After a very long time counting down, CootieGirl’s 16th birthday present from my parents has finally arrived. In two days she and I will be winging it across the pond to spend a week with them in London. It is CG’s first international trip, and she is very excited.
We’ll be driving up to Virginia tomorrow night to spend the night at my sister’s, and then fly out Thursday from Dulles Airport. We already have some things planned – notably seeing the London production of “Hamilton” as well as heading by train to Paris for a day (where I’ve already secured tickets to see a very special Van Gogh art exhibit). Even though my parents have been to London so many times it’s nearly impossible to count, and I’ve been a couple of times myself, we will be taking CG to a lot of touristy stuff while we’re there. Photo ops at Buckingham Palace, The famous Gherkin building, Parliament, London Eye, 10 Downing Street (although I doubt we’d be able to get super close to it) – these are just a few sites we’ll visit. We’ll also checking out Notting Hill, Little Venice (where the movie “Paddington” was filmed) as well as Abbey Road Studios. We’ll do lots of shopping and eating and drinking tea while where there, too.
Last night we started packing our suitcases, making sure to leave plenty of room inside for all the goodies we plan to bring home with us. Since the apartment in which we are staying has a washer/dryer, we are only taking 4-5 outfits with plans to do laundry halfway through the trip. This allowed almost an entire side of each suitcase to remain mostly empty. WOO!
I’m not taking a laptop with me, nor is CG, so we may be out of pocket the entire trip unless my dad has his (I predict he will) – at which point I’ll force myself to log onto his Mac and give you an update (the “forcing” is not giving you an update so much as it is the idea of using a Mac).
Denis and CootieBoy will be left to their own devices – literally and figuratively. A couple days ago when I asked CB what he’d do during his spring break alone with his dad, he joked, “I’ll play video games on my computer while Dada sits in the recliner and falls asleep while watching baseball on TV.” I think that’s a fair assessment, although I do hope they can get out and do SOMETHING, even if it’s going to Abari to play video games and pinball machines for a couple of hours.
Denis and I agreed last night that Dobby the Dog will likely be inconsolable while I’m gone, considering that I’m his favorite human in the house. Oh sure, Denis may give him treats every night, but I’m numero uno. I don’t think he’ll go into depression like my mother’s dog Harry used to do (he would just shut down completely, not eat, and lay in her bedroom closet all day so he could be near her scent whenever she went out of town), but I do think he’ll be extra worried while I’m gone.
The good news is that once we return and recover from our vacation, it’ll be time to actually celebrate CG’s 16th birthday, which we will celebrate by going to (hopefully) get her driver’s license AND adopt a new kitty cat into our family.
