We took a fully guided day trip to Paris while we were in London.  The Eurostar train goes nonstop to Paris in about 2 hours.  The Eurostar travels through the Channel Tunnel, which is a tunnel underneath the English Channel.  While in Paris we took a bus tour of the city, went to the 2nd story of the Eiffel Tower, went on a river cruise and went to the famous Louvre Museum.

 My sweet husband gave me an Eiffel Tower charm for my bracelet while we were viewing the Eiffel Tower. A perfect memory of this fabulous vacation.

 I'm going to ruin the romanticism of the pictures and share a picture of a very fancy public toilet.  This glorified portable potty had a self cleaning cycle after each use.  It was nice knowing that you were using a sanitized bathroom but annoying to wait for it to clean after each use.

 Views from the Eiffel Tower.

 Cruise on the River Seine 

 Mia took a nap during the cruise.

The Louvre was soo huge.  We were completely overwhelmed by the size so went on a mission to find the Mona Lisa.  The picture turned out a little blurry. 

 On our Coach bus.

On Friday night, we got back from our vacation to London.  We had an amazing time and Mia was such a trooper.  Warning...there is major picture overload on this post.  Paris will be in a separate post.

 This was the stuff I packed for Mia.  I think our trip went very smooth because I was prepared for anything and everything.

 The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  This was CRAZY!  There were so many people, I thought our stroller was going to get trampled, but it was an awesome experience.

Buckingham Palace.  If you watched the Royal Wedding a few months ago, this balcony is where William and Kate shared a kiss. I even got to see Kate's wedding dress, shoes and wedding cake on display during our tour.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside of the castle (sorry Elizabeth).

The gate to get into the Palace.

The backside of Buckingham Palace.  It was really neat to see several of the Staterooms inside during our tour.

The Royal backyard, which was massive.

 Mia loved our bus tour of the city.

 Big Ben

 The countdown to the 2012 Olympics.  

 The Tower Bridge

 The London Eye.  This was a great way to see the whole city.

 Inside the London Eye.

Joe loved seeing all of the exotic cars.

 Harrods...the world's largest department store.  This place was insane.

 Sleeping baby.

 Hamleys...a famous toy store.  Mia enjoyed a break to play with some of the toys on display.

We took a day trip tour to Windsor Castle, the city of Bath and Stonehenge.  It was a busy day, but so fun.  Windsor Castle was absolutely breathtaking...unfortunately, we were unable to take pictures inside the castle.

 The guards walked right by us and shouted, "Make way for the Queen's guards!"

 We got a little closer to the changing of the guard at Windsor Castle.  It was such a big production!

 A beautiful church in Bath.

 This is how the Romans made heated floors hundreds of years ago.

 Strollers weren't allowed and we forgot our carrier on the bus. Luckily, they had carriers to borrow.

 Joe and I drank some of the water from the natural springs.  Supposedly, it's suppose to be good for you.  All I know is that is was very warm and stinky.

 Mia's 10 month picture. She is a crawling, talking, standing, screaming, squealing, laughing, smiling, loud, spunky, social 10 month old.

 The mysterious Stonehenge.   These rocks were HUGE.  It is so amazing that this was created around 3000 BC and how it was was created can only be speculated.

 A traditional English breakfast: toast, egg, mushrooms, baked beans, sausage, bacon, potato and a grilled tomato.

We spent a day touring The Tower of London.  This castle even had a moat...so cool!

It was a rainy day but Mia loved having raindrops hit her face.

These narrow passages were so cool.

They had animals made of wire all around the castle.  When the castle was occupied, they had tons of wild beasts leaving there.  What do you buy the person who has everything?  Lions, bears, snakes and monkeys of course.  There was a polar bear living here at one time!  The sad things is that the animals usually didn't live very long because they didn't know how to properly care for them.

The line to see the Crown Jewels was longer than a popular ride a Disney World but so worth the wait. The Royal Family has all of their crowns and family jewels on display here.  Of course we weren't able to take pictures so you'll have to believe me when I tell you that I saw the largest diamond in the world!  It was beautiful!

Armor just Mia's size.

Fish and chips.  When visiting England, one must consume fatty fish and chips.  It was so worth the stomach ache. The mushy green food is mashed peas, which is what most restaurants served with fish and chips.  (Of course Joe opted to eat a salad and sandwich instead).

Olympic Prep.

The hotel we stayed in was the Hilton London Paddington Hotel named after Paddington Station (train station) that it's connect to.  This is the train station that Paddington Bear is named after so of course we had to buy Mia her very own Paddington Bear.  Here is Mia with the Paddington statue in the station.

Our stroller became the hold of bags. LOL

Me and my hubby.

Mia and I hanging out in Hyde Park.

Peter Pan Statue.

Mia got her first soccer ball in London.  Here is Mia playing with her Daddy.

Here is Mia at her first Sushi bar.  She loved it!  Our goal is to expose her to a wide variety of cuisine and so far, she likes it all!  (Don't worry, we only gave her the cooked fish.)

Joe's friend and old coworker who now lives in London met up with us for a yummy Sushi dinner.

Family time.  Mia thought it was so funny when I was impersonating her by waving my hands in the air. Joe captured the moment perfectly.

Just because it's cute...here is Mia eating on the airplane.