England, Day One: St. Paul's Cathedral, the London Eye, and Wicked.

After a day full of flying, we arrived at our first hotel of the trip, the Flemings Mayfair.  We only had enough time to drop off our bags and freshen up, then it was off to our first destination of the day: St Paul's Cathedral.  The cathedral is gorgeous, both outside and inside (pictures of the interior aren't allowed), but my favorite part was climbing the 528 steps to the top of the dome and looking out at the city.  I may have almost died of exhaustion, but the views were definitely worth it!

Next we hopped on our bus and made our way over to the London Eye.  This giant observation wheel is 135 meters high and has 32 viewing capsules, each holding about 25 people.  The wheel slowly rotates, taking 30 minutes to complete the full rotation, which is nice because you have plenty of time to enjoy the amazing views and take lots of pictures (although the glass reflections make photography a little challenging).

We ended our first day by going to see a musical on the West End.  We decided to get tickets for Wicked, since I found some cheap "obstructed view" seats online.  I'm so happy I bought them, because we were so close to the stage and we could see almost everything.  I'd never seen Wicked before (crazy, I know) and it was so good...it was definitely a highlight of my trip!!  Emery may have fallen asleep a couple times in the theatre, but to be fair we did have a really long day and he was pretty jet-lagged. 

I haven't been able to update my blog as frequently as I'd like, because we are currently dealing with the stress of selling our house, buying a new one and packing up our stuff...moving is not fun, folks!  We are getting excited for our new adventure though.  Wish me luck!