We got home from Scotland on Sept. 4, only to turn around the next day and head south. My friend Natasha had business in London, and needed someone to watch her kids. Her husband, Tim, had the very cool idea of all of us heading down, then swapping babysitting duties so each of us could go into London. Natasha made reservations for us at RAF Croughton, an American Air Force base near Oxford. This worked out extremely well. I had fairly low expectations of what our lodgings would be like, having stayed in my share of military hotels and temporary lodgings. Turns out, we were very pleasantly surprised. We each got an entire, fully-furnished house to stay in! Score! The houses were fairly nice, with two bedrooms, one bath, and an actual yard. We made ourselves right at home.

In the afternoon, I went for a run on the base's track. It was a warm, sunny day, and I'd been in the car so much over the last few days, it felt good to get the blood flowing. I had the half marathon coming up, and I wanted to get some running in since I'd been traveling and hadn't really been training. I wound up having a good workout.

That day, not only had Natasha fed us on the way down (yummy sandwiches), but she also fixed dinner for all of us. Many thanks, Tash!

Early the next morning, I went over to Natasha's house to watch her kiddos. Ryan loved having Savannah and Lauren to play with all day. Around 2pm, Tim and Natasha got back. An hour or so later, it was Larry's and my turn to take off. There's a train station just ten minutes or so from the base. We took the train right into London.

We had dinner at the Hard Rock (of course), then saw Mamma Mia. It was so much fun! I highly recommend it. There's no way anyone could walk out of the theater without a huge smile, and feeling like dancing!

The next day we had a leisurely start, then headed out to a very nice outlet shopping center. Unfortunately we didn't realize what the consequences of not immediately heading home would be. Traffic was a nightmare. It took what seemed like forever to get home.

Overall though, it was fun to travel with Tim and Tash and their girls, and to go into London one more time. If I could, I'd see a West End show every week!