We're really not supposed to be here.

I'll try to make this simple.  Our daughter Ashley, the one that lives in Uzbekistan, is due to deliver her seventh near the end of October.  She had planned to spend her three months (six weeks before and six weeks after delivery) in London.  She invited us to come over and get her away from the kids a bit while waiting to deliver, so we found cheap, non-refundable tickets for $527 each.  After all, what could go wrong?!
The State Department, that's what.  They changed their mind, deciding that she couldn't stay by herself in London with all those kids.  Soooo, she's now in Raleigh, and since it was going to cost $500 each to change our tickets, we're in London.

And that's not bad!  OK, the weather may not be optimal.

That really is the forecast, and yeah, it's been kind of rainy and windy, but with the proper clothing

it's really not a big deal.  

We've been doing the big tourist things, like the London Eye, excuse me, the Coca-Cola London Eye, the great big Ferris-type wheel on the Thames across from Parliament. 

And definitely Westminster Abbey, including the audio tour narration by Jeremy Irons (see "Lion King; Scar").

And of course, if you visit London, you HAVE to see the Queen, right?  No, really, we were walking down the street, and motorcycle police started blocking the side streets, and a little motorcade came by, and there she was, in the back seat of a Big Bentley.  Really!

I'll have to admit that I was so dumbstruck that I forgot to ask her what she thought about Boris Johnson and Brexit, and our guy on our side of the Atlantic, and...anyway, it was kind of cool.  

In non-shocking news, Paula has figured out how to travel on the Underground (the subway) and the buses and trains.  We've enjoyed meeting many of the other folks of London and rubbing shoulders (and other parts) with them.

We also got to meet a bunch of protesters and polite (no, really) London police, as the Extinction Rebellion environmental folks got all wound up while we were here.  We watched the police politely (no, really) help them gather their ragged tents and flags and weird bird costumes and whatever out of Hyde Park, and later herd them into Trafalgar Square and politely surround them.

I had to wonder what Lord Nelson, the fellow on the column and the national hero of the Battle of Trafalgar would have thought about the tattooed folks wearing large chicken and pink octopus costumes and running around banging drums and waving signs around his feet. 

So, a lot of our sightseeing involved bumping in to things as we walked around.  This is Scotland Yard, and those are Extinction Rebellion protesters in strange red robes standing motionless in a line in front of an equally motionless line of polite calm London police.  I don't know who blinked first.  

Here's a closeup of the costumes:

Kind of cool, huh?  I tried to get one as a kind of, you know, souvenir of our trip, but they said no dice.  And I asked Paula for some white makeup and some red lipstick, and after dope slapping me, she also said no dice.  Some people have no sense of fun tourism.  Sheesh.  

We came across another great big building, and lo and behold - Buckingham Palace!

or so someone told us with a shocked look on her face.  We knocked, but again, no dice.

We bumped into all sorts of good food, from Afro-Portuguese chicken

to fast food sushi

to kitchenette Italian, 

and everything in between.

All right, I'll admit that not all of our exploring has been that random.  We visited St. Paul's Cathedral, and although Paula insisted that it should be St. Paula's, they didn't think that was amusing, and insisted otherwise.  

We did the audio tour, then "raced" up the 528 steps to the small outside walkway near the top and caught the great view, and perhaps a cold from the wind and rain.

While riding the tube (the subway) we came across a poster for a popular play in town,

and decided that not only was the poster's language inappropriate, but that instead, we'd study the book itself, so we went to church today at the Hyde Park Chapel.

I have no doubt that our visit there was far more enriching than the play in question.  The building also houses the Church's Visitor Center for London, and the England London Mission office.  

Covering our religious bets, we also attended the St. Paula's Cathedral Evensong service this afternoon, which was beautiful not only for the music, but also for the magnificence of the edifice.

So even though we're really not supposed to be here, so far so good.  There are other things that we hope to bump in to in the next couple of days.  

We hope that all of your inopportune travels turn out to be so rewarding.

Dave & Paula