Good evening!
Or good afternoon to you guys, as its six hours later here.

We are relaxing in our hotel room at the Edwardian Radisson Grafton in northeast London on the first day of Max’s Make-A-Wish trip. We traveled all day yesterday, flying out of Austin-Bergstrom Airport at 12:30 p.m. and arriving at 3:04 p.m. Our connecting overnight flight to London Heathrow was an hour late, and we met a mother and daughter (Bridget & Shawna) traveling home to London from the States, who gave us some fun tips on what to see during our trip. Shawna works for British Airways, and when she heard Max’s story, she notified the American Airlines flight crew. They moved us up from coach to business class after dinner – Max loved the reclining sleeper chairs and personal TVs. We only got a few hours of sleep before landing at Heathrow Airport at 7:45 a.m. this morning. Getting through Customs took forever, but we finally met our driver and headed to the hotel – it’s about 45 minutes from the airport with traffic.

 

We grabbed lunch at a little patisserie down the street after checking in – let me be the first to say that people don’t travel here for the food. After getting unpacked and situated, the three of us napped for a few more hours, cleaned up and hit the streets. We walked around the University of London and found the British Museum, then ate dinner at a British pub called Garfunkels. We shared salad, fish & chips and green apple pie with vanilla ice cream, all pretty yummy. Now we are back at the hotel, resting up for tomorrow’s adventures. We are visiting the Sherlock Holmes museum first thing, followed by the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace to see the “guards with the furry hats” (Max thinks this is hilarious). We also have tickets on the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel that overlooks the Thames River) tomorrow afternoon.

There are several pictures attached from our walk this evening – Max and Brandi in front of the red phone booth and the boys in front of one of the lion statues at the British museum - the three of us are already having a blast!

Love,
The Mosi (Brandi, Jeff & Max)