Day 18 "Mind the Gap!!!"

We arrived in London around 6am after a 2 hour time change and a nice 8 hour sleep filled flight (I can only speak for myself). Faria had planned to stay in London to visit her sister, niece and mother while the rest of us wanted to get out and see London for our 8 hour layover. Unfortunatley, more than half of our team got stuck in customs so we wasted a lot of time unpacking and repacking all of our carry ons :( We then decided on a bus tour which included a free river boat tour as well. It was cold outside (much different than Kenya) and we took the 45 minute metro ride to Pickadilly Circus to find our tour bus. We then got a wonderful tour of the city including: including Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, The London Dungeon, Tower Bridge and The Tower of London. We stopped and got off to take the boat tour as well which took us to see the London Eye and we got off at the Tower of London to eat. I had the traditional Fish and Chips with some beer (amazing dish). The rest of the team got some food they had been craving. We then took the bus tour to Picadilly Circus and returned on the metro to the airport.

The next flight was 8 hours from London to Chicago. We were all still tired from the time change and the lack of sleep for so long. However; I didn't sleep at all on the flight back! One reason was the crying baby to my left and the other was we would be returning to Chicago at 615pm and I didn't want to screw up my sleep schedule! To keep awake I watched 4 movies and read : ) We then arrived in Chicago, we made it through customs (despite the large dead bug they stopped me for last time) and got all of our luggage! Doug and Rachel had their ride waiting for them as they were headed back to St. Louis. So, we walked outside to wait for our van that was pre-booked, unfortunatley, the van had not even left Milwaukee!!! So thankfully Laura's family was nice enough to come with 2 vans to pick us and the luggage up. While we waited most of the remaining team got McDonalds.

After a 2 hour car ride and a long trip full of traveling we arrived at my parent's house at around 1030pm! We were all tired and full of amazing stories to tell our friends and families!!! I can't wait to post the pictures : )

Thanks for those of you that followed this blog, hopefully it was a great insight to what we did in Africa and what any one of you can do if you donate to Hope Without Borders!