Olympic Fever

I definitely have it. I grew up playing sports. Lots of sports. Soccer (my true love), track and field, basketball, volleyball. I loved competing (and still do!). In fact, I just recently started playing on my work soccer team again and I'm having so much fun! I'm not nearly as good as I used to be (if I was even good back then - ha!) but it feels good to get back out there and compete. 

Watching the Olympics is just as fun for me. I get so into it and I'm definitely bursting with pride for our beautiful USofA. The athletes competing at that level are just so insanely good and I love watching them leave it all out there. The husband loves it too. We have a lot of fun watching on TV and making our own "color commentary." 

What is my favorite sport to watch, you might ask? I have come around to like the swimming. Especially with the last Olympics and Phelps doing so awesome and now this year with the rivalry built up with Lochte. I am also digging the volleyball - women's beach volleyball and men's indoor. They spike it so hard! Holy cow. I also like watching the random sports that you don't get to see on a regular basis, especially in the US. Like archery (have you seen those crazy hi-tech bows?) and shooting. Love it all. 

Oh, and what about the Queen "sky diving" into the stadium? Pretty funny. My favorite part of the opening ceremonies was the lighting of the torch. So cool with the young athletes running in and then lighting the 240 pieces from each country to create one unified flame. So awesome. I loved it. 

With the Olympics in London this year, it brings me back to memories of our London trip last summer. We loved that city so much. A ridiculous amount of history mixed with all things royal and a ton of beautiful old buildings. I loved every minute of it. Read more about our London travels right here. 

Are you a crazy USA super fan like me? What are your favorite sports to watch? 

Photo source: 1, 2, 3

London: Day 4

Well, we made it through London. Day 4 was our last day and we took it a bit easier. We slept in a bit and started out on a Double Decker Bus Tour. We did The Original Tour and it was pretty good, with one exception. We started at Victoria Station and went out along the river, got to the Parliament Building and decided to get off the bus and grab some pics (since you can hop back on at any stop).

The building is huge and pretty amazing with all the Gothic architecture. It was interesting to find out that the different parties (Lords and Earls) enter through different doors, as well as the Queen has her own door when she comes for a visit.

We went to get back on the bus at one of the stops and waited for about 45 minutes before we gave up and walked back to the stop we originally got off at. Not cool! It was good to get a little bit of down time after going full speed.

We got back on the bus and our tour guide was pretty good. It was really fun to see the sites from a different perspective up higher on the bus (and it was finally sunny!).

I think this was the building of the British version of the IRS (Nerd!).

I'm not sure of most of the buildings we drove by, but they were sure purrrty.

Legally Blonde - next time we'll go see a show!

We drove by this district that had a bunch of old war posters. Lots of Churchill.

We drove through the Tower Bridge and past the London Eye.

Picadilly Circus.

We got off at Leiscester Square (it's pronounced like "lester" not "ly-chester" like I thought it was) and walked around to get lunch and kill time before heading to the Odeon to see Harry Potter(!). We walked past China Town...

...and then decided to head to the theatre and get in line (even though we had reserved seating). They have it set up so every seat is assigned, just like when you go to a play or musical (it was kind of nice!). Going to see Harry Potter in London was one of our favorite parts of our London trip. 

The crowd during the movie was awesome. Laughing, crying and cheering out loud throughout the movie (especially after Mrs. Weasley's big line - I think you know what I'm talking about). It was an awesome experience to go see it on opening day with the locals! Probably the most expensive movie we've ever seen too (totally worth every penny pence)!

After HP (we were super jazzed!) we made the trek over to Trafalgar Square (also the center of London) and the National Gallery (again, Free!). We were a little bummed because the DaVinci rooms were closed, but loved the rest of it. Our favorite painting was the Execution of Lady Jane Grey (she was the 9 day Queen and only 16 years old when she was  murdered). So many amazing paintings all in one place! And they already had the Olympic Countdown going (I'm not a fan of their logo).

Next, we hit up the British Museum (also, Free! - thank goodness), which had tons of artifacts, mummies, and Greek statues. It was cool at first, but a little bit in the mummies started looking the same and I was super tired. After so many statues, they just start running together. So I went to Starbucks while Z continued to tour the museum. I did see some cool Egyptian artifacts (including Cleopatra's tomb) and the famous Rosetta Stone before I left though!

After the museum, I really wanted to go to Notting Hill (you know, because of the movie). So we took the Tube to that district hoping to grab some dinner and explore. Too bad it was already getting dark and we were starving so there was less exploring and more eating. Rick Steeve's suggested a small little cafe called Cafe Diana where the walls are lined in photographs of the late Princess (it's really like a shrine). We went but they only took cash and we didn't want to take out any more pounds since we were leaving the next day. 

So instead we went down the street to this restaurant chain we had seen around called Zizzi. It was Italian food and SO delicious. I had the Fettuccine Alfredo with this delicious bacon/ham (of course) and Z had Lasagna. We split some blood orange gelato after, which was amazing. 

We took off back to the hotel, got an hours worth of Internet and then hit the hay for our earlier departure the next morning.

Next stop... Paris!

London: Day 3 Part II

Alright. Time to finish this bad boy known as Day 3 of our London trip. Like I said, it was a beast. From the Tower of London, we grabbed some coffee at Starbucks (I know, I know but we needed a little energy boost after the Tower) under the Tower Bridge and then started walking towards St. Paul's. St. Paul's was probably my favorite church (and one of my favorite sites in general) on our trip. It was awe-inspiring. I thought I liked Westminster, but I had an "experience" at St. Paul's. We realized St. Paul's was where Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married. 

The inside was beautiful with the dome and the mosaics on the ceilings. It felt a lot less crowded and more grand than Westminster. We went up to the dome (actually three separate domes) and walked up what felt like a million stairs. The first dome was called the Whispering Gallery. You could sit along the outside of the dome and whisper along the curved wall and because of the way the dome was built, you could hear what someone whispered from across the room. So cool! Sometimes you'd catch it just right and be able to hear a bunch of whispering voices all at once and it was kind of eerie. Here's the view from the first dome.

From there, we hiked all the way to the second and third domes. At the third dome, we got to go outside and see the great views of the city from the top. 

On our way out, just before they closed, they started rehearsal for the children's choir and it was amazing. I have never heard anything like it. It was so beautiful. They were practicing hymns and just being there listening to the singing ring throughout the beautiful church was like nothing else. It was probably one of my favorite parts of our entire trip. We managed to snap a few stealthy pics on our way out...

From St. Paul's, we stopped by a little pub to get some beer and grub (we loved all the colorful pubs around the city). We kept walking along the Thames River, past Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (we didn't go inside) and saw some other cool things along the way. We walked past one wall of what was probably an old church from the 1200s that still had the old round window. A cool pub on the river. A sweet gothic church (I can't remember what it was called) that we happened to come across and popped in just before it closed. 

We walked across the Tower Bridge on our way back towards the Tower of London where we met up with the London Walk group to go on a "Jack the Ripper" Walk. 

This was our "Ripperologist" or tour guide that led us to about 5 different spots around the City of London and old London while explaining all the theories and conspiracies surrounding Jack the Ripper. 

It was really interesting (and pretty creepy, too) to hear about Jack the Ripper and what actually happened. They never caught the guy! Luckily, it's been over a hundred years since the events happened so the guy is definitely long gone by now!

On the way home we stopped at the grocery store and bought some chocolate cake since we couldn't find any gelato in our neighborhood. It was tasty! 

Day 4 (our last day in London) coming up!