Dinosaur Train (and visitors!)

Uncle Andy and Aunt Erica came to visit us in London! Hooray!

Noelle had found a book here in the house about the Crystal Palace dinosaurs that a man had made for the Crystal Palace exhibition in the 1850s....and they're still around (refurbished)! Early in our stay, this became her number one desired sight-seeing destination. I was all for it...but it looked like a long way for a momma and three littles.

Enter my brother and his lovely wife, being willing to spend the day on this excursion! With our trusty Aunt and Uncle as backup, we ventured out--down the Underground, then onto the Overground train down to Crystal Palace station on the south side of the city.

All I can say is, I'm a big fan of this Richard Scarry book, The Best Storybook Ever.

I don't think A and E are used to the jubilant exclamations of small children conspicuously jutting through the relative silence of train cars. I have mostly given up shooshing the kids by now, but A and E were good sports. 

Once we arrived, this is what we found:

When you come around the corner of the train station into the park, this delightful mural greets you.

Plaster/wood creatures appearing in the distance.

The story related in the book is that this man (Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins) took a few skeletal fragments that had recently been discovered and...extrapolated artistically what these dinosaurs might have looked like. The Victorians (including the Queen) were apparantly completely astounded and astonished by the project, and by the creatures presented. I think it's amazing that they're still around!

Naturally, Flat Sammy came too. He enjoyed himself. I think this is supposed to be a giant sloth here behind Noelle.

 After our dino-tour, we found a little cafe in the same park and had lunch. The kids meal was chicken nuggets, French fries, and beans. Naturally.

 A little more exploring revealed this phone booth.

And a bit more exploring revealed this dinosaur egg and excavation site/playground sandbox!

The kids are still on their feet in this picture, but Andy was invaluable as kid-carrier later on this day. Really, we wouldn't have gotten home without him. Or at least, Joel wouldn't have.

Have I shown you anything about Cherry Tree Wood yet?

We've been blessed with a neighborhood playground at the end of our street! We made it out here almost daily while they weather was still good.

Visit to the Natural History Museum

What struck me most about the Natural History Museum is the extent to which it is quite literally a "Temple of Darwin"--complete with a marble of statue of him sitting on a throne at the top of a grand staircase. Very interesting.

There are lots of cool exhibits to see here about all aspects of nature, many visits worth.

 We didn't make it into the official "dinosaur" wing, but there were these impressive sea creatures (largely assembled by a particular 19th-century British woman) displayed along this long hallway.

Even without seeing the official dinosaurs, we saw a few very large creatures. This one is "Giant Sloth."

The obligatory stuffed creatures with the obligatory "we don't collect these anymore...but aren't they cool?" signs abounding.

 There's a grand gallery with life-size models of animals displayed in front of the gargantuan blue-whale. The elephant seems small.

 Noelle: "This is the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life."
Me: "Well, then, we must take a picture of you with it!"

 Noelle also enjoyed the arthropods gallery. It was here that as she chatted with the museum employee that a teenage schoolgirl walked by...and stopped short. "Oh my goodness, is she an American?! Oh, I've never seen an American before!!" I do believe she was serious. (Noelle is reading over my shoulder as I type this. She says, "I was terrified.")

This is the museum that Noelle has been most fascinated by so far, tied with the Museum of London. We went back on another occasion with just the two of us, and they were having a lovely outdoor "hedgerow festival" where we learned about hedgehogs, birds, and various British garden trees.

Seeing these pictures has reinspired Noelle to go back again before we leave England. I still want to see the dinosaurs, for my part.

Let's See....Where Was I?

Oh yes. Stonehenge. 

Clearly this site highlights an impressive physical feat on the part of the ancient peoples. It's just, as my sister-in-law pointed out, that I thought it would be bigger.  

 Sammy came too. There's not much to do here but ponder, and listen to the audio guide.

 Every once in a while, Joel would exclaim so

mething such as "45 tons!"

 We did attempt a grown-ups only picture here, but the non-grown-ups did not cooperate.

 The bus ride to and from this site was quite curvy, and dear Marky threw up twice this day. We picked up these quite salty snacks at a convenience store because they were called "MONSTER MUNCH" and could not be refused, but Marky was the only one who liked them. Roast Beef flavor? Really?

 Each and every one of these paw-shaped treats excited the lad.

 We made our way from there to Windsor Castle on the outskirts of London.

 The keep, built up on quite a hill. This was clearly a good defensive position, as it was meant to be.

 The soldiers impressed Joel greatly, and terrified Marky.

Sadly, the one place (in the St. George Chapel, here) Mark wanted to show us was closed, being Sunday. We still enjoyed the palace tour, full of arms and armour, portraits of monarchs, a little display of art by monarchs and their families, and a strange gigantic (and yet to small scale) doll house that was a gift to the Queen in the 20s.

Weekend with the Students---Bath

 The next day of our trip we spent on a tour of Bath. Here at the Crescent, we have fabulously expensive homes in this crescent-shaped building. The guide helpfully pointed out places where Jane Austen characters had their escapades, but unfortunately I didn't hear most of them. :) Today I tried to have an attitude adjustment after Mark pointed out that perhaps I was having a pity party the night before. I may congratulate myself when I am an empty-nester with a grown-ups only repeat of this trip, in which I will go on tours and hear it all. So. I gave up on hearing anything and just concentrated on having fun while trying to keep the little ones entertained.

 The group walked down hill a ways to this....______ Circus. I didn't catch the name of it, but the kids and I found this great ring of gigantic trees in the middle of it. We had fun running around until Marky fell and hit his head on the one piece of concrete in the whole thing. He is standing on it in the picture above. Boy the sound of screaming toddler sure rings out loud and clear in a circus. Hahaha.

 This is what happens when you tell these two that you want to take a picture that looks like they love each other.

 I'm telling you, those trees were huge!

 I do not know the significance of this building, except that it was extremely helpful to ask a fussing Marky, "See that lady? How did she get up there? Do you think she used a ladder, or did she jump down from the roof?" Marky spent the next five minutes at least in wonder, repeating, "How did she get up there?" He was stuck on that question until we got down to the river (Avon, again) and wanted to know if he could go in the river. When I said no, but look at the ducks swimming! He asked in all seriousness, "Please can I be a duck?"

 We were fortunate enough to tour the Roman baths complex that has been excavated here. Even without the benefit of the audio guide, it's pretty amazing--they had a whole temple for Sulis Minerva (Athena) and everything.

 I enjoy watching Mark explain things to the kids. I think this is where he's trying to tell them how the hot water comes up from the ground.

 Joel found this man demonstrating Roman armor. Joel watched and asked questions for several minutes.

 At the end of the tour, visitors are invited to drink the water as so many have done for health over the years. Blech! Warm (duh) and quite flavorful...in a negative way.

The highlight of our day family-wise was Royal Victoria Park and playground, which is gigantic and delightful. It's full of equipment I don't think one would find in the States, mostly because you could hurt yourself! Look at this tube slide! This playground had all kinds of playsets for all ages--even teenagers were here having fun. This playground time stands out in the kids' minds as the best part of the whole weekend. Yes, we could have gone out to the shops or toured Bath Abbey; but taking the munchkins here was definitely the right choice for us on this trip.