A Wicked Ride

AHHHH!  So much to write, so little time.  Where was I...

Sunday didn't really start until 2:30pm for us because Justin wasn't feeling the best.  He went back upstairs to rest after we shoved some free breakfast down our throats a few minutes before they stopped serving it, and I hopped online until he joined me again at 1:45.  Then the two of us, starved for internet access and missing family, continued to chat with my mom and Patrick for a little while.

Patrick thinks we went to Jupiter and are now in Mars.  We did see a picture of Jupiter later that day... Close enough.

Natural History Museum

Justin seemed much better at this point, so we headed out.  Our first stop was a health & beauty supply store where we picked up some tylenol, sudafed (trip saver), and diet Pepsi.  And I never thought I would choose a side, but I can't play Switzerland on this subject any longer...

I prefer diet Coke over diet Pepsi.  I am so tired of Pepsi.

The Science Museum was our only planned attraction for the day.  Outside the museum we caught a glimpse of an LDS church and felt a little guilty about not attending church. 

The first floor of the Science Museum was the  most interesting.  Space, inventions, transportation. 

Then the second, third, fourth, and fifth floors were geared toward children and also didn't have much going on.  There was a replica of a penis, a clown mask in a jar, and stuffed, leaping cat on display.

It was on the boring floors that Justin realized that the museum he actually wanted to see was called The Natural History Museum... and I realized I am Pogonophopic.

Fear the beard.

Natural History Museum

So we left boring-ville and went to the Natural History Museum.

This museum was much more impressive, but extremely crowded.  And since it was close to closing, we used our speed.  We saw dinosaur bones, mammals, critters, birds, and sea life... all in fast forward.



Pliosaur.  I lay my eggs on earth but live at sea.

At this point our stomachs were hungry enough to eat a whale.

whale.

We wanted Hard Rock Cafe, but seeing the mass of people waiting outside, we decided to save that for another time, and ended up eating a Meat Feast Italian pizza at the Pizza Hut next to our hotel with... OH MY WORD... UNLIMITED REFILLS ON DRINKS. 

I forgive them for only having Pepsi products.

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Monday was much more eventful and started pretty early.  We were so thirsty that morning that we were ready for breakfast the second it opened at 6:30am.  JUICE!!!!! 

Then we took the Tube to the British Museum. 

Hurray!!

This is my favorite museum of the ones we visited.  I love seeing and reading about the artifacts from ancient Egypt and Greece!  I especiallllly like Greek statues.

After that we took a stroll down Drury Lane trying to find the muffin man.  Back and forth, down and up the street we went.. looking for a muffin.  While we searched for blueberry goodness, we came across Great Queen Street which I recognized as the location of one of the three geocaches I had looked up with our hotel Wifi that morning.   

With nothing but a screen shot of the geocache description and clue, Justin and I stood across from the Free Mason's building.  We have never actually geocached before, well... I've found one, but I had major help...so yeah, that was an added complication.

The clue said something like: eve level, Rain behind black and blue

"Eve.. what has that got to do with... OH!  I guess it was probably meant to say EYE level..." I figured, feeling silly for not realizing it was a typo sooner.

"And rain could be referring to storm drains.." Justin added.

"How about the storm drains on that black and blue building?!"  I exclaimed.

"Yeah, I was thinking that... there is a hole... it is right by that man's head though."

Sure enough, there was the perfect hiding place that fit all the descriptions... but it was blocked by a muggle eating on the black and blue restaurant's patio.
/
"Let's go find that muffin and come back.  Maybe he'll leave," suggested Justin, and we picked back up on that search. 

We eventually found a muffin in this small cafe that I am pretty sure is the same cafe where I got a blueberry muffin last time I was in London.  The muffin man might not have been the same though.  I should have asked if he knew the real muffin man...

The real muffin man?

The real muffin man?

Who works on Drury Lane?

Well... she's married to the real muffin man?

The real muffin man?

THE REAL MUFFIN MAN!

I don't know that the conversation would have been that true to the gingerbread man quote from Shrek... but I can dream.

Anyway, so we ate the darn muffin and hurried back to Great Queen Street. 

He was STILL there...

"Come on, Honey, let's just move on... he's never gonna finish that beer," Justin reasoned.  "Wait.. where you goin'?"

I had handed him my backpack and started walking toward the hole in the gutter.  I wasn't going to get this close and give up that easy.  "I'll just ask him to move."

"And then stick your hand in the wall?!"

"Yes."

Unfortunately, when I reached my hand in the hole, not only did I get a lot of funny looks... but I did it all for a cut and a handful of dirt.  There was nothing in the hole. 

Justin dragged me away from there while he could and brought me to the London Library to cheer me up.  We went inside as far as we could and grabbed a bunch of free bookmarks.  The librarian didn't seem to want to know that I worked in a library in Willard, Missouri.  She was nice enough though.

The day was starting to look up again as we found our way to Big Ben and Parliament. 

We wanted a better view, so we walked across a near-by bridge, and that's when we found one...

OUR FIRST INTERNATIONAL GEOCACHE!

Yesss!

I was so excited that I pretty much skipped all the way across the next bridge to get back to Westminster Station.  Plus, the weather was marvelous... and the sun was out... and I was with my lovely JJ.  It was a beautiful moment.

We did finally get to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was very scrump-diddle-y-umptious, but holy crap expensive.

Burgers with 20 dollor bills instead of lettuce were followed by a Buckingham Palace walk-by. 

Hey, sup, Queen?

 Then we set out to find the Apollo Victoria theater for the 7:30 showing of WICKED!  Being a bit concerned that we would get lost along the way, we ended up getting there two hours early.  We passed by this cute, little clock on the way.

Aww, dat's cute.

What to do for two hours?  Hmmm... how about GEOCACHE?!  I looked at the screen shot of the 3rd geocache I had quickly picked earlier.  I chose it because it was right by the theater AND the station that would take us back to our hotel. 

Now I took a better look at what the cache was called: Big Ben's Little Brother.  Whoa.  Wait just one clock tick... remember this?



Aww, dat's cute.

That's right, it was the X on our pirate map!

But, finding the cache was a little more difficult than finding the clock.

The hint was to look behind the white and black arrows pointing down Vauxhall Street... well I found those arrows and felt all over the back of them for a magnetic box.  It had to be there!  Those were the only white and black arrows near the clock...

"It was probably just stolen or something, Steph," Justin told me as we walked, dragging our feet, into the nearest McDonald's for a soda.

"Or maybe... it wasn't on the arrows... maybe it was on the metal boxes behind the arrows!!  Can we go back, PLEASE PLEASE PWEEEEASE?!?!"

"Okay."

With his approval, I bolted out the door, pulling him along behind me.

Back in the little island with Little Brother of Ben, I searched all over the metal boxes... lifting things that probably weren't supposed to be lifted and most likely showing a little crack to those behind me.  I was definitely more determined this time but still didn't find anything.

Noticing that my behavior might look suspicious, and that my husband might kill me if I stayed much longer, I gave up and agreed to go wait for our show at the theater.

"Shoot, they still aren't letting people in... Wanna go get an ice cream?"

"Sure," I responded less than enthusiastically. 

We walked back to McDonald's and got a crunchie-something McFlurry to share.

"Let me see your phone," I said throwing out my hand demandingly.  Then I tapped into McDonald's WiFi.  "It shows someone found it yesterday."

"Are you still on about that geocache?  It's not there.  And even if it is, we aren't going back."

I could understand his attitude, but I had this feeling like I was missing something and just needed another try.  Like in my old Nancy Drew computer games.. I would get stuck and have myself convinced that there was a glitch in the game preventing me from going any further, but then I would figure it out and have the most rewarding sense of accomplishment. 

But I hushed up and ate the ice cream.

"Steph... what's wrong?" Justin asked slightly annoyed.  Then he sighed and said, "Ok, let's go.. but you are carrying this heavy bag."

I hugged him and we raced across the street.  My last chance. 

It was darker so I ran around feeling everything, without the embarrassment of drawing attention to myself.  There was this old man standing there watching me... but I didn't care. 

Finally, I was back around to the first place I checked... the black and white arrows.  And there, on the rail that was holding the arrows up, my hand slid across something that was not suppose to be there...

a magnetic black box!

AND THEN WE SAW WICKED!

And I'm pretty sure one of the flying monkeys picked his nose during my favorite song- For Good.

ANDANDAND now we're in ROME!!  AND it's really late so I have to go to sleep.  And tomorrow's my birthday!  And I electricuted myself tonight, but I'm ok!!  AND Rome smells like a giant carwash.

All right. Buona Notte!