I’ve never drank so much tea in such a short span of time. One afternoon I asked for “English cream tea… just the tea, please”, which sounds perfectly reasonable, right? The cashier wrinkled his brow and scrunched his nose, like I was speaking Martian or something. “You would like tea?” he offered. “Yes, English cream tea” I repeated, pointing to the picture of a cup of tea next to a scone, “but just the tea.” Again, the look. OK, this is weird… am I not making sense? In a last ditch effort I tried, “Can I have tea?” And finally, we communicated successfully. “Alright, tea. Pound fifty.”
For a pound fifty, I got a cup of hot water and a bag of English breakfast tea. What?? This is so not cream tea. As I relayed the incident to Eric, it appeared that even he knew that “English cream tea” is tea with a scone – regular tea, not some special “English cream” tea. So “English cream tea, just the tea” is, well, regular tea. Goodness. He likened it to ordering pepperoni pizza without pepperoni, or a cheeseburger without cheese. Thanks, dear. Whatever. I helped myself to cream and sugar, and that afternoon, had myself a fine cup of English cream tea.
I’ve been thinking about the best way to blog about our trip to London. Some people have a way with words. But me… I would start rambling or digressing, and the result would be anything but pithy. So I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, and maybe add a tiny bit of commentary here and there.
Here are our top ten memories visiting the land of the Queen.
10. London Eye: A 30 minute rotation above the Thames river in a glorified ferris wheel. 25 people per capsule x 32 capsules = 800 people!! That’s like guessing how many jelly beans are in the candy jar, and totally underestimating.
9. Biker protest: These guys just want free parking, and I think they’ll keep plugging roundabouts around the city during rush hour to prove it. No to bike parking charges (dot com, if you’re really interested)!
8. Touristy stuff: Of course we had to do some of this. 
7. Windsor Castle: This was probably my favorite attraction. You can tell by the flag that the Queen was on premise (probably in the building we’re standing in front of) but we didn’t get to see her.
6. Fish and chips : No comment.
5. Feeding birds: Eric will tell you I have a thing for feeding birds. And I don’t mean throwing a few crumbs at them, no, I mean actually buying whole pretzels or bags of food and throwing them a feast. From roosters on our honeymoon and pigeons in Atlantic City, to swans in London… I would post more bird pictures, but Eric says you people would get bored very quickly.
4. Photo ops: I’m slowly getting used to taking our camera with us everywhere. Previously I thought it so inconvenient and unfashionable (I mean, who wants a chunky camera hanging around their neck all the time?) but now it’s becoming more fun to shoot with Eric. I need the practice, plus it gets me to look at the world differently… to notice detail, colors, textures.
3. Abe and Jenny’s home: I love visiting friends’ homes… maybe overly so. In college, I would visit friends in other states just to see them in their own setting, so that the next time I called, I’d be able to picture exactly where they’re sitting or which room they’re in as we talk. If they were cooking dinner, I would know what their kitchen looks like. In a weird way it made me feel closer to them. Guess this is a byproduct of long distance friendships? A&J, thank you for inviting us into your home… it is cozy and full of love! Hope you like these detail shots.
2. Visiting Eric’s Aunt & Uncle: Amazingly, Eric’s aunt and uncle live only 12 miles from Abe and Jenny’s home, so we were also able to spend a day with them. It was my first time really getting to know them. We looked at old photos, watched Strictly Come Dancing (the UK version of DWTS), and I helped type a chapter of her memoir. It was fun!
1. Abe & Jenny: Finally, the highlight of our trip… hanging out with this dynamic duo!! Abe and Jenny moved to London earlier this year so that Jenny could continue working with Operation World. You can follow their blog here. We miss them dearly, but are happy that they are obeying God’s call and facing this new adventure together. Some notes about the pic… upper left, I was fascinated by this wall covered with red leaves; upper right, Jenny, don’t kill me for posting this… it’s a pre-jumping shot that makes me laugh!
Ok, that’s it. Hope you enjoyed the recap!!
