Today was so much fun! Last night Christa and I decided we would leave the house around 8:30 to go find a spot for Trooping the Colour, but Mom found a website that said some people camp out over night for a spot! I was so upset because this is such an experience. We took the tube to St. James's Park right next to Buckingham and nobody was there except for the guards! We were thankful for that. Since nobody was around we left our "spot" and got coffee and muffins. It had stopped raining too which was nice. The only bad part was having to stand there for 2 hours waiting for the parade to start. The guards were setting up and we saw Prince Charles go by in a car to get ready at Buckingham. About an hour before the parade started the place was getting packed. We were right up front though! I thought the guards and policemen would be really stern and hardcore, but they were so nice to us and talking about random stuff like the weather and where they're from. There was a policeman standing in front of us the whole time with a machine gun in his hands and another huge gun strapped to his leg. That's not intimidating at all. The parade was nice and we got to see the Royal Family too! I'm satisfied with the trip now.

After the parade I came back and took a nap, but the fly-past came right by the house and woke me up. I'm glad I got to see the planes flying over to Buckingham though, it was pretty cool. After the nap Christa and I went out to get some lunch. It was pouring down rain and so nasty out and we couldn't remember where Pret a Manger was to get lunch! So we just got on the tube and went up to Notting Hill to the Portobello Market. It was still raining and we were starving. We probably walked a few miles around trying to find someplace to eat that wasn't packed or expensive. We ended up finding a Pret a Manger in Notting Hill, but it was 3:30 so it seemed too late to have lunch because it would only be a couple of hours until dinner. Everything closes early here, even the pubs and restaurants. And by early I mean 8pm on the weekends. I just got an almond croissant and vanilla tea, then went back to the markets.

Portobello Markets have so many different things. I'm sure you could buy anything there. I found fruit!! It made my week. Fruit is so hard to come by here without having to pay a ridiculous amount for it. There aren't any grocery stores around the palace area so the only fruit sold is places that sell stuff like liquor, newspapers, and just general stuff like that. But I got apples for 70 pence a pound and peaches that were 4/$1.00! We even found a grocery store!!! I got peanut butter and these really good bakery cheese rolls and let me just say that I ate half the jar of peanut butter when I got back and then went out to Kensington Gardens to read and eat an apple. It was such a long day and I feel like I walked 10 miles...I'm definitely sleeping in tomorrow. Monday I'm visiting with a member of Parliament and getting a tour of the building, going to the Tower of London, and taking a Jack the Ripper tour! It should be a long day, but a ton of fun.