Our first London trip!

Well, we did it.  We took our first day trip to London.  How cool is that.  A day trip to London!  You might think we went to some amazing cultural sight.  Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, or the London Eye perhaps.  However, that is what a normal family would do upon arriving in a foreign county.  No, we didn't go to the Tower Bridge or London Tower, but instead our first trip was too... the Red Bull air races!  Yes, this was my husband's idea (I know you're all surprised), and he had this trip planned long before even arriving here.  Go on laugh.

So we got in our car.  Yes, the Jetta made it all the way from Korea.  We think somewhere along the way a forklift was dropped on it.  There is a rather large dent in the trunk... I mean, the boot, that will need repair, along with many scratches... but alas, that's another subject matter.  We drove the hour to the closest tube stop and headed towards downtown on the tube.  N was really, really excited to be on a choo choo! 

Then we arrived at the races.  The Red Bull air races are an obstacle course of sorts for these aerobatic airplanes to fly through.  Apparently there is a season, including several races all over the world.  Sort of a NASCAR for pilots, but with a much higher budget!  (And as far as I can tell, more reserved fans, or maybe that's just the British.) 

Here the course was set up on the Thames River.  Yes, the Thames River.  The pilots have to fly through the blue cones horizontally, and the red ones vertically.  I have to admit, it was really fun to watch!  I found myself cheering for the crowd favorite British pilots, just because everyone else was.  I'm not secure enough in my loud Americanism yet to cheer for the American pilots... don't yell at me!

This is one of the crowd favorite British pilots flying E's favorite plane.  I know it's hard to read, but that is the Breitling plane.  Yes, it's BRET's mother ship.

Here is the Red Bull plane flying through the blue cones that were right in front of us.  Pretty cool.  

The boys really enjoyed it as well.  After a week of house hunting, I think they were happy to be out of the car and watching a good show!  They're too cute with their raisins. 

Here we are watching.  You can see the yellow towers of the Millennium Dome in the back ground.  At least we saw one semi-famous London sight!

Ah, like father, like son!  Maybe another pilot in the making.

By the end of the day little e was beginning to lose interest in the planes flying, but those folding chairs... they are quite fascinating!  Did we lose anything down there buddy?

After the races were over I tried to get a picture of the three boys with the course in the background.  The boys were beyond squirmy, so this was the best I could do.  But you can see the river and the cones that the planes flew through.  Yes, through... not over.  It was pretty cool!

From there we hopped back onto the tube and headed back to our car.  On our way home we stopped at the quaintest McDonald's I've ever seen.  It was the cheapest dinner we could find (still equivalent to $23... ouch!) and had a play place.  Perfect for little boys who had been in bleacher seats all day long.  It was a great outing, and the first of many.  Maybe next time we will go to something slight more... historic!