4th of July in the Mother Country!

Happy 4th of July! Being in the country that the US declared independence from made it a little bit weird. So obviously we didn't shoot any fireworks or sing the national anthem or have a bbq, but we did think of the good United States of America while in England. The morning started out with a great run through Kensington and Hyde Parks. I love running it is just the bomb!

 We went to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but were too late so we got tickets to see Wicked tonight. I got pretty cheap tickets for not too bad seats. But we will talk about that later. So then we went on a walk around the tourist areas of London. Here is Mallory and I at Big Ben.

 Typical tourist picture, but I love it! Also, today was really hot and I think tomorrow will be rainy which I want so bad. 

 Fun Fact: Big Ben actually refers to the bell inside the tower that it is in, but everyone calls the tower "Big Ben." Then the rest of Parliament is actually called Westminster Palace. This was at Victoria's Tower at the opposite side of Parliament. 

 Me on Lambeth Bridge. The view was absolutely breathtaking. 

 The large tower is Victoria Tower. Another fun fact: You know that parliament is in session when the light at the tip of Big Ben is on. 

 Once again, love the flowers. These are at a British Garden Museum. I didn't go inside, but I loved the flowers outside of it. I just really love the flowers here! 

 London Eye

 Then tonight we went and saw the Broadway musical, Wicked. It was my last show and big thing to spend money on. Back: Sydney, Brooke, Austen, Taylor Ann, Me. Front: Mallory, Annalise, Melissa. It was so good. I almost didn't go because tickets were so expensive. We then went to the box office and found pretty cheap tickets that were in high seats. Some girls got the expensive tickets, some girls got the medium tickets and I got the cheap tickets along with another girl. But the view was still really good. 

I loved it so much! I knew the soundtrack and the production was absolutely amazing. The girl that played Elphaba is the Indina Menzel of Europe. A couple let us look at the program (which cost a fortune here) and she has played in Wicket over 1000 times and in 3 different languages and sings Elsa in "Frozen" for German and Dutch soundtracks. She was absolutely phenomenal!! The whole cast was really great, but her voice was my favorite. It was just so good, I loved every second of it. 

So I guess you could say it was a pretty successful Independence day. Happy 4th of July!

Cheers