My trip to London: Days One and Two

We arrived at the San Francisico International Airport at a lovely 5:30 pm, and I was somewhat pleased when they upgraded me to economy plus. This meant that I was not quite in steerage anymore. Once on the plane, I found a very attractive man sitting in the window seat next to my seat. AND, he turned out to be talkative and friendly, that is, until they came and upgraded him to business class and he left. Meanwhile, the guy in front of me was freaking out because his seat and the one next to it had no power of any kind. "This is rediculous for a 12 hour flight!!!" He wanted an upgrade to first or something big, and they all looked concerned as they told him they couldn't do that. Then they upgraded some other guy, and so they gave Cranky Pants an isle seat a few rows up. This caused the guy across the isle from me to start plotting to get that seat so he could put this mother next to her daughter. The mother had a crappy middle seat in one of those five people rows, so nobody wanted her spot, including me. The flight attendants all came over and heard the story, explained to the guy how the seat had no power, none, nada, zip, zilch, zero, and that this meant it didn't even have a light. He was still willing, but alas, the seat had since been assigned to some other poor unsuspecting fool who had most likely also just gotten "upgraded" from steerage class. When he arrived, the flight attendants tried hard to persuade him that his seat was so powerless that amiddle seat (the mom's) was better, but he was so tired from the struggle to get his seat anyway, and his whole family was also split up, and he just didn't want to move. Then the attendant told him this meant there wasn't even a light (which apparently the gy didn't infer out of the long no-power explanation, and then he started to look very troubled. At this point it occured to me that the kid next to me now was actually related to this guy, and so I offered to switch with him, take the broken seat, and have some peace. The flight attendant asked me if I was sure and explained to me in detail how broken and miserable that seat was, but I assured him it was ok, and we made the switch. This made the dad and son happy. I felt a little bad for the mom and daughter, but figured that was the other guys problem and he could take her center seat if he really felt bad, which he apparently didn't. My new neighbor turned out to be nice, quiet, helpful, and we chatted just a little bit, which was perfect. I slept through most of the time the plane was dark, and then we opened the blinds a crack and read for the last hour or two.

Phew! We made it! London is maaavelous daaaling. I love it here, and am glad I brought so many shoes (I think 12 pair), because none of them were meant for doing serious walking in and I can only wear them one day each. I am on my third pair. Today I thought I would do my feet a delicioud favor and where my flip flops, the only whoes I own with no heels. But on the way out of my room I managed to ram the 500lb. door into my toe. OUCH!

So far we have had delicious food, seen the British Museum, and visited Hyde Park and St. James Park. I have taken millions of pictures of assorted wild fowl, and a few of actual British things, or more accurately, things the British stole from other people in the name of science...or something. Mom was fairly uninterested in Buckingham palace so we lingered there for a whole 2 minutes. Today, we're having tea and then who knows what.