More London and China pictures to come, but first, I found some of these little guys in my parsley this weekend. I've waited all summer for them to appear, and was beginning to think, because I planted flat-leaf parsley instead of curly, that they wouldn't come at all. But finally they're here, about ten of them, and soon they'll be beautiful swallowtail butterflies.
This is Rachel and Fred standing in front of the main gates to Buckingham Palace on the day we arrived in London. We had arrived at Heathrow around 6:15 a.m. When we got to our hotel we were able to check in, but our rooms weren't ready. So we drug our tired bodies to, where else, Buckingham Palace. We walked through Hyde Park to get there. It was a pretty walk, and we had great weather. We actually had wonderful weather the entire time we were in London. Blue skies and sunny. 
I love the uniforms of the Palace guards, with their big furry hats. I always wonder how much the hats weigh. In September, the changing of the guards ceremony happens every other day. This was not one of those days. 
This was. This is the crowd starting to gather outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday, 9/12. We got here about an hour before the ceremony was to start, and I'm glad we did. We had a heck of a time getting there, though. The Underground closes several of its stops and/or lines on weekends for construction. I had had our route planned out ahead of time....Jubilee Line south from Bond Street, one stop to Green Park. Then we would walk through the park to the Palace. We got to the Bond Street station and found out the Jubilee line wasn't running between those stops. So we took the Central line east one stop to Oxford Circus, where I thought we could pick up the Victoria Line to Green Park. Victoria Line wasn't running either. So I pulled out my map of London and we started walking. We hadn't gone that far out of the way, so it was no big deal, and we made it in time to get a good spot along the curb.
And we waited at that spot for about an hour. It was interesting, though. Lots of people watching to be done.
It was funny when these two palace guards walked by, because a lot of people were walking alongside of them while someone else would run ahead to get their pictures with the guards.
Finally it started. The first band that appeared went into the gate that was down farther to our left. This band came right past us.
After the two bands and the different units were inside the gate, we had more waiting to do while the actual changing of the guard took place. Only people who were right along the gate were able to see what was going on. 
This police officer was very nice, but his poor horse seemed sad. Every time it went by us his head was down like this. The horse's name is Lincoln. When I commented that that's a nice name, the officer said "after our city," meaning NOT after our president, which made me laugh.
Then they opened the main gates, which were right in front of us. I noticed when they closed the gate back up, the guard used an actual key in the lock on the gate, which struck me as kind of funny. Huge palace, huge gates, and a huge skeleton key to lock everything up.
The bands came out first.
Then these handsome fellas. With their really big weapons. These guards went to the left.
These went to the right.
And then we headed for Richmond and Kew.
On our last full day in London we rode the Underground back out to Richmond and Kew. Dad wanted to pick up a couple more copies of the book Kew at War from the National Archives store. This was the book written partially from Grandpa's maps and books and Dad's research. We also wanted to explore a little more since we were kind of rushed the day of the ceremony.
This is Burlington Street, which Ruskin Avenue runs into. This street was frequented by US soldiers stationed at Kew. I'm not sure if the brothel that was here at the time had anything to do it. ;-)
We at lunch in Richmond, at the Pitcher and Piano, which I guess was a pub. It had pub food, but didn't look like most pubs. We sat on the patio outside under the big umbrellas. 
This is on the walkway right outside the Pitcher and the Piano, along the Thames River. It was just beautiful. There was ice cream being sold, row boats to rent and a lot of people enjoying the beautiful weather. 
This was one of the many shops in Richmond.
For dinner we had 2 metres of pizza! I'm told by Tony's friend, Jean-Carlo that this is the best pizza outside of Italy. I was going to get the risotto, but when I heard the pizza was so good, I had to get that! For large groups, you can order pizza by the metre, and each person gets whatever toppings on it they want. I got funghi pizza, or mushroom pizza. Dad's is in the forefront of the picture, and I'm not sure what it is. Even though we started with fried calamari and some kind of eggplant dish, there were only 2 slices left when we were done, and Jean-Carlo took it home. 
This is where we had the 2 metres of pizza.
Rachel got marghareta pizza, which was your basic tomato, mozzarella and basil. I asked her if she liked it. Her response was "No. I love it!" She was happy, because we had Italian food three nights out of the four.
This is not really called Big Ben. It's either the Clock Tower or the Tower Clock. I'm too tired to remember which right now.
Rachel started school today, and we also leave for London later today. I think Rachel is a little disappointed to be missing pretty much the whole first week of school, but she's okay with it, since we promised to take her to Harrod's. :-) The girl loves to shop! And she's excited to see Grandpa. It's been too long.
Rachel and I went to Long Beach Island to visit our neighbors at their shore house, and they took us out on their boat. We went in the bay, and Rachel got to try tubing for the first time. The water was a bit chilly, or I would have gone. We used to enjoy tubing when we lived in Florida, except that one time on Lake Tarpon, because I was scared to death I'd get dumped out of the tube and an alligator would get me. We liked the Intercoastal better, and the water was nice and warm there.
She did enjoy it for a little while. And then she was done. She refused to get off the tube and swim back to the boat. She made Kevin pull her in. She did the same thing getting on the tube. Climbed right on the tube from the boat. What a wimp, right?!?!?! Yeah, she kinda takes after her mom on that one.
Now here's the pro! He was even being a hot dog and not holding on at all. Or he would change positions without asking to slow down.
Then he was a good boy and took a turn with his little sister.
Then Kevin was a good boy and towed in another Boston Whaler just like his. Poor guy just pushed back from the dock and the engine died. He drifted a bit until Kevin rescued him. 
This was the scene on my couch this morning. Rachel came down for breakfast, laid on the couch and went right back to sleep.
