Crepes Galore...

Thursday morning's class seemed unusually long, not because of our rather boring guest lecturer, but because I was anxiously anticipating the afternoon and days ahead!  This weekend, my mom, the Hoag Family and Pam are here to visit us and celebrate Britt's 21st birthday!!  We are so excited to see them and show them our new home!  After class ended at 1, Lauren and I made our way to the Marriott Kensington to see my mom; she got in early in the morning and had successfully maneuvered two suitcases from Heathrow to the hotel...better than we can say!  I was so happy to see her; after four months of seeing your family every day, you forget how much you miss them when you're away from them!  After our welcome hugs, we were all hungry, so we made our way down to High Street to try this little restaurant we have been wanting to try called giraffe.  Their motto is love, eat, live, so how could it go wrong?  After a yummy lunch we strolled along the road, stopping in our favorite stores and shops.  We walked along Hyde Park, then onto Queensgate and, just in time for an afternoon snack, over to our favorite crepe place. I think my mom thought she had died and gone to heaven; a place that makes pretty much only crepes, waffles and ice cream sundaes is her kind of place.  After we shared a crepe and ice cream, we walked to Courtfield to show her our humble abode, complete with midget sink and cozy alcove (that's the official word we're using, fyi).  She loved it so much that she decided she would lounge on my bed until dinner...some things never change :)

Our evening was spent at the Park Lane Hilton, where we had dinner at Trader Vic's.  This was my dad's all-time favorite restaurant in the world, and I can totally see why.  Polynesian food, kitschy decor, tikis galore; all of the things he loved the best.  We had such a fun time, and the food was delicious; I know he would have approved fully :)  After dinner we decided to continue up Park Lane and check out the Dorchester, one of the nicest hotels in London.  We walked through the bar area, which Lauren and I have already decided is going to be an apres-work hang out, and marveled at the impressive lineup of cars parked outside the entrance (Mercedes, Maserati, pretty much any luxury car you could think of; we saw a valet person driving a small Volkswagon to the back of the lot...didn't meet the standards apparently).  Our next stop was the Hotel Grosvenor, which was voted to have the best afternoon tea in 2009.  After our stops, we still hadn't had dessert, which of course is not OK at all.  So what do we do?  We go back to the crepe place from the afternoon.  I think the waiter thought were were insane/total typical Americans.  Nevertheless, the crepes we had were just as delicious as the afternoon's!  Too bad we won't be able to show our faces in there again for a while....

Pam and Brittany got in late tonight, so we're meeting them up tomorrow for a girls' day!  Can't wait!!
   xo Carolyn