Day 22

Today would have been my dad’s favorite day of the trip because we went to Hampton Court! Not really, he hates it because he served his mission in London and he has been there a ton of times. Right dad? We had a shorter class today but I was freaking out the whole time because I had forgotten my oyster card and we needed it that day to travel. So class seemed even longer because I was thinking about it the whole time. But I ran (literally) home and got it after class, so it was all good. Also in class we got some money! I guess when they were budgeting for the trip they had to over budget in case something went wrong but it wended up being even more than they expected. So now we are getting money for travel and plays and stuff, which is great since I am going to so many plays. After class we tubed to waterloo station and took a train over to Hampton Court Palace, which is probably most famous for being one of the homes of Henry VIII. We walked around through some state apartments and exhibits, and then we went out to the huge garden and sat for a while. My favorite of the day- we saw a brigade of five ladies in wheelchairs being pushed through the gardens and it was amazing! I don’t know why it was so funny, but it was. We then went over to the maze and got lost for a few minutes. Robyn, Mandy and I somehow ended up together and left the maze through the “fast exit” because we didn’t want to wander around even more to find the real exit. Marissa came out a little later- apparently she ended up at the beginning again before finding the exit. After our maze adventures we went back to the train station and went back to London.

Once we got back it was about 5:30 which was a really annoying time to be because Robyn and I had tickets to a show at 7:30. Since Waterloo isn’t really that close to our flats, we decided it wasn’t worth it to go home then back out again. Instead we rode to Victoria which is where our play was, and decided to walk around for a while. Since Buckingham Palace was close, we moseyed on over to check it out. It was so weird because on the walk over we kept seeing all these people/couples who were dressed up- the men were in suits, tuxes, church robes, military uniforms, and my favorite, scout uniforms, and all the women were dressed nice and had a hat. By hat I mean those fancy-schmancy summery hats that the queen wears. We were so curious at who the heck these people were, but they were coming from the direction we were walking so we kept going. We got to Buckingham Palace and realized that was indeed where they were coming from. It was so surreal! I felt like there were groups of people from different centuries walking around. We walked around and ended up at the Victoria Memorial which is right across so we could watch the people. We purposefully sat next to these dressed up women so Robyn could ask them what was going on. It turns out it was a garden party for people involved in charity/public service, hence the scout uniforms and such. The lady was telling us about how Prince Charles and Camilla were there as well as the Queen and Prince Philip, and then she was saying that everyone invited got an invitation from the Queen. Robyn then said “do you know her?!” and it was the funniest thing ever. The lady got this little smile on her face and assured Robyn she didn’t know her personally. That was definitely the best quote of the day. After all this we walked over to the play- Billy Elliot! So I didn’t think I would want to see this play when I first got to London because it is about a boy who becomes a ballet dancer and I figured it would be weird/inappropriate, but I actually liked it a lot! The music was fun and I even started crying at one point in the show.

P.S. Happy Birthday Tanner!