan Blouse * Wine Crochet Cardigan * Teal Sweater * Black Moto Jacket

Week 9 Favorites

My Favorite Looks from Week #9

• 24/30 - 30 x 30 Challenge - Fall Capsule Wardrobe
• 25/30 - 30 x 30 Challenge - Fall Capsule Wardrobe
• 30/30 - 30 x 30 Challenge - Fall Capsule Wardrobe

What were some of your favorite looks from last week?