Fare Sale, London, Done.
I love me a good coupon. What I can I say, I am a sucker for bargain. So last October, when some airline started a fare war, I jumped on it. I showed restraint and only booked 1 trip to London. I figured I would pop up to Edinburgh to see my friend Katy. Lucky for me, Katy was willing to pop down to London ( I am not sure I would have survived connecting international to domestic at Heathrow).

I was scheduled to fly out of O’hare at 4:10 pm. I boarded the plane at 3:55 pm. I did a “Flo-Jo” thru the airport.  Not sure what my issue is as of late,but I’ve been cutting it close for boarding.  I was flying United, which I was oddly excited about since I had not flown them in months. Well that excitement disappeared as soon as the grumpy flight attendant offered to hang my coat. He asked me for my ticket, I said I don’t have a paper one, I used my phone. I got a weird look, I think he thought I was a standby.  The flight was fine, until I landed. My phone would not turn on. When it finally did decided to cooperate, it had a factory reset. COMPLETE RESET. I have no idea why. I could not get it back to normal until I was able to get it on wifi. Luckily, United has an arrival lounge in Heathrow.  I was able to refresh while my phone was restoring.  I checked my email on my iPad and had a message from my bank. My credit card had been stolen. Great it was the credit card I had brought to London.  ** My American Express card had been stolen earlier week and their crappy customer service took 5 days to replace my card, so I had a Chase Visa with me.*** Chase customer service as 5 stars. They left the card turned on for me to use in London and sent me a new card, overnight to Chicago.

I had originally planned on going a museum while I waited for Katy to arrive, but when I arrived at the hotel my room was ready. So I took a nap.  We spent the afternoon tooling around London, drinking and just enjoying the sights. I would post some pictures but honestly we are just had some much fun, I would hate to make others jealous.

I like to collect art on my trips, specifically street scenes with umbrella’s. I thought it would be fun if Katy and I were the “art”. So I hired a photographer to take tourist shots of us. I found Andrew with Simpson Shoots via google. I was able to connect with him over email and get everything scheduled.

I decided to make it a surprise for Katy. I originally started to tell her, but she said no a surprise would fun. For about 5 minutes and then she asked me again. I refused to tell her anything, but I did ask her friend Helen for help.  As the time got closer, she was trying to guess her surprise. She kept asking for clues. Helen had told her to bring accessories. I kept throwing out random things, like bring a pen, maybe some snacks, oh and some Ziploc bags.

Katy and her Ziplocs

We had an absolute blast taking pictures for 2 hours with Andrew.

If you happen to be in London and looking for something different, call Andrew.  It was a priceless experience.

The weather was fantastic, it was sunny for our photo shoot, which was ironic given we had umbrellas. When were done, we had a coffee outside in January, in London. So bizarre.

We had to head back to the hotel to change our shoes. And then I made the mistake of introducing Katy to Ted and Muffy (formerly Duo Boots).  Oops…..

We met up with with my friend Michael for tea on Sunday. Katy asked how me met, and he was like oh we met in Germany, in fact I am going in July….. yes Michael that would be for my birthday in July.

As always the visit was too short. I love that my many adventures have brought me so many wonderful people all over the globe.  I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life. From the pool in Dar Es Salaam to the Jetty in Hamburg, life is sure interesting.

Stay tuned for further adventures. Next up, a weekend in New York with Whitney and Jana.  Not sure if the old lady can hang……….