afternoon tea + musicals with rick + linda

last week, my mom and dad came to visit us! it was so so so wonderful to have them around and we had some pretty awesome london adventures together.

(<—aren’t they just the absolute cutest, with their fish n chips?!)

since their flight here was free (after a fiasco with norweigan airlines last time they came over…) and since my mom’s birthday was coming up, dad suggested we do some fancy things to celebrate the forthcoming birth of baby boy wright and the blessed birth of his grammie! so we went to not one but two super posh afternoon teas and not one but two musicals. what a treat!

we also enjoyed some other fun london excursions (even though the glorious springy weather had given way to a chill and some rain). but the best part of linda + rick’s visit was just being together, showing them around our life, and having great conversations. i love my mom and dad so very, very much!

just after mom and dad arrived in london, i met up with them at the ritz on picadilly – which is so so lavish and posh! – for the first of our two planned afternoon teas. (my parents, having lived in london twice and visited dozens of times, had never had afternoon tea! aaaaand, i’m obsessed, as has been chronicled on this blog…) ian came straight from work to meet us there (the only available reservation was at 7:30pm, which kind of messes up the “afternoon” part of “afternoon tea”…but we’ll take it!). and we all four throughly enjoyed the fanciness and scrumptiousness together! there was a string quartet playing, everything was perfectly pretty and proper and the atmosphere was just dreamy. it was so great to catch up!

   
^^ scones and clotted cream! the crown jewel of afternoon tea, in my opinion (and i realized i got that taste from my dad, who probably had half a dozen scones!) // and an extra treat for the birthday girl – the violinist serenaded her with “happy birthday”! ^^


we were stuffed when we left the ritz (afternoon tea is all-you-can-eat, and when you’re paying quite a lot of it, you take advantage of that little fact!), and so happy!

the next evening the four of us went to matilda the musical, which i have been wanting to see since we moved here. we had nosebleed tickets but still super enjoyed the darling show. if my dad and i share a scone-loving gene, my mom and i share a cry-at-the-end-of-musicals gene. all that music and drama is just so moving!

for musical number two, a couple nights later, i went with my parents to see glenn close in sunset boulevard. this production was only happening for a few weeks and the theater is literally across the street from our flat, so we figured we had to go for it and got last minute (nosebleed again!) tickets. it was cool to see glenn close and there was some amazing staging and music in the show, but overall it was really quite bizarre – haha! but check out the grandeur of the coliseum!

 

afternoon tea number two was at the savoy, and we actually went in the afternoon for that one! it was way less fun without the boy with us, but i used the opportune one-on-two time with my ‘rents to ask for advice and share feelings, and that time together was really wonderful. the food was amazing and the ambiance was quietly gorgeous – we actually all three agreed by the end that afternoon tea at the savoy > afternoon tea at the ritz! it was pretty sublime, and we left even more stuffed than we did the ritz (which we couldn’t have imagined was possible!). 

 
^^ mom and dad both went for the high tea, which came with that beautiful savory dish. i kept with afternoon tea because i wanted to try the pastries. they did not disappoint! ^^
  
^^ another extra treat (as if we needed more calories/sweets!) for the birthday girl! ^^
  

besides our afternoon teas + musicals, we also got to a couple favourite places around the city: harrod’s, where we marveled at the splendour and picked out a few gifts from mom and dad for me to open at my baby shower next week. the baby section in harrod’s is pretty fun. and it includes a 42,000 pound rose gold and lush leather pram. i think we might go for something a little more conservative for our baby’s stroller…!

 

we also spent some time in the boy and my backyard of trafalgar square. there’s nothing like going to a good museum with my mom! we both looooved this new monet on display:

 

and one of my very favourite parts of the parents’ visit was a bike ride i took with my dad to show him the hospital where our baby will be born in a few short months. it was exhilarating and happy to cruise london’s streets with my beloved pops. and he was so excited to see where baby boy (who he has decided to name “oliander” while in utero…) will enter the world. this is literally the view from outside the hospital doors:



we also rode a bit along the thames and then through st. james’s park together. that rick - he’s always up for a good adventure.

so crazy that the next time ian and i see my mom and dad, we will be someone’s mom and dad! so so glad they could come for a visit.