London, Part 3

On Tuesday, I met up with my cousin Lindsay and her littlest boy Jasper (still so mad at myself for not taking a picture of all of us! Duh!) for a morning walk through Notting Hill, Kensington, and Holland Park. We stopped at a cafe for some very delicious French toast and lots of catching up.

I left Lindsay and Jasper a few hours later and shopped along Portobello Road looking for a cute tea pot and cup to take home, but without any luck. From there, I took the Tube over to Covent Garden and wandered around their cute streets window shopping and looking for Neal's Yard (I think that's what it was called?), which ended up being the cutest little courtyard!

Ryan and I met up for dinner at a Mexican Restaurant in Covent Garden when he was done with work, then went to see Once at one of the local theaters. Holy cow, the music was absolutely amazing, and the play was hilarious! I'm still kicking myself for not buying the CD. We saw the show on one of the last nights with the original cast, so that was cool, too.

On our walk through Holland Park, Lindsay, Jasper and I came upon this male peacock who was desperately trying to impress a female nearby. I always thought peacocks spread their feathers like this to deter predators, but I was very wrong. This guy was vibrating his feathers like nothing I've ever seen before and the group surrounding the scene educated me on what he was really trying to accomplish. I hope he finally got lucky! =-)

 Okay, this picture is for my mom. As I was wandering around Portobello Road, I noticed this clothing store. The windows on both sided were lined with hundreds of antique sewing machines like this window below. But, then I peeked inside and the whole entire store was COVERED in antique sewing machines. I've never seen so many before in my entire life and I can't figure out how in the world they would have accumulated to many to put into one store. It was so awesome. You would have loved looking at all of the machines, mom!

 I still can't figure out how this guy is doing this. He is literally suspended in air and there is nothing that I can see that's holding him up. Some one help me figure this out.

 Neal's Yard is this tiny little alley with a courtyard in the middle. It was so dang cute. Can you imagine living above one of these shops? I can! I want the one with the blue windows and ivy growing down the building.

 Yep, I want this one for my "weekends-in-London" flat someday...

 Oh, I also got to watch the changing of the horse guard this day. It wasn't too spectacular, but kinda cool to think that the Queen's horses are stabled here.