On the Thursday before Cameron and Eli started school my parents took a day trip to Dover, so I told the kids we could have an end-of-Summer party.  We started off at the Princess Diana Memorial Park in Kensington Gardens.  

Adventure Parks are a popular trend in London, and probably elsewhere, but they are based on a relatively new idea (in that last decade or so) that kids need opportunities for taking risks during play.  So these parks are meant to be more daring and less safe-guarded.  

The Princess Diana park is also based on a Peter Pan theme so the play equipment was modeled after bits of that story. 

After we left the park we went to a pizza place for lunch.  We were the only people in the restaurant which was so rare and so delightful.  It was nice and quiet and I had a great conversation with the kids about going back to school.  

After lunch we went back over to the park where I found a place in the grass to lie down, Cameron found a place in the grass to play imaginary football, and Eli and the littles found a place under a tree to use their imaginations.  

Then we took a stroll past Kensington Palace, through the gardens there, and over to the Round Pond.  

We made our way back through the park, stopping for ice cream on our way out, and to the train station.  We were all pretty exhausted but I had a fantastic time with the kids before they all headed back to school. (Fist pump!) 

After a second delicious breakfast from the lovely Kathy we reluctantly packed our suitcases and loaded our cars.  We left the guest house at about 9:20am.  We knew it was going to be a long day, but I don’t think we knew HOW long it would really end up being. 

Our first stop was just a little road off the motorway that led to Scott’s view, a spot reputed to be one of the favorite views of Sir Walter Scott.  It is rumored that he stopped here so often that his horses would pause without command, and on his funeral march the horses stopped of their own accord to offer their master one last look over the landscape.  

Then we drove.  We drove and drove and drove through field and village and farm.  

Eventually we came to the town of Jedburgh where we stopped for lunch.  My parents took a quick tour of the Mary Queen of Scots house while Richard and I let the kids have some much needed play time at a park.  

And that is the point at which I stopped taking photographs.  We crossed the border back into England, it started to rain, and we just kept driving. I wish I could say it was scenic and beautiful but it was foggy and dreary and by 4:00 in the afternoon we were all fed up of driving. 

Cameron and Eli rode in the car with my parents and fortunately Mim and Simon fell asleep for a bit.  Richard and I were also pretty proud of ourselves for finding a circuitous route around some bad traffic that probably saved us an hour of sitting at a standstill on the motor way.  

On we drove… eventually we stopped for dinner at what they apparently call a “Welcome Break” or what we would call a rest stop/gas station in America.  We got some food and used the toilets and on we went.   Then it got dark and Richard and my dad developed a system so my dad could make sure he was always following our taillights and not a different car. Richard would tap his breaks two times and my dad would flash his brights.  It worked really well so that we never got separated.  

We didn’t get back to our house until around 10:00 at night.  We have made drives that long before, we take a road trip to Las Vegas at least once a year.  But something about this drive just felt soooooo long.  

I hate to end the Scotland saga on such a pathetic note- so I’ll say this to wrap it up. 

Scotland was magnificent, historic, and unforgettable.  I feel tremendously grateful to have seen what I saw and met who I met and ate what I ate.  I hope we have another opportunity to make it back to hear the bagpipes play and learn a few more Scottish legends.  

Sunday morning we ate a delicious breakfast at the guest house, and then went to church.  The ward we went to was so great- there was a big, friendly primary for the kids and the speakers in Sacrament meeting were really inspiring.  I might have to write an entire post just about the way that believing something will be good makes it more likely to be good.  I feel like that summarizes my experiences here in London so far. 

After church we walked down to the beach.  I sometimes forget that Great Britain is an island, which means you are never too far from the coast.  

It was cool on the beach, and we were all wearing jackets, but Mim begged to take off her tights and boots.  I couldn’t blame her from wanting to feel the sand between her toes, as I had already removed my shoes. 

Eli and Simon had a fantastic time looking at dead crabs and collecting sea shells.  We walked along the beach to find a place for a late lunch but there wasn’t much that was open. Apparently a lot of restaurants close between 2-5pm so we settled for ice cream cones and walked back to the guest house to get our cars.  

We drove to St. Andrew’s which is RICH with history.  It made my head spin.  It is the home of St. Andrew’s University which is the 3rd oldest English speaking university in the world.  It is also credited as the birthplace of golf, and on a more somber note, the site of many executions during the Scottish reformation. 

Our first order of business in St. Andrew’s was to eat, so we did that straight away at Nandos.  It’s a chain that we’ve become familiar with in London and we knew it would satisfy us.  

Then we just started walking and came across the university by accident.  By the time we left Nando’s it was after 6:00 and just about everything was closed so we just walked.  

From the university we walked to the ruins of the castle and then on to the cathedral.  It was all along the coast and of course it was all stunning.  

We walked back up to the castle ruins, and looked around a bit but it was closed for the day.  We then walked along the coast toward the Cathedral ruins.  The Cathedral took 150 years to build, beginning in 1158.  It was the largest church in Scotland, and you can tell from the ruins that it was massive.   In 1559 during the Scottish Reformation, Catholic mass services were banned and the Cathedral was abandoned and fell to ruin.  That was such a sad bit of history, such an impressive structure ignored and neglected.

We loved St. Andrews and wish we could have spent more time there.  

After we left the ruins we walked back to our cars and drove back to Dundee for our last night in Scotland.  

There are Holiday Inns and Travelodges in the UK, but they are the minority and most travel accommodations are bed and breakfasts, or “guest houses”- which have such a friendly and homey feel.  I have always loved staying at a bed and breakfast because breakfast is always a really fun opportunity to meet people and eat a home cooked meal.  The Albert Hotel was a bed and breakfast and so Saturday morning we had our second experience with a Scottish breakfast, but we opted out of the black pudding and haggis this time.  

After breakfast Richard drove my parents back to Edinburgh to pick up their rental car, and they took Miriam with them.  So the boys and I walked down to the pier.  North Queensferry is in the Kingdom of Fife, and it’s so beautiful. There were those purple and blue clouds again, contrasting with the dark green landscape.  I had fun taking photos while the boys played on the rocky beach. 

The town of Queens Ferry was established in 1068 by the Queen so that there could be regular ferry crossings across the inlet from Edinburgh to northern Scotland.  Forth Bridge, the red bridge in the pictures below, was built from 1883-1890.  There are books written about the building of the bridge, at its peak it employed 4,000 men and 63 men lost their lives working on the project.  I marvel at engineering feats that seem to come ahead of their time and require such personal sacrifice.  This bridge is now used for the railway, and there is another bridge built more recently that is used for vehicles.  

After Richard and my parents came back, we packed up and headed for Perth.  We ate lunch at a French restaurant that will be the focal point of my culinary fantasies for a long while to come.  My parents had just been telling us about how the food in France is all so delicious.  I wish I could remember the French name of the dish I had, but it had potatoes, lardons, and the most savory cheeses.  Even the kids devoured their meals, and we all smiled with satisfaction at all the clean plates at the end of the meal. Then we had some macarons from the restaurant bakery and if they hadn’t been so expensive I would have tried one of every flavor.  There was hazlenut, lemon, peanut butter, passion fruit and chocolate, salted caramel, basil and lime, vanilla, chocolate, raspberry.  They were as beautiful as they were delicious.  (If you haven’t noticed, food is as serious as any part of our travel experiences.)


After lunch we drove to Scone Palace.  (Pronounced “Scoone” if you want to sound Scottish.)  Scone palace was the coronation site of Kings and Queens of Scotland for hundreds of years.  I couldn’t quite get my head around the significance of the ceremonies that took place at this quiet and serene palace in the Scottish countryside. 

The best way to explain Scone Palace might be to compare it to Downton Abbey, the home of a wealthy aristocratic family.  But it had more historical significance as well, and Queen Victoria had her own room here because she enjoyed visiting so much, which was totally understandable because it’s so scenic and feels remote.  

We toured the palace, which actually is still the home of the Earl of Scone and his wife.  His son is the Viscount of Stormont and he is therefore married to the Viscountess of Stormont, and they have a son as well.  He is not yet married but what pressure! There was a guide in the palace who valiantly tried to explain to us how the aristocracy of Earls, Lords, and Viscounts was organized, and with several comparisons to Downton Abbey as a reference for us sort it out, I think we came away with a vague idea.  It is quite fascinating actually and I think I need to dig up some movies to help me really get a handle on it.  (Or read a book, but don’t movies about Earls and Lords sound so fun?) The guide told us that there is a running joke among these families “Produce an heir, and one to spare.”

The palace was lavishly decorated and really fun to walk through.  There was also a special exhibit about Dido Belle, probably because of the recently produced British movie about her life- which of course now I’m dying to see!  I know I post a lot of links, I do that for your convenience if you are curious, because I reference them to help me get my facts straight.  But if you don’t click on any other link- read about Dido, it’s a really neat story.   

After we toured the palace we took the kids to the playground on the palace grounds.  There were a lot of fun things there.   Richard doesn’t get to go to many parks with us so it was fun for him to watch the kids on the zip line and it was a nice break for me to take pictures while he pushed Simon in the swing.  

It was a really beautiful afternoon by the time we left Scone Palace.  The sun was shining and it just felt like the most pleasant place on Earth. I’ve never seen grass so green.  Richard was so impressed he said he wanted his Heaven to be a place like the grounds of Scone Palace.  

We didn’t make it up to the highlands of Scotland, the home of Loch Ness and Loch Lomond.  I’m disappointed about that, but committed to making another pilgrimage to the north to give it a second chance.  But I did get to see the Scotland of my dreams in the small town of Dunkeld.  We came upon it accidentally, we were looking for something else but as soon as we drove through I begged Richard to pull over so I could walk around a bit.  Miriam and Simon had fallen asleep, but Cameron and my parents came with me.  I couldn’t stop taking pictures, which is why Dunkeld has the honor of its own blog post.  

I’m not really a big fan of editing, I like having a photo that depicts the view I saw, as I saw it.  (Although a photagraph can rarely do justice to the beauty of the sight seen first hand.)  That’s not to say that I don’t think photo editing could be a legitimate form of artwork, I’m just not artistically inclined so I prefer to leave my photos as they are.  But if I did have some photo editing skills, I bet these pictures could be made to look even more glorious.  

Sometimes I daydream about having another life in a place like this. I imagine being a writer, and sitting down by the river Tay for inspiration.  I love rivers; REALLY love them.  I think I’ll add this little town to my favorite places on Earth, alongside Island Park, Gettysburg, and Lake Louise.  

After we left Dunkeld we drove up to Dundee, Scotland or more specifically Broughty Ferry.  We checked in at the Stonelee Guest House and met the kindest hosts.  We had a late dinner at a place called The Glass House Restaurant, where we sighed gratitude for an outdoor playground where the kids could play before and after dinner, and licked our plates clean from sticky toffee pudding.  

We slept in a bit on Friday morning after our late night at the festival.  Then we packed up and headed out.  Just as a side note- I tried a new method of packing for this trip that I want to remember.  We were staying in three different hotels and so instead of packing a suitcase for each person, I packed a suitcase for each hotel.  That spared Richard from carrying in multiple bags to each place.  I had one bag that had all our toiletries and things we would need each night.  The system worked quite well and if we do another trip where we are changing locations regularly I think I’ll do it again.  

We walked to a little Scottish restaurant called “Auld Jock’s Pie Shoppe” and had a traditional Scottish breakfast.  I didn’t take a picture but I found this one online.  It includes bacon, sausage, a potato scone, haggis, black pudding, toast, beans, tomato and mushrooms.   I LOVED the potato scones but wasn’t so much a fan of haggis or black pudding.  (I dare you to go read what black pudding is.)  But we also had chocolate chip shortbread, croissants and some other shortbread treats.  Shortbread treats are my new favorite dessert, and on holiday it is perfectly acceptable to eat them for breakfast. 

After breakfast we walked back up the Royal Mile toward the castle.  It was sunny and pleasant but windy and cool up on the castle hill.  

There were more fun buskers to see, and my parents (who were walking separately from us) saw a hovering Yoda that sounded really cool.  

The views from the castle were amazing. It occurred to me that if I lived during medieval times, when countries and cultures were always at war, a castle on a hill would feel reasonably safe to me.  You can see people approaching from all around.  

The history at Edinburgh Castle, and all throughout Scotland was so overwhelming to me.  I wished I knew more, or had read more.  It was hard to understand when Scotland had it’s own King/Queen and when it was under English rule.  There were bits and pieces that sounded familiar, like William Wallace or Mary Queen of Scots, but I didn’t know any details or have any kind of broad understanding of historical context.  But I’m motivated to learn more and get some books from the library.  

In the United States, the history of our country that we learn about in school is more or less 300 years.  But when you get to these countries in Europe, they have a “civilized” history of 2000+ years.  When I told Richard that I felt completely lost and confused with Scotland’s past, he said 

“Just wait until you visit Rome.” 

Yikes. 

The Edinburgh Castle is located on a hill that has been occupied since the Bronze Age, with various structures at the site built over the last 900 years.  It served purposes as residences of royalty and also as a military fortress.  It contains the “Royal Honours” of the Scottish crown.  You know that scene in Frozen, on coronation day, where Elsa is crowned, and holds the scepter and orb? Those are symbols of royalty commonly used in European coronations.  The Scottish regalia include a sword, a sceptre and a crown.  Photography wasn’t allowed.  

My parents had already spent a few hours at the castle the day before, and we were just not on our game so we didn’t stay and see everything at the castle.  It was also chilly when the clouds came in, and crowded and like I said, historically overwhelming.  So we left the castle and went to eat lunch.  It would be lovely to have a travel nanny, that could entertain our kids so we could read every plaque and visit every museum, but we just make the best with what we’ve got, and try to pay attention to the kids and their attention spans and energy levels, and appetites.

We ate lunch at a really tasty vegetarian restaurant in downtown Edinburgh, where we could stay out of the forthcoming rain and rest a bit.  Then my dad left to go get train tickets up to our next destination.  My mom found a public records library where she wanted to make some family history inquiries and we took the kids to Calton Hill to see the National Monument and climb the Nelson Monument.  

The National Monument was built in 1823 as a memorial to the Scottish soldiers who died fighting in the Napoleonic wars, but it was never finished due to lack of funds.  

The Nelson Monument is a memorial to a famous Scottish Admiral, Horatio Nelson, who fought in the Napoleonic wars.  He was killed in the Trafalgar naval battle, but was a hero.  I didn’t get a picture of the monument itself, but it was designed to look like a telescope.  We climbed the stairs to the top for some spectacular views, but my photos didn’t turn out well because it was raining.  

We met up with my parents and walked back to the hostel to get our baggage and our car.  They got on the train to North Queensferry and we drove and met up again in a charming little seaside town, at our hotel.  The Albert Hotel. 

When I walked into the hotel to check-in I looked everywhere for a desk or counter.  All I could find was the pub, where there were men sitting at the bar who looked like this was their evening ritual, to just chat it up with their neighbors.  It was so quiet and quaint.  I went into the pub and asked 
“Where do I check in?”
“That’s right here darlin’.” 

The hotel was old, and classic.  It wasn’t fancy but it was full of charm.  Crown molding, high ceilings and chandeliers.  We loved it.  We unloaded our things, went for a little walk down to the pier, and then came back to the hotel to eat dinner in the pub.  (There weren’t really any other options.)  We were all pretty exhausted so we went straight to bed. Well, Richard and I went to bed with the littles,  but apparently Cameron and Eli stayed up watching a movie with Baca and Grandpa.  

  

The night before our trip to Scotland I could hardly sleep.   I was so excited, I had spent quite a bit of time finding our hotel rooms and planning our journey and I couldn’t wait to see and experience the kilts and bagpipes and festivals.  

I want to give a big shout-out of gratitude to Alyssa, Christy and my Instagram friend Carrie for all their recommendations. Nearly everything we saw and ate and experienced was recommended by one of these ladies.  Thank you so much! 

My parents left early Thursday morning to catch their train to Edinburgh.  I’ll go ahead right here and teach you how to pronounce Edinburgh so you can practice whilst reading through.  It’s Eh-din-burrah.  (That’s the best phonetical spelling I can come up with.)

The train travels north more or less as the crow flies so my parents had a much shorter journey.  We left a bit after them and had to drive, and none of the motorways are very direct so it took us a couple hours longer.  It was about an eight hour trip from our house to Edinburgh, and we only stopped once.  

The Tattoo Festival we were attending that evening didn’t start until 9:00pm so I really wanted the kids to take a nap on the drive.  A few drops of melatonin after lunch did the trick and they all slept for at least an hour.  (I didn’t have to give Eli any melatonin, he was sleepy enough on his own.) 

We arrived in Edinburgh around 3:00 and I rolled the windows down because it was sunny and beautiful outside.  We could smell the sea air and it was all Richard and I could do to focus on navigating and not on all the gorgeous buildings.  

We made our way to hostel, parked our car, checked in to our room and then headed to the Royal Mile.  The Royal Mile is the main thoroughfare that starts at the Edinburgh castle and stretches down approximately one Scottish mile toward Holyrood Abbey.   Carrie taught me the word “busker” for a street performer, and I think the buskers were the kids favorite part of the royal mile.   

Since my parents had arrived before us they went into the castle, but about halfway up the Royal Mile toward the castle it started raining hard.  I really didn’t want the kids to be soaked through before the Tattoo Festival even started so we decided to go back to our hostel and dry out before dinner.   

The kids ran around in their underwear in the hostel room while I threw all the clothes in the hostel laundry dryer (I was so excited that they had one!) and we waited until my parents finished at the castle.   The adults got baked “tatties” for dinner, and we took them to a mall food court to eat them out of the rain.  (The kids were thrilled to have KFC for dinner.) 

Then we made our way back up to the Edinburgh castle for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo.  (I already mentioned this on FB, but a “tattoo” isn’t just an ink design on skin; it is also “an entertainment consisting of music, marching, and the performance of displays and exercises by military personnel.” 

The festival is a performance of various military bands and dance groups from all over the world.   I took a few pictures at the beginning but then put my camera away because I wanted to just watch without being distracted by taking photos.  But I found this website with some fantastic photos from the program.  

My favorites were the Tattoo Highland dancers, the Trinidad and Tobago Steel-drum Marching Band, and the Singapore Armed Forces Ceremonial band which included some bright and colorful costumes and dancing.  The whole festival was one of those experiences in my life where I just couldn’t stop smiling.  

We felt especially grateful that we didn’t get rained on.  As a last minute precaution my dad and Richard bought some rain ponchos for us, and we joked that buying them was the best investment ever because of course it wouldn’t rain if we were prepared.  

At the end, all of the performers came out on the stage for a final medley which involved a lot of dancing, including a hilarious rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Pharrell Williams’s “Happy”.  When people from literally all over the world are all dancing and clapping along to a pop hit, the world really does seem smaller.  But nothing compared to the finale when everyone in the stadium stood up and held hands while singing the Scottish classic “Auld Lang Syne.”  It was international unity that gives me goosebumps when I recall it.  

There were fireworks at the end and a lone bagpiper played a solo from the castle balustrades.  It was remarkable.  

I think the kids enjoyed it too, despite it getting a little chilly outside.  They do the show at night because it needs to be dark, and there were colorful pattern projections on the castle, which served as a backdrop.  Simon fell asleep at the end and we had to walk back down to the hostel, but it felt magical in the air after the show.  

Now I can cross “Sleep in a Hostel” off my bucket list.  We stayed in a room with five sets of bunkbeds, and it was the six of us and my parents.  It was really inexpensive and we had no complaints.  The room had two bathrooms with showers, and it was simple to say the least, but we didn’t get back to it until after 11:00 at night and left first thing in the morning so it suited us just fine.  

We have company! Which is fabulous but leaves less time for blogging.  But having company was good motivation to get the house in order. 

After I took these photos I was feeling a little insecure about my abilities as an interior designer, and my reluctance to spend much money on decorating a home we will only live in for less than two years.  I had no sooner sat on the couch to treat insecurity with a good dose of Facebook (always effective, right?) than I saw this blog post by Glennon.  It warmed my heart and just made me feel really grateful for this place.  

So that’s our house! We love it.  It’s one of those things that once in awhile Richard and I just vocalize our gratitude for it to each other.  I’m usually one of those people who thinks you can be happy anywhere, and make the best of any choice, but this house feels especially right for us. 

Cameron and Eli have been dying to see some more WWII history, so we picked a card from our London Walks for Kids box and came up with the Cabinet War Rooms.  The war rooms were in the underground basement of the New Public Offices, and were converted in 1938 to offices for Winston Churchill to use during the war.  The rooms could never have withstood a direct hit from a German bomb, but fortunately they were never struck directly and offered a place for Churchill to direct the war.  

The museum offered audio tours for adults and children, for no extra charge and the kids thought they were great.  They gave me a child’s handset so that I could follow along with my kids, and I was really impressed with the recorded dialogue that was definitely meant to entertain children.  So we walked through the rooms, put the appropriate number into our handset, and listened to all kinds of history, anecdotes, jokes and facts.  

The war rooms included a really detailed a museum about Winston Churchill, and I found these two quotes amusing.

This was the first time we’d used audio guides in a museum and I’m a big fan.  It was so effective in creating the atmosphere of tension, drama and historical magnitude.  We were all captivated. 

Until some of us weren’t.  I could have easily stayed another hour or two but Mim and Simon eventually hit their limit so we finished it out and waited for my parents and Eli and Cameron in the gift shop.  

After visiting the Churchill museum I thought for a long time about great leaders.  It seems that so many accomplished historical figures who were ambitious and passionate, had some noticeable character defects.  Churchill was just the right man for the job, and yet he wasn’t exactly a warm and fuzzy type guy.  I guess that’s just how God works, with His imperfect people.  And I’m grateful for their genuine efforts and contributions in our world despite their shortcomings.  

After we left the war rooms we ate lunch in a back alley little sandwich shop.  It was nearly 2:00 and the owners warned us up front that they didn’t have much left after the lunch rush.  But they threw together some sandwiches for us that they thought we (the kids) might like and it hit the spot.  (Along with a couple shortbread cookies and cakes.) 

After that my parents took Cameron with them to do some more site-seeing and I took Eli and the littles to St. James Park, as I had promised them that I would.  The park was lovely. 

While they were playing in the sand at the park a little boy threw sand in Simon’s face.  Everything got ugly from there.  

I managed to console Simon, but he wasn’t feeling well so he never quite recovered.  He eventually fell asleep on my lap on the park bench.  I asked the kids if we could leave but they had waited all day long to play and so we stayed.  Then it started to rain.  That morning when I had checked the forecast it said 14% chance of rain.  14%! I wouldn’t bet anything on those odds.  So we had no umbrella or jackets.  We took refuge under a tree until the rain subsided and then we decided to make our way home. 

I looked up the quickest route home on my phone, and saw that it was by train.  I think I’ve mentioned before that I generally avoid the National Rail because Eli and Cameron need tickets and because it stresses me out.  But because Simon was not feeling well and wanting to be held and carried, I thought the rail would be easy. No transfers, just a 25 minute ride home.  

We started walking toward the closest rail station but I was having the hardest time negotiating the map.  Nothing seemed to make sense and I couldn’t think very clearly with Simon whimpering and clinging to my neck or legs.  We walked past Buckingham Palace, and then I realized that we were going the wrong direction so I picked a new station and went back toward the park.  We walked and walked, and every time I looked at my phone it said 

0.5 mi – 8 min. 

We would walk for five minutes and I’d check my phone. 

0.5 mi – 8 min,

We would change directions, go down a different street, I would look at the street maps they have on every corner.  And STILL 

0.5 mi – 8 min. 

I was at my wits end, and now people were getting out of work. I had NO idea where I was, it was a part of the city that wasn’t touristy, it was more of a business center.  I finally asked a women how to get to the rail station and she looked at me with great pity and said “Follow Me.”  

She was so kind to offer to help, but she walked really fast and I was trying to carry Simon and hold hands with Mim and keep a close eye on Eli (who doesn’t know how to walk fast.)  I was also more than a little bit ashamed of the mess I’d gotten myself in, and I often feel insecure in these situations that people judge me for having too many children when I clearly can’t handle them all.  I don’t think this woman was judging me, and thank goodness because little did she know that I have FOUR kids.  

We finally made it to the station and I reassured her that we could handle it from here and she went on her way.  I was so flustered that I couldn’t really get my bearings so I made my best guess about which platform we needed to get to.  When we got to the ticket gate I realized I hadn’t bought a ticket for Eli but the TFL employee took pity on me too, and let us through.  We walked down the platform to get to the train that was waiting, only to realize that we needed to be on the next platform over, and as soon as I looked up I saw our train pull away. 

We made our way over to that platform and I collapsed on a bench to catch my breath.  The trains only come every 20-30 minutes and it was going to be awhile before the next one came.  At first I assumed that the train we wanted would come to the same platform as the last one, but fortunately I had the intuition to check, but the trouble was, all the platform listings were on the OUTSIDE of the ticket gates, and I didn’t want to have to risk getting Eli back through without a ticket. So I stood there, for several minutes, like an exhausted idiot, while all the professionals bustled past me toward their trains.  I finally just asked someone, made it to the right platform, and we boarded our train back home. 

Sometimes this city feels like such a crazy, chaotic, complex universe that I will never get my head around.  It was all so overwhelming and I felt so small.  But every day like this is surrounded by days of wonder and awe.  And even if I never figure things out, even if I always feel small, I just keep reminding myself that no one matters more or less than I do, and I try to just muster up some gratitude for this crazy, chaotic, complex city.  

I was so excited about posting about Scotland that I skipped over a few days.  My parents came to visit and arrived on Monday August 19th .  

(As a side note- when Cameron was little he couldn’t say Grandma, so he started called both his grandmothers “Baca” and the name just stuck.) 

We decided to meet Baca and Grandpa in Canary Wharf because we were all excited and I thought it would be easier than trying to have them find their way to our house.  So we took the DLR into Canary Wharf and played at the park until we heard from them.  I didn’t take my camera with me so all I have from that day are photos from my phone.  

We had some quick lunch in Canada Square at Cafe Nero where I did the most important thing Halls do- and I introduced them to my favorite new dessert, the Millionaire bar.  

Since they had their luggage with them we decided to come back home.  I assumed they would want a nap but after we got back to our house and did a quick home-tour they said they would rather try and push through to night.  We decided to walk to Greenwich, through the park, and meet up with Richard for dinner at Goddard’s.  

We walked through the park and stopped at the Royal Observatory, where the prime meridian runs and the point from which time is measured throughout the entire world.  We saw a couple more of the benches from the “Books About Town.” 

By the time we got to the park playground it started pouring rain- but the kids wanted so badly to play after walking all that way.  Finally we sought refuge in the Maritime Museum for a brief visit until Richard could get to Greenwich.  Then we went to Goddard’s for traditional pie and mash, and blackcurrant crumble.  (Second favorite dessert. Or maybe my favorite but the millionaire bar is easier to access. )

After that my mom realized she had left her Oyster card at home so she took my dad’s and we took the littles home on the DLR and Richard walked with my dad and Cameron.  

At the time I am writing this my dad has already left and gone back to the states, but it was such a pleasure to have him here and watch him explore and appreciate all the things we love about our life here.  We would love to share that excitement with ANYONE who wants to come visit us.  So there’s that.