Dinosaurs!

I had decided that by Day 4 we should spend some time in London itself. I absolutely love the city and wanted to start wearing the soles of shoes a bit walking around. By this point Declan had got himself a great routine going. We would get up, get dressed and head to Victoria Station. He would get pancakes at McDonald’s since that was the easiest and we would set out from there.

This day was different because we were meeting a friend of mine and her daughter at the Museum of Nature for a day of fossils, dinos, science and fun! Declan and I got a jumpstart on the day and were in Knightsbridge by about 8:30am and we weren’t meeting up until 10:00am so we just walked around and waited for the Museum to open up.

Once it did we couldn’t wait for out guests so we just took a quick look at the dinosaur exhibit. It was amazing! To really experience it you walk up a flight of stairs and there is a catwalk that overlooks the whole exhibit with dinosaurs suspended from the ceiling and also just tall enough that you can look them eye to eye. Declan was mesmerized! We went back out to the lobby and were able to meet up with my friend Natalie and her daughter Keya which was great because she is about 7 years old and really interested in walking around with Declan. We went back to the dinosaur exhibit and walked around the Museum for probably 2 hours. I don’t think anything quite captured Declan the way the dinosaurs did but he was pretty interested in the massive Blue Whale that they have as well as the hands on exhibits that they had.

We made our way over to the Science Museum and saw planes, cars, trains and old steam engines that the kids just used as climbing devices. We grabbed a quick lunch and continued on for a bit before decided that it was too nice a day to be stuck inside. We made our way to Hyde Park and the wonderful stretches of green grass which were so verdant compared to the dead brown we had at home. We walked the length of the park and into Kensington Gardens where the Diana Memorial Playground was. The remarkable thing about this park is that it is built around a massive pirate ship that the kids can climb all over. And I mean ALL over! I remarked to Natalie that you would never see that at home. The first time a kid fell the Parks Department would be sued and the ship would be tore down. The kids were in heaven climbing all over the place.

Lucky for me, Natalie brought her camera along and took some lovely shots of Declan and I which I am attaching to this post. She captured some great ones. THANKS NAT!

Eventually we had to take leave of our friends and Declan was pretty crushed that he couldn’t play with Keya anymore. She actually protected him from some kids who were kicking his sand castle in the hull of the pirate ship. She was so good with him and gave him such a great run throughout the day. Declan has since asked if he can play with Keya again some time. I hope he has that chance.

The weather was fantastic for us on Monday and we took our time meandering back to the flat for a bit of a late meal. After that it was in bed to watch Wall-E before we both passed out.