Make the best of it!

So, here we are leaving the house at 5 AM Sunday morning, feeling pretty smug about the 5 weeks of supplies that we managed to condense into our carry-on luggage.

And here we are at Heathrow, waiting by the luggage claim for our carry-ons that never arrived. Not so smug anymore; as you can see.

Short version: All the other genius people that had carry-on luggage filled the overhead bins on our flight from Detroit to New York. A few of us chosen and lucky ones were forced at the gangplank to check our carry-ons. Yell, scribble, and push from the gate agent left two bags checked to Gatwick, one to Heathrow and one to who knows where. Bottom line is that there were no bags for us in London when we arrived early Monday morning and we didn't get any until Tuesday evening at 9 PM. I saw my bag and could have cried. (You'll see the same clothes in several photos...)

You may recall that I realized we had a passport problem on Friday just before

we were leaving. Turns out Israel wants your passport to be valid for 6 months after you leave the country and two of my boys were 10 days shy. We spent 2 1/2 hours at the American Embassy on Monday. $240 later and some faxing from Scott, we have passports that are Israel worthy. God bless America.

Yesterday was not lost - the weather was beautiful and we hunted down the best fish, chips and mashed peas in London. Those of you who know me may be shocked that I loved it - but fresh Cod is really good.

We slept the sleep of the dead last night and this morning took the tube to Walthamstow to visit a really good friend of Dave's that happens to be spending a few years in England. We treated Elder Gallagher and his companion, Elder Solomon to a big lunch and some ice cream. Hope we didn't make him too trunky! (Funny part is, he'll beat us home. He finishes his mission on July 27th!)

If I had special ordered the weather it couldn't be better. Warm enough for shorts (if we had them) but not hot enough to make you sweat and a little bit of cloud cover. Perfect conditions for a walk/nap at Hyde Park, a view of Prince Albert Memorial and The Royal Albert Hall. We topped off the day with horror stories on a 'Jack the Ripper' tour. (We are pretty sure we know who he really was...)

Picked up bread, butter, jam, juice, yogurt and bananas from Sainsbury's and I can sleep in my own pajamas. It's a great end to the day.