T and S: Londonton Abbey

In case you missed it:

Day 10 was our last day in London. And while our flight was late enough that we could have done one quick tourist-y thing in the morning, we decided not to risk it. We took a one hour ride on the tube to Heathrow (thanks for hauling our bags about again, T!) where we got our Oyster card deposit back (£5 each so no small deal). Using the 7 day pass on the Oyster card was one of our best London decisions.

Since we were 3.5 hours early for our flight, before we headed to the British Airways lounge we went souvenir hunting in the airport. It was rough goings. Eventually we found and bought these shirts at the Olympic store. They were pricey, but it was worth it because we had been looking the ENTIRE trip for a souvenir and hadn't found a suitable one.

T has worn his (white) several times since we've been home, but I haven't worn mine (blue) at all because I don't want to stretch it out.

The only other souvenir we bought in London was this super adorable ornament specifically for baby from Buckingham Palace.

The British Airways lounge in Heathrow was incredibly nice and had some awesome food. We were just hanging out for a while then I started to get antsy to get on the plane because you had to take a shuttle to the terminal and it was 1:50 and the doors to the plane closed at 2:10. T was kind of mosying about because he thought the doors to the plane OPENED at 2:10. Anyway, by the time I figured out why T was mosying and he figured out why I was antsy we had to run (literally) to the shuttle and then again from the shuttle up two sets of escalators to the gate. We were almost the last people at the gate, but we made it!

We got to our seats and sat down and my sides and stomach started hurting. A lot. Like crying, doubled over in pain, T asking me if we need to get off the flight pain. There was no way I was going to get off the flight - I missed America and I was not about to re-buy expensive plane tickets! The worst of the pain was over in about 40 minutes and after another 20 minutes I was able to sleep and felt mostly better when I woke up. We think it was the running that did it?... Anyway, by the time we landed at Dulles I felt totally fine. While the pain was the worst I seriously said to T "If I can't even handle this how am I going to handle labor?!" Here's some proof of me feeling mostly fine:

We flew business class again on the way home and once again, it was wonderful. We slept and read and watched some movies (me: New Year's Eve and The Devil Wears Prada, T: Sherlock Holmes #2, Johnny English, How to Train Your Dragon). We had two meals (like fancy restaurant meals) and a snack served to us on board. I am actually a fan of scones and clotted cream and jam. The scones taste pretty much like my mom's biscuits and the clotted cream tasted like a mix of butter and cream cheese with a bit of lemon in it. What's not to love about that? Also, what's not to love about knowing you're over the Atlantic, but not being able to see it?

When we landed we had a message from the guy who we had arranged to pick us up saying that he couldn't pick us up! But it was okay because he also said that he arranged for our home teacher (not the one who took us to the airport) to pick us up. Unfortunately, the new guy thought that the pick up time (7:30 p.m.) was the time the flight landed so we had to wait around the airport, but really, there are way worse things in life.

T and I were both SO glad to be back in the States and back to warm weather. We were even more glad to get back to our apartment that we had cleaned just before we left. It was SO nice to come home to a clean house with clean towels and clean sheets and just fall into bed (after we bought some milk for cereal the next morning!) It was also so nice that we had both intentionally taken the day after we go back from London off from work to recover. I had an obgyn appointment the next morning and seriously didn't feel jet-lagged at all (though, T did a bit). We were so lucky in the jet lag department / the timing of our flights both ways!

Next up is our very last post about London (I promise!).