Marching Men

Our Thursday in London started off with the entire family going to the Natural History Museum.  The building itself is worth the trip there.  It was built to be a natural history museum, and the details were amazing.  As we waited in the long line outside to get in, we were able to spend some time looking over the details on the outside of the building.

The inside was just as detailed as the outside.  Even without the great exhibits, it is worth stopping to look at the building.
A couple of things I learned from this museum: There used to be a bird in the arctic that looked a lot like a penguin, but it's now extinct.  Sea fans and sea whips are animals, similar to coral.  Who knew?

After looking at a few of the exhibits, it was time for some of us to move on to the rest of our day's activities.  We made a quick stop next door at the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the massive chandelier by Dale Chihuly in their lobby.  We are big fans of Chihuly, so this was a must see.  It did not disappoint.

Just the tip of the iceberg of this huge chandelier

I would have liked to spend more time in this museum, but Buckingham Palace was calling us.  During the trip, we bought a book for Sims called A Walk in London by Salvatore Rubbino.  We wanted to make sure that Sims got to see most of the big sights in the book to make reading it more interesting for him.  We were totally surpised that he was so fascinated by these guys.

Sims sat there agape watching him march back and forth.  He has been talking about the "Marching Men", as he calls them, ever since.

We strolled through St. James Park as we headed toward Westminster Abbey.

In St. James Park with the London Eye in the distance

As we turned the corner from the Churchill War Rooms, we got the best view of Big Ben.

We felt lucky that we got to hear Big Ben chime.  Sims talks about Big Ben and says, "Big Ben. Ring ring."  He has also been calling all large clocks Big Ben since we've gotten back.  I figure it's too complicated to explain that Big Ben is actually the bell inside the clock tower.
Westminster Abbey was in the middle of their Evensong service when we got there, so we just perused the gift shop.  But we did get to look around the outside at all the beautiful details.

Sims was really inspired by this particular statue,

and he was moved to imitate it.

I love the way he appreciates art!

As we walked along Whitehall toward Trafalgar Square, we happened on the very end of the Changing of the Guard at Horse Guards.  This Marching Man stood where Jason and Sims could even get a picture with him.

As you can tell, Sims couldn't take his eyes off of him. 

Sims loves to read his book A Walk in London now because of the Marching Men.  He always wants to look at the Buckingham Palace page.  On our next trip to London, we are definitely going to have to see the Changing of the Guards.