Spring Break London 2026 - Day Three and Four

Day Three in London started with a guided tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. We also got to experience an acting workshop, which was so fun! 

We ate lunch at Borough Market, which is an amazing food market that has been around for hundreds of years. Afterward we visited the Churchill War Rooms. This was an interesting experience, but not really my vibe! Luckily the next activity was taking a ride on the London Eye. It was around sunset and the views were amazing.

Day Four started with a visit to Westminster Abbey. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip! From Poets' Corner to Scientists' Corner to the Coronation Chair and the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, there was so much to see and learn about. 

Over lunch we went to Harrods to roam around for a while and grab some food. We checked out the Halcyon Gallery too. I would've loved to shop there longer, but it was off to the Tower of London next.  Dutch and I had just been there a few months' prior on our family vacation, but it was still fun to enjoy it with friends this time around. 

For dinner we went to Seven Dials Market, which is a street food hall in Covent Garden. Our last excursion for the night was a "walking ghost tour" of London. It was cold and we were tired, so unfortunately this one wasn't a crowd favorite! 

Spring Break London 2026 - Day One and Two

My oldest son's school facilitated a trip to London over Spring Break, and since a few of his friends and their moms were also interested, we decided to join the fun. My son and I took a slightly earlier flight than the rest of the school group so that we could choose our own seats on the plane and have a chance to shower and change before the tour officially started. When we landed at Heathrow, we found the AA arrivals lounge and it was amazing. We had time to get refreshed and change in a private bathroom, and then enjoy breakfast. 

Once the rest of the group arrived, we hopped on our shuttle bus and headed to the city. We stopped by Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard and visited Parliament Square. We ate lunch at Covent Garden Market and then checked into our hotel in Kensington. We got to rest for a bit before having a group dinner at The Greyhound. Then it was lights out to prepare for the busy day ahead.

First on the itinerary for Day 2 was a visit to Windsor Castle. There is quite a lot to see at this site, so it was nice that we could enjoy it on a self-guided tour at our own pace. Weather was a bit chilly, so hot chocolate was a must.

From there we headed to Oxford, which was one of the high points of the trip for me. Our guide was incredible and I did not realize how little I knew about this town and university system. For instance, Oxford University is roughly 40 different colleges. You can apply to a particular college, or submit an open application. Each college has its own dining hall and some of them require formal dress. (Yes, some of Harry Potter was filmed at Oxford). Almost half of all students at Oxford are from a country besides the UK. For those admitted from the UK, the tuition is shockingly low, under $15K USD. Learning about the class sizes and instruction, and how the testing and graduation works, was really fascinating. I highly recommend this tour! 

We got to enjoy some shops around Oxford before heading back to London for dinner at Cote. My watch recorded 18,000 steps and 8 miles of walking this day! 

Tour of California 2025

I'm so behind on chronicling our adventures! Last November, we took a family trip to California. We structured the trip around two awesome sporting events, which I'll talk about later! We started the fun in San Francisco by visiting the Aquarium at Pier 39, conquering an escape room, taking a Waymo for the first time, shopping at Ghirardelli, and then touring Alcatraz.

We left San Fran and traveled to Santa Clara for the next stage of our trip. When you're in town for a 49ers game, you have to stay at the Hyatt Regency. It's walking distance to the stadium and the atmosphere is great on home game weekends. We visited the fan shop at the stadium to make sure we were geared up for the next day! Game day started early for us because we had tickets to the Red Zone Rally. This is a pre-game area where there are games, activities, food, and drinks. We checked that out for a while and then headed into the stadium as soon as we could because our seats were AMAZING!

We scored two front-row seats and two seats right behind those on the second row at the 15 yard line. We saw former players like Jerry Rice and Frank Gore on the sideline before the game and then got to watch the kickers warm up right in front of us. Funny enough I was seated next to a social media influencer, so there were lots of fans coming over to take pictures with him and people on the sidelines talking to him. Sourdough Sam even came over to say hello! It was such a fun experience, and the 49ers got the win.

The next morning we booked a rental car and headed toward Monterey and Carmel by the Sea. The boys braved the "cold" so they could experience the ocean and we had a nice dinner with great views. We did some sight seeing and then ended the day at Avila Village Inn. This is a wonderful option for a family if you can snag the Grand Escape Suite. The kids sleep in the living room on a pull-out bed, the adults get a separate bedroom, and there's a balcony with a hot tub! 

The next morning, we got decadent cinnamon rolls in Pismo Beach and then drove to Highline Adventures outside Buellton, CA. If you've got thrill seekers in your family, I highly recommend this excursion. They've got the biggest and fastest zip lines in CA and it was worth the cost. It was really, really fun and we got great go-pro vidoes of the experience. I was so proud of my kids for doing it! We also did some ropes courses before leaving the site. 

Our next destination was Santa Monica, and we stopped to take in some beautiful views before eating at Paradise Cove Beach Cafe and resting our heads at Hilton Santa Monica. 

The next day (Thanksgiving!) was spent sight-seeing around Los Angeles. We visited the Auto Show, had lunch, watched a movie, and stayed the night at the Intercontinental LA. 

The next day we did some shopping on Rodeo Drive (take all my money, Loewe), saw an animal cruelty protest, noticed lots of references to Scientology and Dianetics, stopped by the Santa Monica Pier, and then checked out the La Brea Tar Pits. 

We then had an awesome sunset snack at Spire 73 atop our hotel before heading to see the Mavs play the Lakers! We bought tickets in a suite and got to see the newest Mavs sensation, Cooper Flagg, take on our former star player, Luka Doncic. The Mavs couldn't pull out the W, but we had a great time as a family. 

What a joy and privilege it is to make these memories with our boys!