Elizabeth’s Journal

Settling In; First Day Trip to Greenwich

The first full couple of days here have been spent settling in and getting a regular sleep rhythm (the first night Kayleigh was up until 2 a.m. doing handstands on the settee while Dale and I watched the clock tick by in disbelief). We’ve seen either Ben or Sam every day and Glen a couple of times too.

The first evening Ben & Sam came by together, and Kayleigh didn’t think much of them then, but the next day Sam came over in the early afternoon and we all went down to Lake Meadows park together. He played ball with Kayleigh and cracked her armor by making her laugh, and by the end of the park outing she insisted on her “Nam” carrying her everywhere. It was cute to see her on his shoulders going around the park.

Dale has introduced Ben & Sam to the game of Pirates, and they have played it every time they’ve been together so far. The two of them are coming again this evening, and I’ll be shocked if they don’t play again :-).

Got to see Lee yesterday with his girls Eleanor and Annabelle (Christopher was still at school)—Kayleigh was completely enamored of her female cousins and they of her. It was really cute to see her in Eleanor’s arms and on her hip (Eleanor’s nine, and Annabelle is eight months younger than Jonathan). There was lots of giggling and running around.

Yesterday was also, of course, Dale’s birthday. It was a pretty quiet day until the evening when Glen arrived with Ben and Sophie (Ben’s girlfriend; they have a house together). We had a wonderful Indian takeaway and then a Cadbury Buttons cake for dessert. I hadn’t met Sophie before. She is a very lovely girl and is studying to be a teacher. Ben’s a lucky boy.

Today we had our first day trip—took the train up to Stratford and then got on the Docklands Light Railway out to Greenwich. Kayleigh was delighted with her first train rides, and Jonathan was very pleased to be back on them. The Docklands train is neat because you can ride right up at the front and pretend you are driving it.

When we got into Greenwich, we went right to the Cutty Sark, which was our reason for going there. It was a neat ship to be on and had a great collection of figureheads displayed. Then we went to the Spanish Galleon pub for lunch—I had a cod and leek fish cake that was delicious, and we also each had a pint of Spitfire.

After that we decided that while Jonathan might not find it all that fascinating, Dale and I couldn’t live with going to Greenwich and not visiting the Prime Meridian. So we trucked off to the Royal Naval Observatory and were mightily impressed with what we found. The tour of the observatory was free, so we did that too. Very nicely done, with some great interactive exhibits that Jonathan enjoyed. The camera obscura was really, really cool. It’s also where Edmond Halley, for whom Halley’s Comet is named, is buried.

Then we made our way home, Kayleigh falling asleep on Dale for a while on the way. Since we’ve been home, Kayleigh has let herself out the back door to check on Grandad who was looking after his bees and scattered sand from Miami Beach that Joy had brought back from Florida all over the end bedroom. They couldn’t say they weren’t warned!

Posted by elizabeth at July 14, 2006 11:02 AM