daddy and the QUEEN come to london

Remember when you went to camp and half way through the summer your parents would come to visit?  Well this was similar, but in London.  My parents arriving in the UK meant that my time here was half way over... ok katie.. lets not dwell on the negative..

After my finals finished, I finally had some alone time.  My friends left on their spring break trip to Prague and Vienna on Tuesday afternoon which gave me Tuesday evening and all of Wednesday with peace and quiet.  I am definitely my mother's daughter and always enjoy some me time.  On Tuesday night, I hit the gym and then came home and relaxed in bed and watched a movie.  Wednesday, although I planned to wake up early and go to the gym and haev a very productive day, I ended up sleeping until 12:30 and then heading to do some errands (laundry, nails, etc).  Wednesday night, I got together with a friend from high school who I hadn't seen in a while for sushi.  This place was really cool because it was one of those conveyor belt places! It wa a really enjoyable experience, although the sushi was no Mahe or Kayuga.

The Queen and dad arrived early on Thursday morning and I went quickly to meet them.  After dad and I went and grabbed a chocolate croissant and coffee at a nearby cafe, Paul, we got mom and headed for a walk around South Kensington.  I showed them where I have class, where I live, and everything about my neighborhood.  We then stopped for lunch at a cute cafe on Kensington High Street called Giraffe.  Mom and Dad were really jet lagged so we got them a large coffee, ate lunch, and then went to walk through Hyde Park.  We went to Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived until her death, but it has been turned into this strange demonstration... We weren't enthused.  So we left and went to the National Gallery where we spent lots of time admiring the artwork.  We even found this book in the gift shop..

After the National Gallery, we all went home and took a nap and then headed out to the one and only Harrod's for dinner.  We perused through the mecca shopping halls for an hour and then decided to stroll around the area to find somewhere to eat.  We all retired early because I had booked us a 530 am train to Paris the next morning!

Now I might have been really dramatic planning a legitimate full day in Paris, but I think we would all say it was worth it.  We really enjoyed a beautiful day and got to see all of the great sites in the 12 hours we were there.  I will put a more detailed blog entry about Paris when I go back in April with my friends but here are some pictures from the day in Paris

at the beginning of the day...

waiting for the cab...

nutella and banana crepe

mom asked i take a picture of this for the barry's

notre dame

notre dame

louis vuitton

our set up at tea :)

mom and the mona lisa

me and mom at the louvre

view from the eiffel tower

The next day, in London, we went to Portobello market.  I knew mom and dad would enjoy this because it has something for everyone.  We spent the entire afternoon strolling down the streets, enjoying the antiques and old photos and souvenirs.  

On Sunday, we did a bus tour of london and got to see the entire city.  It was fun to do this even though i have been here for 6 weeks because I really got to see the entire city.  It was a hop on hop off tour so we were able to get off in places we wanted, like the Tower of London.  

That night we went to Gordon Ramsay's restaurant for dinner.  IT WAS INCREDIBLE.  We had some great celebrity sightings while we were at dinner also: Tilda Swinton, the actress and Simon Doonan, the Creative Ambassador-at-Large of Barneys!

I had a great time with my parents in London!  I am so glad they got to come and see my life here and that the Queen finally got to visit the royal palace :)