We can wait one more day, right?

ONE day of quarantine left! We are horribly stir crazy and can’t wait to get outside. Okay, okay, I am the one who is horribly stir crazy… Rob and the boys have been training for this for 15 months.

I have spent the last several days planning what– and when– we will see things here because the UK is NOT opening as planned. This means that we will still need timed tickets to almost everything, and every place, that we plan to go, whether it would normally require a ticket or not. Many of London’s museums and sights are free. Since they are, and will continue, limiting admission numbers they are requiring timed tickets, however. Basically, I am working one big jigsaw puzzle.

Example: We would like to see the V&A Museum’s exhibition on handbags (okay, okay, I am the only one who wants to see that exhibition, but Rob and the boys can find something else to see in that incredible museum, I am sure!). But I need to see that on the same day that we plan to visit the Science Museum since they are so close. Do the two museums have availability on the same day? No, of course not!

Also, the weather is key. I learned from doing this in Albuquerque that if you buy too far in advance you may really regret it. We ended up visiting the ABQ Zoo in sub-freezing temps. I am trying to make sure we are seeing parks on clear days and museums on rainy days, so I am really relying on extended forecasts that are unreliable, at best, and change daily. So the working plan I had last night already needs to be adjusted.

Interesting fact- it has not rained a single time since we have been here….. and it is forecasted to rain for several days straight as soon as we are released.

Rain in the UK is frequent, expected, but often overblown. London averages 106 days and 23” of rain a year. For reference, Myrtle Beach gets 107 days and a total of approximately 50”. We are prepared! Well, in theory we are, lol- we DID just spend the last 6 months in Albuquerque!

I am disappointed that so much has to be planned. I really wanted to have a more relaxed trip that I could adjust to the boys’ stamina levels. London is my favorite place in the world (well, so far, anyway) and I really want them to enjoy it. It looks like it’s going to be more structured than I planned, but hopefully, they are learning resilience.

Speaking of learning- we have officially started the 2021-22 school year! For anyone who is interested in how we plan to homeschool while we travel, that part WILL be pretty relaxed. We do an online math curriculum, thank goodness, because I did NOT want to plan that. We will also focus on writing, geography, and whatever we encounter along the way. I expect they will return with a much stronger understanding of world politics, current affairs, and the world they live in. We have downloaded science texts but I am not going to make them start those over the summer. I do expect they will pick up some science concepts at museums and sights that we visit, like the fossil dig we hope to do on the Jurassic Coast next month. I hope so, anyway. I will feel bad if they end up not learning from the experiences that this trip gives them but in the grand scheme of ways to mess up parenting, I think this is not the worst thing I have done by a long shot.