A Deeper Life: Our first sights of fabulous London!

In my whopping 10 months of being a mommy, I have firmly believed that the marriage should be fostered and that mom and dad should leave their child and enjoy themselves...baby free!! That may sound silly coming from a stay at home mama, but I have had absolutely zero issues with going on dates with Jamie and leaving her for a much needed vacation. Which is exactly what we did!!

About five months ago, Jamie asked me if I wanted to go to Europe. He said that he wanted to thank me for being patient with him as he finished up his grad school. But it was also a celebratory trip that he was about to be finished! So through many tears at the sheer thought of leaving my sweet Lucy behind on another continent, we planned this trip and we ready to go!

So without further ado, here is the first part of our vacay!

Our flight was supposed to leave promptly from Houston at 4:40 on December 11th, so Jamie and I left Lafayette around 10:00--me in flooding tears--and made the four hour drive to the Houston International Airport. We had a plan to enjoy a little Pappasito's before getting on the plane. One last really good meal before getting to London. Rumor had it that London was not exactly known for their cuisine...and they certainly were not despite all that is fabulous about that grand city!

So here was my yummy Pappasito's fish tacos:

Yum. Thank you, Pappa.

We actually had a lot to look forward to on this trip, including a truly fabulous treat from Jamie's parents. We got to fly first class on British Airways. Wow! Marty flies internationally quite a bit with work, so he has racked up quite a few flyer miles over the years. It was his gift to us to truly enjoy our flight to London--in style! Thank you so much, Marty, for the incredible treat! It was amazing!

So we got to enjoy the British Airways first class lounge as we waited for our plane to take off.

Jamie, piddling on his iPad:

Me, pretending to do work on my laptop with my geriatric socks cutting off my circulation:

In all actuality, I was reading food blogs and looking at nude heels for my sister-in-law's wedding. By the way, Camie is getting married to Spencer!!! Wooo hoo! March 8th is the big day and we couldn't be more excited! Love you guys!

After getting to the airport around 2:30 for our 4:40 flight, we had the unfortunate mishap of the ever-so-common flight delay. By 5 hours! Mechanical issues on a plane kind of freak me out, so I was in no hurry to get in the air if it was not 100%.

So, I restarted one of my favorite books:

I want to reread the first two books before seeing Catching Fire in theaters. I've become quite fond of "loser movies"--going to the movies all by myself--after having Lucy. There's something quite nice about sitting all by yourself for a couple hours with no one to tend to. So, I shall treat myself to a nice movie within the next week or so. Glorious.

We piddled in the lounge for a bit and then got board, so I convinced Jamie to go train surfing.

I think I had a lot more fun than he did. We hopped off and on and walked around different terminals, people watching. There's something truly fabulous about airport people watching. It's pretty great. Especially when you have a five hour flight delay.

Jamie found a game to play:

And this is a conversation we had while we marched around the airport:

Me: Babe, what do you say we start our own flash mob and start singing and dancing to Christmas music?
Jamie: .....
Me: Is that a "no"?
Jamie: Where do you come up with these things?

So I'm guessing he didn't want to start a two-man flash mob dancing to the tune of "Sleigh Ride". Maybe next time.

We ate some more and walked around and just hung out until our flight finally boarded around 9:30. Yes--five hours after we were supposed to leave. It ended up working out quite lovely because we were supposed to land in London around 7:30 in the morning, and we ended up getting there around noon. Then we were able to check in and continue on our merry way.

So here we are, on the plane, ready to go!

Jamie was giving me the "cool it on the pictures" look since we were sitting next to well-traveled business men and women who didn't want their flight to be interrupted by a low-class wannabe Cajun who got lucky enough to ride first class!

That didn't stop me from taking pictures of my food...Sorry James.

Y'all, I had my own table that folded out. They put a table cloth on top and I had several sets of silverware! I watched the lady next to me, because I still don't know which fork to use. I need to get out more.

I don't remember what this was, but the flight attendant asked if I wanted my tastebuds tickled. Why wouldn't I want my tastebuds to be tickled?! Yes please!

A delicious spring salad:

Prawns with a mango something or other:

Yes, prawns. Not shrimpies as I so lovingly call them.

Chicken, peas, potatoes, and a biscuit:

I had a dessert as well, but forgot to capture the picture. It was an apple cake with a caramel filling. Yum.

After my delicious meal, I enjoyed a "spot of tea"--my first of many on the trip--and I had our flight attendant named Alfonso make my bed for me. And then naturally, I put on a movie. Despicable Me 2, of course.

Pretty sure I was the only one above the age of 9 watching a cartoon on that flight. It was so great!

Then, I settled down for a good snooze.

It was heaven getting to sleep on a plane in a horizontal position! So great!

I woke up with about two hours left to go on our flight, and Alfonso came by with a breakfast menu. I started with a bowl of berries and then had some eggs, sausage, ham, hash browns, mushrooms and a tomato. I wasn't even hungry, but I had the "why not?" mentality and ate whatever they brought me.

Then another spot of tea. Of course.

We landed in London, went through customs and then caught a taxi to head to our hotel.

We look fuzzy and tired. It had been quite a long night.

We got to our hotel...

Ate our complimentary cookie...

And got ready to get out and explore!

First stop: the tunnel! We got our Oyster cards and Jamie navigated the tunnel map to get us to the London Eye:

I actually had no huge desire to ride the London Eye because I have a bit of a heights problem. We agreed that if we had extra time, then we'd ride, but I wasn't in any rush to get on it.

Big Ben:

It was a cold, foggy evening in London town but we were thrilled to be there!

We walked all around the Thames River, looking at all the vendors and street performers and smelling delicious food:

I gave in to the yummy smells and got myself a waffle with chocolate, strawberries and powdered sugar. And I didn't share with my love. It was heaven.

After walking around for an hour or two, we headed back towards our hotel and looked for somewhere to eat. We stopped at a local pizza place and I enjoyed a very refreshing Diet Coke: