We have finally arrived at the last day of my summer abroad.
London was a great host for the last day, with the food being a welcome change.
Italy has amazing food; don’t think I don’t love it. But having the same mono-cultural
food choices for 7 weeks can get a little boring. London, which isn’t
universally loved for its food, was home to fish and chips, a samosa, and
chicken curry to end the night. Not only have I not eaten these things in Italy,
I haven’t seen these things except for the fish and chips at a place in Rome. 
I have had a lot of time this summer to think and reflect
and recharge my batteries. It’s always nice to end the summer on a calm note. We
left Italy yesterday morning with a 23 hour layover in London. We used the day
as best we could. As part of our more than 19,000 steps, Melissa and I saw
Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament, the London Eye,
St. James Park, and toured the Churchill War Rooms. We then went on a gin crawl
because there is so much more gin in London than anything I’ve ever seen in the
US. We need to step up our gin game.
Today we have our flight back and get to see the dogs again.
We are both excited for this.
