Part 1 - Traveling to London

Hello Everyone, Deanna and Mack here. (Mack typing)

Shuttle to SFO

We left San Francisco last night after a quick drive down to SFO. It was hard saying goodbye to our little DonkeyCat Nima. She is happily living in ignorance in her Donkeystan cave/hidey hole. (forgive all the nicknames we have for our cat.) We set her up with a daily caretaker from Kristin's Kitty Care, so she's in good hands. 

A good tip when leaving your car anywhere for long periods of time is to take a pic of the parking garage. Then when you get back your chances of finding your car are much higher. 

Level 4!

After we settled in at SFO we had our final meal and some drinks before takeoff. 

Mimosa and Irish Coffee

Bye SF!

Fires in the California Central Valley

We flew United to Houston, Texas. Deanna had the window and I had the middle seat. I typically go for the aisle seat and now I remember why. It was a very uncomfortable trip flying to Texas. I had an older lady next to me that decided the armrest was all hers and that she could lean over onto it. So I tried to give her room and in turn made myself more uncomfortable. Oh well, but my back hurts because of it. 

When we were in Houston we had about a 4 hour layover. We killed time by having lunch at a place called Rocket & Rye. After lunch we took advantage of my United Club passes and went to the United Club lounge to relax. We got to enjoy complimentary beer and wine and a variety of snacks. What a nice way to relax and wait for the next leg of our journey. 

United Club Lounging

We loaded into the 787 Dreamliner en route to London around 6:30pm. After a slight mechanical delay we were on our way down the runway. Again I was in the middle and I gave Deanna the window. This may change on our way back. Neither of us could sleep then entire 8 hour+ trip to London. It was rough. The highlight of the flight was when we were flying over Toronto and saw the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) flashing out the plane window on the horizon. We saw it for about an hour or so along the top of the cloud line. It was gorgeous. It wasn't as bright or defined as some I've seen online. I tried to take a photo, but it wasn't very clear. On the flight we had the vegetable curry meal from United. It wasn't bad. 

Flying to London from Houston on the 787

Indian Meal in Flight

Sunrise from the Atlantic (a bit blurry)

Hello London Countryside!

We touched down at London Heathrow Airport around 9am or so. We got in the long customs line and waited while we all shuffled our way up to the customs agents. No issues and we were through the processing area pretty fast. We hit the ATM and got some local money then walked over to grab our bags and find a cab. 

Long Live the Queen

Oh yah, we setup a cam to check in on Nima... here she is, doing what she does best. Sleeping!

Meow! Nima Sleeping

At this point we could have taken the tube to our flat in Earls Court, but I didn't feel like learning the tube system right at the start of our time in town. So we took a cab that wasn't very cheap (around 55£) but was very convenient. The cab we were in was pretty neat compared to US cabs. It was a van type of cab with a very new interior. I'm not sure which brand it was because there are a variety of them. You can't talk to the driver through the glass separation wall unless you use the intercom system. Also, it was funny to see everyone driving on the wrong side of the road. Even though I've seen it in movies and TV, it's even more interesting in person. I'm glad I'm not renting a car while here. 

We rented an apartment (flat) through AirBnB's website. The instructions from our host said to get our keys from this lady at a restaurant near our flat. After getting dropped off I went into the restaurant and asked for the person by name and she delivered our keys. It was sort of like a scavenger hunt, just much simpler. lol.

The view out of our front room window

Kitchen

The view down part of our street. (more to come)

Living Room of our Flat

Our flat is located up 3 flights of stairs with no elevator (lift) to help you lug your bags up to your home. We got in, checked out all the amenities and decided to get some food and then come back and take a nap. We were so exhausted from not sleeping on the plane that we had to take a nap to try to get our cycles in order for traveling around during the day. We walked down the block through our neighborhood to a pub called The Prince of Teck where we would have our lunch.

For lunch I had the fish and chips (fries) with a pea mash and a pint of San Miguel beer. Deanna ordered the BLT and beer as well. The food here was good. I liked the fish a lot. The batter stuck to the fish body well and it was crispy and cooked through perfectly. The chips I felt could have been more crispy, but had okay flavor. Deanna enjoyed her BLT and I can confirm it was good by the bite I had. My only complaint is that someone decided to smoke near the doorway and their smoke kept drifting into the restaurant for us to enjoy with my meal. I already noticed how many more people were smoking though, so I suppose we should begin to get use to it. 

BLT

Fish and Chips

After we ate we walked around a little bit more then went back and napped for a few hours. After naps we rested a bit more and then went to dinner.

We decided to try the Japanese chain restaurant Wagamama which is nearly right across from our flat. I ordered the Fried Shrimp appetizer and a Pork Ramen. Deanna ordered the Chicken Ramen. Both soups were very good. The broths were not as salty and seasoned as i'm used to in SF, but the ingredients seemed fresh and executed well. The shrimp was butterflied, breaded and fried and served with a side of sweet chili sauce for dipping. 

Shrimp!

Wagamam Pork Ramen

That's it for the day. Also, plenty of phone booths still exist on the streets. Some are for wifi I guess. 

Phone booth anyone?

We'll try to post updates of our wandering about adventures. Tomorrow we plan to hit up a museum and walk around near Big Ben, The London Eye, and a lot of touristy things. 

We'll be publishing all of our photos at the end on Picasa and Facebook. To see them as we go, click on the Picasa link at the bottom.
More soon, 

Deanna and Mack

Our full photo album is located here:
https://goo.gl/photos/rRMpDJXDXoF5QsS98