Bye to Deb

Deb left on Monday morning after the weekend in Paris. Mom and Dad arrived Thursday. I felt like I hadn't seen much of Deb during her visit, we made up for it at the end spending a few days in London with Sarah, then taking off for a weekend in Paris. I saw a nicer side of London with Deb and Sarah. They knew the City better, and chose to stay very near Kensington Garden which is attached to Hyde Park. A day in a big city is much enhanced by one or two walks through a garden or a park worked in. And they chose to see Spamalot, a most appropriate musical for the occasion. But we've skipped the day we had with Deb and Sarah in Cambridge before we took off for London.

(Insert picture of London here.)

Deb had asked me if the kids would be interested in going to church. Based on past experience I assured her they would not. We got up Sunday morning and asked them and they were all three excited to go. The above picture is taken across the street from the Unitarian Church after the service. The kids were very entertained by the arts and crafts, but disappointed by the long walk, as you can see in the picture below of us eating lunch in front of King's College (either that or mom just didn't have the patience to talk them into smiling for the picture, or I got the wrong kind of potato chips or something).


We took Deb and Sarah to see the Mathematical Bridge (they know the design required clever mathematics, but they're not sure of the details, hence the general nature of the name). We walked home via Jesus Green, the girls had saved part of their bagels to feed the ducks.

Here we were treated to a typical Cambridge scene. Some novice punters were working their way up the river when a younger brother made a bad enough pass of a soccer ball that the ball went well into the river. The nice tourists promptly offered to fetch the ball for the kids, pushing themselves into the middle of the river to get it, leaving their pole behind. (Deb discreetly snapped photos of them. When they finally made it back to where they started, the boys had crossed the bridge to meet the ball at the other side and continued their play.)

Notice the pole under the tree above, being retrieved below. They did have an oar or something to help them get back to their pole.


It was a treat for me to have Deb as a partner in entertaining the kids (played cards pretty much at the drop of a hat, Olivia was in heaven), feeding and caring for the kids, taking pictures, driving, adventure in general, and blogging (THANK YOU for the most excellent record of our trip!). I am missing that particularly now as I try to decide if and how to join Bruce outside of Amsterdam in Leiden. His conference there is in the middle of the kids' week-long half-term break. When I looked at a map the other night I think I literally had flashbacks or some kind of anxiety response to the idea of driving in a foreign country with street signs I can't read. And by myself? If I go, I will have an abundance of maps, and at least one book on cd. I have already extended the car rental dad arranged, a great car at a low rate. I got much more driving experience while my parents were here. More on that next.


Deb snapped this photo of Bruce and the kids finally watching Harry Potter 2 after Sophia finished with that volume. This has made a great difference to her attitude about reading.

Deb and the car that took us to Paris.