Not a Wasted Word

We met my sister, her partner and their dog at Hyde Park on Monday morning. They told us to meet at the “playground at Hyde Park,” and what they meant was the Diana Memorial Playground (very cool) and not Hyde Park Playground (not cool). Getting from the one we were at to the one we were supposed to be at took 30 minutes, and then we went on an hour walk, so it was a big walking day. Luckily Hyde Park is lovely and we have been building our walking stamina on this trip.

My family stayed at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain to play in the water (some people had swimsuits on in the fountain!) while my parents, sister and I went to lunch. Then we met up at the V&A (Victoria and Albert) Museum, to look at shiny jewelry and other fun stuff.

After the V&A we went to the National History Museum, which has an incredibly impressive facade and front hall.

We hit up the dinosaur section of the museum, looking for Dippy, who has triumphantly returned, and we finally found him in another part of the museum.

Finally, my parents took the kids back to the AirBnB while my husband, sister, and friend (from Brighton) had dinner. We ended up taking advantage of the grandparents being on this trip to enjoy two nights on the town and I’m very pleased about it. Both nights were so, so fun.

[NOTE: The WordPress app is having some issues and sometimes when I publish I see the posts in my RSS feed or in my email (or both) but then I don’t see them on the site. I’m not sure what is going on but please know I’m trying my best and apologies if you’re seeing any specific post somewhere twice.]

After our whirlwind first four days, we promised our kids (mostly our daughter) a low key morning where she wouldn’t be rushed, so we planned less on Sunday to give them both a break.

And during that break, I went for a run. I wasn’t sure I’d find a good route but I did and it was lovely.

Once home I finished some laundry and we headed out to Chiswick House, which is the biggest tourist attraction in our AirBnB’s neighborhood in West London.

All the adult s agreed the house and gardens were much nicer than we had expected. We especially enjoyed the audio tour.

The house was really impressive, but the gardens were what really blew us away.

We picnicked under a tree for lunch and then headed to the Design Museum which had a special exhibit we knew our daughter would love.

The Design Museum was small, but very cool. We didn’t spend much time in the general area, but we really liked what we saw.

Then we split up, my husband and son went to an exhibit on the design of the “beautiful game” (football) and my daughter and I went to an exhibit on ASMR.

My daughter has been somewhat obsessed with ASMR for a while now, and she was overwhelmed by the exhibit. She totally loved it.

I have to admit I haven’t really understood the ASMR movement but now I get it, at least a little. We may even get our daughter a microphone so she can experiment herself.

We ended the day at my sister’s house for a BBQ with her friends, which went over way better than anyone was expecting. The kids hung out happily for four hours and we all enjoyed yummy food.

The only issue was the dog, who still, at the posting of this (our penultimate day) will not approach our children without growling or barking. She just doesn’t want to have anything to do with them, which is breaking their hearts because being with her was one of the big reasons they wanted to come here. We’re all managing our disappointment about it in our own ways, but it’s hard.

But at the BBQ we still had hope she’d learn to like them. And it was fun to be around her.

On Thursday night, after Harry Potter, my parents kept the kids and my husband and I went out to dinner with my sister and her partner for my husband’s birthday. It was an awesome night, but a late one, and Friday morning was rough. We got up late and had a lot to do (like packing for just one night in Brighton to see my good friend of 25(!!!) years). We somehow made it to the Tower of London for our 11am reservation, but it was close.

This is my fifth time visiting London but I’d never been to the Rower of London before. It’s the large fortress on the Thames where the monarchy used to hold power (and torture and imprison and execute people). Also the Crown Jewels are there.

The lines for the Crown Jewels were long but I have to say it was worth it. They were very beautiful. (So many diamonds! So sparkly!) You weren’t supposed to take picture of them though so I can’t share them here. Boo.

There were also tons of weapons on display. Those we could take picture of, and I especially enjoyed the steam punky attempts to combine pistols with other weapons like axes and hammers.

Outside of the Tower of London we took pictures with the Tower Bridge (and eventually crossed it) but we didn’t go up inside.

We ate lunch at this amazing open market with tons of different kinds of food. I had curry and my kids had fish and chips. I also caught this great shot of the juxtaposition between old and new.

After our very late lunch we walked around some more before catching a train to Brighton, where we met up with a friend I’ve known since my freshman year of college (and his family). We walked around town before settling on a spot to eat.

We headed to bed early in Brighton because we were still a little wrecked from my husband’s birthday dinner the night before. The days are long and packed and honestly I don’t think we could handle more than the eight full days we have planned.

Our day in Brighton was very low key. We walked around with our friends, marveling at how many people there were in Brighton on a summer weekend. We played games at the pier and threw rocks into the ocean and bought some shirts at the shops. Then we had a late lunch and headed back to the train. We got home later than we intended and crashed for the night.

Unfortunately all the pictures I took in Brighton have people in them so I can’t post them. Sorry!

NOTE: We of course felt a lot of ambivalence about supporting J. K. Rowling properties, and we ultimately decided that we would go because it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but we’d also donate an equal amount of money to a group or groups that support trans youth.

I realized about an hour into the Harry Potter Studios Tour that I was the most excited member of our family to be there. Being inside the actual Great Hall, seeing Dumbledor’s actual office… it was really amazing. I loved the books and the movies and to see so much or what was used to make the movies was really fun.

I want to write more but I never seem to find the time so here are a bunch of pictures.

Sorry to post that last one many days late. I was sure that had been published but I guess the wifi at SFO wasn’t that great. Or my WordPress app crapped out of me (the more likely possibility). I also planned to post what we did for the past three days here but I can’t even get this draft to save so I think I’ll just aim for one day.

We’ve been in London for three days. It’s been a great trip. Busy and chaotic at times, but good. We’re sleeping at night (mostly) but still very tired and out of it during the day. It turns our getting 8 hours of sleep is not enough to just reset your entire body clock. And that three nights of sleeping at the right time is not enough to reset you either.

We met my sister on Wednesday morning at the dog park and she had her Corgi there. We have been following her corgi (which she got last year) on Instagram for a year and were very excited to meet her. She is a bit skiddish around new people so we didn’t get to pet her much, but ir was very fun to “meet her” in person.

Then my sister’s boyfriend took the dog home and we all went to the National History Museum. Except we were ushered out of the museum upon entering because there was an emergency evacuation. Instead we hit up the National Science Museum (just next door), which was really cool.

We got lunch and then headed back the AirBnB. Everyone had slept the night before but we were all super out of it on our first day.

After grabbing some groceries and chilling out at the AirBnB, we walked to my sister’s house for dinner in her back yard. Again the corgi wasn’t sure about us, but we did enjoy some lovely take out Chinese food.

I’ll try to post more soon. We are keeping our days full because we aren’t here long and jet lag is an ever present threat we’re trying to outrun.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend.

Our flight was fine. The kids did great and I managed myself. Everyone’s TVs worked and we hunkered down for the long haul. My husband slept a fair amount. My daughter got about two hours. My son and I didn’t sleep much and when they turned on the lights about 30 minutes after our son fell asleep he was very upset. Thank goodness the flight attendant was willing to bring him a Coke during the breakfast service.

We hit some intense turbulence in the middle of the flight. And then again on our decent. Our daughter threw up into many sick bags on the way down but she felt better once we landed.

The heat was… oppressive. Those of sleeping on the third floor of the AirBnB were struggling last night. But we did sleep through the night (some of us needed to take more melatonin around 2am to get back to sleep).

We’re heading out now and I’m not paying for cell service so I’m going to post this. I hope everyone’s doing well.