We had one final week to wrap up our tour of London and of course there were a million more things we could have gone to see. London is so full of things to see and do. I'd hit all the major highlights that I planned on seeing, so we didn't rush madly about our last week.

We visited the British Museum again and saw some of the things we'd missed the first time including some of the excavation findings from Vindolanda that we'd studied about in our Minimus program.

We also visited the Natural History Museum again, and although I'm pretty sure we still missed a whole wing or two, we saw some neat rocks, minerals and geological stuff that we hadn't seen the first time. We also ran across the street and saw a bit of the Victoria and Albert Museum. I liked it. The five year old thought the exhibit of historic clothing was wonderful. The baby was miserably cranky and the eight year old boy thought a museum full of clothing and decorative stuff was about the most boring thing he'd ever seen, although he did like the Raphael cartoons. We didn't stay too long.

We spent one day touring Harrods (especially its food halls) and having some ice cream at Morelli's for a special treat.

Otherwise the last week was spent packing up. Saturday a large (eight passenger sized) taxi arrived at 7 a.m. and drove us to Heathrow, we checked in, made it through security (after a minor bobble because I'd forgotten I couldn't take dangerous substances like ginger beer through) and rode on a big airplane back to DC. The flight was uneventful, although the really grouchy woman in front of my five year old who glared at her and told her not to kick the seat every time she shifted her position at all (and my daughter never once kicked the seat although I wanted to) annoyed me to no end.

When we arrived at Dulles, immigration wasn't too hard. In fact, with all the kids, luggage and large belly, they let us skip to the head of the line. We then took a SuperShuttle to our hotel near BWI, got up in the morning and flew on home to Nashville.

It was great to be home, although our house sitter had certainly taken the "eat up things in the house" to heart and the cupboards were bare. We're getting settled back in with much to do and a few people to yell at. All in a day's work.