a royal escape

Hi all!
Well, we have finally made it over the big ocean to the land of Shakespeare, the Beatles and of course our dear Queen! On Thursday morning after a super long flight we stumbled off the plane, grabbed our packs and were greeted by the welcoming arms of John and Sue. I met John and Sue a couple of years ago when they were visiting some friends who at the time were attending my church and have since stayed with them in London and visited with them at my parents place back home. Anyways, the day we arrived felt like the longest day ever, Mo and I fortunately slept a bit on the plane but the other two were pretty sluggish and figured on only about a half hour each of sleep... Sue prepared an awesome lunch for us when we arrived and then kept us from sleeping with a visit to Marlow, a lovely old village along the banks of the Thames (no big deal!)
Anyways, since being here it feels like we have already done so much, yesterday we headed into Oxford for the day with Sue, it was so lovely... the buildings are all so old and every turn, lane and road is simply gorgeous. There was one point when we were wandering about and turned down as Mel said a 'random road' and were flanked on one side by a grassy field of grazing cows and on the other by a towering stone cathedral, simply surreal. After walking in the steps of ancient intellectuals and feeling somewhat overwhelmed by everything we stumbled into Costa, the local (and much better) equivalent to our Timmy Ho's where we all got pretty jacked up on caffiene. This was do inpart to our inability to actually understand the guy behind the counter, I didn't realize that there was such thing as a small, Mel and Mo forgot to ask for decaff and Wanda, who 'has the blood of her mother' was the only one who survived that one. Sue met up with us again at this point and as I tried to tame the antsy Jack Russel terrier that had some how trapped itself inside my body in the coffee shop we bussed back to the 'car park.' John's daughter Sarah and her friend Bec met us back at their place and helped John prepare an amazing Mexican meal, accompanied of course by a stubby and some great conversation. Afterwards we all gathered up in blankets and sat in the living room around the fireplace talking until nearly one in the morning which was really fun. Unfortunately, a restful night of sleep was not quite in order for Mel and I. After we had both been sleeping for only about two hours we realized that we were both wide awake. Mel whispered into the dark, 'Erin, I a sooo hungry!' I was also feeling suprisingly hungry so we grabbed my flashlight and stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen where we pretty much helped ourselves to a whole new meal from the food left on the counter for us to eat if such a thing were to happen (bless your cotton socks Sue!!)
This morning we headed in to London, Sue drove us to the train station where she showed us how to purchase tickets and made sure that we got the best deal. We then took the train into London and then hopped on the Underground headed for Buckingham Palace. The rest of the day was really a blurr, we wandered around Westminster Cathedral, through Trafalgar Square, ate lunch while enjoying a street preformer show and lost ourselves in Topshop, a fourstory high-fashion clothing store in central London (I think that we all realized just how out of style we are when surrounded by the sequins, glitz and price tags of London!) At this point we were all quite tired and the streets were getting busy so we decided to join the crowds and call it a day.
Wheew, time for me to rest up and join the other weary travellers, an evening of Nottinghill I believe is in order!
Love, you all!
Erin (Mel, Wanda and Mo)