Day 4: Double-Decker

After breakfast on the fourth day in England, we decided to do the ultimate touristy activity. The double-decker bus tour.

Why? Memory fails.

Truly, to be honest, I’m not sure what we were thinking except that we understood we could get on and off, so we imagined a leisurely drive around the town, popping off to say hullo to the ravens in the Tower, or have a pint, or get knighted, and then back on. What actually happened is we passed Parliament, pointed out Big Ben, and then someone on the bus said they wanted to go see the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, and before we knew it, we were off and far in the maddening crowd.

We were close to Hyde Park, which is close to Kensington Garden, so I suggested that we walk on and see the Peter Pan statue and the Princess Diana playground. It would have been a fine destination, but closeness is relative, and we had the bad luck to run into some police on horseback. This made Mikey remember that he had missed out on the horses in the New Forest, and all of the sudden, nothing but horseplay would do. Specifically, he wanted the policemen to get off their horses and let him have his turn.

Time for a nap came quickly and with tears, and Mikey was asleep before we were five minutes in the cab bound for the hotel. A few hours later, when Mikey woke up, we told him that we had to go to the store and get some wine and snacks because we were having a few friends over, old friends of Ian's who were dying to meet him. The prospect of having folks over he could show off to appealed to him, and before long, Mikey was singing and dancing, and doing his latest trick, drawing with his feet, to the delight of all.

The next morning, we went to St. Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris.

Day 3: The Cat & The Bidet

We checked out of the Mill after breakfast, and went to visit the freshly minted couple, Helen & Simon Rhodes. After some exchange of photos and some gifts of clothing to Mikey, and a few more games of “Stahp it!” with Cousin Lauryn, we were off again to London.

Our aim was to try to make it to our hotel in Soho to drop off our luggage and then the rental desk of Alamo in Euston Station before 4:00 pm. Mikey was a little upset that he still hadn’t seen any horses, but since we had stayed at the Soho Hotel before, I felt confident in making him a new promise, “We’ll try to find some horses in London, but I promise you that we will find the biggest cat you’ve ever seen right in our hotel.”

The black ten foot tall Fernando Botero bronze in the lobby was as promised.

We dropped off our luggage, and zipped over to Euston station just in time. The Tube ride back to Soho was loud, and Mikey sat through it in stunned silence. When we finally got out, he said, “We do it again now?”

Later, we promised, we had to rush back to the hotel, drink some champagne, and explore our room. Of course, the bathrooms at the Soho are gorgeous and well-appointed, by which I mean they came with a little more than Mikey is used to at home.

“What this?”

“It’s called a bidet,” I said.

“Bidaydo?” he repeated back, curious why a potato, which he had eaten before fried, mashed, diced, and riced, would be ceramic and toilet-like in its natural state.

“Just bidet,” I said. “It’s to wash your bottom.”

Of course, he had to try, and let's just say he found it delightful. I think he’d still be on it in a state of ecstasy if we didn’t drag him off.

Day 1: LAX to Lymington

On Thursday, August 25, 2010, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, we tip-toed into the dimly lit preschool room, where soft music was playing, being careful not to step on any of the little bodies of the sleeping children scattered on mattresses across the floor. Mikey was sound asleep when I picked him up, but he opened his eyes to ask, “We go on plane now?”

Yup. We were off. On the way down, we told him what we were going to do. We were going to drive our car to JohnnyPark, take the bus with our luggage to the airport, get our tickets, check in our luggage, get on a plane, and fly high in the sky until we landed in London, England. It all went according to plan, more or less (Johnny Park is temporarily a two-bus trip to the airport which is a little exasperating to those of us schlepping big suitcases but not to Mikey) until we checked in our suitcases and got our seat assignments. Mikey’s understanding of the arrangement was that next we go to the airplane and fly.

“But Mikey, we have to wait because the plane isn’t ready yet.”

“We go to plane now!”

We tried another tact, telling him that even though (God knows) we weren’t flying First Class, by hook and by crook, we could get into the First Class lounge at LAX where we could mingle with movie stars. That held no charm. Finally we got him up there by explaining that we could watch the planes from the lounge. Unfortunately, it turned out that the lounges, while still lovely, have changed since the last time we were privileged to visit and don’t afford views of the planes. More disappointment.

“But, look, a buffet! Pizzas and mozzarella! Can we interest you in the gin and tonics which look really good to us right now?”

He was mollified with playing with the ipad until we got the word from the hostess that our plane was boarding. As we left, we saw another family being escorted out of the lounge because their child’s crying was disturbing the other travelers. Coulda been worse, we said.

The plane ride itself was great. Mikey’s flown a couple times before and has been great except for the time when he had a cold which turned into an ear infection at 10,000 feet. Still, this was an 11 hour flight in the middle of the night. We had the ipad, and British Airways had inflight cartoons. After a couple hours, the cabin lights dimmed.

“It’s night-time?” Mikey asked. We told him, yes, it was, and he curled up on his seat and went to sleep for 8 hours, until we were about ready to land.

London greeted us with the traditional August chill and rain. When we made it through customs and got our luggage, Alamo greeted us with the news that their power was off and they were confirming registrations and credit cards using their cell phones. So it took forever, and Mikey spent his time jumping in mud-puddles.
We told Mikey that we were driving down to the New Forest to see Papa’s sister, Mikey’s Aunt Helen who he had never met, getting married. He’s been to two other weddings, and while he loves parties, he was more interested in hearing about the New Forest ponies. Traffic was rough, being a bank holiday weekend, and by the time there were any horses to be seen in the forest, loping idyllically through the banks of ferns, Mikey was fast asleep.

We checked into our hotel, the Mill at Gordleton, which we never would have found except by the power of GPS in our rental. It is a beautiful old converted water mill on the river Avon, surrounded by fish ponds and duck ponds, and modern sculpture. We had the Miller’s Suite, so Mikey had his own room and we had a living room. Mikey was the only one of us not in danger of banging his head on the low rafters.

We had cream tea in the garden, and then Helen, Cousin Lauren, and Cousin Sapphire-Jade came over. They were still finishing arrangements for the wedding, but they wanted to see us and let Papa wrestle with Sapphire-Jade, who is 5, and Mikey. Afterwards, we drove into town to see the ferry to the Isle of Wight and have some fish and chips.

Mikey fell asleep around 10 o’clock and it was the end of our first day in England.