Meandering Around the World

“Mommy, the museums here are amazing! They make the ones in New York seems pathetic! Can we move here?” This was the general consensus from all three kids, even, unbelievably, my normally museum hating son. I’m definitely taking the downgrading of NYC as good thing since anything that makes leaving easier is a positive thing in my books. But it is true, the Natural Museum in London makes the one in NYC suck eggs. They don’t just have dinosaurs, they have great animatronic ones that move and roar and show the reality of what all those bones actually would have looked like in the flesh. Everything, and I mean everything is interactive. You walk by a glass wall and it wakes up and starts asking you questions about coral and jellyfish. We spent hours in the Darwin Center where you pick up little credit card like thing that you can swipe at each exhibit and download information that you can bring back to your own computer at home. We had one stop where we planned a field expedition to the jungle to study bugs and had to work out what kind of equipment we would need to bring. At another stop we talked to an actual scientist who was cataloging a new type of plant that had just been brought back from Bolivia and they were hoping they could use its DNA to create potatoes that could grow in Holland’s salty water. We also saw a movie about evolution that had 3 D holograms walking across the room in front of us (the kids really enjoyed learning we are related to bananas!). We also went to the earthquake room where at first I thought they had set up an exhibition about the terrible destruction that just happened in Japan but eerily it was a model of a Japanese supermarket based on the 1980s earthquake in Kobe. As you stood there the room and all the groceries on the shelves would shake while video of the actual store rolled and sound effects blared. Maybe other times It would be strictly academic but given what had just happened it was a little too close to reality! The older parts of the museum were stunning as well in a great 19th c naturalist style. We were there for 6 hours and didn’t get thru all of it.

The next day we went to the Science Museum which also had some great interactive exhibits and the next day we took a boat up the Thames to go visit Greenich which is “where time begins”. We spent a lot of time at the Observatory and played lots of games at the Astrology exhibits. I realized that every other time we have come here it was usually at Xmas or Easter or some transit point to somewhere else and all we did was see family. We never really left the house! So this is the first time we have really taken advantage of all that London has to offer and it is great! We definitely want to come back here much more often and it as been wonderful seeing family as well as museums. It is just now the kids are old enough to really appreciate what they are experiencing. Nothing can beat a big crowd of cousins though and David Evan especially has loved getting to know his older boy cousins (such a relief after always being surrounded by girls!). We have been staying with Vincent’s brother and sister in law who have 3 kids and who have been beyond wonderful, Sheila especially cooking up amazing dinners every night. We did have a big night out with my sister and her family which is even bigger than ours so we basically took over the local restaurant and had a fabulous time which some how got turned into agreeing to do it all over again in June with their coming to NYC for our farewell party. Hopefully that will last past the inebriation stage.

So, England goes down as huge success, next stop Ireland…

Vincent’s mother is turning 90 this year and so the entire Dixon clan are throwing a huge party. In a Castle no less, the actual 600 year old Butler Castle in Kilkenny. Should be quite a show. Anyway, it turns out to be perfect timing, right smack in the middle of 3 out of the 4 children’s Spring Break from school so we decided to make a real trip of it and spend a week in London and a week traveling around Ireland. For some reason we haven’t been back to London in eight years, since before the girls were born, even though my sister and Vincent’s brother both live there. Of course we are thinking of it as a dress rehearsal for our big trip even though this one is mostly geared around seeing family and we will have to be bringing fancy clothes which obviously would not be required in the RTW backpacks! It will give us a tiny taste of what we need to brush up on. So far I think we can get away with even smaller backpacks than what we have – both the girls are sharing one, David Evan has his own which seems to be primarily filled with nerf guns and mine is half filled with presents. But then comes Dad with his two huge cases! He keeps saying he won’t be bringing all this stuff on the actual RTW trip but I’ll believe it when I see it. The only problem is that we might end up with a false sense of security since getting around England and Ireland is such a breeze. We will pick up our sim card for the phone at the airport and we can probably get an oyster card to ride the tube the same day so we will have transport and communication sorted as soon as we arrive. Ah well, it is supposed to be an actual holiday after all….

We are going to London and Ireland over our Spring Break. It is Vincent's mom's 90th birthday and the whole Dixon clan is getting together which should be lots of fun. We are starting off in London to ... [Continue reading this entry]