Sarah and Carl had a wonderful time on the rest of their Disney Cruise. They spent a relaxed time by the pool while Disney movies played on a big screen on the deck, and the next day had plenty of time after disembarking to go to the Museum of Science and Discovery to see turtles, alligators, and snakes. The only way in was through the gift shop, but instead of searching for a t-shirt, Sarah’s mission was to find a present for Amy! That was all Sarah’s idea and she came home with a small turtle figurine for her sister. Carl’s present to me was to stay up for hours resolving the mysterious technical difficulties that arose with last week’s update.
If you ask Sarah what her favorite part of the cruise was, she will tell you the yellow mailbox. The individual cabin doors each had a small yellow mailbox for giving or receiving a rubber duck. Sarah loved it so much that she found a plastic cup at home, covered it with yellow construction paper, and taped it to her door to be her personal duck mailbox.
A couple weeks ago I forgot to share that the girls and I went to a neighborhood protest against the current state of governmental affairs. It happens weekly but we usually can’t go because of various extracurricular activities. Sarah loves watching traffic and listening to music so the busy corner with buses driving past while the organizers played various protest songs was perfect. Since Amy loves doing gymnastics, being next to a playground with space to do cartwheels was ideal. She even did one-handed cartwheels with her sign in her hand! People loved it and many thanked her for her enthusiasm and energy. What struck me afterwards was how it is a family tradition to use our presence for advocacy and activism. Many years ago my mom dressed as a suffragette and held a sign proclaiming equal rights for women as she stood in front of the White House. At a similar age, Amy is in her modern clothes with a multi-colored sign about protecting queer youth and Sarah has her sign saying “no room for hate.”
With Sarah’s two days of spring break after the cruise, she and I had a relaxed time hanging out. We went on walks and she brought her “handy-dandy notebook” (a phrase she got from Blue’s Clues) to draw pictures of buses. She also came with me to the gym and worked out!
Amy’s spring break started Friday after she finished an intense week of school projects and presentations. At 9:45pm we were on our way to London, landing Saturday morning. We enjoyed hot drinks and muffins before taking the train to Paddington Station and walking to our hotel. After freshening up we took a leisurely stroll through Hyde Park and a baffling tour of a few floors of Harrod’s. If you have never been, Harrod’s is a giant department store. It is vast and packed with people and an individual chocolate covered strawberry was 5£! One of our goals for our short time in London was to get high tea, so that was our dinner. It was delicious! We decided to take the London Underground back to our hotel, but due to various line closures it took longer to do that than to walk! Still, that was another quintessential London experience that I wanted Amy to have so it was worth it even if it seemed to take forever. Today we are off to see the Tower of London and will do our best not to lose our heads with the excitement.
May you enjoy something as exciting as a duck mailbox and high tea.
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