After sleeping in (yay!), we started off our day by walking over to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we admired the beautiful architecture and decorations. We walked all the way up, past the Whispering Gallery, to the Stone Gallery (the Golden Gallery was closed). It was quite impressive. Big.
A view of St. Paul's. (We went up to the dome!) Then we bought some lunch and walked over to Trafalgar Square to eat it. It was fun to sit on the steps and watch the crowd and the water fountains. (I really like the water fountains.) While we were there, we took some lion pictures.
Patrick posing epicly. 
I was going to pass on a lion picture, but gave in a the last moment. :) Then we headed over to view Big Ben (my favorite!) and Parliament. After that we went into Westminster Abbey (after standing in line for awhile). That was an amazing experience. There are so many famous people buried there or commemorated with a plaque... it was so neat to be able to find a familiar name everywhere we looked. Plus we found the oldest door in England--almost 1,ooo years old!!! wow.
In front of Westminster Abbey. Then (for Patrick's benefit) we went up in the London Eye. It was a pretty cool view.
On our way to the London Eye. 
One of the views from the Eye. Then we went through St. James's Park to check out Buckingham Palace. (Patrick would like to comment that it was very well guarded.)
In front of Buckingham Palace.We left through the Mall and headed over to the Lyceum Theatre, where we found a pub across the street for a quick dinner. Then we went into the theatre to see.. The Lion King! It was a fun show--especially because The Lion King is one of our favorite Disney classics! :)
Yay for The Lion King!
Saturday
In the morning, we went back to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the gaurd. We sat around for a while (and it started raining! aaahhh!), but we ended up with a pretty good view.
Part of the ceremony.
After that we went to Hyde Park, where we ate lunch, saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (it's a pretty neat design), and (my favorite) saw the Peter Pan Statue!
Patrick checking out part of the fountain.
The Peter Pan statue was really cool to find!
Then I took Patrick to the Victoria & Albert. I especially wanted to show him the casts and all the intricate lock and key contraptions they have there. (He did really like them. I was pleased that I was right.) :) Then we walked past Harrods (a quite fancy--and busy!--shopping area) to Picadilly Circus, where I showed him the place where I had gone to see the Harry Potter filming, and then to Leicester Square (to see the famous hand prints). Then we came across an o'neills (yay!), so we ate there again. After dinner we headed over to Covent Garden and saw some street performers. We saw a Jack Sparrow look-a-like and a Charlie Chaplin one, too. We also saw some pretty cool "statues"--a few were very impressive.
It's Jack Sparrow! or is it...?
Then we rushed over to Tower Hill to catch a Jack the Ripper tour. The tour we chose is run by Tower of London Beefeaters (in their spare time). Our guide was Kevin--he's very funny. It was a creepy, yet intriguing tour. (He also showed us an alley that was Diagon Alley in one of the HP films. cool!)
It's Diagon Alley!
After the tour, we went to the o'neills near our hostel for some desert--yummy chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream! (This is where Patrick discovered that, unfortunately, red wine does not go well with chocolate cake. :( Strange, seeing as they look so nice together...)
(Little side note: this was also the day of Pain for our eyes. Let me explain. The wind had been up a lot recently, but all of a sudden it blew everything into our eyes. Seriously, all the debris and bits of plants and trees found it's way into our eyes. Our sunglasses barely helped--even with them on we had to stop frequently to get painful pieces of whatever out of our eyes. :P)
Sunday
My last full day in London! :( This morning we walked--through the wind and rain--all the way from our hostel to arrive--soaking wet--at the Imperial War Museum. We went through a lot of military equipment exhibits and finished by spending a long time in the Holocaust exhibit. (The first time I went there I had to skip through the last part of the exhibit to make sure I got to that night's play on time.) This time we went through everything. It was intense, of course, and I definitely didn't make it through dry-eyed.
A U.S. built P-51 Mustang.
Then we went to Big Ben for one last look. For lunch, we found a crazy-busy Italian restaurant. Then we looked down Downing Street to glimpse #10 (I'm not sure if we actually glimpsed it or not...).
We went back to St. James's Park and barely made it through, before they closed parts off for some parade (we never found out what for). Then we went back to the hostel, had dinner at o'neills, and then went back to pack (because we were going on a day trip the next day and they had told us we needed to switch rooms for the last night). And that's how our last full day in London went.
Some birds we found in the park--kinda funky looking, but so cute!
Yay for The Lion King!Saturday
In the morning, we went back to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the gaurd. We sat around for a while (and it started raining! aaahhh!), but we ended up with a pretty good view.
Part of the ceremony.After that we went to Hyde Park, where we ate lunch, saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (it's a pretty neat design), and (my favorite) saw the Peter Pan Statue!
Patrick checking out part of the fountain.
The Peter Pan statue was really cool to find!Then I took Patrick to the Victoria & Albert. I especially wanted to show him the casts and all the intricate lock and key contraptions they have there. (He did really like them. I was pleased that I was right.) :) Then we walked past Harrods (a quite fancy--and busy!--shopping area) to Picadilly Circus, where I showed him the place where I had gone to see the Harry Potter filming, and then to Leicester Square (to see the famous hand prints). Then we came across an o'neills (yay!), so we ate there again. After dinner we headed over to Covent Garden and saw some street performers. We saw a Jack Sparrow look-a-like and a Charlie Chaplin one, too. We also saw some pretty cool "statues"--a few were very impressive.
It's Jack Sparrow! or is it...?Then we rushed over to Tower Hill to catch a Jack the Ripper tour. The tour we chose is run by Tower of London Beefeaters (in their spare time). Our guide was Kevin--he's very funny. It was a creepy, yet intriguing tour. (He also showed us an alley that was Diagon Alley in one of the HP films. cool!)
It's Diagon Alley!After the tour, we went to the o'neills near our hostel for some desert--yummy chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream! (This is where Patrick discovered that, unfortunately, red wine does not go well with chocolate cake. :( Strange, seeing as they look so nice together...)
(Little side note: this was also the day of Pain for our eyes. Let me explain. The wind had been up a lot recently, but all of a sudden it blew everything into our eyes. Seriously, all the debris and bits of plants and trees found it's way into our eyes. Our sunglasses barely helped--even with them on we had to stop frequently to get painful pieces of whatever out of our eyes. :P)
Sunday
My last full day in London! :( This morning we walked--through the wind and rain--all the way from our hostel to arrive--soaking wet--at the Imperial War Museum. We went through a lot of military equipment exhibits and finished by spending a long time in the Holocaust exhibit. (The first time I went there I had to skip through the last part of the exhibit to make sure I got to that night's play on time.) This time we went through everything. It was intense, of course, and I definitely didn't make it through dry-eyed.
A U.S. built P-51 Mustang. Then we went to Big Ben for one last look. For lunch, we found a crazy-busy Italian restaurant. Then we looked down Downing Street to glimpse #10 (I'm not sure if we actually glimpsed it or not...).
We went back to St. James's Park and barely made it through, before they closed parts off for some parade (we never found out what for). Then we went back to the hostel, had dinner at o'neills, and then went back to pack (because we were going on a day trip the next day and they had told us we needed to switch rooms for the last night). And that's how our last full day in London went.
Some birds we found in the park--kinda funky looking, but so cute!
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