And hopefully my parents will go for all of it.

Are there many mosquitos in England?

Thank goodness!

And no lightening bugs!  I know a couple who were absolutely *astounded* the first time they saw lightening bugs in the US, apparently they don't exist in the UK.  But they have hedgehogs, which are almost unbearably cute!  :)

I'm baa-aack! 

We got home last night, and I feel like I've just awoken from a dream; I had the most amazing time. The countryside was beautiful, and London was fabulous.

A list of everything we saw/did:
-Oxford & Christ Church Cathedral
-Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's hometown)
-the Roman baths in Bath
-Wawrick Castle (on of the best preserved medieval castles in England)
-The Cotsowlds
In London:
-Walking in Hyde Park (just down the street from our hotel)
-Shopping in Covent Garden
-Changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace
-British Museum
-Boat tour on the Thames
-Tower of London (actually not as impressive as I thought, except for the crown jewels. My gosh, do they have a tree that grows massive jewels they can just pluck off whenever they want them?? The dungeon/torture exhibit wasn't very extensive; the one at Warwick Castle was much better. The yeoman's tour was the best part overall)
-Westminster Abbey
-Saw Phantom of the Opera (Wonderful!!! My absolute favourite musical of all time. I finally got to see it onstage! Even though we were stuck in the last row of the balcony...

A family friend from Germany who stayed with my family a couple yrs. ago as an exchange student joined us for a couple days in London. It was great to see her again. I didn't do much shopping (I'm not a big shoppper and didn't really have the time), but I did get a couple things. Found some gorgeous hair toys in a cute little Victorian shop in one country village we passed through. I bought a lovely hair stick and pretty butterfly clip. Also got one of those scarves that are very popular in Europe; pashmina, I think they're called. Lots of women were wearing them; they're quite useful. Also got a cross-stitch pattern for a bookmark (I'm learning to x-stitch), a pair of sunglasses to replace my old pair that I sat on,  and a London tank-top.

The only real annoyance was navigation. We got lost just about everywhere we went. My dad kept complaining about how hard it was to follow signs and maps, but it can't be much worse than the U.S. once you get used to it. And traffic circles are also much more sensible than confusing. It was annoying to come home and have to sit at traffic lights forever. Buses in London were annoying, but the tube was okay. And we even got to experience a London taxi when we got horribly turned around trying to find the Rainforest Cafe near Picadilly Circus. We got lost a lot...

Anyhoo, that's my trip in a very large nutshell. I should have pictures from the digital camera soon, but I'm leaving again tomorrow to visit my grandparents for a week, so I'll share them as soon as I can.

Cheers!

Sounds like a great trip, Cairn!

The Cotswolds are lovely, my mum grew up in Gloucester.

/Kate

I'm sure I will. 
I took two rolls of film, but unfortunately one of them didn't turn out at all.  My dad took plenty with the digital camera though, so as soon as I figure out how I'll put them up online.