Why yes, my camera is working again... however did you guess?

One of the nicest things about having house guests is that their presence provides a built-in opportunity for us to play tourists in our own city. The first few times that people came to visit, this was a no brainer for us; we hadn't seen or done anything here, either, so we were happy to visit whatever traditional attractions our guests found appealing (sometimes with less than fabulous results). As time passes and we get more and more checked off of our mental London "to do" list, however, we find ourselves casting a slightly wider tourism net in an effort to entertain ourselves as well as our visitors.

Our guest this past week was my Aunt Carol, who flew in from Los Angeles to spend a week with us before continuing on to Rome. Carol's quite well traveled and, having been to London several times before, has probably seen even more of the city's traditional tourist attractions than we have. With this in mind, we decided on Saturday to get the heck out of Dodge for a day and check out the sights of Windsor, most notably that big stone building in the center of the city... you know, the one where the Queen lives?

(Yes, the flag flying in the distance does mean that the Queen was in residence the day that we were there. And no, we didn't meet her. But Evan stepped in some royal dog poo. Pretty equally exciting, wouldn't you say?)

Windsor Castle was a great day trip for the adults and kids alike... Julia was fascinated by Queen Mary's doll house and both kids were wowed by the grandeur of the State Apartments. Personally, I was a big fan of the little touches, like the little tiny enamel crowns on the top of each lamp post.

That's just cool, no?

We've been to a number of castles and palaces at this point (you truly cannot move two feet without stumbling upon a royal residence of some sort in this country. I can't think of a proper parallel in America. Target, maybe? There are a heck of a lot of Targets in the States, and lord knows I find them impressive, too...). So far, Windsor Castle has been my favorite. The place is just vast and incredibly grand. And the best part? The place was jam packed with tourists, of course, but it was also big enough that you could actually see around the masses. For once, I didn't even have to borrow photos from Google Images; the ones I took myself came out halfway decent.

Add in the obligatory cute kids shot, and it's clear that a good time was had by all. (Oh, come on... that guard was loving every second of our visit. Can't you just see it in his eyes?)