August 2016

After much searching, we found a house to rent in a town that we like very much. As much as we like London, we decided to live outside the city where we could afford a bigger house and a yard for the kids to play in. The public transportation is so great here that our home is only just a 20 minute train ride into London. The only drawback to our rental house is that its not available until August 20, so we will stay in our hotel until then. Fortunately schools start in early September here so we will still have time to unpack before school starts.

We also spent time visiting schools for the kids in our new town and found schools that we are happy with. Carson will be going to a co-ed primary school for ages 3-11. He will be playing rugby in the fall, 'football' (i.e. soccer) in the winter, and cricket in the spring. Rachel chose an all-girls school for ages 3-18 that she just loves. Normally children here change schools at age 11, but since her school goes all the way to high school she won't have to change schools during our stay in the UK.

In between our trips out to our new town finding housing and schools, we were able to do a little bit more exploring in London. We had a day at the London Zoo in Regents Park, a great zoo that we really enjoyed. Here is the entrance to Regents Park, a typical park entrance here in London. Very lavish and decorative gates are everywhere here!

Penguin Feeding

Bird Show

Carson's first haircut in the UK was at a place called 'Jack the Clipper'.

Prices are in British Pounds, that's 1.3 times a dollar!

We visited Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in Piccadilly Circus. Here are the kids standing next to the replica of the world's tallest man.

We found a great playground in Mayfair with a tire swing and a see saw. I guess playground equipment is universal, very similar to what you might find in the states. Great fun for the kids and a great way to get out some of their energy. Very handy when you are living in a small hotel room for several weeks!

Trafalgar Square seems to attract local artists that often use chalk to create artwork right on the sidewalk. We were amazed at the picture of the woman below rendered in chalk, just incredible!

We ventured out to Greenwich one day, accompanied by Aunt Ginie who happened to be visiting London during our stay at the hotel! What a great coincidence! We had a tour of the Cutty Sark ship and the kids learned all about what it was like to live on a ship for a long period of time.

We had lunch at Byron's Burgers, an American-style burger and fry restaurant. Their Byron sauce is the closest thing we've found to fry sauce in the UK.

Greenwich is famous for the Prime Meridian, longitude 0°, which goes right through Greenwich. Since there was a queue (that's UK speak for a line) a mile long to get a photo at the Prime Meridian, we settled for a picture just 5 yards away near a big clock.

Our first show in London was a kids musical of Scooby Doo! It was great fun, the kids loved seeing their favorite cartoon characters on stage. And luckily there was a Five Guys Burgers & Fries restaurant right next to the theater, YUM! A little taste of America!