Gap Month

In some ways, it felt like all of November was a vacation. At the very least, it was a huge break from routine. Lori and I spent the first week of the month in London. The day after I got back, I started my new day job (at the Company I Don’t Blog About) and resumed some freelance writing projects. And what I was working on was so different from October’s task load, it felt like I hadn’t really returned. That feeling has worn off, though, so I’m getting back into a nice routine.

Friends have been asking for thoughts and pictures from our London trip. Facebook friends can already see Lori’s curated collection. While I’ll have some more shots and posts about the trip soon, here are the headlines:

• I got nostalgic for the old neighborhood, and that was about the only time I tweeted or blogged from London all week. Prince’s Square looks exactly the same as I left it seventeen years ago. Perhaps my lost wallet is still in the bushes behind the phone box.
• The team at the Bailey’s took great care of us. Seriously, I am gonna do the ugly cry all over TripAdvisor for you guys.
• The Barbican could well be the most confusing venue, ever.
• Londoners freakin’ love fresh squeezed orange juice. Offer them a bottle of Tropicana, and they will just about stab you in the eye. And now, I miss it terribly.
• A week in London only reinforced our desire to move back into the center of a city. (Yes, even Philadelphia.)
• UK friends: y’all like to complain about the Tube. I get that. I will still trade you the Tube for SEPTA, PATH, MTA, and the D.C. Metro anytime.
• I was a little cheap when I planned for us to take the Tube from Heathrow to Zone 1. I learned my lesson, and we took a cab back. Worth every penny.
• I would be breaking up with US Airways if not for the sympathetic gate agent who assigned us the bulkhead seats. I can still walk, thanks to her.

The most surprising part of coming home has been filling the void of planning our trip. We didn’t realize how much time we spent talking and planning and dreaming about it until we got home. After all, I’d been wanting to get back to London since my last visit in 1994, and we started making plans during our last vacation in 2008. We’re joking now that our big (every 18-month) vacations are ending up like the Olympics: we’re going to have to tell ourselves the destination of the next vacation during the closing ceremonies of the current one.

That means our spring 2011 vacation looks like it’ll be Ireland. London was jam-packed with stuff to do, so an Ireland trip will probably be more about relaxing in the country and watching sheep.