Saturday

Today Cameron & I decided to explore some more on our own. We rode the tube down to Oxford Circus, which is where there's a main shopping district, to shop until we dropped. Well, unfortunately for me, the new fashion here appears to be what we American's were wearing in the '80s. Big hair, side ponies and lots of neon. I'm sorry, I already did the neon. So, for my bank account it was good, for my closet even better, and for all of my friends - well, they'll thank me for not bringing back neon pink shoes to wear with a neon yellow dress when we go out. Cameron and I did go to Hamley's, which has been around in one shape or another for about 275 years or so (I think since 1766). This store puts FAO Schwartz to shame. It's about 5 levels of fun for kids, and mostly reasonably priced. Cameron bought a dragon model made of wood which is actually a robot that he has to put together to make it work. One thing I did find out about London is that a basement is actually called -1, ground floor is 1 and then it goes up from there. (So I guess I live in -1). It was a cool shop. They had some really neat Harry Potter items, one notable item being a 294 pound (Price) Chess Set, which Cameron was drooling over. We ate a late breakfast/early lunch at a local restaurant that was decent. I've noticed that people here start having pints pretty early in the morning, I however did not join in on that local custom.

After we shopped (I found a cute store and bought some t-shirts which are definitely NOT neon), we dropped our things off at the hotel and then walked down to another shopping area - Oxford Street. As we walked and walked, we discovered that all of these places we've been taking the tube to are really not that far from our hotel. Again, nothing purchased, but lots of fun. We treated ourselves to a gelato (Cameron had flakes w/ his, I did not - "flakes" are a local Cadbury candy bar that they stick in ice cream). It was delicious. We walked through Notting Hill, saw Portobello Road (sang the song) and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up.

My friends Shad and Nikki have a friend named Rodney who owns a tavern in Wimbledon, and Shad let him know we were going to be in town so Cameron & I headed in. The tube ride took about 30 minutes with transfers, and when we got there Rodney was not in because his wife/girlfriend (I'm not sure) was in "labour and he wasn't expected to come in this evening at all." I left him a note saying I stopped by and that Shad and Nikki were thinking of him. It was a really cool music place, I think I'll have to come back to have a pint there.

All this shopping and walking and riding left Cameron and I hungry. So, we went to Carnaby street to a restaurant called The Red Onion, which is a Mediterranean restaurant that we went by the other day but it was a 30 minute wait. It was really good. I ordered a ravioli porcini carbonnara, which I soon discovered was a mushroom ravioli. Dammit! It was delicious! I have always had a thing against mushrooms, but now I guess I don't. Cameron enjoyed his spaghetti. We've had nothing but great food here, which I am glad for because I was nervous about eating only "fishing chips."

We head home early tomorrow and we'll get the site updated with Cameron's History Lessons, including a video he narrated about the Globe Theatre. Thanks for your support while we've been gone with your comments and just reading along with our journey!

Just found out a cool tidbit about our hotel - this whole block is a big gigantic mansion of hotels, and at one time time it was just one home of one family who had a big ballroom on the ground floor (now the lobbies of the hotels), the second floor (where our room is) was the bedrooms, the basement (breakfast) was the servants quarters, and the back (behind our room) was where they kept their horses. Apparently, this was the home of one of the Lords of Parliament at the time when England was the super-power in the world. I'm definitely going to have to do some research on that. I'll take a picture tomorrow to add to this post. Man, don't you just love history???!!!???