Skipping Town

Departure day. Our car arrived at 9am and took us to Heathrow. L&G had their American Girl dolls' passports and boarding passes (thanks to a travel set they got last year) and two United employees actually took the little passports, "scanned" them, and stamped them. The girls were thrilled. But the boarding passes are miniscule, and of course Lucia dropped hers on the escalator, and Dad nearly killed himself and several other people as he tried to retrieve it. He was successful, and Lucia declared that she had the best grandparents ever. We made a final stop at a Boots for some plane snacks, and the flight was uneventful. When we got back to NJ, Maplewood was in full spring mode. All the trees had flowered while we were away, and everything was newly green. We were feeling the jet lag by the time we got home around 4pm, but we persevered. Mom and I had to stuff the girls' Easter eggs after they went to bed, and then we all went to bed around 9pm. A few fin...

It was a lovely Easter despite the jet lag. Greta woke up at 4:30am and didn't go back to sleep. Lucia woke up at 6am. I took them downstairs at that point, and they explored their Easter baskets. This year they got: two LOL dolls, an AG ramen set (from Walmart), a giant Squishmallow, three Micro Squeezimals, a brainteaser solitaire game, a flamingo pen, hairbands, and a small Squishmallow backpack clip. Their Easter eggs had chocolate eggs and Iwako eraser animals (or, as Greta calls them, "take-apart animals"). In a genius move, before we left for London I guided the girls to decide that having the Easter Bunny hide the eggs was too risky, after last year's slug debacle. "They" decided that this year, the Easter Bunny would leave the eggs for Mommy and Daddy to hide. This saved me in so many ways, mostly because I didn't have to get up in the dark of night to hide the eggs outside before the kids woke up. It was so much better this way. After they op...

Our last day in London, and the sunniest and most beautiful day yet. I can't believe I bought new raincoats for all of us in preparation for the trip--too bad I cut all the tags off already! Andrew got up early and went out to get pastries for breakfast. Yes, you read that correctly. Jet lag plus the jet lag he hadn't gotten over from his trip to LA right before we left for London resulted in Andrew being the first one up in the morning, every single morning of our trip. He got up, showered, and then went out to have a coffee and get some pastries. London Andrew. We chose a new part of the city to explore this morning, our last morning, and walked to Regent's Park. It was a beautiful walk through Fitzrovia, and we passed a house where Virginia Woolf lived for several years. The park--like all the parks here--was full of spectacular tulips and other flowers, manicured perfectly. We walked to Queen Mary's Rose Garden (the roses aren't blooming yet) and recreated a...

We had tickets booked for the Tower of London on Thursday. We tried to get there on the early side to avoid the worst of the crowds, but it was still packed even at 10 am. Nonetheless we joined a tour led by a Yeoman Warder and heard stories about the Tower's grisly past. We didn't see the Crown Jewels--the line was just too daunting, and we were ready for something to eat. It was yet another beautiful day--we didn't even bring our coats along--and we sat for a while on some steps looking out over the Tower, eating ice cream cones from a food truck. I saw a few people with bags of what looked like very enticing grilled chicken from a place called Assemheim's, so we headed over there to get some lunch, with the plan to sit outside. Andrew was not on board, preferring a pub lunch and sitting down at an actual table, but he went along. He and I got chicken from Assemheim's and everyone else got various things from Pret a Manger. We sat on a wall in a little green ar...

It was so warm and sunny today we didn't even need coats, and we spent most of the day outside. We took the Tube to Kensington today and first stopped for some sandwiches (and candy) at Tesco Express, then headed into Kensington Gardens. The kids played at the Princess Diana Playground for a little while, and then we walked further into the gardens, to a large lake in the middle. Crowds of swans, ducks, and pigeons were everywhere. We found a spot by the water, Kensington Palace at our backs, and had a picnic lunch. The girls fed bread to the swans and ducks. Greta sketched some waterfowl. Eventually we made our way to the palace and saw the beautiful Sunken Garden, dedicated to Princess Diana. We walked around the manicured grounds in front of the palace, and the girls talked to a character actress dressed up as a young Princess Victoria, not yet queen. It was a perfect day to walk through some of Kensington, and we stopped next at 28 Campden Grove, where James Joyce briefly l...

We started Tuesday with the museum right at the end of our block, the British Museum. It's enormous--maybe bigger than the Met, have to check--so we bought a map with a suggested top-ten list of things to see, and worked our way through that. It was a great way to see some galleries we probably wouldn't have gone into, plus some of the famous things. We saw the Rosetta Stone, sculptures and carvings from the Parthenon, and a figure from Easter Island. L&G were really into it, taking notes in their small notebooks of things they thought were cool. We made it through nine of the ten things, perusing other galleries along the way, which took about two hours. (Andrew was intent on finding the tenth sight, which was a bridge too far for all of us.) We were all starving at that point but made do with some snacks (candy) since we had reservations for afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. We ended up having to walk because of more snafus with the buses, but it was a good excuse t...

Whew, were we tired in the morning. By "we" I mean Greta, who made her tiredness known by having a stubborn fit in the morning and refusing to take a shower, get dressed, etc. I was ready to put her out on the street, so Andrew took over while the rest of us went out for a walk around the block. Lucia spotted a notebook with a British flag on the cover at a souvenir shop, and we promised we'd go back for it. By the time we got back to the apartment building, Greta was dressed and smiling and back on track for the day. And it was a busy day. We once again had breakfast at home, then set out for St. Paul's Cathedral. Audio guides were included with the ticket, and we all loved learning about different parts of the church. The mosaics are especially impressive. We didn't go into any of the galleries (the Whispering Gallery was closed for a gruesome reason you can Google if you want to; and I was too freaked out to go into any other galleries because of it), but the...

London! We're in London. The "we" this time is bigger: Andrew, me, Lucia, Greta, AND Mom and Dad. We left Saturday morning, and arrived in London late that evening. By the time we got to our apartment in Bloomsbury, it was almost 10pm. Andrew and I ran out to find a grocery store and brought back sandwiches for dinner. Everyone went to sleep. It's a great apartment, by the way--a hotel-like apartment from a company Sonder. Way better than a hotel, though, with a full kitchen, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a huge living room. Perfect for all six of us, and super modern. Plus a perfect location, right down the block from the British Museum. Andrew always finds the best places for us to stay. We started our first London day with sub-par pastries we'd picked up at the grocery store, but it was for the best, since of course it was hard for the kids to get up. Sunday was a big sight-seeing day, and we started with the London Eye. Mom hadn't planned on going o...