London Calling

In celebration of my 30th birthday we decided that Malta was just too small a venue, so we called up our friend Adam in London, and said "Yo, dawg. Turning thirty. Let's do it big. Tell London."

Long story short, Allison's sister and her uber-boyfriend Dan decide they want in on the action, so they fly over to meet us (and begin their awesome two month tour of Europe). Bulms (that's what we call Adam) gets on the horn with peeps from Oxford and Cambridge and says, "Look, there's this American bloke coming over, turning 30, let's really, really try to look good for him." Oxford is like, "Okay, Bulms. Hey Cambridge, boat race. March 26. Bam!" Cambridge is all like, "Mmmm, I dunno. A boat race? Seems kinda lame." To which Oxford replies, "Look, this isn't about 182 years of racing tradition, this is about celebrating Sean, enjoying the nice spring weather and getting drunk." Cambridge is sold, as long as they get to wear blue uniforms. But Oxford was already planning on rocking the blue. So like idiots, they both wore blue. Anywho, that's how it came to be that 40ish 250 thousand well-buzzed Brits sang 'Happy Birthday' to me along the banks of the Thames.

The elusive Bulmer, captured on film after the boat race

Boat Race in action as the crowd steadily chanted, "Sean! Sean!"

Aside from that, we had an amazing time exploring the fantastic city of London, which now sits securely atop my list of favorite major cities, followed by Tokyo, Washington DC, Paradise, and Bangkok. Much like my native District of Columbia, London's biggest and best museums are free to the public so we made sure to hit up a few without over-museuming like we did in Paris. We also took in some other touristic activities like an open-top bus tour, river cruise, and plenty of pub hopping. If you ever find yourself near the Notting Hill area of London, you have to go to the Windsor Castle Pub, which must be one of the greatest pubs in the entire city. Get there early because it gets quite full.

'Reunited, and it feels so good!'

Big Ben, actually the name of the bell

The London Eye

St. Paul's Cathedral, from Millennium Bridge

Rosetta Stone, disappointingly, did not offer over 30 languages

King Danankhamun

Enjoying Hyde Park

We're all ginners

Windsor Castle Pub

touristing

When art and traffic collide

Westminster Abbey

Sistas

London Bridge

Malta was awarded Britain's highest honor, King George's Cross for bravery during WWII

Pub Life

jumping for joy!

chillin'

Hotel Room With a View

Who wants some?

like the candy store from Willy Wonka

Outside the Natural History Museum

Randomly spotted out of a second story window

hall of tv's

Seriously it was a fantastic way to ring in 30 years of what's been an amazing life and thanks to Amanda and Dan for being there, Adam for being a wonderful host and my lovely wife for putting it all together.









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