Regents Park

Joey and I spent our Saturday out and about as usual. We ventured to Trafalgar Square where they had West End Live. Basically it's an all day production of all the shows playing in the West End in London. They do a number from all of the shows to give you a little taste of what's going on. We unfortunately arrived later then we wanted to and we had missed all of our favorites that were performed in the morning. It was still a cool atmosphere, and fun to walk around and see everything.

Two years ago, Joey spent six weeks studying abroad here in London. Many things that we've done here are things that he did while he was here, so it has been great to have a trusty tour guide wherever we go. We decided to take a little trip down memory lane and go see where Joey stayed while he was here. Little did I know that he lived in an amazingly beautiful area, and was quite spoiled with his set up. It was fun to see where he had lived and studied, and to picture him here, not so long ago.

This is Regents College where Joey studied and lived. The cute security guard let us go in and look around, and Joey gave me a little tour of the place. It was fun to see where he lived, and see some of the different things he did while he was here.

But the luckiest part about this area is the incredible park across the street. I am ticked that we haven't come here before, but I guess it's smart because I would want to be here everyday. It is absolutely gorgeous, and I loved every minute of it, even though it was a down pour almost the whole time we were there. I didn't care one bit. I loved it. That's what umbrellas are for, right? It's sad to say but this park put Kensington and Hyde Park to shame.

Here are a few pictures from Regents Park.

The rose gardens were phenomenal. They had hundreds and hundreds of rows of beautiful roses, all different colors, and they smelled SO good. The had a million benches lining the pathway, and everything looked amazing.

And of course they have beautiful waterfall in the middle of the park.

Joey and I wanted to pay tribute to Sophie Rose Barton as there were several white rose patches throughout the park.

The roses themselves were almost as beautiful as she is.

Afterward, we walked over to Baker Street where the famous Sherlock Holmes resided. They had a cute little gift shop, where Joey had a little too much fun....

All in all, another successful day in London. We love you all, and we miss you like crazy!!

Highlight of the trip!!

Joey and I have been looking forward to going to the trooping of the colors for sometime now. It's a celebration of the Queen's birthday, even though her birthday was like two months ago. We knew that she would be there, and we were hoping that we would be able to see her and the rest of the royals, as we are crazy stalkers and huge fans. Little did we know, it was our lucky day! The stars aligned and our dreams came true. WE GOT TO SEE WILLIAM AND KATE, THE QUEEN, AND THE REST OF THE ROYAL FAMILY. It was so so so so fun and one of my favorite things we've done on the trip thus far. We were freaking out.

Buckingham Palace in all its glory.

The procession started with guards marching in, a few different bands, guys on horses, policeman, the whole lot.

Joey and I were lucky enough to stake out a really good spot.

There was a railing there so we stood on it and had a great view of everything.

This was the first carriage to come in and we were freaking out!! That's Camilla and Kate in the flesh, less than 30 feet away from us! So cool!

Next came the Queen herself.

She is so cute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

After the procession had ended and everyone had gone in, they let all the people from the mall fill in where they had just come from. Joey and I made a split second decision and hopped the fence and made a mad dash to the front. Joey didn't know how passionate I was about getting a good spot because I literally sprinted to the front. Even if it meant ditching my husband, who ended up a few rows behind me. It was totally worth it.

I made it all the way to the front of the gates and had the perfect view. That hand in the picture is of the guy next to me who said he has been coming every single year and he had never been that close before. I was ecstatic!!

All of the royals!!

Kate is in the cream, William next to her in his uniform.

The Queen in her baby blue birthday outfit.

And Camilla and others on her left.

In honor the Queen's birthday, they had a fly-by of all these different jets. This one was the finale and by far the coolest one. I had a hard time switching back and forth deciding if I would rather watch the fly-bys or the royals. We loved every minute of it.

After it was over, Joey and I were still in awe of what had just happened. We were still a little star-struck and had so much fun hanging out with the royals for a minute. It really was so incredibly fun and something we'll never get to experience ever again!!

After Joey and I went on for more fun adventures. Walking along, we came across the famous Ritz hotel, another hotspot in the movie Notting Hill, along with many others.

Joey and I made our way to Camden Market. This one was a little more hip than Portobello Market, but we still love them both. We had fun looking around at all the different shops.

This is a cute, little restaurant in Camden Market. The patio seating was the ends of vespas and I thought that was such a fun, cute idea.

We had another GREAT day in London. We have absolutely loved our experiences here thus far, and we are excited for many more. There is no one else I would rather be here with than Joey. He is my best friend and I love him so much. I am one lucky girl, and we are having so much fun here in London. We love and miss you all! XOXO!!

More adventures..

It's been so hard for me to stay on top of blogging. Not only does it take forever to upload pictures, but we have been doing too many fun things to keep track of them all. But we hope you enjoy following our adventures!!!

One of the funnier things we've done since we've been here.... Joey signed up for this website that gives tickets to different things around London. He got an email saying he had gotten free tickets to a taping of a gameshow called POINTLESS here in London. So of course, we had to go! It was actually pretty fun, and the game itself was cool. We got to sit in the audience and we had to clap and laugh on cue and everything, but it was fun to see the whole thing. It went on for a little too long, but we had fun. It was a special celebrity appearance show too, and we didn't really recognize most of them because they are well known just in London, but it was still entertaining. The point of the game was to guess which answer was the least likely to be given in any given category. It was fun to be a part of all of it and we had a blast.

Outside BBC Studios

We weren't supposed to take pictures, but we snuck one in anyway.

We loved going to Pointless!

We had a fun couple of days when everyone from the Hinckley Institute came into town. They were able to meet with all the interns MPs and we were able to do some fun things with them also. We went to dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant called Punjab, and it was fun to see everyone that Joey has been working with.

The next night we went to dinner with everyone again at this amazingly delicious Italian restaurant called PREZZO. Afterward we raced off to the theater to see the broadway show WE WILL ROCK YOU. It was fun one, the whole show was put to the music of Queen, and I recognized most of the songs. The story line was kind of weird, but we still had a grand old time. Thanks to everyone that was here, we had so much fun with you!!

We also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum this past week.

Again, there was a ton to see and we had a blast looking at everything.

Victoria and Albert Museum

After going to the museum, we decided to take a little stroll through Hyde Park. We've been there before briefly, but there is so much to see and do there and we went back to see some of the highlights. Plus the weather was great that day so we wanted to take advantage of it and walk around.

Princess Diana's home (her fountain is also here, but I already posted about it)

The Peter Pan Statue.

They sometimes have a little play of Peter Pan in the park,

but it's not going on yet this time of year. Dang.

The Rose Gardens.

They had benches and statues and fountains lining the whole rose garden.

So pretty, the flowers were gorgeous.

Beautiful bridge and river in Hyde Park.

As you can see, we've been doing a lot of fun things here in London. We are so lucky to have this opportunity, especially as newlyweds, and it has been such a fun experience. We are learning a lot about each other and having a blast, and falling in love with the city. There is no one I would rather be here with than Joey. I'm a lucky girl in too many ways to count. We love you all, and miss you so much!! XOXO!

Another outing..

Joey and I went on another outing to see the Somerset house, the British museum, and Covent Gardens. We are so glad Whitney came with us, we just love her. She's here interning with Joey at Parliament, and it was so fun to go out and about with her. There is so much to see here and we're just soaking up as much of it as we can.

The Somerset House

The fountain was really cool, but those statues surrounding the fountains are animal heads. Kind of weird.

The British Museum

The inside of the British Museum is beautiful!

This is Whitney. We love her!

We went to Covent Gardens and had such a fun time.

Covent Gardens

We grabbed lunch at this cute little restaurant in the main square, and I didn't get a picture of it, but they had amazing French Onion soup and Joey got a really good pizza. We also stopped by Ben's Cookies to get a pic because supposedly, according to Joey, if you get a picture in front of the Ben's Cookies here in London, you take the picture to the one in Gateway and they'll give you a free dozen cookies. You better believe we are going to try it! Anything for free cookies. Anyway, it was a fun day out, and we had a great time. XOXO!!