London Adventures

Well, Danny and I made it home safely from London. We had a wonderful time. It didn’t start out that great, though. We were due to leave Wednesday, July 5th. The Friday before, I was cooking in the kitchen and Danny was playing with trains quietly in the living room. He was awfully quiet, so I went to check on him and discovered he had two pieces of pink and blue paper in his hand. As I got closer I couldn’t believe my eyes. He had pieces of a passport in his hand. I sprinted across the living room, jumped over the gate and headed straight for Dave’s office where I knew the passports were. I opened Danny's passport and immediately discovered that he had snipped the first two pages out of the book. In case you are wondering, when I asked him what he did, he said he was making tickets. I called Dave at work and what followed was a three day drama of trying to get through to the Los Angeles Passport Agency. Long story short, after a trip there and standing in line with both Danny and Holden for two hours, Danny received his new passport four hours before we left. You would think I should have known better; the child of a father nicknamed “Captain Destructo!” We left Los Angeles at 6 pm Wednesday and flew direct to London. Danny was awake for two hours, and then slept the rest of the way there. He kicked the woman’s seat in front of us a few times before take off, prompting her to stand up and yell at me before returning to her open bottle of wine she brought on board. This trip was Danny's first plane trip. I’m sure you aren’t surprised that the son of a pilot and the child that had a P-51 Mustang plastered on his ceiling was in complete awe of the Boeing 777. He asked about 25 times when we were going to “blast off.” We arrived at 12:00 Noon on Thursday and spotted Uncle Adam immediately. We left quickly and headed for the Tube so Adam could make his 4 pm interview. Danny loved every minute of the Tube, the announcements to mind the gap, and the funny people that came in and out, etc. My sister joined us several hours later, and my dad the following day. Adam’s graduation at the AA was very low key. However, all of his friends came to meet the “Danny” they had heard so much about. That was nice. The graduation was set outdoors and Danny and I opted not to sit, but instead he climbed trees while they announced names. After the graduation we headed to Chinatown where Danny fell asleep in the stroller and slept thru the entire meal. He didn’t miss much. During our time in London we toured the city via double decker bus, visited with family and watched the World Cup final in a bar. Danny fell asleep in just about every place (including the bar!). All in all we had a great time. We learned our lesson and now have a lock on Dave’s office door. In case any of you have a child write or draw on a passport, it is considered mutilation. Taping it is not an option. Just call me and I’ll be happy to give you the ins and outs of the Passport system. I have the 1-800 number on speed dial and know the security guards by first name. Oh, and lets not forget Holden. He stayed at home with Dave. He was very good, but he did miss us. Poor Dave had to listen to days of, “Where’s Mommy? Where’s Danny?” They had a busy schedule of swim lessons, park visits, playgrounds etc. Dave was a very good stay at home dad for 5 days, and was very happy to go back to the office. Now, I’m at home listening to Holden ask, “Where’s Da-Da?”