My Quick Trip to London--or--The Time James Earl Jones Said My Name

My 3-day visit to London was, to borrow a word as they use it in their vernacular, "brilliant!"

This post is going to be one of those cram-a-whole-lot-in-as-few-words-as-possible posts, as it seems like we filled each day with varied, interesting, and wonderfully fun activities all around London; many of these are, fortunately, accompanied with photos. I'll attempt to share relevant anecdotes only as necessary.

--Sunday--

I was quite excited to see Tom & Teriann when I arrived, mainly just due to the fact that it meant I was done with ridiculous traveling. We took the Tube (subway) to their flat in Acton Town (about 30 minutes outside the center of London), and then went back into town to grab a late lunch. We mostly spent the time after lunch leisurely walking around the city, doing some shopping, and waiting until Sunday's nights activity: a concert at Wigmore Hall. Wigmore is a very old, venerated, recital hall in London, the type of venue artists usually mention in their bios if they've performed there.

And what better way to finish the short day than with some Thai curries delivered from T&T's favorite Thai restaurant?

--Monday--

After sleeping in, we made our way into town to have lunch at the New World Cafe, Tom's favorite restaurant in London, tucked away in Neal's Yard, a brightly colored back alleyway in Covent Garden. Cool trivia: this cafe is in Monty Python's old flat!

We hung out in the Covent Garden market for a bit before heading over to Trafalgar Square to visit the National Gallery. It was odd being in the market because I have strong memories of it from my first trip to Europe in 2003 with the Arizona Ambassadors of Music Choir. (Interestingly enough, "The Lion King" is still running in the nearby Lyceum Theatre seven years after I saw it there!)

A view of the Covent Garden Market and London skyline from the balcony restaurant of the Royal Opera House.

Trafalgar Square.

National Gallery.

The Gallery, for me, is most memorable for some Monets (including some of the famous water lilies) and Van Goghs, in particular this famous wheat field painting:

The final stop was dinner. We went to a Latin restaurant underneath the train bridge on the Thames river. Though the walks across the bridge were bone-chillingly frigid, they provided magnificent views of London at night:

On the left is the London Eye, on the right is Parliament and Big Ben.

--Tuesday--

We started off the day fairly early, needing to queue up early for rush tickets to "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in the West End. They only release 6 rush tickets at 10 a.m. each day, so we got there at 9 a.m. and were first in line (the next guy arrived about 5 minutes after we did).

After securing that evening's plans, we went to Hyde Park (comparable in significance to Central Park in NYC) to do one of T&T's favorite London activities: feeding squirrels and swans.

Now, let me just say that though I was unusually excited to go do this, I had a tough time believing what they said was possible: that you can get squirrels to climb up your leg and take peanuts from your hand.

Well...I'm definitely a believer now. Feeding squirrels in Hyde Park may just be one of the coolest things ever.

After the group of squirrels we were feeding started to get full, we moved onto the swan pond.

Expectedly, the swans were large and beautiful; unexpectedly, they were aggressively eager to eat our bread. And to justify my use of the word "aggressively," I'll add that the swans were biting each other in attempts to cut through the crowd to get to our hands.

Also, unexpectedly, the whole ordeal was just downright hilarious.

It was really windy, so you can't really hear what I say, which is "So we're in Hyde Park in London, and I'm going to share this piece of bread with a swan." Lady-and-the-Tramp-style.

After we ran out of bread, it was back to squirrels, but this time we fed squirrels in a different area of the park.

We stopped by Tom's school, the Royal College of Music, which is right next to Hyde Park. He gave us a tour of the facilities, which included a stop at the school's instrument collection.

The oldest known keyboard...in the world.

After grabbing lunch and hanging out in the city, and eating dinner at Tom's flat, we went back into London to go see the most anticipated event of this mini-vacation: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," starring Phylicia Rashad and James Earl Jones. In case you don't know either of those names, Rashad is most well known for being Bill Cosby's wife in "The Cosby Show"; she also was the first black female to win the Tony for Leading Actress in a Play in the 2005 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. James Earl Jones (who is, by the way, 79-years-old), is most well known for being the voice of Darth Vader in "Star Wars."

The acting was absolutely, insanely, unbelievably brilliant. Four stars, two thumbs up, performances-of-a-lifetime brilliant. It was just that good. End of story.

If you're not familiar with the play (and I wasn't prior), it centers around an incredibly dysfunctional family. It's shockingly bold, brash, and honest. I'd be interested to see different productions of it because I feel it could be performed many ways. But, this production had me constantly alternating between laughing out loud and having a frog hop madly in my throat. There was a certain acerbic edge to so much of the humor--the kind where you laugh uncomfortably because it's funny in a that's-so-true-it's-awkward way.

I'm very much in awe of the whole experience. Especially after what happened after the show.

So we decided we'd wait by the stage door to get autographs. I mean, how often do you get to meet James Earl Jones and Phylicia Rashad, right?

First up was Rashad. By this point, most people waiting for autographs (maybe a small crowd of 20), had lined up next to Jones' cab, as we had been informed that he would be signing autographs from his car when he came out. When she came out of the stage door, Rashad seemed legitimately shocked that some of us wanted to meet her, get her autograph, and take pictures with her.

I don't know how to convey the following without writing it in all caps...PHYLICIA RASHAD IS THE KINDEST WOMAN ALIVE. You know those people around whom you instantly feel calm? She is the epitome of that.

Rashad could tell that we weren't British from our accents, so she was asking us why were were in London, and seemed genuinely interested in talking to us. It was incredible.

I went back to her after we took the picture and asked her to sign my ticket, which she did without a hint of hesitation. Then she says, "It took you all so long to start applauding after the lights went out that we all thought we had done something wrong!" Hah! I explained that from my point of view the audience was still just soaking in their phenomenal performances and we were all kind of stunned silent.

After talking with her, T&T and I could have gladly not seen Jones, because we felt as though there was no way things could get better. We were both awe- and star-struck, and inspired to boot.

Jones, who had come out while we were talking to Rashad, had taken the backseat of his cab and was signing through the window (no pictures allowed). Well, we decided couldn't not get his autograph if he was right there, so we waited to meet him. That's when we discovered that...(here it comes again)...JAMES EARL JONES IS THE KINDEST MAN ALIVE.

I handed him my ticket through the window, which he proceeded to sign:


When I handed him my ticket, I had also unintentionally handed him the ticket receipt underneath the ticket, just because I had yet to throw away the receipt. Thinking the receipt was a second ticket, he started to sign it.

I said, "Oh, you don't need to sign that--it's just the receipt."

Jones continues to sign:

Then, while signing, he says, "Are you Mr. Taylor B. Morris?"

"Yes," I reply, "I am."

"Well, Mr. Morris," Jones responds, "thank you for coming to the show."

Nothing makes you feel legitimately alive like having James Earl Jones speak your full name. In that moment, my existence was confirmed by the most recognizable voice in the Western hemisphere.

Then, like Rashad, he notices we're not from England, and wants to know where we're from. We tell him that we're from Arizona, and then he wants to know where in Arizona. (Mesa, your existence was also then confirmed by the most recognizable voice in the Western hemisphere.)

We kept talking to him for another minute as he asked us questions and was, again like Rashad, truly interested in learning about us.

We thanked him for his phenomenal performances as our conversation came to a close and we stepped away from the car. Jones waved good night and drove off in the cab.

...did that really just happen? Yes. Yes, it did.

--Wednesday--

I woke up early, headed to the Tube station with Tom, said my goodbyes, and hopped on the subway.

Back in the Netherlands for the last bit of tour.