Thursday: Another Trip Around The City And One More Play

Hey everybody, Dave reporting today --

After enjoying our wonderful evening at the theater last night, we headed back to the hotel, ordered some room service, and just crashed.

We got a reasonably early start on today -- now early for us in London doesn't mean like eight or nine o'clock in the morning. It actually means we got out by around lunchtime. It seems the main reason for this is that when we get back to the room we spend a lot of time talking about the day, and tuning into whatever the latest news is on the BBC.

Anyway, we grabbed a quick lunch in Soho today at a small Italian restaurant. The weather was quite warm and we're able to take our lunch at one of the street side tables - which was quite nice.

The main plan for the day was to head back over to visit the New London Theatre for a special reception for all those who were involved with the play Imagine This. It was cool because we got to meet the producer, the directors, the choreographers, and just about all the creatives who are involved in the play. Also present were some of the lead actors we also got a chance to visit with. The nice thing about this meeting was the fact that you got to see how the actors see the play from their side of the stage which is quite insightful and just lends a greater appreciation to this theater experience for LaDawn and I.

Our agenda for today also included seeing the play “Billy Elliot ” at the Victoria Palace Theatre. We were told that the theater was too far to walk but we decided to try it anyway letting our advisers know that we were old but sturdy. I have to tell you, it turned out to be a marathon walk. 90 minutes later we arrived at our destination a bit exhausted and as LaDawn was saying in her heeled boots “with our dogs a’barkin".

We grabbed our tickets, got great seats just 11 rows from the front stage, and settled in for another wonderful evening of theater. It was a bit amazing but, the young boy playing the part of Billy Elliot has to be one of the hardest working 12 year old kids in London. The dance numbers in the play were truly wonderful, high energy and effort that this 12-year-old boy put into his performance was unbelievable.

We grabbed dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant -- not the best restaurant in the world -- grabbed a cab home and crashed. One thing LaDawn and I really enjoyed doing is walking the city and we figure we got about 30 miles in so far. Part of the excitement is seeing all the shops, all the people, all the restaurants, all the colors, all the smells, and all the excitement of the bustling London around us. It's just exciting to be in the middle of it all.

That wraps it for today and I think we’re both planning to sleep in a bit for tomorrow. But having said that, our big plans include visiting the Tower of London tomorrow. So until then, were signing off today, and we'll see everybody again tomorrow.