JMU Dance Takes London: The day I officially became a member of the royal family.

Tuesday, July 3:

I know I have said that a lot of days were the best day ever. But this my friends was....THE BEST DAY EVER.

Bails, Allie, and I decided to treat ourselves to a whole day of all things British, instead of taking a dance class. BUT don't worry I packed them all in later in the week and it was the best decision I made. Lucky for us we found out that the Queen opens Buckingham Palace to the public for only 3 months out of the entire year. With this knowledge, the three royal family obsessives immediately got online and bought tickets for the earliest tour of the Palace. When we got there we found out that you couldn't take pictures until we exited the Palace into the Queen's very own gated in backyard. Full of beautiful gardens and greenery.

We were given an audio guide, which I am usually not a fan of but for some reason this one was absolutely perfect. Maybe because I was walking around Buckingham Palace, who knows. Needless to say I had chills/was freaking out/thought I was dreaming the entire time. We toured the State Rooms at the backside of the Quadrangle. I got to see everything from the Grand Entrance, several historic art galleries inside the Palace, the Throne Room where William and Kate took wedding pictures, several rooms dedicated to a specific color, the Music Room, Ballroom, the list goes on and on. Altogether I think it was close to 15 different rooms. One of which had a secret door, hidden behind what looks to be a normal table and mirror and leads to the Queens personal suite through underground of the Palace. One of the highlights of going inside the Palace was the special exhibit for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It housed cases of some of the most famous jewelry worn by the Queen for the past 60 years. I got to see the crown and necklace she wears on all of the English money up close and personal! AND the coronation crown and so much more. It was nuts. I don't even want to know the amount of money all of the jewelry in that room totaled to. The tour finished in the Queen's enormous backyard!

After Buckingham Palace I thought my day could only go down from there, but somehow it got even better! After going in the complete wrong direction we finally made it to my favorite museum in the entire world, the Victoria and Albert museum of design! Bails and I were in fashion heaven. There was an exhibit on British fashion from the 1800's and up which was pretty incredible. AND of course we paid to see the exhibit of British Ball Gown's from the 1950's to the present. We saw everything from a Princess Diana dress to a dress Beyonce performed in at the White House and a number of red carpet gowns. We spent some time in the courtyard of the museum getting coffee from the cutest cups ever. Our last stop in the Museum was the Theatre and Performance exhibit. I have never seen anything like it. It featured all aspects of a show from set design, costumes, posters, and more. AND it included contemporary dance stuff, I never see that in the states. Highlights: Lion King costumes, Chris Martin from Coldplay's costume, Elton John costume, the Black Swan and more! Could of spent hours in there but I needed at least 20 minutes in the gift shop. It was the most artsy little thing and I got some very cool finds.

Then it was off to continue the glorious day at Kensington Palace, home of none other than William and Kate. We didn't go inside but we walked around and looked at the famous gardens. Princess Diana lived there and her loving fans had left flowers outside the gates for her recent birthday. She died over ten years ago and people still put stuff out, they must have really adored her! Baily, Ally, and I met a few of the other girls for high tea at The Orangery on the grounds of Kensington Palace. It was a beautiful high ceiling, all white, big window place that made me feel very British and very fancy. I had not been a fan of English food but this made me a believer! We got our own little tea kettle, I made the wise choice the Palace Earl Grey and a three tiered feast of delicious tea foods! 4 yummy tea sandwiches, a scone with clotted cream and jam, and four baby sized desserts! When I finished the last bite of my food, I think I officially became a royal. In my dreams of course.

To finish off the perfect day we went to see the English National Ballet perform inside St. Paul's Cathedral. The dancing was flawless and gorgeous. I had missed seeing how purely beautiful traditional ballet was! But more than that we were inside St. Paul's Cathedral! Watching ballet, listening to a choir sing, and a live orchestra play, and glancing around at the architecture of the cathedral..nothing gets better than that. I was on the verge of tears the whole night! After the show we went back to our favorite little restaurant Zizi's for dinner, wine, and dessert. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day. One I will not be forgetting any time soon.